Buy a non Sky "Sky+" box

cullenswood

Hi,


I was wondering is it possible to buy a Sky+ type box, not from Sky and still have the benefits of having Sky+, ie recording, pausing, etc.

I currently have a Sky Digital sub but dont want to have to go through Sky as I have disconnected the phone line, and dont want to have to reconnect it.

Is there another type of box out there that would do the same thing? And could I just buy one, and hook it up to the TV, and the Sky cable, and stick my Sky card in, and everything would work fine?

Thanks

pH

If you know what you're doing it is possible at the moment to use the Sky card in a CAM in another receiver with HD recording. This is not hacking sky, you still only get the channels you pay for, it just gives you flexibility of different hardware.

It is however very much 'enthusiast only', nothing like a system suitable for a consumer, and Sky could change the encryption method at any time and render any equipment bought useless for Sky.

The other approach is to capture the analogue output from Sky into a HD recorder.

eirman

You can buy FTA satellite receivers that have built-in hard disks. These have many of the sky+ features. You could use it for all the BBC + ITV(soon) and a host of other FTA channels

watty

Or put a PC sat card in PC. Playback same quality as live too, but only FTA.
The expensive Skystar1, Hauppauge Nexus-s etc have TV out and MPEG decoder built in. The cheap Skystar2, Hauppauge Nova-s rely on the PC for MPEG decode and TV out if required and if your graphics card has it.

Cheap PVR if you have a PC with 60Gbytes + space free.

I use www.gypsymedia.com "Digiguide" as "EPG" program planner on PC at about 17 Euros A YEAR .

A FTA Satellite PVR will be much more attractive when ITV1&2 are FTA. though we finde we watch BBCs, ITV3 more than ITV1, Ch4, Ch5 & ITV2, & RTE etc.
I watch a lot of BBC World and some Arriang, Nile TV, Ch33 IBA etc too all FTA.

watty

But for simplicity the Sky+ is hard to beat if you don't mind paying recording rental ..

With Sky+ though what you can playback is what your view card CURRENTLY allows, not what package you had when you recorded. This is not Sky being mean, but a limitation of how the decryption is done, i.e. what is on disk is essentially the off air signal before decryption.

pH

Just to add that if you pay fully for the Sky+ box and install (quad LNB and extra cable) then you don't need to have the phone connected. If you are already paying for movies or sports then you'll get the €15 monthly charge waived.

It would be impossible to build a PC recording solution for 299 and you're not going to save a huge amount on a cheaper FTA box with HD.

Dr. Nick

pH wrote:

Just to add that if you pay fully for the Sky+ box and install (quad LNB and extra cable) then you don't need to have the phone connected. If you are already paying for movies or sports then you'll get the €15 monthly charge waived.

It would be impossible to build a PC recording solution for 299 and you're not going to save a huge amount on a cheaper FTA box with HD.

So a sky+ box from ebay or picked up 2nd hand somewhere might be worthwhile? I already have a quad lnb to feed a 2nd uk-carded box. I assume that the two free feeds from the lnb could be used for a sky+ box?

watty

Yes. It uses two LNB feeds.
If you have a Sky Sub or want a Sky sub then Sky+ is best solution.

If you don't want a Sky sub or watch any non-Sky EPG programs, then The Sky+ will drive you mad.

The PC solution is only good if you are PC expert and have a PC that can be on most of the time for that.

The non-Sky+ box is good for "plug in and go" but only for FTA or non-Sky Pay TV such as Arab subs, Canal+, ABSat, Cyfra+, Swiss or Dutch FTV cards etc, though not all boxes / cams will work for all pay providers.

Dr. Nick

Thanks Watty. Now where to pick up a cheap Sky+ box......? Don't suppose there's a lot of 2nd hand ones out there.

cullenswood

Dr. Nick wrote:

So a sky+ box from ebay or picked up 2nd hand somewhere might be worthwhile? I already have a quad lnb to feed a 2nd uk-carded box. I assume that the two free feeds from the lnb could be used for a sky+ box?

This is what I was wondering about. Bit of a novice at this lark. If I picked up a Sky+ from ebay, and got myself a quad lnb thingy, I'd be able to hook it up myself?

watty

Possibly... You need a dish.

If you have a working Sky dish then it is easy.

If you need to aliogn a dish it needs more patience and ability to drill holes in wall etc.