Sky Italia

digiman 2007

can i use a sky italia digibox to receive channels from sky uk

denis1501

No, they use different softwares.
regards
D.

watty

It will work for Free channels. But the dish must be aligned at 28.2E

I've no idea what happens if you put a UK card in and do the "update" sequence.

If anyone sends me an Italia card, I'll risk a spare UK box on Hotbird 13E in the interests of Research.

denis1501

The UK card will not be recognized by the box and no update will take place. Vice Versa if you put an Italian card in a UK box on hotbird.
They are not compatable, I know cos I tried an experiment once.
regards
D.

watty

I guess you tried new box installation on the hidden service menu (Services 4 0 1 select ) and also the "forced update" via hold backup while connect mains?

Interesting to know. I did always wonder.

I hope they don't do this to differentiate Irish & UK Sky boxes.

denis1501

The Italian box will not search 11778 v for a software update, it will search it's own default transponder but even if you manually change the default to 11778 it will find nothing. The softwares are completely different forms of NDS.
Never tried box callback but I know it won't work!
regards
D.

digiman 2007

So if I wanted to check out the BBC HD which is fta, I could use an Amstrad Sky Italia Hd Box like these?

http://cgi.ebay.ie/DECODER-SKY-NDS2-AMSTRAD-HD-READY-5-1-DOLBY-NUOVO_W0QQitemZ130100993163QQihZ003QQcategoryZ119518QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting

They are only €80!!!
Compared to BSKYB's €300 approx
No PVR but wont pay for sky+ anyway

Kind Regards

denis1501

As long as the Italian decoder can search a symbol rate of 22000 and FEC 5/6 which I believe the BBC are using then yes, it would be possible through the other channels menu.
regards
D.

digiman 2007

Are you aware that using a sky digibox you cannot recieve fta channels on any other satellite other than 28.2/5. Would this not be the same for a Sky Italia Box

denis1501

I don't know who told you that m8 but it's not true. A digibox can be used on eg hotbird, but only for channels using symbol rates of 27500 or 22000.
regards
D.

L1011

digiman 2007 wrote:

Are you aware that using a sky digibox you cannot recieve fta channels on any other satellite other than 28.2/5. Would this not be the same for a Sky Italia Box

Wrong, completely and utterly wrong.

Mossy Monk

digiman 2007 wrote:

Are you aware that using a sky digibox you cannot recieve fta channels on any other satellite other than 28.2/5. Would this not be the same for a Sky Italia Box

Are you aware that you are clueless?

digiman 2007

Can anyone tell me how to recieve fta channels off other satellites using a digibox. Last night I connected my digibox up to hotbird and couldnt watch any of the channels despite the fact that they did come up when i scanned.

Mossy Monk wrote:

Are you aware that you are clueless?

Apologies if I appeared to sound condescending or knowledgeable earlier, it was not my intention.

Regards

denis1501

Use exactly the same procedure you would use if you were adding ITV to a digibox at 28.2.
scan the transponder,
use the yellow button to 'tick' the channel you want to save,
press 'select'
message comes up 'channel line up complete'
go services, other channels
select the channel
all over!
regards
D.

digiman 2007

Thank you very much

Do you need a sky card for this as it keeps asking me for one when i try to enter the other channels menue after storing the new channels
It does not ask for it when its pointed at 28.2

Thanks again

denis1501

See Zaphods post below, sorry if I put you wrong earlier, when I last put a digibox on hotbird there was no problem, obviously there is now..
regards
D.

Mossy Monk

digiman 2007 wrote:

Thank you very much

Do you need a sky card for this as it keeps asking me for one when i try to enter the other channels menue after storing the new channels
It does not ask for it when its pointed at 28.2

Thanks again

That is really odd. Anytime I looked at Astra 1 with my Digibox no card was needed, it was as if I was looking at ITV in Other Channels.

Zaphod

Following firmware updates in Summer and Autumn 2005, the Digibox now asks you to "Insert your viewing card" if you try to access "Other Channels" (in the Services menu) before the box has loaded the EPG channels list. This is, of course, assuming that you do not have any viewing card!
The important effect of this miniscule change is that it is now impossible to access any channels that may be added from other satellites (such as Astra 19.2°E) until the box has initialised and loaded the channels and other information from Astra 28.2°E. You could then swap LNBs with some sort of switch, but with cheap FTA receivers running in at around £30 (50 euros) - they being more flexible and generally friendlier to use on other satellites - why on earth would you want to bother using a Digibox to watch RAI Uno, etc?

I have my doubts as to the entire legality of this change - after all, I'm not a Sky subscriber, my box hasn't been used with a Sky card for a number of years now, and yet Sky have dictated something I cannot now do with my box...

Anyway, if you are interested in looking at the old Astra 19.2°E material, perhaps to get an idea of what is available,

http://www.heyrick.co.uk/ricksworld/digibox/index.html#nonsky

byte

Jaysus, that's mad! More anti-competitive measures from Sky, it would seem.

It seems digiman was correct, despite some replies to the contrary!

Ulsterman 1690

its true and all

I tried a digibox on 19E last weekend and while it would scan for channels and bring up a list for each transponder when I tried to view any of the channels in "other channels" as well as annoying me by asking for my PIN every time i went into "other channels" it gave a "no satellite signal is being recieved" even when I was sure there was a good signal there :mad:

Mossy Monk

Note to self. Do not plug the spare Digibox into a dish pointing at 28.2° East. Sky really are cheeky bastards.

Zaphod

Using an €80 Sky Italia box for BBC HD is certainly an interesting proposition. I haven't come across any posts after a google search where this has been tested.

Assuming worst case scenario with similar firmware in both UK and Italian HD boxes, then the Sky Italia box will need to do an "ET phone home" on the default data TP on Hotbird 13E initially. Manually switch LNBFs over to Astra 2D 28E (or move the dish) and you can potentially add BBC HD to other channels.

The only caveat being that BBC HD has an unusually high bitrate and when any of the other HD receivers were first released (e.g. Humax, Pace) they were unable to cope. It took a firmware update in each case to rectify the problem. Sky Italia would have zero incentive to make their boxes BBC HD compatible, unlike Sky UK. But you might get lucky.

http://www.heyrick.co.uk/ricksworld/digibox/index192.html

digiman 2007

Thanks for the advice guys.

Its probably best to wait i feel.
The Amstrad Hd box should be out this year which could possibly lower the price of the Thompson box.
Lets not forget that The BBC backed PSB sat might launch in the Autumn. Any boxes designed for this specific comercial purpose is bound to have Hd capability, regardless of weather or not the BBC HD trial continues. Who knows they could even have a free PVR function.

More boxes more competition lower prices.

watty

IF it has the put Itallia viewing card in before you can select other channels, then it's a problem.

watty

Sky are unlikely to allow free PVR use unless forced by EU or competition. Any of the sky+ or SkyHD boxes can do free PVR of FTA channels tomorrow, if Sky wanted it.

dulpit

watty wrote:

Sky are unlikely to allow free PVR use unless forced by EU or competition. Any of the sky+ or SkyHD boxes can do free PVR of FTA channels tomorrow, if Sky wanted it.

But not today, no?;)

watty

They tend to change the SW in the small hours