Do FTA cards work in sky plus boxes

Johar

Does anyone know if you can use the fta cards in a sky plus box. I've never seen a sky plus box in the flesh but I'd assume it's just the same as the normal digibox except with a HDD for recording, etc.

Plus, has anyone recently upgraded their existing subscription to sky plus, if so how much does it cost?

Yes you can-but never have the phone line plugged in when you have the ftv card in the box.
I use a sky plus box as my extra ftv box.
The most effecient way to upgrade to sky plus is to subscribe to movies or sports if you're an avid movie or sport watcher.
Sky plus is then thrown in for free.
AFAIK its €15 a month extra as an add on to the family pack

It's actually quite a small box these days and un obtrusive.
A bit thicker than a normal digibox but not as wide.
And bigger than a sky mini box obviously.

If you buy one and just use the one lnb lead untill your installer puts in the quad for you, you will have live pausing working straight away once you have asked Sky to upgrade you to sky plus.

Johar

Thanks for the reply. So if I keep my existing digibox and want use it with my FTA card for viewing in a different room is there any way to split the signal coming from the dish?
I already subscribe to Sky sports so I assume the sky plus would be free. There seems to be confusion over the price of the box though. I'll give sky a ring a find out the full story.

Well you will be given a quad lnb with the sky plus box.
The sky plus box will take two cables from that and then you can have two more so you can have 3 digiboxes(your sky plus box and two more if ya want) on the one dish.

Johar

Just spoke to Sky. ?299 installation for Sky plus upgrade. 1 year warranty. After one year the current call out charge to replace any defective HW is ?108!.

Widescreen

IMHA Sky Plus,whilst great technology,is still over priced.Basically,Sky are charging loyal customers 299euros for what will in the very near future become the default dogibox which will be given free to all new subscribers.I think the price in Ireland should be in or around 150 euros and they would definately get more people upgraded. At present I use two digiboxes in my main room , one with a ftv card,one with normal sub. This is totally adequate for my needs , and can tape and watch all I need. I won't be forking out for Sky plus unless the price falls dramatically and my digiboxes pack in.
Anyone agree or anyone want to persuade me otherwise! :cool:

Johar

Widescreen. Your setup seems ideal for me. Currently I only have a single dish and decoder. I have a working FTA card. If I wanted to hook up another decoder and use it in another room with my FTA card I'd assume I'd need a dual or Quad LNB. Does that LNB need to be installed at the dish or can it be installed at the first decoder?

shabbyroad

You assume correct - you'll need a Quad LNB. The LNB however is part of the dish - it's the bit that sticks out on an arm and points toward the dish. Lousy signal if it's installed at the decoder <grin>

Widescreen

Widescreen wrote:

Anyone agree or anyone want to persuade me otherwise! :cool:

Well I thought that way untill I got sky plus...
I almost couldn't live without it now-it's so much more than just a recorder.