Downloads from Sky + HD & resetting Parental Control

[DJP]

Hi Guys,

I've owned a 2nd Hand Sky + HD box for about 6 Months & have a couple of questions:-

1. Is it possible to download recorded Programs to:-
a. A DVD Recorder
b. A Laptop & then to DVD

If so how?

My Box is 2nd Hand & the previous owner activated the Parental Control facility which means that I can't watch recorded late night Watershed Programs before the Watershed.
I don't know the PIN so I can't deactivate the Parental Control.
I know that the PIN can be either reset or obtained by phoning Sky but is there a way of doing that without having to phone them.

Many thanks to anyone who can help with either of the questions.

Cheers
John

 

[devonbrown]

If you have a friend with a sky box and a known PIN then borrow his card, put it in your box, when it asks for a pin put in his and then turn all parental controls off. This worked for me

 

[DJP]

Many thanks, unfortunately I do not know anyone who could lend me a suitable card.
I presume that the card must be Sky+HD compatible as my earlier existing normal Sky Card would not work in my Sky+HD Box at all.

Cheers
John

 

[devonbrown]

Is your older card the same type as your new one? It should work as the cards are not HD compatible. If it had not been in use for some time it may have switched itself off and may require insertion in the working box for up to 72 hours for it to be reactivated.

 

[devonbrown]

On re-reading my last post i think it may be ambiguous. New Sky cards are white in colour is your old card white. Cards are all the same and are not different according to whatever box they are in.

 

[DJP]

Oh this is complicated & will take some explanation.
Yes my new card is the same as the old one but.
My card is one of two paid for by a friend in UK who has a Home +HD Box & a Holiday Home (mine) +HD Box
He had his new +HD Box delivered & installed & his existing Card was upgraded & or working when the Installer had done his job.
The Friend then informed Sky that he needed a 2nd upgrade to +HD for a 2nd Hand (bought privately) Box in his "Holiday" home. i.e. my +HD Box
Sky told him that a new Card would be sent to him as the existing one wouldn't work (both being White Sky Cards) very questionable but hey ho!!
During that period & awaiting for the "new" card to arrive from GB my normal Card was switched off by Sky (switchover to +HD) & for a few weeks I was left without Sky.
Even after that my Card would not work because Sky had activated my Card to work in my Friends Box & not mine.
That took 3 Phone calls from me with my Phone number hidden, friends date of Birth, password etc. for Sky to realise that we were takling about a Sky +HD Box with another serial number; bloomin' hard work which is why I asked if there's a way to get the Parental Control deactivated without contacting them.
Considering all of that, do you think that I could use my old White Sky card to deactivate the Parental Control?
Other than that 72 hours is a very long time to be without TV reception.

Cheers & thanks
John

 

[devonbrown]

You will not be without TV when your old card is being (awakened) reactivated. You will get all the free to view channels like BBC ITV CH4 but not CH5 and dozens more. If you remove your card from the box then you can see what you will get. Once you received CH5 then your card will be reactivated. If you know the PIN of your old card then you can use that to reset the parental controls. I don't know if the card needs to be awakened for the pin to work

 

[DJP]

Thanks for the rapid responses, much appreciated.
I'll give it a tray later but must admit to being unsure as the present card had to be paired to my Sky+HD Box by Sky & my old Card was paired to my non- +HD Box.
Nevertheless I'll see what happens without Cards & the old Card.
But I'm now thinking that a 15 Minute Phone Call to Sky may be the simplest solution.

Still no answers to downloading Sky+ recorded programs onto DVD though, anyone out there?

Cheers
John

 

[PaulR]

Still no answers to downloading Sky+ recorded programs onto DVD though, anyone out there?

The simplest is to connect by scart the $ly+ box and the DVD recorder. This will obviously only record in SD though.

I've re-read the posts and can't see which make of HD box you have but, if it's an early one (highly unlikely I know) with component output as well as HDMI, then this can be connected to a suitable equipped DVD recorder. I believe a lot of the programmes will be blocked in HD but there might be some.

As I said, unlikely you've got one of these so the scart route seems the one to go for.

 

[DJP]

I have a Samsung & although it's 2nd hand it is fairly recent & has a scart connection so your suggestion will work in real time.
Thanks I'd totally forgotten about that alternative.
However I was hoping there might be a quick download method.
I guess that you have experience of recording by the described method, so does $ly use some method of blocking their programs from being transferred to DVD on some or all of their HD Programs.
I'm not too worried about the loss of HD due to the scart connection method.
Is there away of managing this by using HDMI multi-connectors to connect the $ly HD Box to the HD DVD Recorder yet maintain their respective connections to the TV maybe?

Cheers
John

 

[PaulR]

I have a Samsung

No component then!

I guess that you have experience of recording by the described method,

Yes and No! I've used exactly that method to transfer programmes from my Freeview+ box to DVD. It is long-winded though as it's all in real tme.

so does $ly use some method of blocking their programs from being transferred to DVD on some or all of their HD Programs.

It's just what I remember being talked about when HD was introduced as I don't have $ly HD. $ly has the ability to stop the HD signals being outputted in component form and only available on the HDMI socket. That said, it was only going to be used for some very new films I think.

I don't think the BBC or ITV have blocked anything on the component output.

Anyway yours is HDMI only so it doesn't matter!

Is there away of managing this by using HDMI multi-connectors to connect the $ly HD Box to the HD DVD Recorder yet maintain their respective connections to the TV maybe?

There are supposedly HDMI busters out there but in practice I think not.

 

[DJP]

Many thanks for your informative reply, you've been a great help.

Cheers
John