Activating Card - Are Sky ok with this

[pat_1]

sounds like if you pester sky enough you will get them to marry the card to sky plus box and activate features.guess at all costs they want to keep your sub.this sounds more promising tho.

 

[nick6470]

I had the same worries as you pat1, but i bought the sky plus box in the u.k,bought it over to germany and had my parents make all the neccessary phone calls to get the card married up and get the plus features activated, no problem at all!! My box has never being connected to the phone line and i have duall record. Just go for it!!

 

[xerxes]

Hi Leee and Nick6470,

When you activated your Sky Plusses did you tell Sky when you phoned them that the boxes were or were not connected to phone lines?

Xerxes

 

[Leee]

xerxes - calling Sky is like speaking to the police - give short and direct answers to the questions asked. Don't volunteer information ;)

 

[nick6470]

No, i did not say i would not be connected to the phone line and they did not ask. As i said i had the box in Germany, i gave my dad the box serial number and card number etc and it was all married up and plus features activated in one brief phone call.

 

[rolfw]

Well I have to say that on the five or six Sky+ installations I have carried out, on every occasion they have asked whether the box is connected to the phone line. Not saying this proves anything, just that they do normally ask.

 

[terrj]

As I said in my earlier reply. SKY did ask me whether mine was going to be connected to a phone line and I told them No, all they said in return was that I would not be able to order Box Office movies from my remote control - no loss there!. I never had to conduct any call back from my box, it was all updated over the satellite and dual recording works.

 

[pat_1]

I rang a UK dealer about a sky + box( i have a UK sub on my ageing dbox as I used to live there) I am in Galway area in Rep of Ireland but am using a friends UK address.

He told me SKY might not marry the my existing card to the SKY+ box or activate the recording features unless it is conected to a phone line (Which it isnt nor cant be).

So is it worth me getting the box or will SKY relent and pair my existing card to the SKY + box and enable the recording features etc??

Any advice is appreciated

 

[xerxes]

I don't think Sky actually checks if you're connected to a phone line. See the comments in this thread and in: http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=119226

Xerxes

 

[soda]

I contacted a dealer in the UK about buying Sky Plus from them last week. They recommended sending my SKY Card to them, so that they could activate it for me. If it didn't work for any reason, then it was agreed I wouldn't go ahead with the purchase. Well, I'm not going ahead with the purchase, and am I'm not going to get Sky Plus.

I phoned the dealer this morning to find out how they were getting along, and they told me that Sky were making a lot of difficulties for them to activate the card. They told me that Sky were about to clamp down on "unauthorised" use of Sky Plus boxes, and that they couldn't recommend that I go ahead with the purchase.

So it's back to Plan B: viz buying a gadget called a Phantom PVR, which sits between the Digibox and your video recorder. This device allows you to control the VCR by using the Autoview function of the SKY digibox (which switches automatically to programs you've pre-selected). The gadget picks up a signal from the scart cable when Autoview switches channels, and controls the VCR by sending out the appropriate "record / stop recording" infra red signals for the VCR. Hardly in the same class as SKY Plus, but it does only cost 30 quid, including postage to Germany, and has been getting good write-ups.

Xerxes

Xerxes,

Have you considered linking the Phantom PVR with a hard disk recorder/DVD... I saw a post elsewhere where someone had done this and ended up with (almost ) a sky plus box. Of course you wouldn't have the title of the recording but the extra feature like burning DVDs etc would probably offset some of the limitations. I'm thinking of this myself. I would actually go with Sky plus but don't want to hand over £10 month ( for ever ) for no good reason.

 

[xerxes]

Xerxes,

Have you considered linking the Phantom PVR with a hard disk recorder/DVD... .

Hi Soda,

Well, we've all passed a lot of water since the posting you quoted (which is nearly a year old now).

I bought a "Phantom PVR" and after a marathon struggle got it to work with my Sky digibox, more or less successfully. A few months later, though, I decided what the hell - poor old Rupert M. clearly needs my hard earned Euros, and splashed out on a Sky+.

It had occurred to me that you could use the "Phantom PVR" with a DVD recorder. But the end result would hardly be in the same class as Sky+.

Much as I bitterly resent shelling out the dosh to Sky, I have to admit Sky+ really is a very good product. And it really does change how you watch TV, in a way that the "Phantom PVR", or a DVD recorder never could.

Because it's so easy to set up a recording and play it back, I find that about the only thing I actually watch "live" these days is the news. Everything else I watch is recorded. And I find I frequently want to record 2 different channels at the same time - or watch one, whilst recording another.

The Sky+ also allows you to avoid a problem I was having the "Phantom PVR", namely missing recording the start and ends of programmes. It's not the Phantom's fault, as it relies entirely on the info sent out with a programme when it's broadcast. But it was still extremely annoying to find the first 5 minutes or so of a programme hadn't been recorded.

Incidentally, the "Phantom PVR" won't work with Sky+ at all, since the Sky+ does not send out the "program has just started" signal that the Phantom relies on.

1 year on, I reckon the best combination (for me, at least) is Sky+ and a hdd recorder (I have seen the Panasonic DMR-E85 on sale for as low as €480 recently, about 340 quid) - but clearly this is not the cheepest solution.

Regards
Xerxes

 

[soda]

Hi Soda,

Well, we've all passed a lot of water since the posting you quoted (which is nearly a year old now)......

Oh I didn't realise that your post was that old. Anyway at least you're happy with your setup. Interesting to see you have a hdd recorder and a sky plus box. I want to take the plunge with a sky plus solution but still can't justify the extra cost & since I subscribe to an Indian channel ( but not sky ) I also get all the Free to air channels to and that was kinda of enough for me.

In order to get sky plus I have to subscribe to sky £13.50 a month and then another £10 plus cost of install plus the box. So for first year cost will be approx £500 and around £300 a year there after just so that I can record (all be it very easily) to a hard disk !


Soda

 

[xerxes]

... since I subscribe to an Indian channel ( but not sky ) I also get all the Free to air channels to and that was kinda of enough for me.

In order to get sky plus I have to subscribe to sky £13.50 a month and then another £10 plus cost of install plus the box.

Soda

With your set-up you would "only" have to pay Sky the 10 pounds a month, and not the additional 13.50 pounds, as you don't have to subscribe to Sky's mimimum package to get Sky+.

Not a lot of people know that, including, apparently some of Sky's Customer Services people. If you're interested, I'll track down the forum where this topic is discussed at some length and let you know it's URL.

You could reduce your costs even more by getting the Sky+ from an independent supplier, and installing it yourself. If you've got access to your satellite dish this really is very easy to do.

Regards
Xerxes

 

[soda]

With your set-up you would "only" have to pay Sky the 10 pounds a month, and not the additional 13.50 pounds, as you don't have to subscribe to Sky's mimimum package to get Sky+.

Not a lot of people know that, including, apparently some of Sky's Customer Services people. If you're interested, I'll track down the forum where this topic is discussed at some length and let you know it's URL.

You could reduce your costs even more by getting the Sky+ from an independent supplier, and installing it yourself. If you've got access to your satellite dish this really is very easy to do.

Regards
Xerxes

Thanks Xerxes,

That sounds like the (almost) perfect solution....... now I think of it, what you say seems right...in fact I saw this on the BBC website where they are talking about the SKY free to air (freesat) service.

"Viewers can also buy a Sky Plus box - which contains a hard disc-based video recorder - without the need for a subscription to programme packages.
BSkyB charges £199 for the more advanced box, a further £120 for installation and £10 a month for subscription to Sky Plus. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3762910.stm

Sounds like this might be the best route then.