Sky install without a Sky sub?

bk

Hi is it possible to get Sky installed for just the €50 install fee and not actually sign up to a Sky sub, just use it for FTA instead?

I assumed you couldn't, but there were some guys installing Sky In Your Apartment shared dish system in my building on Friday and my house mate talked to them and he claimed that they claimed you could get Sky installed without actually subscribing.

Now I thought there was no way Sky would do this, but perhaps they are doing this to compete with Freesat and insure people have the capability to subscribe to Sky at a later date?

samhail

i was talking with an engineer the other day since we needed a box replaced, when asked about the older sky box we had, which may be ont he way out was told that we can pick up a 2nd hand sky box not from sky directly which will cost €200 (i think she said)

byte

Sky are not going to give you a free box and dish, without subscription with minimum 12 month term.

Second hand Skyboxes can be bought for about €50 in classifieds. Certainly wouldn't pay €200, even for a second hand Sky+ box.

bk

byte wrote: »

Sky are not going to give you a free box and dish, without subscription with minimum 12 month term.

Well in the UK, for a one off charge of £75 you get free install, free sky box and four sky mixes for four months for free. After the four months you can decide to continue to subscribe to Sky or cancel it and just use it for FTA:

http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk

Seems like a great deal, I was just wondering if there were perhaps doing the same in Ireland?

Tony

why bother with a sky box? get a freesat box, much more suited to the purpose

mumhaabu

I was wondering the other day how are apartments fed, Have they got one large with a lnb to a splitter or something? I was reading recently in Tele Satellite IIRC that new LNBs will be out soon with Fiber optic feeds meaning a Lnb could feed up to 1 or 2 hundred receivers with a special fiber optic to RG6 converter for existing receivers which would be located either behind the receiver or at a junction box depending on how the apartment complex is wired and that new satellite boxes in future will have fiber from the lnb directly into the box eliminating all copper completely. Satellite is the future of TV as the bandwidth available is massive and can be expanded cheaply unlike either DTT, MMDS or terrestrial cable based systems.

Tony

mumhaabu wrote: »

with a special fiber optic to RG6 converter

Hardly RG6, more likley 100 spec

mumhaabu

Tony wrote: »

Hardly RG6, more likley 100 spec

My bad! It was a fibre to satellite cable anyway. Out of curiosity what is RG6? and what is the correct standard for Satellite cable? RG ???

Tony

mumhaabu wrote: »

My bad! It was a fibre to satellite cable anyway. Out of curiosity what is RG6? and what is the correct standard for Satellite cable? RG ???

no prob. RG6 is a lower spec which can be used for short runs less than 20 meters but does not have the lower loss and better shielding capabililities of 100 spec. The correct standard for most runs is 100 although longer runs need 125 spec. CAI approved cable is recognised as the standard. A fibre backbone with coax to end user seems to be they way its going.Sorry for OT

bk

Tony wrote: »

why bother with a sky box? get a freesat box, much more suited to the purpose

Hi Tony, the problem is that the apartment isn't pre-wired for Sat. Sky is now doing the Sky In your apartment thing where they put a shared dish on the roof. I'd need to call Sky to get the installers to come out and run a wire from my apartment to the shared dish.

That is why I had assumed you'd need to subscribe to Sky for at least 12 months to get this done.

samhail

byte wrote: »

...Second hand Skyboxes can be bought for about €50 in classifieds. Certainly wouldn't pay €200, even for a second hand Sky+ box.

Thanks for the tip.
I was told by the engineer that it would cost 200, and even online (http://www.thedigiboxshop.com/sky-digibox-products.html) it costs that kinda price.

will keep an eye on the classifieds if i need to replace.

Tony

I see, guess the cheapest way out would be to subscribe to the minimum package for 12 months .

bk wrote: »

Hi Tony, the problem is that the apartment isn't pre-wired for Sat. Sky is now doing the Sky In your apartment thing where they put a shared dish on the roof. I'd need to call Sky to get the installers to come out and run a wire from my apartment to the shared dish.

That is why I had assumed you'd need to subscribe to Sky for at least 12 months to get this done.

Lenguy

So, in short, are we saying that the Sky In Your Apartment product is legit? Has anyone got experiences that they would like to share - good or bad? Thanks..

bk

Lenguy wrote: »

So, in short, are we saying that the Sky In Your Apartment product is legit? Has anyone got experiences that they would like to share - good or bad? Thanks..

Completely legit, service offered by Sky.

In my case, Sky installers came out to my building, put the sat on the roof of the building and then dropped a pair of sat cables down the side of the building * to just as far as the outside balcony of each apartment.

Now I haven't signed up for Sky, as I'm on a very good deal with Smart at the moment. However I assume that if I was to sign up they would simply bring the two wires into the apartment and connect them to a Sky+ box.

Therefore it should be no different then anyone else's Sky experience, except no ugly dish in sight and I'm not sure you could get multiroom, well if you did they would need to drop another cable from the sat on top of the roof.

I highly recommend it.

* In fairness they did a very neat job and it is almost impossible to see the cables without looking very closely as they were able to run the cables down between cladding stones on the building.