Have Sky "killed" the ex sub boxes?

muffler

I havent been a Sky subscriber for 3 years+ and havent used the Sky+ HD box during that period but today I booted it up but cant get any channels on it. Just a constant message that the box is initializsing. I had a second box which I hooked up also and it was the same. I had several cards laying around which I tried but nothing worked.

Of course both boxes could be spent but I doubt it as all the various menus etc are displaying. And its not the dish alignment as I have it hooked up to the TV for the FTA channels.

So would Sky have sent some sort of signal that would prevent these boxes from being used as FTA receivers?

Gerry Wicklow

Seems unlikely. I vaguely remember a licence condition in UK that they must receive FTA but open to correction on that. Have you tried the boxes on the known good cable(s) at the TV?

Mountjoy Mugger

muffler wrote: »

So would Sky have sent some sort of signal that would prevent these boxes from being used as FTA receivers?

For what it's worth, my ex Sky is still working away, Muffler. Have you left it on overnight with card inserted?

F34

To get the black box to work with free to air I had to bits a free to air card from the uk and it worked away.

muffler

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Have you tried the boxes on the known good cable(s) at the TV?

Yeah, took the cable from the TV and put it back in the Sky box beside the one that has been in there for ages. I even swapped them around (cables/connection points) but no good.

I forgot to mention that I was also getting the "no satellite signal" message which is odd.

The reason Im doing this is the second box I have was used as a multiroom box and for a long time after I left Sky it was still capable of recording/pausing etc. It was in the young lads' room at the time and they never watched it so I unplugged it at the time. I thought/hoped that there might have been a cheap way to record FTA channels rather than having to spend money on a new box.

My old trusty freeview recorder packed in last week so I have to invest in something to record either the Freeview or FTA channels. Everything was going well until the football and the soaps all started up again so I have to keep herself happy

grayzer75

muffler wrote: »

Yeah, took the cable from the TV and put it back in the Sky box beside the one that has been in there for ages. I even swapped them around (cables/connection points) but no good.

I forgot to mention that I was also getting the "no satellite signal" message which is odd.

The reason Im doing this is the second box I have was used as a multiroom box and for a long time after I left Sky it was still capable of recording/pausing etc. It was in the young lads' room at the time and they never watched it so I unplugged it at the time. I thought/hoped that there might have been a cheap way to record FTA channels rather than having to spend money on a new box.

My old trusty freeview recorder packed in last week so I have to invest in something to record either the Freeview or FTA channels. Everything was going well until the football and the soaps all started up again so I have to keep herself happy

Go to services, press 0 0 1 enter on the remote and do a rebuild which you'll find in that menu somewhere but you might still need a UK viewing card to get the FTA channels but it's worth a try.

kooga

muffler wrote: »

Yeah, took the cable from the TV and put it back in the Sky box beside the one that has been in there for ages. I even swapped them around (cables/connection points) but no good.

I forgot to mention that I was also getting the "no satellite signal" message which is odd.

The reason Im doing this is the second box I have was used as a multiroom box and for a long time after I left Sky it was still capable of recording/pausing etc. It was in the young lads' room at the time and they never watched it so I unplugged it at the time. I thought/hoped that there might have been a cheap way to record FTA channels rather than having to spend money on a new box.

My old trusty freeview recorder packed in last week so I have to invest in something to record either the Freeview or FTA channels. Everything was going well until the football and the soaps all started up again so I have to keep herself happy

sorry to hear about the pana you got great mileage from it. I had a similar issue a few years ago with a multiroom box being used for an eir/bt sub - the box just expired - again there was no issue with the signal as i checked with my Humax and just got another on adverts.ie

muffler

grayzer75 wrote: »

Go to services, press 0 0 1 enter on the remote and do a rebuild which you'll find in that menu somewhere but you might still need a UK viewing card to get the FTA channels but it's worth a try.

Got it going again that way as I had 2 UK cards here. One of the cables wasnt properly screwed in also so tightening that up probably helped.

I've went through about 5 cards now and while I can get all the FTA channels I cant record them. I had to try all the cards that were laying around as I couldnt remember which one worked over 3 years ago.

At least we know Sky hasn't done anything to the boxes

grayzer75

muffler wrote: »

Got it going again that way as I had 2 UK cards here. One of the cables wasnt properly screwed in also so tightening that up probably helped.

I've went through about 5 cards now and while I can get all the FTA channels I cant record them. I had to try all the cards that were laying around as I couldnt remember which one worked over 3 years ago.

At least we know Sky hasn't done anything to the boxes

I find my TV guide goes dodgy every so often with no programme info showing and the rebuild fixes it pretty quickly.