Re: Hacking Sky+

["Simon Coates" <ecolume@xxxxxxx>]

Paul,

The Maxtor drives are the best to use - but you might struggle to find a
DiamondMax16 120Gb drive (5400rpm) and have to get a 7200rpm drive.  The
7200rpm drives get hotter than the 5400rpm drives - Heat is an issue with
Sky+ - causing the box to hang etc...but I'm not sure how much hotter a
7200rpm drive will get. Just make sure your box gets enough ventilation -
and don't block the fan at the back and the side vents.  Don't use the box
in a video cabinet with the doors shut and with videos DVDs etc on top of
the box.

The box works OK with auto deleting when the disk is full - it's just the %
remaining figure that displays an odd figure.

Regards

Simon

----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Gale <groups@xxxxxxx>
To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
Sent: 03 September 2003 21:37
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Hacking Sky+


I'm sure that Digital Home magazine was talking out of it's backside then
;)

I may do the HDD upgrade then - recent posts for Tivo drives mentioned a
Samsung SV1204H 120gb 5400rpm. I did see something a while ago that said
some drives were not compatible. Do you know any more about this?

Oh - and you said % remaining figure does not work - what happens when you
run out of space - does the box work correctly (and overwrite old progs
correctly) or not?

Cheers,

Paul.


-----Original Message-----
From: Simon Coates [mailto:ecolume@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 03 September 2003 20:18
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Hacking Sky+

Paul,

Adding a 120Gb hard disk to Sky+ is extremely easy!  I recommend that you
do
it ASAP.  Just make sure you have some tamper-resistant torx bits - the
torx
bits with a hole in the middle.  Just swap the hard disk, put everything
back together.  When you power up the box wait a minute or so after
plugging
it in, then turn on the box and do a full system reset.  The box will say
'Housekeeping' for a while as it recognises the new disk.
You then have 3 times the original storage capacity.  Pages and pages of
recordings!
The only 'bug' is that the % remaining is always wrong.  It's odd - it
starts at approx 25% then goes down to 1% then up to 36% etc....  However,
the bar graph at the top of the planner works fine - and short programmes
are indicated by very, very thin lines :o)

One small downside is that larger disks tend to be a bit noisier, so be
careful on what you get.  I used Maxtor DiamondMax 16 hard disks which are
only slightly noisier that the original Sky+ Maxtor disks.

Regarding hacking an ethernet connection - I've not heard of anything.  The
box is capable of taking one.  There's 2 digital PC card type expansion
slots - however Pace have said that Sky isn't interested in using all of
the
boxes capabilities.  Also Pace said that the RS232 connection is used for
factory setup and can't be used to control the box :o(


Regards

Simon




----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Gale <p-gale@xxxxxxx>
To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
Sent: 03 September 2003 13:33
Subject: [ukha_d] Hacking Sky+


I read with interest in the latest DigitalHome magazine (Set Top Box
Article) that there is information on hacking Sky+ (adding bigger HDD
–
which I knew – and adding an Ethernet connection – which I
did not) on the
Internet. Has anyone seen this info or is the magazine actually referring
to
Tivo???  I’m not sure I trust the editorial in this mag –
seems dodgy in a
number of articles.

Out of interest there were also a number of comments from Sky on why
they’re
not adding bigger drives like “we are not really at the stage where
people
can enjoy the benefits that greater storage space will give them”
– B******s
!!!!! – I’m already having to delete programmes I want to
keep just to be
able to record new ones – 40Gb is nothing – especially with
prices of 120Gb
and above so cheap now!!!   /rant over.

Paul.





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