Hi guys my name is Ryan I’m a Citizenship and Psychology teacher in the UK and I was wondering if you could help me with a problem I have. One thing I really like to do when teaching is to use a lot of video which I play on my PC and display on an electronic light board. I like to do this because there are some excellent documentaries available for a range of subjects all of which make great educational tools and the pupils tend to learn a lot from them.

Anyway what I would really like to do is record documentaries and other
programmes off the TV using a device similar to a Sky+ box (see: Sky+ information) and then transfers what I have recorded via memory stick or some other method onto my own laptop and our schools shared hard drive so that other teachers and myself can use the documentaries when we teach.

In addition to this I also have some excellent DVDs that I would really like to transfer in some way to my schools shared area and was wondering if you knew how to go about this?

Thank you for you help, Kind regards, Ryan

PS sincere apologies if this is not the correct forum to post this in but i was uunsure of where else to put this. Thanx again, Ryan

to the PCHF.

From one teacher to another, that is a great idea.

Some things to keep in mind.

The link you kindly provided, says that the Sky box will allow copying to DVD.

1. From the Sky box picture it looks like the Sky box has a slot for DVD recording. You should verify that with the Sales people.

2. Does the school computer have a DVD drive? Does it work?

3. Do you have a Read and Write DVD drive? You will probably want to edit the programs that are recorded on the Sky box. Most computers today come with Read Only DVD drives, you might need to purchase an external DVD R+W drive. Being external, if necessary, you can also use it at school to play your DVDs.

4. Do you have blank DVD? Recommend you get good qualify blanks. They usually cost a little more. I would get a few R+W DVD blanks and lot of one time DVD blanks. The R+W blanks can be reused. I would use these for recording in the Sky Box, then after editing in your computer you can save the finished product to a one time blank to take to school and reuse the R+W disks over again in the Sky box.

5. Does your computer have the software to edit a DVD?

Those are the main points for doing what you want to do. Since I do not know what your level of computer expertise is, if you have specific questions please ask them.

If I have over simplified anything, my apologies.

Good Luck...