[suburban74]

Hi guys/gals

Bit of an unusual one here. What I want to do is back up /archive some of the stuff off my Sky HD box. There are a few ways I can do this:

1. Buy a DVD recorder and use the "COPY" function to queue up shows and then record them on to DVD

2. Buy a Hard Disk and DVD combi system (like the Sony) and then use the "COPY" function to dump stuff on to the Sony disk drive, and then copy them on to DVD as and when I want to.

That's all fine, but what I really want to do is send them up to a TwonkyVision server which I would use to download shows off BitTorrent and then stream around the house - and to the living room via a streaming device of sorts.

I think if I could get a High Def streamer with a hard disk, I could use the COPY function to drop shown on to the streamer hard disk and then FTP them off to my server, which I would then watch when I want via the streaming service.

Has anyone else got this kind of thing working.

Cheers...

[Chris Simon]

Well, if it's any help, this is what I'm doing at the moment...

I have stuff recorded on VHS or on my DVD/HDD recorder that I want to make available in my media server (currently Meedio). What I've got on VHS is probably equivalent to what you've got on SkyHD - it needs to be got off somehow and converted into file format. So what I do is simply record it onto the hard disk of the DVD/HDD recorder.

I then edit whatever is on the HDD and then archive it to DVD. Put the DVD into a PC and copy the .vob files off it directly to the filestore of the media server. Sometimes, I like to use a program to convert to AVI (xvid) first, useful for reducing file sizes or creating proper 16:9-shaped images from 4:3 letterboxed files, but this process takes ages.

It's all a bit laborious but it works well enough with the equipment I've got. I don't really know if there is any other easier/quicker way. Possibly a video capture card in a PC so that you copy directly from source to a video file, missing out the middle step of the DVD. This would be a similar solution to your HD streamer idea I suppose - but I don't know if these devices exist?

PS. I've been trying lots of media servers actually and I think I've settled on Meedio because of its flexibility in creating custom views and menus, using all available ID3 tags in music file, for example, and its tocuh-screen friendliness. I'd not heard of Twonkyvision before and I've just looked it up and it looks quite interesting - but at first glance there are no screenshots or detailed feature list or whatever on the web site so that you can see what it looks like (its own clients, that is) and how it works. Do you know of anywhere that shows it off, or is it just a case of downloading the trial version to test it out?