Hello! I'm going to be very direct to the point; I have a Sony Vaio TV/pc and have Sky as well, but I am not able to view the channels on Sky and someone has told me that I have to install something called WINTV 2000. Searching on sites, there are several types of it. If there's anyone in here in my situation and has solved the problem, please share the info with me.


Thanks!

I'd advise posting on digitalspy as someone there is bound to know

Do you have any form of TV card?

tv card

I think there are basically two ways of getting broadcast media in/out of your Sony Vaio TV/PC computer, one is to use a Network Media Receiver (essentially a TV/satellite set top box, with remote control handset, and Ethernet or WiFi connection to your PC) but AFAIK the Sony ones seem to be *replay only* so no help here, although Hauppauge do something called the DEC 3000-S(atellite) which looks vaguely similar; the other way is to upgrade the TV card (or add another) to include capabilities for digital terrestrial (DVB) and satellite – something like the WinTV Nova or Nexus Satellite card. Also, as beecher says, you could try the digitalspy forum.

Thanks... Now, where is the digital spy forum?

Amazingly, I got so far 15 differents responses!

Brazilian – I’ve posted the link at 16:40 today, but it’s gone into a queue for moderator approval as it contained a ‘trigger’ word . It should eventually appear, but googling it might be quicker .

Stuff that goes to the moderator never appears - - they have a thing about DS because of the Big Brother forums it has.


[MOD]If it goes into the queue typing it out like this to avoid the queue may well get a user banned[/MOD]

without the space between digital and spy should do it

Guys... problem solved! Sky on pc is up and running.. the softwear/hardware that must be bought for this is called, WinTV-PVR-USB2, and it costs £160.
Hope it helps others!

The WinTV-PVR-USB looks like an analogue terrestrial/cable TV tuner with PVR capabilities and a USB2 interface to the computer, but actually has no specific satellite capability, so it’s not clear how you connect this to your Sky dish.

Presumably you are using the tuner in your existing Sky box, and the PVR capability to control this (but I can’t see how, all it can do is switch between analogue TV channels and maybe the AVI inputs?), then doing video capture from the scart or S-video on Sky box. I can’t see how this is any different from your original PC/TV - you appear to have simply duplicated your original functionality.

It might be helpful to others if you gave a rough outline of how you have it set up. Amazon price is £100.

Buddy, it's very simple... this software, is the ONLY product on the market now that is "decode" the Sky channels if you have a PC/TV at home, forget about the FREEVIEW channels. Once you run it in your pc, you are able to view Sky, period! I've been after this for 3 months, with a little help from a guy who I met, and works for Microsoft, in the USA. I can't be any more clear.
I'm trying to help others, as they did as well in other matters in the past.

Thanks.

Phugoid I have no idea what a lot of that meant so this may be irrelevant -- but I have WINTV2000 on my new laptop. It is obviously something slightly different to what Brazilian has, as all we get are the freeview channels.

Velvet – You are right, WinTV2000 is just a TV viewer for Windows that works with a wide range of TV tuner cards, including satellite, freeview DVB, and, obviously, the usual composite video feeds from Scarts, S-video ports, and the like.

All Brazillian1971 can do with his nice new WinTV-PVR-USB2, at least in terms of viewing Sky as per his original post, is to feed it the composite S-video from his Sky box - he would have to use the Sky remote to change channels, but could use the WinTV2000 viewer that came with his new £160 box.

But, Sony Vaio PC/TVs already come with a composite S-video port, and certainly have a range of other video ports, so the new expensive hardware looks unnecessary. And as WinTV2000 is a free download from ZDNet or C|net, I can’t see how spending £160 has helped, apart from having the free software nicely packaged on a CD, and maybe a printed manual.

Ouch it sounds like someone just wasted £160 and doesn't realise it yet. Surely a PC sold as a PCTV has to have a TV card included in the package and all he'd have to do is hook up the output signal from the Sky Box to the PC using either S-Video or Composite.

Fact is there is no card on the market that can decode Sky Channels they'd probably never allow it, your Sky Box has to do that.
If I were Brazilian1971 I'd have a real careful look at the instruction booklet that came with the PC go through all the leads and find the receipt for that WinTV2000. If you did need a TV card I wouldn't have gone with an external USB one either, a nice hardware encoding internal PCI card can be had for around £70 (e.g.Hauppauge PVR 150/250 or the Leadtek Winfast PVR2000) as long as you have a spare slot.

anyway From what you've said you have I'm pretty much convinced that you've shelled out £160 for something you already have.

Agree with Quickblood's assessment – decoding a Sky encrypted channel requires an NDS-VideoGuard CA module and smartcard, and Sky has this nicely locked down: the only available implementations are ‘embedded’ into Sky products, and they certainly don’t allow emulation in software.

Guys, guys.... I don't want to start a irrelevant different topic in here. Let me state it very clear; I have tried to sort this problem out for 3 months, phoned Sky/Sony 10 times and it wasn't possible. The only thing that could be done, was to watch Freeview Channels via WinTV2000. I met this engennier from Microsoft at work and he said that there's a brand new product on the market - which he kindly gave me the name - and I've installed and it worked! What else can I say?!.. I installed all the others softwares available and NOTHING worked and, I'm quite good with pc's, but not an expert. Also, I had a technician in here before and he also, couldn't do it.
Well, I am trying to help and be informative.

Brazilian1971 – Are you really claiming that a Sony Vaio PC/TV is not capable of displaying a composite or S-video feed? This is simply not credible – but if you are saying that you cannot make it work, then that is something else, and is entirely possible.

I don’t doubt that the new hardware is able to do this, as would almost ANY other TV card (as Quickblood says), but so should the original hardware, and spending the extra money is unnecessary. The most likely reason for it not working is an error with the cabling or a miss-configuration of the video port.

You would diagnose in stages: first getting the PC to ‘read’ a composite signal (from any source, say a TV Scart) – this would ‘prove’ the PC end and the video port configuration – then swap the video source for the Sky box – first, composite to ‘prove’ the connection, then S-video to improve the quality.

If after doing all this properly, you still can’t read a video signal, then you have to conclude that port is ‘blown’ and a hardware replacement is needed – this obviously depends on how ‘proprietary’ the thing is, so it’s send it off to a Sony repair guy, fit a new PCI card(?), or do the external USB2 thing.

Completely agree with Phugoid. Had a quick butchers at the range of TV cards and couldn’t find a single one that isn’t capable of being hooked up to a Sky box so what you’re saying just doesn’t ring true. This isn’t about the software it’s a hardware problem. I watch and record Sky just fine on my Leadtek Winfast PVR2000 so do millions of other people using various TV cards

Either you mistakenly thought you owned a PCTV or you do and it’s not functioning properly or these so called technicians haven’t a clue what they’re doing.

What’s the exact name and model number of your PC, I’m sure we could tell you if your PC had these capabilities in the first place by quickly googling it. Fact is you really shouldn’t have to spend additional money to watch TV on a PC sold for its TV capabilities. Most of these cards claim to allow you to hook them up to your camcorder or transfer your old VHS tapes to DVD, if it can do that then you can watch Sky.

I’m by no means an expert on the subject but you really don’t need be, I’m dying to have a look at your PC, I’m pretty sure it’s a really simple problem.

I may be completely wrong but I really can’t see how a computer could be sold as PC TV in the UK and not have an input for an aerial, S-Video & composite.

If your happy knowing that you may have wasted £160 fair enough but you’re wrong about your advice helping people I don’t think it has at all and I would strongly advise against others buying that particular product, at £160 it’s overpriced you’ve personally paid way too much (amazon have it for £100.09)and PCI TV cards with hardware encoding tend to do a superior job to most USB versions, luckily though that device at the very least has hardware encoding.