Buying 2nd hand Sky HD box.

toby2111

A few years ago, I rented out a room to a mate who got Sky multi-room into his bedroom. He's since moved out but the coax cable and phone line is still hanging down from the ceiling. I presume this coax I still plugged into my dish.....although I did have to get my LNB replaced a few weeks ago so not fully sure about this.
I've a crappy old aerial and can't get BBC's/UTV's etc through Saorview(I'm in Louth so some can get spillover)So, could I buy a second hand Sky+ HD box off adverts.ie and connect it up in the kitchen, using that coax?What channels would I get?And do I need to buy a Sky viewing card off adverts?See a few sellers flogging them for about €10.

DoYouEvenLift

Unless you upgrade your subscription you won't be getting many HD channels through it anyway so there'd be no need to get a HD box. I don't think you even get the Irish channels through boxes without subscriptions/viewing cards, just the few like UTV and BBC that you want.

I've a HD box and if it only included the HD channels for the extra cost a month it wouldn't be worth it at all, but using On Demand and Catch Up to download boxsets in HD makes up for it, so if you like TV series it'd be worth the upgrade. Sports look great on it also.

toby2111

I have Sky on my main TV in sitting room so am only thinking of buying a second hand one to watch TV in kitchen. I have Saorview on kitchen TV but was wondering if its just a simple case of buying box,using the old coax cable from spare room and buying one of those fully active freesat viewing cards on adverts. Those sellers say its possible to watch BBC HD,ITV HD, channel 4 HD and a few others...without having to pair the card with the box

byte

Or just get a proper Freesat HD box. ie. it has Freesat HD branding. You'd get all those HD channels on that too, without having to trawl through the many channels you can't get due to needing a subscription.

toby2111

Those freesat Hd boxes seem much more expensive than the sky Hd boxes on adverts.ie. Are they that much better than the sky boxes? Could someone put up a link or links to adverts.ie, donedeal, Amazon.co.uk or a store were I could get one of these at a decent price please? Seem to around €100 whereas I can get any Hd box for €25. BTW, I don't have Internet connection in the kitchen, whether that makes a difference or not....

But no matter what I buy, am I correct in thinking that I can connect the old coax cable from the old multi room up to whatever box I get and watch TV?

The Cush

Manhattan Plaza HD-S2, comes in at less than £50.

Bush FSATHD Freesat HD Digital Set Top Box, £50 at Argos in NI.

The boxes will receive the Freesat HD channels but don't have an internal recorder (PVR). The PVR versions start about £140.

Freesat Channel List - http://www.a516digital.com/p/freesat-channel-list.html

Regarding the coax cable from the old multiroom, it can be reused with any sat receiver provided it's still connected to the LNB and in OK condition.

The Ariva 102mini is another option, a compact FTA sat receiver, but more expensive than either the 2nd hand Sky box or Freesat box I mentioned.

toby2111

Cheers for that.
Can I get all the same freesat Hd channels on a Sky Hd box? Basically, it seems the only difference is that the freesat Hd boxes don't have the subscription channels listed? Or is there other differences? New to all this!

The Cush

toby2111 wrote: »

Can I get all the same freesat Hd channels on a Sky Hd box? Basically, it seems the only difference is that the freesat Hd boxes don't have the subscription channels listed? Or is there other differences?

I don't have Sky to check but if you remove the card from the Sky box in your main room you'll see what channels are availble without a sub.

Technofobe

toby2111 wrote: »

A few years ago, I rented out a room to a mate who got Sky multi-room into his bedroom. He's since moved out but the coax cable and phone line is still hanging down from the ceiling. I presume this coax I still plugged into my dish.....although I did have to get my LNB replaced a few weeks ago so not fully sure about this.
I've a crappy old aerial and can't get BBC's/UTV's etc through Saorview(I'm in Louth so some can get spillover)So, could I buy a second hand Sky+ HD box off adverts.ie and connect it up in the kitchen, using that coax?What channels would I get?And do I need to buy a Sky viewing card off adverts?See a few sellers flogging them for about €10.

there should be an RF out on your sky box in the sitting room
if you run a coax from that to your tv in the kitchen put a magic eye on it you can have the same stations you have in the sitting room for cost of the cable and magic eye
Only drawback with this is you can only watch same station in both rooms you can't watch 2 different stations at same time

toby2111

Have magic eye from sitting room to bedroom, great wee thing!

Took out sky card on main tv, all channels including rte say "insert your Sky viewing card"? So looks like I'll need one of those cards on adverts.ie if I get the second sky box....

Technofobe

toby2111 wrote: »

Have magic eye from sitting room to bedroom, great wee thing!

Took out sky card on main tv, all channels including rte say "insert your Sky viewing card"? So looks like I'll need one of those cards on adverts.ie if I get the second sky box....

I think some of the older boxes if powered up without the card used to default to the freesat stations starting with bbc
Maybe you could get an older box but obviously no HD

Maybe someone can clear this up if it is still the case dont think it works on the newer HD boxes

Thurston?

toby2111 wrote: »

... Took out sky card on main tv, all channels including rte say "insert your Sky viewing card"?

Did you try a BBC or ITV channel? RTE & the other Irish channels are subscription on Sky.

toby2111

Yes, you're right. CBS, challenge etc work now. BBC works although bbc2 Hd picture is narrower with 2 black borders on left and right of screen, strange??? Can't access other channels without card to check itv hd.

Thurston?

toby2111 wrote: »

BBC works although bbc2 Hd picture is narrower with 2 black borders on left and right of screen

'The Trials of Life'? Dates back to 1990 & is 4:3 picture format (according to Wikipedia), so the black borders should be there.

toby2111 wrote: »

Can't access other channels without card to check itv hd.

No problem finding an ITV1 HD free-to-air: 2, 3, & 4 aren't though. Without the UK EPG, not being able to access 'other channels' isn't a lot of good, although I recall them working on an old box, maybe with the expired card still in place. (Or maybe rebooting could have an effect?)

toby2111

Are the fully active freesat sky cards worth a shot? They're on adverts.ie for about €7 and supposedly give UK EPG without having to go into "other channels". And I think give more channels than Irish cards. Or are they illegal? I'm not sure!

Technofobe

toby2111 wrote: »

Are the fully active freesat sky cards worth a shot? They're on adverts.ie for about €7 and supposedly give UK EPG without having to go into "other channels". And I think give more channels than Irish cards. Or are they illegal? I'm not sure!

I think there are a couple extra channels but not much
But the older boxes when powered up with no card in them defaults to free to air without going into other channels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1fAixgHwoA

There is also a thread about the freesat card
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055800625

Thurston?

toby2111 wrote: »

Are the fully active freesat sky cards worth a shot? They're on adverts.ie for about €7 and supposedly give UK EPG without having to go into "other channels". And I think give more channels than Irish cards. Or are they illegal?

Yeah, they'll certainly make the box more user-friendly, & once the channels are on the EPG, you can put them in a favourites list so you don't have to go through all the subscription stuff.

Don't know about legality, but I'd doubt they're intended for use outside the UK.

toby2111

Cheers folks! Gonna pick up a second hand Sky+ HD box later. Went into the attic and moved the coax cable from bedroom and fed it into the kitchen so I'm all set. Quick question-do I plug coax into dish input 1 or 2 at back of box?

Technofobe

toby2111 wrote: »

Cheers folks! Gonna pick up a second hand Sky+ HD box later. Went into the attic and moved the coax cable from bedroom and fed it into the kitchen so I'm all set. Quick question-do I plug coax into dish input 1 or 2 at back of box?

Go with 1
2 on the box so that you can record a sat channel while watching another sat channel
But as you will be using it for freesat you wont be able to record anyway as you have to pay a subscription to be allowed to use the record / pause

toby2111

Got the sky+ Hd box, €20 with remote. Connected it to dish input 1....works 100%! Have Saorview and freesat now and didn't have to fork out for expensive equipment.
Gonna get one of those freesat cards with UK EPG. Thanks for the advice folks, appreciate it.

mgbgt1978

You may find that now and again your Sky box will tell you it's not receiving any channels.
This is usually after an update when the box will look for the 2nd feed. You need to reset it to single-feed mode.
Just follow the instructions in this link and you should be sorted.
http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Sky-TV/Connecting-your-Sky-box-in-a-flat/ta-p/738940


Also 'program synopsis is not available' will sometimes come up on the EPG when you look for details of later programs. Again related to 'single feed' mode. Enable it and reboot and all should be fine again.