SKY+ to PC using USB?

Though there are now CAM/CI solutions that will decode Sky, though they are not approved, and may not be permanent solutions. They still require a valid subscription and card, so are not a fraudulent hack - i.e. you still pay the same amount for Sky subscription (and you still need a Sky receiver for the card to be authorised in)

I am a little bit lost by some of the technical jargon in some of the posts.

I went to PC World and asked about connecting Sky+ to my PC and they sold me:
A Dazzle Digital Video Creator
A JVC switchable Scart to 3-phono + s-Video Adapter
A set of S-Video and Audio cables

Can anyone help with suggestions on how I am supposed to connect these? Will these even work?

Typical PC World - you don't need the SCART connector.

A Sky+ (unlike most Sky boxes, apart from Grundig /2 models) receiver has S-video and stereo audio outputs on the back, so if the Dazzle has an s-video input (a 4 pin mini din) and 2 stereo phonos (aka RCA Phonos) then for the best quality you should use the 4 pin mini-din to 4 pin mini-din (aka S-video to S-video cable) and a stereo phono to stereo phono for the audio.

So connect the S-video cable to the S-video output on the back of the Sky box, and plug this into the S-video input on the Dazzle (I'm pretty certain the Dazzle has an S-video input) Plug the audio cables into the stereo audio output phonos on the back of the Sky +, and connect these to the audio inputs on the Dazzle.

You shouldn't use the SCART output as this will be composite, and poorer quality than the S-video separate output. (The highest quality output from a Sky+ box is RGB, but there are very few PC capture cards that will accept this)

I'd take the SCART connector and S-video converter back, as you don't need it.

Who in their right mind would buy that lot, when a standalone DVD recorder does the job so much better?

Record onto DVDRW or DVD-RAM and transfer to PC that way. Messing about with adaptors to PC is both impractical and produces generally inferior results.

Well, after taking your advice I took the kit back to PC World and they replaced the leads, and also refunded the cost of the SCART adapter.

I now have audio from Sky+ to my PC but o video......Grrrrr....am annoyed now

You probably need to tell the Dazzle thingy that it's looking for SVHS input. Never used one mind you.

Yep - if you have a DVD Recorder with RGB in that is definitely the way to go. However if you don't have a DVD Recorder, a video capture solution will be cheaper.

If you have connected the S-video out from the Sky+ box to the S-video in on the Dazzle, and told the Dazzle that you are capturing from the s-video input, then you should be fine.

You have kept and connected the s-video out from the Sky + to the S-video in on the Dazzle, and told the Dazzle software that you are capturing in S-video (if you need to) haven't you?

Is it any more though?

Asda recently had a Pye DVD recorder with RGB in for £68. When you tot up the cost of the hardware, and decent software on the PC to handle it, the video capture setup will be not far short of that.

To quote one Mr Simpson "waaaaaahhhhooooooooo!" I got it working.

It captures Sky+ fine, and records it to one of my hard disks, the quality is good, but the screen size is really small.......more tinkering needed I think unless anyone has some in-depth knowledge of this software I am using (Pinnacle Studio 9).

Any more help gratefully received, if any tecky people out there can help.

PS: ....and thanks to HM Government for changing licensing law to enable me to by alcohol at 3am to keep me going through the night sorting this out