Buying a Sky+ box for a present

geecee

Hi All
My sister has a Sky satellite dish and bog standard receiver
She is always saying how she would like to be able to record the TV - but is to wary of being tied into a new Sky contract...

I am in a UPC area so know nothing about Sky... but was thinking of getting her one as a Christmas present?

Is it possible to simply buy a Sky+ box from say Amazon, and then plug it straight into her satellite?

Is there anything else required?
E.g. does the card need to be changed? Or do we need to call sky?

If i buy the HD version of the Sky+ box will it work on her normal dish (i.e. in non HD) or will it simply not work without her packagebeing upgraded to teh HD package?

Thanks in Advance!

kaisersuzy

If she has a working Sky card...all to do is ring up Sky and they pair the new box with card in 5 mins

HD box will work fine without upgrading (there's a few free HD channels)..record function will work, to get the multi record function you need 2 cables from dish to box

geecee

thanks for the reply Kaisersuzy

Its a pity thatwe will need to call sky to activate the unit - as i doubt they will be working christmas day!

Do you or any other recommend a particular version of the Sky+ box over others (seems to be a lot of versions out there!)

Ohh and she doesn't have a phone line... does that make any difference?

Kristopherus

Makes no difference that she has no phone connected as long as she has no multiroom. But you should really try to get a sky+ HD box. IIRC you cannot get the standard sky+ box any more.

kaisersuzy

Thompson HD box without doubt the best, new ones from Sky have built in wifi (doubt you'd get from them in time for Xmas now).....the box should work straight away but without being able to record....might be wrong on that maybe someone else can say

tho I'd be pretty sure Sky work on the 25th December

JDxtra

To be honest, if she is a current Sky subscriber and plans to stick with them - a far better option is to get it through them.

It will not be expensive, will come with warranty, and will be installed.

JDxtra

If she is a former subscriber and wants recording of the free to air channels - a Humax Freesat HD recorder box would be a decent present (no contracts or subscriptions).

Kristopherus

JDxtra wrote: »

To be honest, if she is a current Sky subscriber and plans to stick with them - a far better option is to get it through them.

It will not be expensive, will come with warranty, and will be installed.

There would'nt be any Christmas pressie then:).

geecee

Kristopherus wrote: »

There would'nt be any Christmas pressie then:).

Exactly!
When i tried to negotiate one on her behalf they offered a "free" box but wanted an extra 15€ per month in subscription fees!

JDxtra

My opinion - get her something different for Christmas.

kaisersuzy

geecee wrote: »

Exactly!
When i tried to negotiate one on her behalf they offered a "free" box but wanted an extra 15€ per month in subscription fees!

There's quite a few HD boxes for sale on adverts.ie.....that's where I picked one up a few months ago, 30 euro for the box cables and remote works perfect

steveon

kaisersuzy wrote: »

Thompson HD box without doubt the best, new ones from Sky have built in wifi (doubt you'd get from them in time for Xmas now).....the box should work straight away but without being able to record....might be wrong on that maybe someone else can say

tho I'd be pretty sure Sky work on the 25th December

Thompson boxes are the worst avoid, best to ring sky and get the box and supplied for €109 full installed including the quad and second cable ran...even if its after xmas Im sure she'd be delighted.

kaisersuzy

steveon wrote: »

Thompson boxes are the worst avoid, best to ring sky and get the box and supplied for €109 full installed including the quad and second cable ran...even if its after xmas Im sure she'd be delighted.

Sky provide the Thomson boxes, the black box is Thomson.. edit there's no "p" in it my bad

a bit of research says I'm wrong the newer boxes are Amstrad...all I can say is I've had no problems with the Thomson

NIMAN

If you want a $ky+ box to record FTA channels, but don't want to pay $ky any subscription money, I think they charge money each month to enable the recording function. But I may be wrong.

JDxtra

You don't have to pay extra to enable the recording functions, but you do have to be an active Sky subscriber.

steveon

kaisersuzy wrote: »

Sky provide the Thomson boxes, the black box is Thomson.. edit there's no "p" in it my bad

a bit of research says I'm wrong the newer boxes are Amstrad...all I can say is I've had no problems with the Thomson

Sky provide Amstrad whom they now own, the Thomson ones will not provide you with one demand and do now have the latest software running. and they are notoriously badly designed and due to this they overheat and the powersupply soon fails, same as Sky + boxes.

NIMAN

Sky are trying to get all the Thomson boxes recalled, as its these that are allowing cardsharing/Dreamboxes to continue working, afaik.

Once they have they all out of circulation, they might be able to beat the Dreambox sellers.