alternative to free to air card sky

hawkwind23

i had been reading a lot of threads regarding using an old sky box for free to air channels.
i was going to get one of the UK cards but tried something else which worked perfect and may help some on here.
apologies if posted before and well know but i didnt come across it on here.

anyways what i did was the following.

REMOVE THE SKY CARD !!!!

1. Remove Sky Plus Box "Mains Cable" - (either from wall socket or back of Sky + Box)

2. Hold down the "Backup Button" on the front of the Sky + Box

3. Reconnect the power

4. Remain holding the "Backup Button" for around 30 seconds

5. The lights on the front of the Sky+ Box should now light up

6. If your TV is connected to the Sky + Box, the following message will be displayed "Updating System Software"

7. Release the "Backup Button"

8. Allow the system upto 15 minutes, and then it will turn off

9.Turn on the Sky Plus Box


when i switched the box on i was left with the UK EPG with 101 as bbc london etc
i have all the e4 , ch4 c5 etc.
pretty much all the same channels in the spare bedroom as i have with the humax box downstairs.

hopefully this is of help to someone

John mac

if its a sky+ box it will stay on UK epg.

a sky HD box however will not. (thats when a card comes in handy)


(unless its an old hd box)

St Senan

hawkwind23 wrote: »

i had been reading a lot of threads regarding using an old sky box for free to air channels.
i was going to get one of the UK cards but tried something else which worked perfect and may help some on here.
apologies if posted before and well know but i didnt come across it on here.

anyways what i did was the following.

REMOVE THE SKY CARD !!!!

1. Remove Sky Plus Box "Mains Cable" - (either from wall socket or back of Sky + Box)

2. Hold down the "Backup Button" on the front of the Sky + Box

3. Reconnect the power

4. Remain holding the "Backup Button" for around 30 seconds

5. The lights on the front of the Sky+ Box should now light up

6. If your TV is connected to the Sky + Box, the following message will be displayed "Updating System Software"

7. Release the "Backup Button"

8. Allow the system upto 15 minutes, and then it will turn off

9.Turn on the Sky Plus Box


when i switched the box on i was left with the UK EPG with 101 as bbc london etc
i have all the e4 , ch4 c5 etc.
pretty much all the same channels in the spare bedroom as i have with the humax box downstairs.

hopefully this is of help to someone

If it is a Bog standard Sky or Sky + box then there is no need to do any of the steps 2 to 8. and as John mac said it wont work for a new sky HD box.

hawkwind23

good to get a few replies , seems obvious now but for weeks i was trying to get a way to get a bunch of channels from my sky box and was about to buy the SKY CARD until i stumbled across this solution by accident.
hopefully helps a few people out.
with the sairview and an old sky box its great to stop the bills from SKY and have a half decent selection of channels

fitzpatl

Trying to do this with a HD box and it won't work. Any suggestions what to do and/or where to get a card that will give the extra few channels like ITVs etc?
thanks

machiavellianme

Request one for free from Setanta under the BAI scheme. There's plenty of threads on here about how to do it.

smodgley

machiavellianme wrote: »

Request one for free from Setanta under the BAI scheme. There's plenty of threads on here about how to do it.

link please ?

muffler

smodgley wrote: »

link please ?

Link.

hufpc8w3adnk65

I have an old white/cream sky box connected in the kitchen with just the free channels coming true.if I do this will it A work on this model and B what are the advantages too it?does it remove all the channels that you must pay for from the epg?
Thanks eddy

nmop_apisdn

smodgley wrote: »

link please ?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056922390