[vdr] Introduction from newbie

[Hennebert Philippe <philippe.hennebert@bordet.be>]

Hi everybody, 

As I'm new to this list, I should probably introduce myself.
I'm a mad film collector, having recorded 17200 movies (and 20,000 tv-show
episodes) on VHS from various satellite and cable sources over the last 10
years. Although I'm somewhat technologically-minded (my soft parses the
tv-guide websites, checks against my database, and tells me what to record
according to several criteria, ...), I know very little (nothing is probably
more accurate) about linux. I only have one very old linux box to
experiment. No DVB-s card yet. No dvr yet. Just a couple of old, living-room
type, digital and analog satellite receivers, and 7 VCRs. I subscribe to
CanalSatellite France and Sky Digital. There's probably not a single
theatrical movie shown on these channels which I do not record on tape for
archival and collection purposes.

But, I'm a total newbie (you might say a dummy) as far as the capture of the
mpeg 2 stream is concerned, and as far as CIs-CAMs are concerned.

My aim: build a vdr system, use a couple of hard disks under vdr as buffers
before burning everything onto DVD-R. I'd need to automate the whole stuff,
since I record about 10-15 movies per day. Then, I would interface vdr with
my windows-based automatic recordings selection software.

My questions are:
- how bad is the compatibility of the DVB-s card with the AstonCrypt CAM
1.05 - and/or with the future AstonCrypt CAM 1.07. Has it been tried with
FreeCam/AllCams/Magic Module/... under SECAM, VIaccess, .... ? In other
words, how compatible is it with the current and future encryptions of the
SECA channels.
- I guess there's no way to decrypt the SkyDigital channels with a DVB-s or
other card (with official subscription, of course). Am I right?
- is the MPEG2 stream suitable for direct burning onto DVD-R (without
conversion, just some authoring)? Are there automated authoring and/or
burning tools for linux and/or windows? Could the authoring/burning be
performed using the same linux box or should one use another linux or
windows box? Is it possible to tell vdr "this part has been archived, and
may be reused" or should reusing and archiving me done sequentially?

Sorry if these questions are a little stupid... but I would be grateful if
any of you could give me some help.

Philippe Hennebert