eyetv with Sky digital.

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OK,

I've read a lot on this, time to foot the question to the people in the know, the mac user community.

Is it possible to hook my digi box up to my imac (presumably using eyetv 3) and watch my subscription package via my mac and be done with TV's forever?

As people state they can receive sky news, sky sports news, E4 (and other free? channels) but nothing else, is this because SKY have encrypted all the pay-for channels?

If this is the case, does eyetv work in unison with Virgin cable instead?

help is of course seriously appreciated!
 

chscag

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The El Gato Eye TV works with most cable boxes and satellite receivers. You can check the exact configurations it supports by reading the literature on their web site. LINK Naturally any type of pay channel on SKY TV is encrypted and must be paid for before it can be received.

Regards.
 
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jhaime
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The El Gato Eye TV works with most cable boxes and satellite receivers. You can check the exact configurations it supports by reading the literature on their web site. LINK Naturally any type of pay channel on SKY TV is encrypted and must be paid for before it can be received.

Regards.

oh!

well I do pay a full subscription, so that means I can fully receive all the SKY channels through 'eyetv' onto my mac ??? :D

Really eager to get it working personally, as I cannot afford to be buying a big widescreen HD TV as well as mac monitors.
 

chscag

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oh!

well I do pay a full subscription, so that means I can fully receive all the SKY channels through 'eyetv' onto my mac ??? :D

Really eager to get it working personally, as I cannot afford to be buying a big widescreen HD TV as well as mac monitors.

Sure. The El Gato will hook to your Satellite receiver box so that everything you receive via your box will be available to the El Gato unit. That includes pay channels, subscriber channels, etc.

Be sure you read up on how the on screen TV Guide is obtained through the El Gato unit. It doesn't work the same way as it does through your box.

Regards.
 
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Sure. The El Gato will hook to your Satellite receiver box so that everything you receive via your box will be available to the El Gato unit. That includes pay channels, subscriber channels, etc.

Be sure you read up on how the on screen TV Guide is obtained through the El Gato unit. It doesn't work the same way as it does through your box.

Regards.

hey Chscag,

most appreciate your help with this.

I've received a mail back from El Gato's sales team, very brief. They recommend the 'Eye TV Sat' system which is something like €200. However it mentions this on the site;

--

EyeTV Sat has an integrated CI slot which enables you to receive satellite Pay TV on your Mac. All you need is a compatible combination of conditional access module (CAM) and a Pay TV subscription smartcard. Please check with your Pay TV provider to verify support of third-party standard CI receivers. Some providers, such as BSkyB in the UK, allow their smartcards to be used with proprietary set top boxes only.

--

firstly, CI receiver? what's the CI mean?

secondly, is this eye TV sat machine useless for me? As Sky Viewing cards are only compatible with the Panasonic DVB box I have?
 
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You can only receive sky encrypted channels using their approved equipment.

So you just need a way to hook up your Sky box to your Mac. Either by RF out(coaxial), Scart/Composite or HDMI depending on the type of Sky box you have.

The EyeTV Hybrid can handle the Composite and RF inputs but I can't find conclusive information about connecting an HDMI input
 

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jhaime,

what mrplow said isn''t wrong, but it's not what you would want to achieve. He's right in that all payTV providers want their customers to use only certified equipment, which in most cases is has fewer and/or crippled functions (like being able to record). This does not mean that it's not possible to use other equipment!

Be aware that using non-certified devices may be a breach of the T&C of your contract with the provider, but it's not "illegal", and no one on the "other end" is able to determine in which device(s) you use your smartcard. The most severe sanction if you're "cuaght" (which is highly unlikely) would be a termination of your contract.

I'm located in Germany and have a Sky (Germany; used to be "premiere") subsription; by using an eyeTV hybrid (DVB-C) and a Terratec USB CI with an Alphacrypt CAM, I was able to replace my receiver and record in native quality on my Mac.

Here's a brief rundown on your options, if you are a payTV subscriber and want to watch/record encrypted channels on your Mac. Basically, there are two ways:

1. Get an eyeTV compatible device (there are other solutions, but the eyeTV software is far superior) with AV-inputs and feed your receiver's output not to the TV, but to the eyeTV device (let's call it eyeTV for short).

Pros: no hassle with CAM and CI (see below for more on this); simply use your subscription as before, but be able to record any show from your receiver on your Mac, without any artificial restrictions or expensive crippled equipment from your payTV provider.

Cons: You need to control two devices (choose the channel on the receiver, control the recording with eyeTV), and, maybe more important, strictly speaking you don't receive TV, but simply the receiver's output, so you don't benefit from multiple sound tracks or get Dolby Digital etc. (or HD, for that matter).

This is what mrplow recommended, but there's a far better way:

2. Use eyeTV hybrid or a Terratec H7 (DVB-C) or eyeTV Sat (you didn't state if you're on cable or use a satellite dish, so I give both ways). Both the Sat and the Terratec have a CAM slot, in which you put a CI, in which (bear with me ;-) you put your payTV smartcard. For the eyeTV hybrid you need an external CI in which to put the CAM with the card (like the Terratec USB CI).

Cons: Need to handle some technical stuff, like getting to know what a CAM and a CI does etc.; sometimes, not fot the faint at heart ( but once your setup works, simply forget this stuff ;-)

Pros: Watch/record encrypted channels in pristine quality (I always wanted to use that phrase, but it's really appropriate here! picture quality is so much better than feeding through an analog input)), enjoy Dolby Digital (and, if your subscription offers it, HD; make sure your Mac is powerful enough), and of course for the eyeTV software this now is TV, as opposed to a video feed in scenario #1, so you can switch channels etc. directly in eyeTV. (Also get rid of enforced age verification for good, by changing the treshold setting on the smart card; don't know if this applies with Sky UK)

Summary: As you might have guessed, I recommend scenario #1, if you really want to see your monthly's subscription worth in picture & sound quality.

If you need more info or have questions on using eyeTV for payTV and in general, I recommend the eyeTV lounge:

EyeTV Lounge • Index page

Hope this was helpful. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Regards
 
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Hi

I find this discussion very interesting. I too am keen to view TV on my new iMac- I chose the 27 inch to avoid buying a new tv also. I am not very technical so I'll try and explain my queries.

I receive free Sky satellite channels through a Sky satellite dish (I do not pay sky subscription now and will not be viewing pay tv). I believe I need to use the Eye Tv Sat (unless there's an obvious alternative I've not spotted which is better). I am really keen to get on and view Tv on my new iMac. Am I correct to assume all I need to do is connect the co-axial output from the sky box into the Eye Tv Sat device? Is there a need for other cabling? I note the Sky card itself is NOT compatible with the Eye Tv Sat CI slot but assume this would not be a problem if I'm not using pay tv.

If the Sky is not an option I'd consider the Humax satellite receiver box- again would this then connect into the Eye TV sat? Or am I complicating things here- can the Eye TV sat work independent of the receiver boxes- it would seem however that the satellite dish would need tweaked as I note Eye Tv works on DVB-S rather than DVB -T( I admit I don't really understand the technicality of this however!) and I may need to link in with the Astra satellite at 28.2 E if using Humax. I did recently try the Eye Tv hybrid via my Sky Box, received no channel signals at all and returned this to Apple, so I'm keen to try and check things should work before trying a more expensive piece of kit.

Thanks to anyone who is able answer any of my questions!

Peter
 
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Hey guys...

Here's my setup: Sky+ box > S-Video cable > EyeTV Hybrid > Mac Pro (running EyeTV3).

Works a charm, picture quality is nothing short of excellent too. Prior to the Sky+ box I had a regular box where I hooked it up using a Scart > Composite cable which worked great too, but obviously the S-Video connection is better quality.

You could alternatively use a standard co-ax cable and a basic Elgato tuner but the picture/sound quality will suffer...
 
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eyetv set up

Thanks,
Unfortunately for me the EyeTV Hybrid device, despite my best efforts,resulted in no channels detected after several tries at tuning. I had connected via coaxial output from the sky box. Hence I returned it. The advice I've had from Apple and after researching the elgato website is that I need to use the Eye Tv sat linking from the sky box, but I'm not so sure now!
 
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Success! I suspect my previous kit was faulty as I bought another Eye Tv Hybrid connected this from my sky box using a scart to 3 phono lead to connect to the breakout lead from the eye tv and we've now got working tv. The only issue would be lack of HD using this cabling /set up option but its certainly a very viewable picture and even on the big 27inch screen standard resolution is enough to keep the kids happy
 
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If you're using a Sky HD box, get yourself a S-Video cable and use that.

It won't give you an HD signal however, it is far superior to the Composite cable.
 
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SkyHD (Multiroom) on 27inch iMac

We have Sky HD working in one room. Not enough for the wife - she wants Sky HD Multiroom to put a Sky HD box in the room with the imac. I am keen to use the imac as the viewing screen.
If I understand what's been said before I can use Sky HD (multiroom) box > S-Video cable > EyeTV Hybrid > imac (running EyeTV3).
Sky insist that any Sky box installed is connected to the telephone land line. With the above configuration I can do that easily.

However I like the idea of not having a Sky box by the imac but don't understand how that could be; i.e. without the second set of cables that otherwise go into a sky box. If I understand what's been said before it would be Sky card in a CAM in a CI slot in EyeTV Hybrid. How would that work?

Sorry if I am missing something but I am very green on this stuff.
 

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