2 digi boxes, 1 card.

Bigdrinks

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I have now got 2 digi boxes, but 1 card. When away I always take my 'portable' Sky set up with me. But now I've aquired a 2nd box to make life easier.

Will my card work in the 2nd. box ?

I phoned Sky to get an 'official' answer, they said 'no'

If it wont work, can I use it as a FTV card only ?

Thanks in advance..............
 

rolfw

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It should work on all of your subscription channels, but not on any Premium channels or ITV2.

Premium channels include Sky Movies and Sport.
 

dave821

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I also have a similar set up. Does it to any harm swapping the cards around often?
When the digibox is initialising the new card what is it actually doing?

What stops ppl duplicating the card for use on more than 1 box?
 

rolfw

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Within reason you can swap them as much as you like, if a card has already been activated it will not go through the initialisation to tie it to the box.

What stops people duplicating the card and using it in another digibox, is that the cards cannot be copied.
 

PoloMint

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Unless you damage the card when moving it from one box to another by handling it wrongly then changing them around shouldn’t harm it, it will wear away the contacts on the chip on the card (to the extent that you will see shiny trails on the chip and slight marks on the plastic) but you would have to be swapping the card around very often for this wear to ever cause problems.

When the box initialises a new card for the first time it is sending the box serial and card number to Sky to tie them together, when the box initialises a replacement card (when you see the on screen message for only a few seconds) things are different. The box does not call Sky when initialising a replacement card, either the card or box (or both) are set up so when the new card is inserted the new card number is tied to the box. No one seems quite sure about the details of what actually happens, and what is stored on the new card and what is sent over the air to the box in preparation for the replacement card. This only happens when a card is put in a box for the first time, after that it wont be initialised again.


What stops people duplicating a card for use in two boxes is no one can successfully read an entire Sky card then write it to a suitable card. Seemingly the Sky card will self destruct when you try to do this, and if it doesn’t whatever data you get out of it can’t be used.

Edit, beaten to it by a couple of minutes, need to practice touch typing, or just writing neat replies like RolfW's…
 

Rod

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"When the box initialises a new card for the first time it is sending the box serial and card number to Sky to tie them together"
This can't be the case because I got a new Sky card as a replacement for my old card. I used it in a differant box and it initialised and set to the new box. I do not have a phone line connected and there was no communication between myself and Sky.
 

PoloMint

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Replacement cards are not the same as new ones.

If you have a new account with Sky and a unused digibox it will send the details. For replacement cards the card is either pre authorised for the a certain box, or like with you, automatically authorises itself with the first box it is put into.
 

devonbrown

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Do NOT repeat NOT carry your sky card with your credit cards. I did and my sky card would not work. I presume the magnetic strip on my credit card did something to my sky card
 

rolfw

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BSB Yellow House Card Sir?

That'll do nicely. :D
 
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