Heres the Plan...

dbar

I want to get rid of sky, and use a freeview card in the box, organising that with my buddy in the UK. However the Kids are going to lose the plot, as they watch a lot of the Sky kiddies channels.
I was going to
a) Get in Sky+, and record a shed load of their programmes.
b) Ditch sky and put the freeview card in.

My questions.
Will I be able to access the said recorded programmes once the subscription is gone?
Will the Sky+ box still work with the freeview card after the subscription is gone?
Is there a better way of doing this?
Thanks in advance...

muffler

The only part I can answer is in relation to the recorded material in the sky+ box.

I had a shit load of stuff recorded while I had an active sky sub but when I canceled I couldn't access any of the films etc that I had recorded. To use any of the sky+ box features including viewing recorded material you will need a sky subscription - even the cheapest sub of around €20 per month is enough to avail of this.

Kensington

You either need an active sky subscription as mentioned, or you have to pay €15 for a sky+ subscription which gives you only the sky+ features, no sky pay channels - just the free ones.

Without a subscription of any sort the sky+ box acts exactly the same as a standard sky receiver with no viewing card, or an inactive viewing card - no access to the sky+ hard drive functions at all.

Your best bet for a free PVR like sky+ is to go out and get a DVD/HDD recorder. They are expensive and you have to transfer everything over by recording it in real time but there's no monthly subs.

John mac

you will still get Cbeebies and cbbc and citv without sub.

dbar

Thanks for the replies, will get some kind of hdd/dvd recorder to ease the passing....