Additional sky viewing cards

Alser

Hi there.
Looking for some info - apologies if it's been covered before.
What's the cheapest and easiest way to get an additional sky viewing card for our holiday home? We have a sky subscription in our house so could we just order an extra card and use it in a skybox down there? If so, how much will it cost?

Any help is greatly appreciated..

Cantona's Collars

You need an extra sub for another premises-if you have a dish on your holiday home why not bring the skybox from your house when on holiday and simply hook it up to the dish.Lots of people do this.

Zeppi

look into slingbox

watty

Just take the card. It will work for all non-premium channels.

Or take the whole box (3mins to unplug) if you have premium channels.

Your TV licence doesn't cover both places either.

watty

Zeppi wrote: »

look into slingbox

1) How many people in Ireland have broadband and enough upload speed for decent video, about 20% or less

2) How many broadband users have enough cap? About 50% or less

3) How many Holiday homes have real broadband and with enough cap? Maybe 10% or less.


Taking the box is the best idea. The quality beats Slingbox even if you have the suitable Broadband at both ends.

Alser

Thing is, not everybody in the house goes to the holiday home so Skybox has to be left here for them to watch. So I defo can't get an extra card on the existing sub and use it in the holiday home? Maybe say it's for the kitchen or a bedroom?

Alser

Don't really want to get a sub for a house we won't be in 6 mths a year. But if that's what we have to do, that's what we have to do..

danois

if you have a phone at home you can get a second sub think its 15 a month then you have sky in second room at home and can bring that with you when you go on hols so best of both worlds you have it on hols and an extra box at home.

Alser

danois wrote: »

if you have a phone at home you can get a second sub think its 15 a month then you have sky in second room at home and can bring that with you when you go on hols so best of both worlds you have it on hols and an extra box at home.

That sounds good. But we don't have a landline in the holiday home so will that card and box still work down there?

Henry Ford III

Alser wrote: »

That sounds good. But we don't have a landline in the holiday home so will that card and box still work down there?

Yes it will. On startup it will prompt "connect to phoneline" but it'll still work fine. Just install multiroom at home and then bring 2nd box/card wherever you want.

watty

danois wrote: »

if you have a phone at home you can get a second sub think its 15 a month then you have sky in second room at home and can bring that with you when you go on hols so best of both worlds you have it on hols and an extra box at home.

No you can't

If it's not connected to same phone link when Sky check, then you will get charged two full price subs. You might get away with it for a short while, but it's basically fraud and the longer and more often the box is away from home the more likely you are to get caught.

chalkitdown

You should try to get a Northern Ireland Sky FTV card. This will give you most of the UK channels including RTE.

danois

watty wrote: »

No you can't

If it's not connected to same phone link when Sky check, then you will get charged two full price subs. You might get away with it for a short while, but it's basically fraud and the longer and more often the box is away from home the more likely you are to get caught.

yes but if the op is genuinely only using it in a holiday home the odd time it would be connected to the landline most of the time so it would be ok wouldnt it i know its not allowed to do that so you can get a cheap sub in another house full time didnt think there would be a problem if it was only a week or so a year.

Alser

Someone mentioned those NI ftv cards to me before. How does one aquire these cards? And they definitely have RTE?

watty

No. N.I. FTV cards do NOT have RTE reception (they may oddly have RTE on the EPG though).
Only N.I. Active Subscriptions have RTE and TG4 reception.

chalkitdown

watty wrote: »

No. N.I. FTV cards do NOT have RTE reception (they may oddly have RTE on the EPG though).
Only N.I. Active Subscriptions have RTE and TG4 reception.

You are correct, just tried the card again and Irish channels are gone. It was working when I got it, must have been an ex sub card that has now been switched off.

watty

Sometimes I'm wrong.

But people REALLY hate a Clever Dick that's often right

theblueirish

You could also buy a clone Dreambox (about €60), program it to read the boxkey from your sky card.
Take it to your holiday home, and it will read the info needed to clear the premium channel i.e. sport and movies.
No need to move boxes but I bet you will forget to take the card sometime.

Theblueirish

R P McMurphy

theblueirish wrote: »

You could also buy a clone Dreambox (about €60), program it to read the boxkey from your sky card.
Take it to your holiday home, and it will read the info needed to clear the premium channel i.e. sport and movies.
No need to move boxes but I bet you will forget to take the card sometime.

Theblueirish

Would this work in Spain?

theblueirish

yes provided you can get a good enough signal.

watty

R P McMurphy wrote: »

Would this work in Spain?

Some places need a VERY big dish, then there is the problem that there are 4 satellite with 6 beams. Some of the Satellites/Beams are fine in Spain. So when you have big enough dish for Astra 2D (most of the Free TV + RTE) you overload either LNB or Receiver. Specialist filters on the coax cable can fix this.

Also when the dish is very big, 28.5 (eurobird) is weak as it becomes separated from 28.2E (Astra 2A, 2B, 2D). A larger sizes you lose the signal twice a day (unless there is an elevation motor) as the satellites are very slightly inclined to save station keeping fuel, a regular size dish doesn't "see" it.

R P McMurphy

watty wrote: »

Some places need a VERY big dish, then there is the problem that there are 4 satellite with 6 beams. Some of the Satellites/Beams are fine in Spain. So when you have big enough dish for Astra 2D (most of the Free TV + RTE) you overload either LNB or Receiver. Specialist filters on the coax cable can fix this.

Also when the dish is very big, 28.5 (eurobird) is weak as it becomes separated from 28.2E (Astra 2A, 2B, 2D). A larger sizes you lose the signal twice a day (unless there is an elevation motor) as the satellites are very slightly inclined to save station keeping fuel, a regular size dish doesn't "see" it.

Thanks for replies, appreciate the effort. Apartment is in south spain. Bring a sky card out to an old pace box. Can get channels but no movies or sport. Not sure about size of dish so might try that box next time

R P McMurphy

R P McMurphy wrote: »

Thanks for replies, appreciate the effort. Apartment is in south spain. Bring a sky card out to an old pace box. Can get channels but no movies or sport. Not sure about size of dish so might try that box next time

No movies or sport would suggest your card is not paired with the box.

R P McMurphy

Karsini wrote: »

No movies or sport would suggest your card is not paired with the box.

Yeah I had called sky before the first time I went out and asked if the card would work over there. The fella on the phone told me I was not allowed to bring the card over there, but he laughed and told me that he heard it worked.

He explained that he heard that if someone did that they would need to bring the box as well as the card can only be used in one box and if inserted into another would have to be paired and would need an excuse for it. That is why I was interested in this dreambox as I am not prepared to bring the sky box with me each time I go over

theblueirish

Premium channels are "paired to the box" there are ways around this that involve not using a sky box as your second box or holiday home box.
the dreambox or other similar type boxes (techomate being my favourite) are designed to do things which cannot be mentioned on boards (as fas as i am aware) but they can read all entitlements of a sky card including access to premium chanels i.e sports and movies.

the above may need editing tomorrow as i have had a skinfull tonight