SKY+ TO DVD - PROBLEMS - COPY PROTECTION

I have been reading up on some forums about copy protection problems in transferring programmes to DVD from SKY+. Some people question whether Sky+ programmes, one wishes to record to DVD are not able to be copied and has copying rules changed.









Well, I have sort of being investigating this theory and the first thing that I came across was the fact that SKY+ actually approve the transferring of material from SKY+ to DVD or VHS. So, why can some people be in a position where the copying fails, with a message saying that the item is copy protected? I cannot really shed light on this as every item that I have recorded on my PHILIPS 3380, the process has completed every time without any snags what-so-ever.

I have been playing some of the programmes which I previously transferred to DVD just to be sure that they play ok. In the post prior to this one, I wrote stating that recording to DVD on my Philips 3380 from Sky+ at the SLP setting (6hr), was good quality. The end result is good quality and compares favourable to the terrestrial reception that we currently receive (we don't get digital until the end of this year, 2009). There is slight pixellation and I am going to follow my own advice and record in LP (4hr) in my next recording to compare both for quality. So, to summarise, I haven't had any problems so far and I have recorded 17 dvd's each with 6 hours on.

The only thing that I can think of which could constitute a breach of copyright is possibly new premieres of films, which are bought via the telephone line although I haven't used this service as I am quite happy with the release on DVD time span. When you look back a decade or so, it was what seemed to be a lifetime before the release onto DVD or more commonly at the time VHS. A lot of movies nowadays are released within about 6 months or even less if it wasn't a blockbuster. A very successful recent movie is Slumdog Millionaire and I was very surprised to find it for sale in the shops not long after I was able to see it for myself.



I would recommend that anyone struggling to transfer a given programme to DVD, to make contact via email or the web help with SKY directly, as they promote the transfer of items on SKY+ to another medium with the copy function built in to SKY+. I have used the web chat facility and could quite happily recommend this form of contact as being exemplary. Even email contact was very quick and my problems were rectified very quickly indeed.

Use http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/skyhelpcentre/skyonline for Sky chat or self-help or email contact. I hope this information in the blog is helpful to some and good luck with SKY.