Sky Catchup and Virgin Media Player issues

phelimb

Hi all,

recently the Mrs is seeing issues downloading certain programs through catchup on the Sky box - in particular some Virgin Media Player programs like Emmerdale. When trying to download it throws up the error "To watch this you'll need to upgrade or re-activate your subscription". Some programs download fine but in the last few days, Emmerdale (which is the one she watches most) gives this error. Maybe others do also but we haven't noticed yet.

I played around with it as much as I could - rebooted the box, reset the network connection, changed settings from HD to SD for downloads, take out/put back in viewing card etc. but no joy. So, I gave in and rang Sky today (that conversation warrants a thread of it's own!) and after an hour and 15mins the solution offered was to upgrade my old Sky+HD box to a Sky Q box. It'll be free of charge so that's all good but I'm a bit dubious if that'll solve the issue.

Anyone else had a similar issue with their Sky box and what was the fix/solution?

Cheers,

PB

greasepalm

I wonder what the hidden costs are in upgrading to Sky Q as a lot of stuff is been removed to only leave HD channels.

Are you only viewing in one room as the old Sky +Hd had twin feed for their old pace box.

They might install a new sat dish as your dish is old and replace the new Lnb to work with only Sky Q

Another possibility is to cancel Sky and get an Enigma sat box +Saorview 2 sat feeds to view on 1 and record on 2nd tuner .

On Saorview you could record on one channel and view another on tv.

Use up your recordings saved on Sky box as when service is cancelled you cannot view recordings

I dont use either Sky or Virgin Players

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/tv-providers-and-services/article/how-to-watch-sky-tv-without-a-sky-subscription-aNsJJ3z5RuYY

phelimb

Hi @greasepalm , thanks for the reply.

Yeah, my dish/lnb is pretty old but I'll ask the engineer that if he needs to change anything to put in a hybrid lnb because I have a feed from the dish into a second room where I have an old freesat box (maybe, or old Sky box, can't remember now? I haven't used it in ages but would like to have the option to use it in future for whatever channels it can pick up).

I did toy with the idea of cancelling Sky and getting some other solution (Saorview/Eir etc) earlier this year but the kids kicked off too much so I stayed with Sky.

Anyway, if it doesn't work out I'll use the old 14 day cooling off period to cancel the new contract and try something else.

Gerry Wicklow

Stupid Q time. Is Emmerdale not available to record from ITV1 HD or do Sky block it?

phelimb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119999554#Comment_119999554

I donb't think we have any issue recording directly from ITV1 HD or any of the other HD channels. It's just when we try and download certain programs via Catch up we get the error message...

Digifriendly

How can you directly record from ITV 1 HD if you live in Ireland as it is not on Sky epg?

icdg

You can’t, is the answer. You can’t record from any off EPG channels. But you could record it off VMTV One instead. Aside from the continuity and adverts it’s the same show.

Gerry Wicklow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120006354#Comment_120006354

Thanks. That's what I was thinking. The bullies wont let you record or easily watch what is freely available to everyone else.

phelimb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120000515#Comment_120000515

Sorry, misread the question. Yeah, we can record off VM1 but not ITV1

muffler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120006518#Comment_120006518

It's a UK channel free to view for UK residents. I don't understand the comment about bullies or why you think anyone in Ireland has a divine right to watch a UK channel for free.

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120006518#Comment_120006518

And from their point of view, they’re offering a product in the Irish market that doesn’t include ITV1, they are not responsible for the channel. There’s no access to ITV at all on the Stream platform. Sky Q recievers include a manual tuning facility (someone once said it was a requirement to get the DVB-S badge but I don’t know how true that ever was) but it’s hidden away in the menus, not promoted, not supported, (Sky will give you zero help with using it) and allows you to view the channel and not much else.

And look the lesson is, if free to air services are what you primarily want, Sky is not for you. Get Freesat or free to air satellite. Sky isn’t intended for viewing free to air, it is a pay television package and the equipment is supplied for the primary purpose of viewing Sky’s service and whatever else it is put to isn’t really their concern.

Fortunately, the OP doesn’t have to worry about any of this, since the programme they want is available on a channel that is part of the Sky package ie Virgin One.