Using a sky plus box without subscription

Tigerandahalf

I have the above for the eir sport channels.

The fta channels on it are very limited. No itv hd or any other itv, no c4 hd or c5 hd. It also surprises me that TG4 HD is carried but not tv3/virgin.

I tried to add itv hd in the other channels but when it tuned it looked for a pin. 1234 or 0000 don't work. Any idea what might be up?

Thanks

Tigerandahalf

sugarman wrote: »

Shouldnt have access to any Irish channels, theyre encrypted without a subscription.

Pin usually means you've set a childlock at some stage on another channel, it'll be the same pin.

Irish channels aren't carried but you can see the epg which tells you.
I have just bought the box so didn't set the pin myself. I presume this box was previously owned and the pin is still on it.

Any ideas? Is the pin meant to be 4 numbers?

db

You need a UK viewing card to see the UK terrestrial (FTV) channels.

Tigerandahalf

db wrote: »

You need a UK viewing card to see the UK terrestrial (FTV) channels.

I can see all the bbcs.

Tigerandahalf

sugarman wrote: »

Do a factory reset. Press the ‘Sky’ button, press ‘Services’ button on the remote, press ‘001’ and then ‘Select’. Should see 'Full System Reset', hit that.

But then I could lose the eir/bt channels that are paired with the viewing card. Don't think I fancy having to ring them again.

I have Irish channels at the start of the epg. I can't view them. I can view the bbcs.

Sleeper12

It's a long time since I had a sky plus box connected without the subscription but I thought I remember that it resets to the UK?

I know you don't get Irish channels but I thought that all of the UK channels were stored. You did not need to manually set utv?

tsue921i8wljb3

Ask the person you bought it from if they set a PIN and if so what it is?

Sleeper12

sugarman wrote:

Hasnt been the case since the days of the old SD boxes unfortunately.

I did say that it was a long time.

Tigerandahalf

Santana Dazzling Lobotomy wrote: »

Ask the person you bought it from if they set a PIN and if so what it is?

I bought it on ebay and it was delivered from within Ireland, Sligo I think.
The box was probably used in Ireland, thus the Irish epg.

It doesn't bother me as I have a combo box next to it but I would need to plug out a hdmi and put in the other. It would be handy to have bbcs and itv on it as well as c5 and c4. I presume the hd version of the latter 2 could be added.

I have to say I don't like the epg layout. The humax freesat is much nicer.

tsue921i8wljb3

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

I bought it on ebay and it was delivered from within Ireland, Sligo I think.
The box was probably used in Ireland, thus the Irish epg.

It doesn't bother me as I have a combo box next to it but I would need to plug out a hdmi and put in the other. It would be handy to have bbcs and itv on it as well as c5 and c4. I presume the hd version of the latter 2 could be added.

I have to say I don't like the epg layout. The humax freesat is much nicer.

You should be able to contact the seller through ebay.

Johnboy1951

Using the Sky+HD box without a sub is an exercise in frustration.
The best that can be managed here is to put the eir sports channels on favourites, along with a few other channels, but even that is not hassle free as those channels cannot be arranged to suit the user.

At this point I only use it for Eir Sports and two Sony Channels that are cleared by the card.

It is left on a Sony channel for others to view, and I change it to an eir sports channel for some particular game I want to view.

No matter what I tried it remained frustrating, so I use it very little to reduce that frustration.

.

Tigerandahalf

Ok the seller got back to me. The pin is the last 4 digits of the viewing card.
I don't know why they have a pin in that section. If it could be removed it would be great.

Anyway I went into Add Channels and put in all the bbcs, itv, c4 and c5, plus a few others. Nice and tidy list now. No rte but to be honest I will hardly need it as all Champions League is on BT anyway.

Only issue I am having at the moment is that my signal is dropping occasionally. I know the signal is weak (only 1/3 on the signal strength meter) but it never caused an issue with my combi box.

I have ordered an amplifier that will fit on just before it connects to the box. I also got a coaxial stripper to make it easy to do repairs etc. I haven't stripped coaxial before. I think the mesh has to be pulled back once stripped. I will see how it goes.

I was hoping eir would give unlimited broadband but not happening so this box will take away from the download amount. It will also be handy to have the sports in case the internet would ever go.

It is getting messy with all the devices needed to view stuff. Even a sky package with hd is €50 or so and it is inferior to fta options.

Finally is there any quick way to get straight to the Other Channels section, rather than through options, then flicking through there?

Thanks

Capt'n Midnight

I got a cheap non-name HDMI switch and a Humax Freesat Box overrides the Edison Linux one. So just uses one port, not sure how fair SKY boxes play with HDMI though it's YMMV. Other cheap switches have remote controls.

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Using the Sky+HD box without a sub is an exercise in frustration.
The best that can be managed here is to put the eir sports channels on favourites, along with a few other channels, but even that is not hassle free as those channels cannot be arranged to suit the user.

At this point I only use it for Eir Sports and two Sony Channels that are cleared by the card.

It is left on a Sony channel for others to view, and I change it to an eir sports channel for some particular game I want to view.

No matter what I tried it remained frustrating, so I use it very little to reduce that frustration.

.

They also use a fair bit of power on "standby" so perhaps turn off when not in use.

But leave on overnight about once a month to get updates.

Tigerandahalf

Do the Sky boxes keep the frequencies updated?

I don't have mine connected to the internet but leave it on standby as it is slower than the freesat box to boot.

Johnboy1951

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

....

They also use a fair bit of power on "standby" so perhaps turn off when not in use.

But leave on overnight about once a month to get updates.

I think it goes to Off when I send the signal to it, but now you mention it I am not so sure

My Sky box is hidden away in the 'media press' and its output is to a HDMI>DVB-T converter which is put on the LAN from tvheadend along with all the other DVB-T & DVB-S channels.
I control the box with a small app rather than a remote control.
So I send the shutdown signal to the box from that app, similar to doing it via the remote.
Is that the standby?
Is something different required for Off?

Note: I have never used one of these boxes with a sub so have no idea how they function when used as intended.

Tigerandahalf

I'd imagine you are just putting it on standy. To shut it off power would have to be removed.

You should know by seeing how quickly the box boots up.

Johnboy1951

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

I'd imagine you are just putting it on standy. To shut it off power would have to be removed.

You should know by seeing how quickly the box boots up.

Probably standby so ...... its the same signal sent as pressing the on/off button on the remote control.