recording from virgin box

skintcouncilworker

Hi, can anybody please tell me if it is possible to transfer recorded programmes on the virgin v box to a laptop and if so, how do i do it. Thanks.

iviv

Can't directly help you with the Virgin part, but assuming its similar to the way you'd do it with a sky box, inside the V box will just be a normal 3.5" PC hard drive. You'd need to remove the drive, buy a caddy which lets you access the drive through USB and powers it. However, there's a good chance that the files will be encrypted or stored as a weird filetype which may stop you playing it.
Also, with sky+ boxes, when you plug the drive back into the sky box, it formats it - wipes all the info from it, so you would loose the programs once you've copied them onto the laptop.

Idiophreak

The other, more obvious (if less elegant), option is to connect the box to a TV card in the computer, then "play" what you want to transfer on the box and "record" it onto the computer...

It might lose a little quality, might take a few cables/adapters to get working and will only record "real time" - but it will do the job. Eventually.

iviv

I did a quick google, and apparently the data on the drive is encrypted. There maybe some tools to get past this, but I would doubt their legality.
So, you're left with Idiophreak's option. A TV card isn't too expensive, though a cheap one will probably record at a lower quality.

Long story short, its possible, but not easy.

Another option could be to get a DVD recorder for your TV, and burn the shows to DVD, and rip them to the PC.