Not sure where to post this, so if anyone wants to move it...

My parents have the standard Sky box at the moment, but were looking into getting Sky+. Last december they had their dish moved by a local TV/aerial installer further up the outside wall, so while they were doing that they thought it would be a good idea to get the extra wires from the dish installed so that it was ready for Sky+. They're still on a monthly subscription, so that would continue.

Anyway, they enquired about upgrading to Sky+ and were given a price of £150 (inc hardware and installation). This despite the fact that they're giving the Sky+ boxes away for new customers. Needless to say, my mum and dad were horrified at that price so decided not to upgrade.

I was looking on eBay last week and bidded on a nearly new Sky+ box - it was on at £30 Buy It Now, but also had "Make an Offer" too so I made the seller an offer of £25 and they accepted. According to the seller, you can simply place your existing Sky viewing card into this Sky+ box to enable recording.

Now I've got the box (which looks just like new), I'm getting a bit nervous whether it will be this easy - you know what Sky are like, I'm sure they'll shaft us somehow. So, does anyone know if we'll have any problems with this? I'm through at my parents this weekend so I'll try it out then. I've got a nasty feeling it won't be as easy as the seller says it will be. Has anyone tried this?

Only problem could be if you don't have a dual LNB running from the dish (They are cheap and fairly easy to fix, only issue might be cabling)

And it's not just free Sky+, it's sky HD too now that is free for new customers.

Yeah, I saw that Sky+ HD is also free - I was tempted to tell them to cancel their subscription then join again as a new customer a couple of months later!


Couldn't remember the name for that extra wiring when I posted, but dual LNB does sound like what they've had installed. So it should be just plug and play *fingers crossed*. The seller sounds genuine enough - in fact he's been very helpful on the subject with links and instructions to show me how to perform a factory reset.

He also mentioned that I might need to ring Sky up and register the viewing card with the serial number on the Sky+ box - are the Sky viewing cards linked to a particular Sky+ box like this, or am I being told a porkie? I bet if I have to call Sky up they'll either tell me it's not possible, or charge us a small fortune to enable the Sky+ box.

Dual LNB means you can have two sky boxes running from one dish, the signal can't be split effectively in the same way that terrestrial signals can.

Any sky cards you have should work in any sky boxes you have. HD may be another issue but I have no experience with that.

Or dual tuners

Thanks, that sounds promising then. - does that apply even if their existing card is enabled for just the standard Sky box?


As my parents still have a big old CRT widescreen TV, I suspect it will be a few more years before they go HD anyway. They'll be made up if the Sky+ box works, as they can't really record anything at the moment.

Possible, but not very likely or as useful in a standard household.

Sky+ ........

Really, well that's what happens when you don't watch TV.

I'll get my coat.

Or Humax http://www.humaxdigital.com/uk/products/product_stb_satellite_foxsathdr.aspx

Dual LNB should be reasonably standard now and is primarily for Sky+ or Freesat PVR. Quad LNB allows multi-room with +.

The only thing to be aware of is that + is free if you subscribe. If for whatever reason, you cancel, you lose + or have to pay £10/mth just to record free-to-air channels.

I thought the card and box were somehow linked, so you couldn't use your Sky card in another box, (to stop people nicking Sky cards, I'd imagine)

Leaving aside the two cable problem for now, what I would do is contact Sky and tell them you want to cancel. You'd be surprised how quickly they change their minds and let you have what you actually want, as opposed to what they think you should have.

We keep getting phone calls asking if we want to take out the extended waranty on the box, and we continually decline, and yes, they did try and charge us some ridiculous price when the box broke a couple of years ago, but within an hour of me telling them that I wanted to cancel the subscription they'd phoned back and agreed to give us a free box. And some more channels for a little while, as a gesture of "good will"

Took me an hour of being on the phone for them to offer me a free Sky+ box after our existing box broke. I kept asking if there was anything they could do for me as a long time customer but they kept saying no. As soon as I said we would be cancelling our subscription they offered us a free Sky+ box but we had to pay for the installation.

My mate cancelled his subscription and then got his wife to order a new package in her maiden name. She had a bank account to plonk the DD into anyway and now they have the updated package for a minimum fee.

It's worth hanging in there.

Al

I agree with JV. I tried using my friend's card in my sky box and it didn't work because card is linked to a its own box. That was two years ago but I seriously doubt that it has changed since then.

Never had Sky but my freesat box has a slot for you to put your sky card into .........