Free channels on sky box (insert your sky viewing card)

Del007 · 17-10-2016 06:42PM #1

I bought a sky HD box from done deal for use in my new house for the free channels.

Some of the channels work like Bbc1 & 2 but channels such as Channel 4, E4 etc don't work and it's saying to 'insert your sky viewing card'

Does anyone have a solution for this?

Cheers

muffler · 17-10-2016 06:53PM

You need one of these

Del007 · 17-10-2016 07:49PM

How come some of the channels work like BBC, sky news?

muffler · 17-10-2016 07:57PM

Del007 wrote: »

How come some of the channels work like BBC, sky news?

Some of the more educated posters here may explain it better than me but I think it has to do with regional restrictions. By using the UK viewing card the box reads it as if its the UK epg that has to be displayed with associated channels being available for viewing.

wil · 23-01-2017 03:52PM

The holy grail of sky hd being able to reset a sky hd box to default uk menu.

It has been asked several times over the years but never got a definitive answer so assumed it was hard coded. It was suggested the irish epg is stored on the drive so I was tempted to remove and reformat the drive. Was all ready when I found I had managed to revert it to uk epg without doing anything drastic.
This has been annoying me for ages, wanted to use a spare sky hd box in spare room with the same uk epg menu as regular sky box. Until now nothing seemed to work and most people suggested getting a uk or freesat card, but it seems you may not need it.
Obviously this won't allow recording but hey.

I can't say which step worked and it may have taken a ota update to complete .
Here's what I did, can't be certain of order.

Went in to hidden menu services - system setup 01 select.
Reset to default, think I tried a rebuild.
Set to single lnb mode
Rebooted , no change.
Think I got notice of an ota update a week ago. Still no change.
Did a complete unplugged power off
Left it overnight.
Today have a uk epg.
Yeah brexsat

steveon · 24-01-2017 09:44AM

wil wrote: »

The holy grail of sky hd being able to reset a sky hd box to default uk menu.

It has been asked several times over the years but never got a definitive answer so assumed it was hard coded. It was suggested the irish epg is stored on the drive so I was tempted to remove and reformat the drive. Was all ready when I found I had managed to revert it to uk epg without doing anything drastic.
This has been annoying me for ages, wanted to use a spare sky hd box in spare room with the same uk epg menu as regular sky box. Until now nothing seemed to work and most people suggested getting a uk or freesat card, but it seems you may not need it.
Obviously this won't allow recording but hey.

I can't say which step worked and it may have taken a ota update to complete .
Here's what I did, can't be certain of order.

Went in to hidden menu services - system setup 01 select.
Reset to default, think I tried a rebuild.
Set to single lnb mode
Rebooted , no change.
Think I got notice of an ota update a week ago. Still no change.
Did a complete unplugged power off
Left it overnight.
Today have a uk epg.
Yeah brexsat

Getting a free to view card is a better option as it gives you a couple of extra channels as well such as sony channel, sony movies, 4music, Yesterday +1 so for the few quid an easier and better option.

jca · 24-01-2017 10:10AM

steveon wrote: »

Getting a free to view card is a better option as it gives you a couple of extra channels as well such as sony channel, sony movies, 4music, Yesterday +1 so for the few quid an easier and better option.

More satisfying when you do it yourself.

steveon · 24-01-2017 10:13AM

jca wrote: »

More satisfying when you do it yourself.

I think sony movies is an excellent channel which you dont get for free without the card so I will agree to disagree with you on that..

Thargor · 24-01-2017 10:16AM

Think I know the answer already but would those Sony channels be possible on a freesat setup with an arriva 250 or do you need a card? Are there cards you can buy that would add more channels to an arriva 250?

Johnboy1951 · 24-01-2017 11:54AM

Thargor wrote: »

Think I know the answer already but would those Sony channels be possible on a freesat setup with an arriva 250 or do you need a card? Are there cards you can buy that would add more channels to an arriva 250?

You need a card.
They used to be available on a Setanta card for the FTV programming.

wil · 25-01-2017 01:39PM

steveon wrote: »

Getting a free to view card is a better option as it gives you a couple of extra channels as well such as sony channel, sony movies, 4music, Yesterday +1 so for the few quid an easier and better option.

Well this turned out to be an easier and better option for me.
Especially as it's a spare box occasionally used. Now for no extra charge I've got all the free channels in hd with epg everyone is used to.

Have Sony Movies on the main box and don't recall ever watching anything on it, There's more than enough to watch from all the big channels without paying for something I already don't watch. There must be be a dozen or more free music channels, so another really wouldn't be much of a selling point

Also no reason to assume sky couldn't deactivate old cards in the future.
But if you specifically want those channels then you need a card.

newmem · 23-09-2020 10:06AM

wil wrote: »

The holy grail of sky hd being able to reset a sky hd box to default uk menu.

It has been asked several times over the years but never got a definitive answer so assumed it was hard coded. It was suggested the irish epg is stored on the drive so I was tempted to remove and reformat the drive. Was all ready when I found I had managed to revert it to uk epg without doing anything drastic.
This has been annoying me for ages, wanted to use a spare sky hd box in spare room with the same uk epg menu as regular sky box. Until now nothing seemed to work and most people suggested getting a uk or freesat card, but it seems you may not need it.
Obviously this won't allow recording but hey.

I can't say which step worked and it may have taken a ota update to complete .
Here's what I did, can't be certain of order.

Went in to hidden menu services - system setup 01 select.
Reset to default, think I tried a rebuild.
Set to single lnb mode
Rebooted , no change.
Think I got notice of an ota update a week ago. Still no change.
Did a complete unplugged power off
Left it overnight.
Today have a uk epg.
Yeah brexsat

I know this is an old thread but still relevant. Thanks to Wil I got my sky + box working as it was giving me an error about my viewing card when I was trying to view other channels and it is now working. I had already done the reset to factory settings and the planner rebuild but no luck however the solution was to change the setting to Single LNB mode and I can now view all the other free channels. I guess since you are not using the recording function it must reset the box back to a basic receiver that doesn't block you from adding other channels.

Thanks for your help

mackersdublin · 24-09-2020 03:10PM

steveon wrote: »

Getting a free to view card is a better option as it gives you a couple of extra channels as well such as sony channel, sony movies, 4music, Yesterday +1 so for the few quid an easier and better option.

157/257 Sony Channel
321/322 Sony Movies

Both channels and their +1's are Free-to-air, so no need for a card

Only 4Music (139) and Yesterday +1 (255) are Free-to-view along with Local TV (117) on the UK EPG

johnwilliam59 · 18-06-2021 07:30PM

I had a HD box and i found I got a lot more channels with the older sky box if you can get your hands on one

icdg · 19-06-2021 11:37AM

We don’t drag up old threads

Free channels on sky box (insert your sky viewing card)

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