Sky+ question

Emerald Zapper · 22-02-2009

Hi All.

With numerous adverts lately about Sky+ for €24.50 a while ago and more recently for €49.00 for new customers, existing customers are excluded from these offers and have to pay the full price despite our loyalty to Sky for the past godknows how many years.

My wife even phoned Sky in the hope that they might bend the rules slightly now and again, but unfortunetely there was nothing doing.

As we both work long hours we miss quite a lot of programmes that we'd really like to see, I started wondering whether anyone on this form would be able to answer a question for me.

If I were to buy a Sky+ box on Ebay

(for example) and connect it all up, would it work? or is there more to it than that?

barrie.lamb · 22-02-2009

Hi EZ
I did just that a few months ago, you will have to have a 'Quad LNB' though, that is check your LNB on your dish and make sure it has four connections on it and also a double 'coax cable' from it into your house, then when you have connected your Sky+ box up with your card in it just give Sky a call with your details and ask them to 'register' you with Sky+ and pair your card up to the new box, there is no charge for it, just make sure your box is connected up correctly including 'phone connection'. Hope that helps you,
Cheers Barrie.

Emerald Zapper · 22-02-2009

Thank you very much for your reply barrie.lamb.

We already have the LNB with 4 cable sockets, two of which are used (multi-room), all I to get is the double coax cable, which is new to me, I didn't know there was such a thing.

I was delighted that you made no mention of a seperate subscription to enable the Sky+ box to record programmes.

Plenty of cheap Sky+ boxes on Ebay

, so I'll be kinda busy for a wee while.

Thank you

**jimbo** · 22-02-2009

Just to say that existing customers can get a Sky HD box for £49 but would have to pay an extra £9.75 per month. Personally I like HD but if you're busy at work it may not be economical. Works the same as Sky+ of course.

**Robbo** · 23-02-2009

You don't have to use double coax (shotgun), you could just run another single if you felt like it, it woould be cheaper.

barrie.lamb · 23-02-2009

Hi,

Robbo is right you you could have two Single coax cables, but as you have 'Multi Room' you would need two singles, but check that the installers have not already put two doubles down from your LNB to inside the house like they did with me, they just left the second ends laying loose just incase of future upgrade.

Cheers Barrie.

Radian · 06-05-2009

Originally Posted by Emerald Zapper

I was delighted that you made no mention of a seperate subscription to enable the Sky+ box to record programmes.

We had two Sky boxes in the house. One was Sky+ and the other just an ordinary one with multiroom. We recently decided to cancel multiroom as the free channels were all we needed. Then the plain Sky box packed-up and we managed to get a cheap SKY+ box - but on calling Sky to get them to activate it, they demanded an extra £10 per month for use of the PVR facilities.

Searching the net to confirm this I see mixed answers. Most agree that there is a charge to use SKY+ with free channels from Sky, but this thread suggests that you don't. I wish there was a way of getting a definitive answer on this. Random agents at Sky customer services are not definitive in my opinion.

**tlj999** · 06-05-2009

Hi,

I had a Sly+ box and subscription and when I cancelled the subscription my record facility on the Sly+ box stopped and I was unable to access previously recorded programmes.
When I re-subscribed to Sly, my record facility started and I was able to access all previously recorded progs.
I hope this helps.

Regards,
Tom.

**Analoguesat** · 06-05-2009

Originally Posted by Radian

We had two Sky boxes in the house. One was Sky+ and the other just an ordinary one with multiroom. We recently decided to cancel multiroom as the free channels were all we needed. Then the plain Sky box packed-up and we managed to get a cheap SKY+ box - but on calling Sky to get them to activate it, they demanded an extra £10 per month for use of the PVR facilities.

Searching the net to confirm this I see mixed answers. Most agree that there is a charge to use SKY+ with free channels from Sky, but this thread suggests that you don't. I wish there was a way of getting a definitive answer on this. Random agents at Sky customer services are not definitive in my opinion.

If you subscribe to any pay package the recording facility is included. If you dont take any pay package then you are charged a tenner a month to use the recording facility.

**Analoguesat** · 06-05-2009

Originally Posted by tlj999

Hi,

I had a Sly+ box and subscription and when I cancelled the subscription my record facility on the Sly+ box stopped and I was unable to access previously recorded programmes.
When I re-subscribed to Sly, my record facility started and I was able to access all previously recorded progs.
I hope this helps.

Regards,
Tom.

Yup thats correct - stop subbing and any recorded content from the pay channels becomes unavailable as the card is used to decrypt them

No subscription = no authorisation on the card

Radian · 06-05-2009

Originally Posted by Analoguesat

If you subscribe to any pay package the recording facility is included. If you dont take any pay package then you are charged a tenner a month to use the recording facility.

I take it you mean per box - we have a subscription on one of the boxes already. Asking £120 per year just to permit recording is more than the purchase cost of a Freeview or Freesat PVR

Before the analogue TV was switched off we were happy enough recording on a VCR but now we have to use Sky as we're in a valley and can't get a good enough signal for Freeview. This sucks even more because when we first got the Sky+ we called Customer Services and explained that we were swapping the box - the person asked if we had it plugged in because they would activate it for us there and then - but it wasn't set up yet. When we called again a different agent said it couldn't be done. I'd read other people reporting that Sky services sometimes let you get off paying the charge. We're on a pension and could do with that kind of luck!

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Sky+ question Sky+ Plus General and technical support forum for the Sky+ personal video recorder system and PVRs generally.

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