High Bitrate Audio on Sky Arts HD

[UV101]

I've recorded a few music programmes on Sky Arts HD.

The audio is unbelieveable! I don't know what bitrate they use or what bandwidth but its really very good.

What I'd like to know is how I can save the audio! The HD box runs spdif into my Classe processor so i'm guessing that i'll want to take the feed into my computer.

Any suggestions on SP/DIF in hardware or suitable software to handle the recording on my PC.

The audio stream is in 2 channel Dolby Digital if that helps at all!

[Ali Tait]

Yep,sounds good doesn't it.I put a post up about the Songbook series,but no-one replied,so I thought it was just me!

[Stratmangler]

Two channel Dolby Digital is AC3, which equates to 16/48 - the same as most music video DVD's.

No wonder it sounds good.

Chris:)

[Dave Cawley]

Isn't that just 1% better than CD ?

Dave (not a digital chap!)

[Ali Tait]

It does seem to sound better than my cd player.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

i (and many others) use these to record analogue into a pc at up to 24/96... i was just trying to find mine to see if it had a optical in but i cant find it... so im not sure. you could just go from the analoge out on the skybox?
else, i know its not the most elegant solution but maybe the optical out from your sky box into an external dac then analoge out from the dac into one of these and usb into the computer? i know thats digi-analoge-digi but with a decent dac it might work well????

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=873&product=10702&nav=1

[UV101]

Whilst pondering i remembered something!

I used to connect the sp/dif out of my CDRom into my soundblaster card! I sound this with somepretty pics! http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/82

This means if your pc has the capability to connect via this 2 pin cable, you could wire up to an phono socket (poss via a digital isolating transformer) allowing the sp/dif out to be used. This would stop the conversion to analogue and back.

All i need to do now, is find something that will allow me to copy the DD stream to hdd as high bitrate high quality sound. Any idea's?!

It might be usefull to do the same via HDMI on Blu-Ray as well!!!

24/192 Blu-Ray
24/96 DVD
16/44.1 CD

[twelvebears]

One thing I find ironic is that consumers are simultaneously accepting reduced data quality in audio (MP3 downloads vs CD) while at the same time demanding better quality in video (HD vs SD).....

Just goes to show how many demand what they are influenced to demand..... On the plus side, at least the audio quality on Blu-Ray is generally good with 24bit lossless being the standard for better Dolby soundtracks.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

....Just goes to show how many demand what they are influenced to demand.....

how very true!
its just a shame that we are now going down this 3d tv route... now we have had the hidef tv push its a shame we cant get a similar thing in radio that would bring good sound quality to the masses

[Spectral Morn]

i (and many others) use these to record analogue into a pc at up to 24/96... i was just trying to find mine to see if it had a optical in but i cant find it... so im not sure. you could just go from the analoge out on the skybox?
else, i know its not the most elegant solution but maybe the optical out from your sky box into an external dac then analoge out from the dac into one of these and usb into the computer? i know thats digi-analoge-digi but with a decent dac it might work well????

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=873&product=10702&nav=1

Hi Hamish

You need to have a Sky + Box to have a digital out (Fibre Optic). Standard Sky Boxes only have analogue out. Tried all of this, for radio (highest rate is 192khz I think) and frankly abandoned it as I thought the sound was poor generally. I also tried a Free View Box too, Nokia, again not much cop imho. I must admit though that due to the layout of the room I have not tried it for normal TV shows, though I do use my AV amplifier to watch shows like Stargate etc in surround.

Next time there is a concert on I will have a listen.


Regards D S D L

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Hi Hamish

You need to have a Sky + Box to have a digital out (Fibre Optic). Standard Sky Boxes only have analogue out. Tried all of this, for radio (highest rate is 192khz I think) and frankly abandoned it as I thought the sound was poor generally. I also tried a Free View Box too, Nokia, again not much cop imho. I must admit though that due to the layout of the room I have not tried it for normal TV shows, though I do use my AV amplifier to watch shows like Stargate etc in surround.

Next time there is a concert on I will have a listen.


Regards D S D L

you must have missed my thread on me getting freesat radio sounding pretty bloody good.... i fear i may not have heard just how good radio can sound if you think it sounded not to good


sky hd boxes have optilical outputs, and i would think that the bit rate of what this thread is about far exceeds 192kbps as i know 2 channel bbc hd is 256 and it soundslike what these guys are on about is better than that

[MartinT]

I have been banging on in various threads about the superb sound of Sky HD into my Beresford Caiman DAC. Absolutely stunning detail and soundstaging puts to rest any thought of surround sound and its useless compressed channels. Stereo, at this level of detail, rules :)

[Spectral Morn]

you must have missed my thread on me getting freesat radio sounding pretty bloody good.... i fear i may not have heard just how good radio can sound if you think it sounded not to good


sky hd boxes have optilical outputs, and i would think that the bit rate of what this thread is about far exceeds 192kbps as i know 2 channel bbc hd is 256 and it soundslike what these guys are on about is better than that

I shall bow out now....as I don't do HD.

Until I embrace HD picture technology...at some point when I think it looks natural...I will just have to put up with FM :)


Regards D S D L

[UV101]

But.......


Does anyone know how to real time record the audio on a PC! :lolsign:

I've got the sp/dif side sorted, and I've found some software to 'rip' the various audio channels from dvd and Blu-ray but I really would like to record the 'live stream' into the sp/dif! :)

[The Vinyl Adventure]

...you just after some software? .... audacity?
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

[UV101]

Thanks Hamish, i'll give it a try! :cool:

[Maximum]

Whilst pondering i remembered something!

I used to connect the sp/dif out of my CDRom into my soundblaster card! I sound this with somepretty pics! http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/82

This means if your pc has the capability to connect via this 2 pin cable, you could wire up to an phono socket (poss via a digital isolating transformer) allowing the sp/dif out to be used. This would stop the conversion to analogue and back.

All i need to do now, is find something that will allow me to copy the DD stream to hdd as high bitrate high quality sound. Any idea's?!

It might be usefull to do the same via HDMI on Blu-Ray as well!!!

24/192 Blu-Ray
24/96 DVD
16/44.1 CD

They should really make it more clear in that article that this applies to using the cd drive as standalone player (do any drives actually incorporate audio player controls anymore?). It comes over a bit misleading as it reads at the moment.

[Ali Tait]

Do a lot of you have an older box? We have the newer one which has sp/diff out.BTW,my other half works for sky,and they will now upgrade your box to an hd one free,just 30 quid for install.I have mine running into my modded 7510.Sounds superb.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

You might know this - why do sky instalation people always wire the terestrial rf signal through the sky box and it's modulator when there is no sky picture to be going to anywhere else in the house. Every single instal I do where they have sky this is the case, I used to take the spare fly lead out and just connect the tv to the aeriel direct but every time the customer would ask me what's the spare cable, and would frequently worry at me if I didn't put it back... So now I just leave it that way, but it bugs me because I don't know why i'm doing it.

[Stratmangler]

You might know this - why do sky instalation people always wire the terestrial rf signal through the sky box and it's modulator when there is no sky picture to be going to anywhere else in the house. Every single instal I do where they have sky this is the case, I used to take the spare fly lead out and just connect the tv to the aeriel direct but every time the customer would ask me what's the spare cable, and would frequently worry at me if I didn't put it back... So now I just leave it that way, but it bugs me because I don't know why i'm doing it.

It's an old failsafe installation habit that is becoming increasingly unnecessary as televisions change.
I still have a CRT, and it can detect an RGB input from a scart source. However, not all CRT TVs had this feature. So the Sky installation chaps used to tune in a channel for the RF Sky output from the box.
Which meant that the user could always get Sky by picking the programmed channel, assuming that selecting the RGB scart input was beyond the user.

Don't laugh at the last comment - my missus still can't get from BBC1 to ITV1 without going through all of the menus, and we've had Sky+ for over 6 years now.
Sad, isn't it ?

Chris:)

[UV101]

They should really make it more clear in that article that this applies to using the cd drive as standalone player (do any drives actually incorporate audio player controls anymore?). It comes over a bit misleading as it reads at the moment. * if you are looking to use a cdrom standalone, you can buy controllers on eBay*

I was just using this article to point out that if you are able to connect the cdrom inside you're computer in 'this' manor, you can potentially also use the same connection on the soundcard as a sp/dif input from an external source (in this particular case sp/dif out on the sky hd box!)

Are you sure the older sky hd boxes don't have sp/dif out??? On the 1st generation, they had component out. Without sp/di as well you wouldn't get the DD facility?!

[MartinT]

I have a very first generation Thomson Sky HD box and it definitely has optical S/PDIF out.

[Maximum]

* if you are looking to use a cdrom standalone, you can buy controllers on eBay*

I was just using this article to point out that if you are able to connect the cdrom inside you're computer in 'this' manor, you can potentially also use the same connection on the soundcard as a sp/dif input from an external source (in this particular case sp/dif out on the sky hd box!)

Are you sure the older sky hd boxes don't have sp/dif out??? On the 1st generation, they had component out. Without sp/di as well you wouldn't get the DD facility?!

That's fair enough, I got your reason for quoting the article. I just feel the article needs to be more clear about the transfer method it's referring to. It confused me for a few seconds until I re-read the one line that clears the issue up, that this only applies to playing straight from the drive to the soundcard (dae I think it's called). Of course most software thats plays cd audio nowadays goes through the ide interface which is inherently digital. Not everyone might pick up on this though and may think an analogue signal is passed through the computer, then digitised into the soundcard. I was pretty sure you weren't thinking that due to some of your previous posts, but others may be misled by the authors lack of distinction.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

It's an old failsafe installation habit that is becoming increasingly unnecessary as televisions change.
I still have a CRT, and it can detect an RGB input from a scart source. However, not all CRT TVs had this feature. So the Sky installation chaps used to tune in a channel for the RF Sky output from the box.
Which meant that the user could always get Sky by picking the programmed channel, assuming that selecting the RGB scart input was beyond the user.

Don't laugh at the last comment - my missus still can't get from BBC1 to ITV1 without going through all of the menus, and we've had Sky+ for over 6 years now.
Sad, isn't it ?

Chris:)

isnt it fantastic that sky instaltion people are trained to put things in holes rather than actually understand the equipment, and properly demonstrate it to customers
i wonder if the slightly higher level of training for staff would cost less or more than the millions of superfluous rf fly leads