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Using Sky Plus Box with no subscription?

nicecupotay

Is it possible to record on a sky plus box when you have no sky subscription?

I have an old sky box(non recording) that picks up the free to air channels,and was thinking of getting a used sky plus box to replace it

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dogtoffee

nicecupotay wrote: »

Is it possible to record on a sky plus box when you have no sky subscription?

I have an old sky box(non recording) that picks up the free to air channels,and was thinking of getting a used sky plus box to replace it

The plus will not work without a sky subscription.

nicecupotay

Damn it!:(

Is there any other free to air receivers that can record?

Apogee

Yes, there are several Freesat PVRs which are ideally suited to recording FTA satellite.

http://www.freesat.co.uk/products/freesat-box-range

Whispers

Hi guys,

I know this thread is a few months old, but can you tell me how to get the UK freeview channels with a Sky box with no subscription.

I've recently canceled multi room as I never used it, but would be handy to have the UK channels. All I get is no satellite signal being received. I've tried everything, taking card out, taking out plug, putting card in upside down while standing on my head and singing, but nothing works. All I get is the no satellite signal being received. I think this is because the card has been cancelled, think this is how Sky prevent you from using the box as a Freeview one. Sneaky buggers.

Any tech genius out there who can tell me otherwise?

Thanks

watty

Something is broken. All Sky boxes will receive the free channels on EPG without a card or with a cancelled one.

Check your connections, cable, LNBF and Dish.

Whispers

Nothing's broken that wasn't working before, as everything worked right up until they cancelled the card and thereafter, nothing. And I'm talking hours here.

lotusm

check this video out

http://www.tvtrade.ie/free-to-air-freesat-satellite-tv-faqs.html

Whispers

Yeah tried everything there and still no joy. My box is the HD box and something tells me the sneaks in Sky have done something to prevent you using the newer boxes as freeview ones.

Thanks for your help anyway.

Peter Rhea

Is it your own dish, or some kind of communal setup?

Whispers

It's my own box. It's the one I used to use for multi room and then cancelled. Was working fine before I cancelled it and now it doesn't and I just cancelled it on Saturday.

There's no signal from either of the inputs.

Can't be the dish as I have Sky downstairs and it works fine.

More frustrating than anything else.

ads20101

I bought a 500gb Humax freesat PVR and it works just great with the same sat dish.
No more bills, for what is essentially a very good HD service

doney84

Whispers wrote: »

My box is the HD box and something tells me the sneaks in Sky have done something to prevent you using the newer boxes as freeview ones.

Not sure this is the case. I also have the Sky HD box and when I cancelled Sky last week I was advised it would continue to receive the FTA UK channels.

ads20101

doney84 wrote: »

Not sure this is the case. I also have the Sky HD box and when I cancelled Sky last week I was advised it would continue to receive the FTA UK channels.

You may get most of the fta channels, but you will lose all hd channels even the hd ones if you use a sky hd box.

ads20101

ads20101 wrote: »

You may get most of the fta channels, but you will lose all hd channels even the hd ones if you use a sky hd box.

....and the ability to record!!!

Capt'n Midnight

Whispers wrote: »

I think this is because the card has been cancelled, think this is how Sky prevent you from using the box as a Freeview one. Sneaky buggers.

They have the potential technology to brick your box over the air.

But the reason they aren't ever going to do that or block freeview stuff is because as long as the box works there is a chance you will ring up and get connected again. AFAIK some people do this just for December to get the Christmas movies and cancel straight away. From sky's point of view this means all they need to do to get money is answer the phone and type your card number into the computer. (unless they use that phone number mapping software that means the agent is presented with your details in which case it's a few mouse clicks)

If the box stopped working then they would have lost a potential reconnect.

No signal could also mean the cable at the back has come loose, or the dish has been misaligned by being knocked. Or the box is dead.

try someone's box in your house or theirs in yours.

ALWAYS POWER DOWN A SKY BOX AT THE MAINS BEFORE MESSING WITH THE CABLE.
Sky boxes do NOT have a real standby mode, there is always power on cable , the CPU is always running.

Capt'n Midnight

ads20101 wrote: »

....and the ability to record!!!

and the ability to playback recordings, so record to an external device if you need to before the contract ends.

Mr Cumulonimbus

doney84 wrote: »

Not sure this is the case. I also have the Sky HD box and when I cancelled Sky last week I was advised it would continue to receive the FTA UK channels.

Also the Irish EPG will remain in place on a Sky+ HD box paired to an Irish subs card, meaning you would have to keep viewing the UK FTA channels via Other Channels (if they are stored there).

The older Sky and Sky+ boxes revert to the default UK EPG once the Irish card is removed and the box powered off and on again.

Peter Rhea

Whispers wrote: »

It's my own box . . . Can't be the dish as I have Sky downstairs and it works fine.

Is it your own dish though, or are you served by a communal distribution system?

doney84

Mr Cumulonimbus wrote: »

Also the Irish EPG will remain in place on a Sky+ HD box paired to an Irish subs card, meaning you would have to keep viewing the UK FTA channels via Other Channels (if they are stored there).

The older Sky and Sky+ boxes revert to the default UK EPG once the Irish card is removed and the box powered off and on again.

Gonna get rid of the sky hd box anyway. Lucky to be in a location that I can get Saorview & Freeview. Plenty of choice between the two platforms with a couple of HD channels and more on the way http://www.ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107052046

Mr Cumulonimbus

doney84 wrote: »

Gonna get rid of the sky hd box anyway. Lucky to be in a location that I can get Saorview & Freeview. Plenty of choice between the two platforms with a couple of HD channels and more on the way http://www.ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107052046

Similar situation. Sky contract ending on Dec 16th. Have got myself a Humax HDR Fox T2 so I can record stuff off Saorview and Freeview.

However, if you can get hold of a UK FTV card you can at least restore the UK EPG to a Sky+ HD box.

doney84

Mr Cumulonimbus wrote: »

Similar situation. Sky contract ending on Dec 16th. Have got myself a Humax HDR Fox T2 so I can record stuff off Saorview and Freeview.

Will be very interesting to see how the Humax HDR Fox T2 copes with series link on Saorview. Hopefully with Power City's website now showing the Walker PVR, RTENL will soon roll out series link on all channels.

Whispers

Update: After 3 separate days spent on to Sky and the best part of two hours, my situation still isn't resolved. And I believe this is also behind the problem of no satellite signal being received on the now cancelled box. So not sure if they have blocked the box or it's just something they've done inadvertently.

When I cancelled multi room, sports and HD, some numb nut cancelled the main viewing card instead of the multi room one so I lost all recordings and all channels (except FTA). After 45 minutes on the phone on Saturday they switched cards and subscription was restored. However (and I didn't notice this until Saturday evening) on demand and all my recordings were gone. On demand showed an error message and the recordings displayed 'recording interrupted' and wouldn't play back. These weren't HD recordings or sports so they should have played back okay.

Just been told by Sky that these recordings are lost forever, which I didn't believe as they were still showing up on the box as recorded, but accepted as they were on again in the future and I could record them again. But if I hear that the Sky + service (ability to record, rewind etc.) is a free service I swear I'll go through someone. When I inquired as to whether I could get a Sky + service on my cancelled box upstairs they told me I had to have a subscription. I then posed the question that a few minutes ago you told me it was free, he was stumped.

I asked him to look into the multi room box 'no satellite signal' and he said he would call me back.

I'll keep you posted.

pistolpetes11

Whispers wrote: »

Update: After 3 separate days spent on to Sky and the best part of two hours, my situation still isn't resolved. And I believe this is also behind the problem of no satellite signal being received on the now cancelled box. So not sure if they have blocked the box or it's just something they've done inadvertently.

When I cancelled multi room, sports and HD, some numb nut cancelled the main viewing card instead of the multi room one so I lost all recordings and all channels (except FTA). After 45 minutes on the phone on Saturday they switched cards and subscription was restored. However (and I didn't notice this until Saturday evening) on demand and all my recordings were gone. On demand showed an error message and the recordings displayed 'recording interrupted' and wouldn't play back. These weren't HD recordings or sports so they should have played back okay.

Just been told by Sky that these recordings are lost forever, which I didn't believe as they were still showing up on the box as recorded, but accepted as they were on again in the future and I could record them again. But if I hear that the Sky + service (ability to record, rewind etc.) is a free service I swear I'll go through someone. When I inquired as to whether I could get a Sky + service on my cancelled box upstairs they told me I had to have a subscription. I then posed the question that a few minutes ago you told me it was free, he was stumped.

I asked him to look into the multi room box 'no satellite signal' and he said he would call me back.

I'll keep you posted.

This happened to me recently , I cancelled the wrong DD and they switched off my service

You wont get any Sky + services without a subscription
On the box that you will have an active sub , you will be able to watch the recordings you had once everything is set back up correctly by sky , took an hour or so on the phone to sort but got there in the end
I still had the Free To Air stations on all the boxes after they cut them off , I have 3 boxes in the house all the HD ones and all still worked

lertsnim

Does the working box get a signal when connected upstairs?

Whispers

Update: Multi room box that wasn't receiving any signal works fine downstairs and is receiving a nice strong signal. Box from downstairs doesn't work upstairs, no signal being received.

Useless Sky have said it's a problem with the input or the dish, I say horse ****. Everything worked fine on Saturday morning before the numb skulls in Sky cancelled the wrong card. Since then I've lost signal in multi room, recordings on main box and Sky on demand (through red button).

They can't get it through their thick skulls that everything was working at 10 am on Saturday morning and then at 11 am all the problems occurred. And coupled with that seems strange that signal strength downstairs is fine, while there's none upstairs and all inputs are from the one dish. Which by the way hasn't moved or caused problems in eight years. They have done something on their system to cause a signal fault and they can't seem to understand this. 'Computer says no'!!

I've lost patience wit the multi room FTA but Sky on demand still not working, I'm like a dog with a bone with that one and won't give up!

Peter Rhea

Sky can't do anything to cause loss of signal from your dish. That's why I asked earlier if it was a communal system: in case some smartass had physically disconnected you from the distribution point.

Whispers

Not a communal dish, it's my house and my dish and it's been sitting on the side of my house for 8 years without incident.

Charlie_tee

Whispers wrote: »

Update: Multi room box that wasn't receiving any signal works fine downstairs and is receiving a nice strong signal. Box from downstairs doesn't work upstairs, no signal being received.

Useless Sky have said it's a problem with the input or the dish, I say horse ****. Everything worked fine on Saturday morning before the numb skulls in Sky cancelled the wrong card. Since then I've lost signal in multi room, recordings on main box and Sky on demand (through red button).

They can't get it through their thick skulls that everything was working at 10 am on Saturday morning and then at 11 am all the problems occurred. And coupled with that seems strange that signal strength downstairs is fine, while there's none upstairs and all inputs are from the one dish. Which by the way hasn't moved or caused problems in eight years. They have done something on their system to cause a signal fault and they can't seem to understand this. 'Computer says no'!!

I've lost patience wit the multi room FTA but Sky on demand still not working, I'm like a dog with a bone with that one and won't give up!

I think while still subscribed to sky for the one room the other sky box wont work as a free to air box. You need a cancelled card to use the free to air function but as yours is from a multi room it's most likely connected to the other card which is still active.
Though it is odd that you can't use sky upstairs on its own if downstairs is disconnected.

I'm not connected to sky at all anymore but still use several sky boxes for freesat and also have a proper freesat HD recorder.

lertsnim

Charlie_tee wrote: »

You need a cancelled card to use the free to air function

No card is needed for FTA on any box.

Toplink

Can you arrange a payment to Sky specifically for the use of the sky plus recording facility?

It appears from some of the UK sites that 10 pounds a month payment to sky and you still record.