Box for old Sky dish?

johnnyrotten

Sorry if this has been asked before.

I have a Sky Digital dish and LNB that is not in use. I was wondering if I can get a cheap decoder to pick up free channels.

Thanks

JR

snaps

Any FTA receiver will do and work fine if your dish is def pointing at astra2 (What sky uses)

johnnyrotten

snaps wrote: »

Any FTA receiver will do and work fine if your dish is def pointing at astra2 (What sky uses)

Great, What do you recommend? looking for something reasonablely cheap.
What range of channels are available?
Thanks

Theanswers

Try,
www.ebay.co.uk

You can pick up sky digital reciever there for 10-15 pounds plus postage which is roughly £10. You can also apply to sky for a digital card, 20 pounds i think however you will requier a uk/northern address.
To be honest i would bother with the card, you will get the all the freeview channels anyway.... Sky news, all the bbcs, itv's, and i think channel 4. There plenty more anyways.

http://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview/Channels <<< I believe this is a list of the available channels.

Good luck:rolleyes:

snaps

All stations available with a FTA receiver here; http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html

watty

Theanswers wrote: »

Try,
www.ebay.co.uk

You can pick up sky digital reciever there for 10-15 pounds plus postage which is roughly £10. You can also apply to sky for a digital card, 20 pounds i think however you will requier a uk/northern address.
To be honest i would bother with the card, you will get the all the freeview channels anyway.... Sky news, all the bbcs, itv's, and i think channel 4. There plenty more anyways.

http://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview/Channels <<< I believe this is a list of the available channels.

Good luck:rolleyes:

Your list is wrong. That is UK tv via an Aerial. Snaps list is correct as is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_channels_on_Freesat


There are a few other free channels as well as the Freesat ones, they can be added manually.

A basic FTA receiver needs a manual scan and only has now/next Program guide. A Freesat or Skybox has a complete program guide.

You can also use a Sky Digibox (with or without a card), with or without a subscription.

eBay is a bad place to start unless you are expert with eBay and understand Satellite Receiver specs.

A freesat box costs a little more but well worth it.

Also far better than VHS is built in Recording.

Do you have an HD TV?


IT is NOT Freeview

Dr Hfuhruhurr

Hi watty

You say.. You can also use a Sky Digibox (with or without a card),

How is this so??

Ive been given a sky+ box but its got no sky card !!..could you explain to a pure ticko like meself how i can get this box to function.??

much appreciated .

steveon

You cannot use the sky+ features without subcribing to sky which is a real shame...so a skyplus box is just a std box without a sub...

watty

As Stevon says it will happily work as a Receiver only without a sub. The HDD interface to MPEG2 decoder is via the internal CAM, so it won't record or even replay existing files without a sub that includeds "+" feature (they did have a Sky+ only sub for UK FTV cards in UK, but since there is no Irish FTV card...) The basic Irish Sky 20 EUro pack I think can now include SKy+

Dr Hfuhruhurr

ok ..so it aint possible to use the recording function on my sky+ but as a receiving box I can avail of free to air services.?.... how does one obtain a free to air card???... any linkys to where i can purchase one is welcomed.

Thanks

are they legal ???

snaps

Free to air view cards are legal and they come from the UK. I'll be honest i dont know how the latest card swap will affect the FTV cards. To get one they are about 20£ and you ned a uk address. You can get them from 3rd partys but like i said with the current sky card swap im not to sure how long the blue cards will last. It will only give you sky 3, setanta news, five usa, fiver and channel 4 hd on a hd box.

watty

A FTV (Free To View) card, On its own, won't make the Sky+ box recording work. You need a UK Sky+ monthly subscription also, to a UK / NI postcode address. The bank account/credit card can be anywhere.

You need a UK address to get a FTV card (easily) and has been said they are about dead, serving almost no useful purpose sisnce BBC, ITV, C4 and Five all agreed to pay sky for encryption & card services no longer. The remaining Five channels likley to be FTA soon.

The Sky+ will work as a normal receiver without a card. There is by definition no such thing as a FTA (Free To Air) card.

Dr Hfuhruhurr

Thanks for the replys guys...i understand it a bit more now. ta

Kotek Besar

watty wrote: »

As Stevon says it will happily work as a Receiver only without a sub.

Or with full Sky+ recording facilities, if used with a viewing card from a cancelled account which still has Sky+ facilities activated on it.

byte

benifa wrote: »

Or with full Sky+ recording facilities, if used with a viewing card from a cancelled account which still has Sky+ facilities activated on it.

Yeah that's true, though that costs ~€15 per month, just for recording facility. Better spending the extra fiver on a Sky Mix in my opinion.

Kotek Besar

byte wrote: »

Yeah that's true, though that costs ~€15 per month, just for recording facility.

No, I mean a card from a cancelled account - i.e., account is cancelled - no more monthly fees.

watty

No use for recording/playback. That is ONLY an active sub.

A cancelled Irish card hides many BBC & all ITV and only gives Sky3.

A cancelled UK card only adds Sky3 and for a short while till FTA, a couple of extra Five channels.

NO cancelled card, nor a FTV card gives recording/playback. That requires monthly payment. Even FTA channel recordings will cease playing back some while after the card is cancelled.

Kotek Besar

watty wrote: »

No use for recording/playback. That is ONLY an active sub.

A cancelled Irish card hides many BBC & all ITV and only gives Sky3.

A cancelled UK card only adds Sky3 and for a short while till FTA, a couple of extra Five channels.

NO cancelled card, nor a FTV card gives recording/playback. That requires monthly payment. Even FTA channel recordings will cease playing back some while after the card is cancelled.

You speak with such confidence, but you are wrong.

Well, half wrong. If a Sky+ account is cancelled, the most recent viewing card on that account has the Sky+ facility switched off - but previous cards on that account remain live for Sky+.

byte

benifa wrote: »

You speak with such confidence, but you are wrong.

Well, half wrong. If a Sky+ account is cancelled, the most recent viewing card on that account has the Sky+ facility switched off - but previous cards on that account remain live for Sky+.

Do you believe this happens uinversally, or were you just lucky?

Are you saying that somebody must have a Multiroom Sky+ account? So that one Sky+ card gets fully killed, but not the other?

watty

Tell me in 2 months time it's still working.
Sky give no free lunches

Kotek Besar

byte wrote: »

Do you believe this happens uinversally, or were you just lucky?

Are you saying that somebody must have a Multiroom Sky+ account? So that one Sky+ card gets fully killed, but not the other?

Universally. When a viewing card is replaced, the old viewing card isn't killed as such, it just has it's subscription channels stripped from it. The new viewing card is activated in it's place, but the old viewing card still provides Sky+ facilities, albeit only FTA channels.

If the account is subsequently cancelled, the most recent viewing card is totally killed - no subscription channels, no Sky+ facilities. However the previous viewing card(s) continue to provide Sky+ facilities.

How multi-room is affected, I can't say for sure. I know that what I've said is true in the case of single subscriptions, at least.

watty wrote: »

Tell me in 2 months time it's still working.
Sky give no free lunches

This hasn't "just" happened.

watty

It's a bug likely to be rectified.

A) SKy cards belong to Sky/NDS
If this is true, even so anyone "buying" a S/H "cancelled sub" sky card with these properties is a lunatic.


In any case if there is some strange set of circumstances that allows a card with no subscription to continue to work on Sky+ for FTA channels, this is of NO value to a random person aquiring a Sky+ box, nor is there any assurance the card will let you playback or record content tomorrow.

So in summary,
1) I'm sceptical that this exists at all, or if it is true that it is common.
2) Unless Sky change policy on Sky+ it's not likely to remain working.
3) This, even if real, is no use to anyone that happens to acquire a sky+ box with no card.


Generally cards are not killed, though they can be. Generally they just take the card off the update carousel and in a few days to a few weeks it stops working. In the case of a package upgrade or downgrade the card gets priority on the Carousel for a few days and thus can change in minutes. The key expiry time could be longer on Sky+ recording/playback because of complaints when people downgrade they can't play a program they recorded shortly before downgrading.

How many Sky+ boxes and cards has anyone seen this on? I'd be very surprised indeed if this is more than an occasional glitch.

Kotek Besar

Ok Watty. You stick with your opinion if it pleases you.

Meanwhile I'll continue using my old Sky+ box for FTA channels, with full recording facilities.

watty

I'm happy it works for you, my opinion is that you can't recommend such a solution for anyone else.

Kotek Besar

watty wrote: »

my opinion is that you can't recommend such a solution for anyone else.

An opinion which you are, of course, entitled to.

My opinion, however, is that it's a simple and workable solution available to anyone else, though one that may not be available to everyone.

You have to have had an active Sky+ / Sky+HD subscription in the past and, before cancelling, had the foresight to call Sky and request a replacement viewing card.

watty

Which absolutely can't apply to someone that has no card.

Also you can offer no warranty at all that this will apply to ANYONE in the future.

These are facts, not opinion.

Essentially also a caller would have to lie to get a replacement card when they already have a perfectly good one.