[Ararat]

Well, no, afaik, you can't schedule recordings from the remote with PVR2, but not an issue for me, I just press record, and press play on the foxtel, and away she goes. But for a long time I did schedule them (I take it you don't have an iQ). You will have to use a kb and mouse, but you only need to do it once a week. Have you considered investing in a wireless kb and mouse?

As far as the loss of signal, I haven't had that, but my situation is quite different to yours. It may be due to the lack of IR Blaster (though I doubt it, as it would affect the NEXT step of setup, not that one), it could be a problem with the software encoder you installed (check that thread for help, cos I've never used it), or it may have to do with yout PC's specs. Do you have enough CPU grunt to encode on the fly?

The loss of colour is a common problem for people trying to use S-Video that don't have anything better than composite on their tv. The solution is the dedicated composite jack on the back of the foxtel box (from memory it is between the 2 scart ports on the foxtel digital box, but you can't miss it if you're looking). So set the foxtel output to S-video, and use the scart to s-video to the foxtel, and the dedicated composite to your tv.