I work at a school library and we are allowed under the copyriht act to record and keep programs off air. We are moving to a computer based system to record off air and would like to also record Foxtell, any ideas?

Can you connect a DVD recorder into the outputs?

I suppose I can but if I want to record off the discovery channel at say 7:30 then the movie channel at 9:00 I cant change the channel on the box (foxtel)while I am at home. Just wondering if there is a better way

You can do it with a PC, its all a matter of $ really. You could get a cheapo capture card and together some scripting use it to do the recording. I've done up a script that can record programs by genre etc so that might be handy for you too.

If you have the budget, a DV bridge may be the way to go instead of a capture card.

The DVD recorder option could probably be run via the PC if you can train the PC from the DVD recorders remote.

The biggest problem you will face will be controlling the STB to change channels. Foxtel/Austar have taken to using remotes that send out fairly high data rates which to date, no PC infrared transmitted widget that I've come across (ie TIRA-2 etc, even LIRC spits at it) will learn from. There are ways around the problem, but its pretty tricky work. You need to get another Foxtel remote, take it apart and wire up an interface to run it from a PC via the serial port. I've recently done that for someone (tx to the person that originally built the serial interface too) and its working nicely (take that Foxtel!).

PM me if you are interested etc in talking further.

As an after thought, if you still have a red card (ie, not been moved over to 'new digital' you could also use one of the several satellite PVRs out there (with embedded Irdeto2 or by using the appropriate CAM).

I don't think so unless you can get a IR blaster and schedule the PC to switch channels etc..

You can automatically change channels with one of the Foxtel "digital" boxes using the planner. One of these hooked up to a HDD recorder would solve your problems.

Does the Foxtel planner take scheduling silliness into account? Otherwise it'll turn on halfway through a program at times, which won't be a lot of joy.

It's been pretty good the times I have used it. Maybe a few seconds late.

Pitty Austar doesn't seem to have that working properly. Would make life a little easier if the box would turn on at the right time etc.

The advantage of doing it via a PC is being able to automagically schedule recurring events ala the IQ.

Mine has changed over to the correct channel before the program starts 99.9% of the time. Also you can always set it to change over to the correct channel for the prior program to the one you want. The trick is to leave the Foxtel box on, do not leave it in standby mode as it will automatically switch itself off when the program finishes.

Goodcall on the STB - never turn them off or put them on standby........although I have lost programs from my planner on occasions - I know sometimes the stations can do a program change..ESPN are very bad for this .

Don't Foxtel have a dual tuner PVR that would meet the needs? Feed output from that into a DVD-R (Pioneer recommended) and you have archived programs.

Most programs run to time but some channels are better than others. The Discovery, History etc seem OK as are most movie channels. Ovation usually starts on time but sometimes runs over time. Hallmark can also run over.

It is advisable to miss early morning programs as these are interrupted with 10 mins or so of downloads etc - around the 2 to 3 am mark I think.

We have Austar here but the programs etc are the same as Foxtel. Austar are not releasing a PVR for a few months yet. However one technician told me the PVR quality is not great and they can be unreliable as well as being expensive. There have been some posts about this on the boards here.

John