Freesat in NI with spare Sky boxes

GTE

Hello,

Come September I will have either a Sky+HD box or a SkyHD box lying around spare.

I live in Belfast.

Presuming my new flat will be able to do Freesat can I buy a Freesat card from Sky and just put it into any of these boxes and expect them to work perfectly? Pause, record TV on the + box?

The +HD box is originally from the UK. HD box with be arriving soon and will be Irish based.

http://storesatellite.com/freesat-uk-free2view-cards.php
This place seem to do them for 20 quid which is great.

I only ask because I feel the boxes are a question mark. I would hope its a plug and play situation. I am wondering can I get it direct from Sky up North?

Thanks all!
bbk

Minstrel27

Pause and record on a Sky box requires a subscription. You would be better off getting a Freesat PVR imo.

GTE

Minstrel27 wrote: »

Pause and record on a Sky box requires a subscription. You would be better off getting a Freesat PVR imo.

Nah, I wouldn't be. The student side of me can't push anywhere near that.

If I can get a Freesat card for 20 pounds Id say Ill be happy with that providing it will work in one of my spares.

STB

bbk wrote: »

Nah, I wouldn't be. The student side of me can't push anywhere near that.

If I can get a Freesat card for 20 pounds Id say Ill be happy with that providing it will work in one of my spares.

You didnt read his post did you ?

"Pause and record on a Sky box requires a subscription"

You can buy a HD combo box for €81 delivered. That way you will at least have some chance to get the Irish stations from terrestrial. The box mixes both sat and terrestrial in the one channel list.

You wont have to use a kludged box. Sky prey on people with kludged boxes. Once you have one the temptation is there to subscribe for extra channels.

GTE

STB wrote: »

You didnt read his post did you ?

"Pause and record on a Sky box requires a subscription"

You can buy a HD combo box for €81 delivered. That way you will at least have some chance to get the Irish stations from terrestrial. The box mixes both sat and terrestrial in the one channel list.

You wont have to use a kludged box. Sky prey on people with kludged boxes. Once you have one the temptation is there to subscribe for extra channels.

I did read the post friend. :rolleyes:

I asked could the +box function fully with just a Freesat card.
The answer I was given was no with additional information that I need a sub to activate those features and a link to a Freesat box which gives me these features. This is well out of my price range.

Taking this piece of information to be true I will proceed to insure that the regular HD box will accept a Freesat card and work properly when I move back to Belfast and leave the +box behind me for further adventures. In other words I want to make sure these "kludged" boxes you speak of will accept a Sky Freesat card, which is what I am asking of you here.

sesswhat

STB wrote: »

You wont have to use a kludged box. Sky prey on people with kludged boxes. Once you have one the temptation is there to subscribe for extra channels.

So that's what happened to you STB, a plain looking old digibox threw on a bit of lippy and you fell for her charms. After spending 12 months in a Sky rehab facility you've made it your mission not to let the same thing happen to anyone else:D

OP, be strong, forget about cards for now if you like and just try the boxes with no card. If you are happy to use them just to view the FTA channels then it will have cost you nothing. If not, you can explore other options at that point.

There are plenty of threads on here about using old Sky boxes as FTA boxes.

GTE

sesswhat wrote: »

OP, be strong, forget about cards for now if you like and just try the boxes with no card. If you are happy to use them just to view the FTA channels then it will have cost you nothing. If not, you can explore other options at that point.

There are plenty of threads on here about using old Sky boxes as FTA boxes.

Yeah, I have been doing that with the HD+ box to watch Formula 1 in HD. Never clicked that I could continue with that. I should check what channels I can get on the UK based Sky+box with its old card.

Though, I would love to get the Horror channel and those other movie channels with fantastically bad films for sheer entertainment with friends and being based in Belfast that would be why I push for the Freesat Sky card.

EDIT:

Doing a bit of research there after your post got me thinking.

In a horribly crowded world of FTA, FTV and other confusing terms like that would I be right in saying that:

http://www.sky.com/shop/tv/free-to-air-channels/

In Northern Ireland, while using a Sky box with no card, the only channels out of the list of channels above that I will not get are:
Channel 5 HD (Sky+ HD or Sky HD box is required)
5USA
5USA +1
5*
5* +1
LFC TV
Motors TV
Pick TV
Pick TV +1
Sony Entertainment Television
Sony Entertainment Television +1
Viva

I say this because the Wiki below says that the viewing card decrypts the above channels.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freesat_from_Sky

It could not be more complicated for a layman like me to get a straight answer from all these Freeview, free to view, free to air, Freesat, Freesat from sky websites.

sesswhat

For the list of channels you can get without a card, and instructions on how to tune them in, see the sticky here.

You can then save a list of favourites to make navigation easier.

GTE

sesswhat wrote: »

For the list of channels you can get without a card, and instructions on how to tune them in, see the sticky here.

You can then save a list of favourites to make navigation easier.

I got a chance to hook up the UK Sky+HD box and was able to get a good idea of what the craic was.

Thanks!