Spare Sky Box & Free To View Cards

Lex Luthor

I have acquired a 2nd sky box from a relative who no longer wants it. I want to use it in a 2nd room in the house, so I am told I will need to replace the single LNB on my sky dish to a quad type and run a new cable to it. Is replacing these LNB's a difficult job apart from being afraid of heights?

I'm also told that free-2-view cards are available in the UK only to UK residents but can be used on Rep sky dishes. I have a mate who can order one for me in the uk, so if he does, will he need to activate it first from me or does he send it here without putting it near his sky box?

If I do manage to get a Free2view card, can it be used on both my sky boxes?

eoinm1

Hi Lex

To use a second Sky digibox you will need a new LNB.
This will need to be a Quad LNB.
They cost around 100 euro.

Fitting is easy enough if you can access the dish from the ground or not too high up.

I only just fitted one my self yesterday but mine was on the chimney of a two story house which made it a little harder. Any way it's not too hard just don't move the dish or you be in trouble.


As for FTV cards i'm sorry to have to tell you that your too late the sale of FTV cards stoped at the end of Jan.

I hope that helps,
Eóin

John R

Although they have stopped issuing new ones you can still get a FTV card via ebay.
It will work on any box.
Make sure it is a series 2 card (picture of a yellow house on card) that has been already activated.
Don't pay too much £30 - £40 max, there are some w*nkers (mainly in Ireland) trying to sell these for €200.

Tony

Originally posted by eoinm1
.
This will need to be a Quad LNB.
They cost around 100 euro.

You should be able to pick up a quad for €89 .

Tony

happy_hammer66

you don't have to use the QUAD, a cheaper twin LNB will do, its also easier to install.

I put in a twin and it worked right away, when i replaced this with a quad it wouldn't work, it's harder to line up that the normal/twin. Took the sky guy a couple of attempts to get working properly.

I have a twin in the attic which i could sell if interested.

Lex Luthor

thanks, not gonna do anything until I can get my hands on the free2view card....no point getting the hands dirty doing all the install work for nothing

Tony

Originally posted by happy_hammer66
you don't have to use the QUAD, a cheaper twin LNB will do, its also easier to install.

If you can find one for a sky dish

Tony

happy_hammer66

yes, sorry, i should have specified i was talking about the sky dish/lnb's as opposed to the easier to obtain, bigger, bog-standard dishes/lnb's

omathuna

Lex, Don't forget that you get the FTA (free to air) channels without any card. These include BBC's and loads of shopping channels & radio.
The FTV(free to view) channels are all the above plus, ITV, CH4 and CH5.

So it may be worth getting your hands dirty!

thegills

The FTV(free to view) channels are all the above plus, ITV, CH4 and CH5

Guys. I have the bog standard Sky set-up. If I get one of these FTV cards on eBay can I simply insert into my Sky decoder and get ITV, CH4 and CH5??

thegills

Couch Potato

Originally posted by thegills
Guys. I have the bog standard Sky set-up. If I get one of these FTV cards on eBay can I simply insert into my Sky decoder and get ITV, CH4 and CH5??

thegills

Yes - but ensure that the card is Activated !!

Once a Freeview card is activated it will work in any box.

ShaneOC

Originally posted by thegills
If I get one of these FTV cards on eBay can I simply insert into my Sky decoder and get ITV, CH4 and CH5??

Yes you can, however you need to be very careful as there have been numerous reports of sellers reporting cards as faulty in order to get a replacement card to sell again. If a card that you have bought has been reported as faulty then Sky can kill it and you are left with no ITV, Channel 4 and five.

Caveat emptor and all that .

ATN

Couch,

Can you explain how activating works?


I have received a new FTV card and hope to obtain an ex contract Digibox from the uk.

Can I safely assume that it will work with my card?


If I subsequently want to upgrade to a more advanced decoder

e.g. a Technomate, will the card work in this ??

Aquos76

Firstly let me explain. The card gets activated by Sky(or Freetoview people, which still has to go through sky) The cards needs to be activated to a particular ver number and serial number from a sky digibox. Once the card has received all of the FTV channels, the card will then work in any Sky digi box (Irish sub or UK sub boxes included) One point that should be considered. Do not use the card in an Irish digibox which is connected into the phoneline.

On the point of using the card ina different receiver. This cannot be done. It has to be a Sky Digi box.

Hope I have managed to answer your questions.

robert muldoon

Originally posted by Couch Potato
Yes - but ensure that the card is Activated !!

Once a Freeview card is activated it will work in any box.

Are you sure about this? I have a spare activated FTV P2 card and i want to use it on my Sky+ box.Its already been used in another Sky digital box which is now defunct. Will the already activated card work in the Sky+box?. I thought each card had to be married to a particular box, in other words the card would have to be reactivated to the Sky+ box

Aquos76

Yes it will work in your Sky+ box. Not sure if you can use the recording features on those channels though. You will need to unplug your telephone line if you use it.

Heh!
You have to pay for sky plus recording features, they are not free unless you are on one of the upper end sky packages such as movies and sports.
they definitely dont work with a ftv card married or unmarried.

Regarding the ftv card, when it is switched on it is married to the box it is switched on in.
But this marriage is irellevant for ftv channels as the card will allow viewing of ITV etc in any box once it's been activated in the box that it has been married to.


The only difference that you will note is when you scroll down the epg and click on sky one for instance, you will get the wrong card message on thast and any other subscription channel
Thats different to what appears if the ftv card is in the actual digibox its married to, as then it would have the "please phone 0870 etc.." message" instead.

Thats all immaterial as with the ftv card you dont have those sub channels anyhow.

Mossy Monk

Originally posted by happy_hammer66
you don't have to use the QUAD, a cheaper twin LNB will do, its also easier to install.

in all fairness, installing a quad isnt exactly rocket science

ShaneOC

And for sky dishes I don't think you can get a twin LNB.

happy_hammer66

On the Quad, its not the physical installing of it that caused problems. Without touching the dish alignment, when i replaced a single with a twin it worked right off, when i replaced the twin with the quad none of the outputs worked.

Subsequently, when i had my new house built, i had the dish and quad put in by a professional installer, he used his meter, said it was lined up perfectly and although i wanted to connect a portable to it( they all route to the attic first prior to distribution around the house) he said no need. Time was pressing. Needless to say, i had to call hime back for some more adjustments before we got a signal.

The twin was specifically for the sky mini dish, came with the adapter for the two type of sky mini-dishes.

robert muldoon

Originally posted by Leonard
Yes it will work in your Sky+ box. Not sure if you can use the recording features on those channels though. You will need to unplug your telephone line if you use it.

Tks -I know you cant get the recording features of Sky+ with a FTV card