RS232 Socket

Good afternoon

On the back of my Sky+ box is an RS232 Socket. Can someone please tell
me what it is for?

TIA

Danny

"Danny" wrote in message
...
Good afternoon

On the back of my Sky+ box is an RS232 Socket. Can someone please tell
me what it is for?

TIA

Danny

I suspect a similar situation exists with + Boxes, but in the case of
standard Digiboxes the functionality of this port was disabled in software
in the early years of Sky Digital.


The following is an extract from the original Amstrad DRX100 service manual
which may be of academic interest.


4-12. RS232 port

STB provides 9 pin RS232 serial port for communication with PC. The
monitoring
of the STB and the command delivering from PC is done via hyper terminal.
Moreover, G.729 audio data can be delivered in real time to G.729 decoder
and to STB memory via the EIA232A (RS232) port.

--
Graham.



%Profound_observation%

Graham wrote:
"Danny" wrote in message
...

Good afternoon

On the back of my Sky+ box is an RS232 Socket. Can someone please tell
me what it is for?

TIA

Danny


I suspect a similar situation exists with + Boxes, but in the case of
standard Digiboxes the functionality of this port was disabled in software
in the early years of Sky Digital.


The following is an extract from the original Amstrad DRX100 service manual
which may be of academic interest.


4-12. RS232 port

STB provides 9 pin RS232 serial port for communication with PC. The
monitoring
of the STB and the command delivering from PC is done via hyper terminal.
Moreover, G.729 audio data can be delivered in real time to G.729 decoder
and to STB memory via the EIA232A (RS232) port.


Thank you. The reason I enquired was to do with copying from Sky+. I
know that I can copy to a VCR, however I wondered whether I could copy
to my pc which has a DVD writer which I thought would provide better copies.

The Sky+ manual, whilst not saying what the serial port can be used
for,mentions that if earthed equipment is connected to the port one must
use an approved screened cable.

So I'm not really clear as to whether I can use the port to copy to a pc.

Has anyone done this successfully please?

Dave

David MacDonald wrote:
Graham wrote:

"Danny" wrote in message
...

Good afternoon

On the back of my Sky+ box is an RS232 Socket. Can someone please tell
me what it is for?

TIA

Danny



I suspect a similar situation exists with + Boxes, but in the case of
standard Digiboxes the functionality of this port was disabled in
software
in the early years of Sky Digital.


The following is an extract from the original Amstrad DRX100 service
manual
which may be of academic interest.


4-12. RS232 port

STB provides 9 pin RS232 serial port for communication with PC. The
monitoring
of the STB and the command delivering from PC is done via hyper terminal.
Moreover, G.729 audio data can be delivered in real time to G.729 decoder
and to STB memory via the EIA232A (RS232) port.


Thank you. The reason I enquired was to do with copying from Sky+. I
know that I can copy to a VCR, however I wondered whether I could copy
to my pc which has a DVD writer which I thought would provide better
copies.

The Sky+ manual, whilst not saying what the serial port can be used
for,mentions that if earthed equipment is connected to the port one must
use an approved screened cable.

So I'm not really clear as to whether I can use the port to copy to a pc.

Has anyone done this successfully please?

Dave

Please excuse any confusion over names; I Danny; am using my son's
(David's) connection tonight :-)

"David MacDonald" wrote in message
...
David MacDonald wrote:
Graham wrote:

"Danny" wrote in message
...

Good afternoon

On the back of my Sky+ box is an RS232 Socket. Can someone please
tell
me what it is for?

TIA

Danny



I suspect a similar situation exists with + Boxes, but in the case of
standard Digiboxes the functionality of this port was disabled in
software
in the early years of Sky Digital.


The following is an extract from the original Amstrad DRX100 service
manual
which may be of academic interest.


4-12. RS232 port

STB provides 9 pin RS232 serial port for communication with PC. The
monitoring
of the STB and the command delivering from PC is done via hyper
terminal.
Moreover, G.729 audio data can be delivered in real time to G.729
decoder
and to STB memory via the EIA232A (RS232) port.


Thank you. The reason I enquired was to do with copying from Sky+. I
know that I can copy to a VCR, however I wondered whether I could copy
to my pc which has a DVD writer which I thought would provide better
copies.

The Sky+ manual, whilst not saying what the serial port can be used
for,mentions that if earthed equipment is connected to the port one must
use an approved screened cable.

So I'm not really clear as to whether I can use the port to copy to a
pc.

Has anyone done this successfully please?

Dave

Please excuse any confusion over names; I Danny; am using my son's
(David's) connection tonight :-)


As I said, AFAIK the RS232 was disabled long ago in software, so at present
it serves no useful purpose.

I am sure that people have managed to get an MPEG stream out of a Sky box,
but this is not a straight-forward matter, and would require modification of
the box, and probably only work with FTA channels (?)

A good TV card that will capture the S-video or RGB output from your Sky+ is
probably your best practical option.


--
Graham.



%Profound_observation%

Graham wrote:
"David MacDonald" wrote in message
...

David MacDonald wrote:

Graham wrote:


"Danny" wrote in message
...


Good afternoon

On the back of my Sky+ box is an RS232 Socket. Can someone please

tell

me what it is for?

TIA

Danny



I suspect a similar situation exists with + Boxes, but in the case of
standard Digiboxes the functionality of this port was disabled in
software
in the early years of Sky Digital.


The following is an extract from the original Amstrad DRX100 service
manual
which may be of academic interest.


4-12. RS232 port

STB provides 9 pin RS232 serial port for communication with PC. The
monitoring
of the STB and the command delivering from PC is done via hyper

terminal.

Moreover, G.729 audio data can be delivered in real time to G.729

decoder

and to STB memory via the EIA232A (RS232) port.


Thank you. The reason I enquired was to do with copying from Sky+. I
know that I can copy to a VCR, however I wondered whether I could copy
to my pc which has a DVD writer which I thought would provide better
copies.

The Sky+ manual, whilst not saying what the serial port can be used
for,mentions that if earthed equipment is connected to the port one must
use an approved screened cable.

So I'm not really clear as to whether I can use the port to copy to a

pc.

Has anyone done this successfully please?

Dave

Please excuse any confusion over names; I Danny; am using my son's
(David's) connection tonight :-)



As I said, AFAIK the RS232 was disabled long ago in software, so at present
it serves no useful purpose.

I am sure that people have managed to get an MPEG stream out of a Sky box,
but this is not a straight-forward matter, and would require modification of
the box, and probably only work with FTA channels (?)

A good TV card that will capture the S-video or RGB output from your Sky+ is
probably your best practical option.


Thanks Graham, I'll stick with video for now.

On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 21:02:54 +0100, "Graham" wrote:

I am sure that people have managed to get an MPEG stream out of a Sky box,
but this is not a straight-forward matter, and would require modification of
the box, and probably only work with FTA channels (?)

You can convert a V1 Sky+ box for SDI output. Then you need a video processor
with SDI input. It's not a cheap option.
http://www.pluggedin.tv/item--Sky-Pl...000-SDI-SINGLE

A good TV card that will capture the S-video or RGB output from your Sky+ is
probably your best practical option.

Almost all TV capture cards will at best capture s-video. The only consumer
affordable RGB capture device is the Sweetspot
http://www.pluggedin.tv/sweetspot/features/index.html

--
Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur

On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 19:31:45 +0000 (UTC), David MacDonald
wrote:

So I'm not really clear as to whether I can use the port to copy to a pc.

Even if you could it would be rather time consuming as over RS232 you can only
transfer at a maximum of 115Kb/sec or about double a decent dial-up line.

--
Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur

Nigel Barker wrote:
On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 19:31:45 +0000 (UTC), David MacDonald
wrote:


So I'm not really clear as to whether I can use the port to copy to a pc.


Even if you could it would be rather time consuming as over RS232 you can only
transfer at a maximum of 115Kb/sec or about double a decent dial-up line.

Indeed !

I've got a Topfield PVR equipped with a USB port, it took me 4 hours to
download to my laptop 5 hours worth of recordings (10GB)

The RS232 port would have taken 8 days :-)


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

On Tue, 02 Aug 2005 11:05:52 +0100, Mark Carver
wrote:

Nigel Barker wrote:
On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 19:31:45 +0000 (UTC), David MacDonald
wrote:


So I'm not really clear as to whether I can use the port to copy to a pc.


Even if you could it would be rather time consuming as over RS232 you can only
transfer at a maximum of 115Kb/sec or about double a decent dial-up line.

Indeed !

I've got a Topfield PVR equipped with a USB port, it took me 4 hours to
download to my laptop 5 hours worth of recordings (10GB)

The RS232 port would have taken 8 days :-)


Thank you all for your input. I'll stick with saving to Video Tape
for the time being.

Danny