Can you marry a BBC card to an Irish Digibox?

LegacyUser

Hi,

I'm sure this question has been asked before, but I was wondering if I were to get an FTV card from the UK, could I connect it to my Irish Dodybox?

Thanks for any info,
Stephen

LegacyUser

Yeah - no probs have done this a few time on different digiboxes (all irish) and aveb=n have a digibox with my sky card a N.irl FTV and Scottish FTV card all married...

LegacyUser

Do you know exactly how this works? I have an Irish Sky card. If I want to watch Channel 4, say, do I have to take out the Sky card and insert the BBC card? Does this constant swapping eventually damage the cards?

Thanks,

Stephen

LegacyUser

There are two card slots on your digibox. Not having the FTV card, I understand it goes into the second slot.

However, not wishing to highjack your posting, I'd just like to say that I am dumping Sky Digital as a result of their Sky high increase in premiums.

My £13 package (having bought the decoder and dish for £300) is now jumping to £22 (nearly 70%). Sky can go and jump. They expect all subscribers to pay the same even though some of us paid more initially. Sky ahve stated that they want consumers paying an average of £400 per annum for services. Apparently certain premium services are suffering from a lack of sufficient interest hence it would appear that non-premium services subscribers are going to get dumped on. If you think VHI premium increases are bad you haven't seen Sky (and if you haven't then don't bother).

And they want to do the same again. The Skyplus package is a new digibox which gives the user the ability to record programmes (a digital VCR akin to the TIVO). And by coincidence it is going to sell for £300.

I strongly advocate a mass exodus from Sky.

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Delboi:
There are two card slots on your digibox. Not having the FTV card, I understand it goes into the second slot.</font>

No, no - This is the MONDEX Slot to enable you to pay for things with a MONDEX card. Except no-one has such a card yet and no Sky services yet support its use.

Blade

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Does this constant swapping eventually damage the cards?</font>

Min. Insertion Cycles on their card readers is 2X 10 to the power of 5 and smart cards usually have a 100k insertion cycle lifetime.

LegacyUser

For the mathematically challenged:

2X 10 to the power of 5 is 200,000
100k is 100,000.

(alternatively 100k is 102,400 bytes!!)

LegacyUser

If I get a new FTV BBC Scotland card, can I definitely marry it to my existing Irish digibox?
I thought if my box details had already been registered with Sky, then it would be impossible to ask to have my new card activated with the BBC programmes in my old digibox.
Can someone please confirm what the exact procedure is?
Thanks.

LegacyUser

U have to ring up the bbc fta-card number, and have it sent to one of your friends in england. remember to have the serial number and version number ready. when u get it, put it in your digibox, and then ring them up again to activate it. u'll have to leave it in the box for 24 hours ( for me it did anyway) until it's activated.
the switching of the cards thing is really annoying cos the epg reloads when u put the bbc card in, which takes 40 seconds.painful.
and if u want to replace ur box u need to get a new bbc card.

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by joeygee:
U have to ring up the bbc fta-card number, and have it sent to one of your friends in england. </font>

They would not send a Scottish card to an English address. I think his point was what he should do when he gets the card.

LegacyUser

Just a question about the requesting of a FTV card from the BBC. When you call them and give your UK postcode, serial and version number, will they not recognise the serial number as one registered as an Irish box or do they not dig so deep as to check this out?
Also, from thses forums, I am led to believe that if you were to ring Skys 0800 number from a non UK phone line they are able to know that your calling from outside the UK. Would this be the case with the BBC too. What I am trying to ask is, can you order the FTV card from your Irish phone??

Trev.

LegacyUser

Just a question about the requesting of a FTV card from the BBC. When you call them and give your UK postcode, serial and version number, will they not recognise the serial number as one registered as an Irish box or do they not dig so deep as to check this out?
Also, from thses forums, I am led to believe that if you were to ring Skys 0800 number from a non UK phone line they are able to know that your calling from outside the UK. Would this be the case with the BBC too. What I am trying to ask is, can you order the FTV card from your Irish phone??

Trev.

LegacyUser

Just a question about the requesting of a FTV card from the BBC. When you call them and give your UK postcode, serial and version number, will they not recognise the serial number as one registered as an Irish box or do they not dig so deep as to check this out?
Also, from thses forums, I am led to believe that if you were to ring Skys 0800 number from a non UK phone line they are able to know that your calling from outside the UK. Would this be the case with the BBC too. What I am trying to ask is, can you order the FTV card from your Irish phone??

Trev.

LegacyUser

ok triple vision!!

if u put 141 before the number it will block it. they dont know that its an irish box because its is the BBC that is sending it not sky, and they couldnt give a toss anyway.
PS: try and put on a convincing english accent when calling, or ask someone english u know to do it.

TX