Help needed - Problem with my SKY - What are my options?

jinkybhoy

HI

Thanks in advance for any advice given.

I am not in contract for my Sky TV. I have a SKY + Box with HD. In December I switched to Sky Talk and Broadband, so now have TV, Broadband and Phone with sky. The package for SKY tv we are on is basic entertainement - no movies or sports.

My sky has been acting up for nearly a year - every few weeks it would have to be restarted - picture froze, blue screen etc. When it needed to be restarted, it would take us hours to get it up and running again. Then it goes again a few weeks later.

Last night - the problem now is that it is responding sluggishly - go into planner, takes an age to scroll down pages - it's not responding at all well.

Now we called sky - went through all the usual restart stuff etc - they seem to think that dish may have moved and that an engineer needs to be called out.

They want to charge €100 to do this, which i don't think is fair considering, we have had issues for nearly a year.

So my question is - What options do I have? These are my thoughts but not sure if feasible

1. setup new sky account under wifes name - where we live there are several spellings of address and she still has accounts under maiden name - Only problem I can see with this is that our phone is tied into our existing account - would this cause a problem?

2.A friend got one of these http://www.humaxdigital.com/uk/products/product.php?gid=436
it has all the channels i need but I'm not very technical so not sure how easy to setup - and also if dish has been moved or damaged not sure if I could fix it.

3. buy one of those boxes but obviously I'd have to research that myself!

I have a working ordinary sky box as well if that's any use.

Thanks

Jinky

The Cush

jinkybhoy wrote: »

They want to charge €100 to do this, which i don't think is fair considering, we have had issues for nearly a year.

So my question is - What options do I have? These are my thoughts but not sure if feasible

1. setup new sky account under wifes name - where we live there are several spellings of address and she still has accounts under maiden name - Only problem I can see with this is that our phone is tied into our existing account - would this cause a problem?

2.A friend got one of these http://www.humaxdigital.com/uk/products/product.php?gid=436
it has all the channels i need but I'm not very technical so not sure how easy to setup - and also if dish has been moved or damaged not sure if I could fix it.

3. buy one of those boxes but obviously I'd have to research that myself!

I have a working ordinary sky box as well if that's any use.

The cheapest option is probably get Sky to do it for €100. Could be a box problem?

If you go the Freesat route the Humax box you link to above is highly recommended for the UK channels. You'll also require a Saorview setup with it for the Irish channels plus aerial and your dish may have to be looked at by a professional installer also.

jinkybhoy

The Cush wrote: »

The cheapest option is probably get Sky to do it for €100. Could be a box problem?

If you go the Freesat route the Humax box you link to above is highly recommended for the UK channels. You'll also require a Saorview setup with it for the Irish channels plus aerial and your dish may have to be looked at by a professional installer also.

If I wasn't bothered about the Irish channels - That would mean I wouldn't need the saorview option - correct? I can get the catch up on internet if I really want to see an irish show.

Newonhere

Correct about the saorview, you don't need that if you don't need the Irish channels. I have the Humax box and I am very happy with it. I also had problems recently with the dish which I believe was moved by the recent very strong winds, I got out a local Satellite installer to realign the dish which cost me €40 (much cheaper than the standard charge of €100 from SKY) I have had the Humax box for over a year now and have never needed to reboot it, it has been a joy to use compared to the SKY HD+ box that I had previously. I would certainly recommend going the Freesat way.

jinkybhoy

Newonhere wrote: »

Correct about the saorview, you don't need that if you don't need the Irish channels. I have the Humax box and I am very happy with it. I also had problems recently with the dish which I believe was moved by the recent very strong winds, I got out a local Satellite installer to realign the dish which cost me €40 (much cheaper than the standard charge of €100 from SKY) I have had the Humax box for over a year now and have never needed to reboot it, it has been a joy to use compared to the SKY HD+ box that I had previously. I would certainly recommend going the Freesat way.

Thanks for that.

Only problem I might have is wife is addcted to E! entertainment!

The humax - am i right that it can be hooked up to internet also and catch up shows could be watched on tv through that way?

Also if I want to record shows - I need an external HD i assume - would I only be able to record one show at a time or multiple?

The Cush

jinkybhoy wrote: »

The humax - am i right that it can be hooked up to internet also and catch up shows could be watched on tv through that way?

Also if I want to record shows - I need an external HD i assume - would I only be able to record one show at a time or multiple?

The catch-up via the internet with the Humax with be very limited or non-existent in Ireland and subscription channels like E! entertainment will not be available.

The Humax has an internal 500Gb HD where you can record one/watch one or record two/playback one.