Sky HD Upgrade with Non-Sky Supplied Box

blueuk808

Sorry if this has been answered, but searching for this has brought up either zero or millions of results!

I've just had Sky HD upgraded and the multiroom card is still just normal Sky+. I want to upgrade this to HD, but use a non-sky supplied box - eg a Dreambox 800.

Having spoken to Sky, I have to give them the serial of the box so the card can be paired, so just wondered that given the DM800 doesn't support the sky cards out of the box and you need NewCS to run it, will Sky accept the upgrade?

Anyone any idea?

Cheers

Analoguesat

No- you will need to supply a Sky HD box serial number. You will also get charged an extra tenner a month for the second HD card!

Analoguesat's message to the world Analogue forever!

kerrywez

I am sorry to say this, but your chances are zero. Sly are not that happy that we use superior boxes than their own cr&p ones, they would love you to buy a new box from them, but they will not help with your DMM box, that has been their policy in the past anyway.

Regards Wez

blueuk808

Cheers for the replies.

I had a call from Sky customer care last night after I wrote in complaining about one of their call centre monkeys screaming down the phone at me. After getting sorted what I needed and a bit of a credit I asked her about it.

I basically said I was being given a HD receiver from a friend and would like to upgrade the card to HD. She said I'd need the serial and it would need to be attached to a phone line so it could be paired, but other than that she said that any box would do.

It was only following this that I thought about whether the serials needed to be in a certain configuration and whether that would preclude other receivers. Also, when I had the upgrade using the new white cards there was a problem pairing the new box to the card and the engineer had said that he had had to uninstall a few boxes because they couldn't pair.

Might have to have a search for some mates with HD boxes

blueuk808

Just a follow up note to say I've managed to get my HD upgraded. Contra to Analogsat's post, Sky did not ask me for the Sky box's Serial number - I just had to replace my original HD card in the HD box with the multiroom card, perform a new installation wiith call back and the signal went through in about 3 hours - the original card is now in my DM800 working peachy!

willynt

Hi Blueuk808.

I plan to subscribe to Sky (Ireland) with HD option (49€ for the sky HD box and free installation).
So, I guess my sky card will be paired with the sky box.

Then, later, I plan to buy a DM800 (I'm a happy DM7000s users for years), would I be able to just insert my sky card in my DM800 (having the right EMU of course)?
Do you think it will work, or should SKY pair the card with my DM800???

Thx for your help
Cheers
William

blueuk808

Hi Willynt,

I'm fairly sure the 800 can be used to read a new sky card using NewCS with the boxkey inserted in the config. There's loads of threads with tutorials on how to do this.

This issue that I cam across is that if you don't have HD at the minute, Sky have to sell you your first box so the engineer can come out and set it up. You can theneither use that card and get the boxkey from the sky box serial and get rid of the box on fleabay, or you can opt for the multiroom.

If you opt for the multiroom, they will give you a standard Sky / Sky+ box, or move your existing equipment into another room. The obvious drawback is that this is only standard sky and not HD. That was the situation I was in.

However, it looks like if you ring up sky and tell them you have bought yourself a sky HD box, they will enable the standard card to have HD on it, but you need to pair it with a box. Sky ask you for the make, model and software number (so I'm guessing all the pairing is assuming a Sky HD box), however they did not ask me for the serial number, which means you can take your original Sky HD card, use that in your DM800 with NewCS, put the multiroom standard card into your Sky HD box, ring sky, ask for the multiroom card to be upgraded, give them the multicard number and then you basically have to do a new install on the box.

Mine's working perfectly.

willynt

Thank you very much for your reply.

How about the phone line???
Because my phone plugs are far from my TV installation
Do I really need to plug the Sky HD box to my phone line?
What if it's physically impossible?
How will the engineer deal in such case?

I guess the DM800 doesn't require a phone line?
Is the HD card properly updated in the DM800?

Cheers
William

Ragnarok

Nope, not yet. the card works but I've yet to see newcs 1.67 get hit with an EMM and update entitlements.

Getting multiroom and a second card for a tenner is a problem though. you are supposed to use 2 or more approved sky boxes all permanently connected to the phone line.

blueuk808

Willy - sorry for not replying sooner. AS I understand it, if you can't connect your sky box to the phoneline, the installation will fail. The engineer who set up the HD box said he'd had a few instances where the box couldn't install due to the phone line and he'd had to take the box away.

I'm guessing the easy solution is to move your sky box to the phone line or buy a long extension cord. Once it's installed you can then unplug the phone line.

As for the updates - there's some chat on other forums that there's updates. in all honesty I'm not that sure - I'm just praying CCcam comes out soon otherwise I'm sending N lines out all weekend and crashing my server.

Alan Waddle

i was under the impression that the sky HD box needs to be connected to a phone line at all times - judging by some of the posts here that is not the case?

so if i had a HD sub (or knew someone who had it to be precise since i don't live in the uk), and bought a second hand box, could i call sky and get another HD card for the second hand box as multiroom, plug it in the phone line for installation and pairing the card with the box, and then plug it off the phone line?

and is there a way for sky to check that the multiroom box is kept in the same house as the original HD sub, or can it be moved without restrictions - i.e. moved abroad?

pgh13

It's a condition of multiroom that both boxes are connected to the phone line but don't know how often they check

Tivù

Any Multiroom set up (Irrespective of whether it is Standard, Plus, HD or a mixture) requires the relevant Boxes to be connected to the same phoneline in order to prevent fraud ie Misuse of subsidised Cards.

That's the Contract entered into and is the premise upon which Sky are prepared to permit Subsidised Cards to be issued to punters.

That arrangement is monitored (not always successfully) and warning letters issued prior to a full charge being levied.

Quite a few people report that they don't comply, yet have never been challenged.

safcsat

I've got a similar sort of "issue" and just wanted to clarify if thats ok?

I have 2 x official boxes - 1 HD and 1 SD with a multiroom sub.

Rang up sky the other day to tell them i was planning on getting another HD box so could they enable the HD mix on my multiroom card - they said they have done this and all I need to do is ring them WHEN I get the new HD box and give them serial number, model number etc... to pair the multiroom card (now with HD) to that box.

However - if I wanted to use this multiroom card in my DM800 - obviously I cant ring them back and pair it with this....

So question is - should the entitlements update on the multiroom card if I leave it in the standard SD box? Then I can put card into my DM800? Or will they not fully activate it until I ring and pair it with a HD box?

I was planning on asking them to pair it to my official HD box but that already has a card paired with it - so surely I couldnt have two paired to it?

Confused

PaulR

That's correct. Pairing a card with a receiver will unpair the previous card. You will need to buy another $ly HD box if you want another paired card for your Dreambox.

PaulR As I get older I find myself thinking about the hereafter - I go into a room and then wonder what I'm here after.

safcsat

Not what I wanted to hear.

Need to now figure out the cheapest way to get another HD box. Maybe I could look for a faulty one which works enough to take the updates, probably a long shot though.

blueuk808

Safcsat - I've had a different experience to PaulR - I've had no problem pairing both my sky cards to the same HD box. I've never been asked for a box seriel number, only the software version. I had the first card paired when the engineer turned up. I then removed that card, used it in my DM500 and put the Standard card into the HD box, rang sky and asked them to upgrade. They talked me through a new installation and then it worked fine for all HD channels.

A few weeks later I lost entitlements on my HD card ran out and I realised I'd setup NewCS incorrectly, so I swapped the cards over - DM500 started working fine again, and I performed a new installation in my HD box with the expired card. Not sure if it was the new installation or just leaving it in the box to update the entitlements, but within about 6 hours it was all up and working again.

So from my experience you do not need two seperate boxes. I've never been asked for a seriel number. My guess would be that you would only give your seriel number of Sky couldn't pair your card to your box over the phone via their update system - but that's just a guess....

Hope this helps