Is it Possible to get Meridian on SKY box without card?

F

freedomrun

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My Satellite Setup
Labgear HDSR300, Silvercrest SL65, Fortect Star Passion Plus, 1m Offset dish, 1.75m Offset dish. GIGABYTE Dual Core, BD/HD/DVD/CD Burners, many Hard drives, many monitors & CRT,VHS.
My Location
UK
I've been given a couple of SKY (Flow SD one pace & one Amstrad) boxes without cards. They are going to be used as Free to Air for the time being. I Need to get ITV Meridian on both of them and so far had no luck. Please can i have some advice on how i can tune these boxes in to get ITV Meridian without a card and the same for any other channels i may have overlooked that usually request the insertion of sky card, that i may be able to get by maunal tune. Also, is there any way of replacing the ITV Central and BBC london default on the programme guide listings with other regional varations, or will i have to type in the sky number it gives them (or use fav option). Thanks.
 
There are two ITV meridian channels on 10981H 22000 5/6. You will have to manual tune using Other channels, look in the menus for it.

The default ITV channels and BBC channel are determined by the card that is inserted. If you have no card, it will be the ones you mention. I assume that Sky still do the FSFS card, if they do, then they are about £20, and should solve the problem.


Check your epg though as ITV Meridian may already be right at the bottom of the list somewhere, if it is then using favourites is an option.
 
Ok, if i manual tune to the freq stated using other channels (without a card inserted) - i can definately get ITV Meridian ? (i have looked in the epg & it's not there unfortunately) why does sky not allow all free to air channels to be easily obtained, these sky boxes must have designed by an idiot (in my opinion).
 
I have a receiver here, it has ITV Meridian in the 103 slot, and it works fine without a card. The receiver came from an area in Kent that would have had a card in it for that area when it was being used. So yes, the receiver shuld be able to pick up the channel as it is Free to air. I will see if it works by tuning it in on other channels also).

Sky receivers are not designed by idiots, they are designed for people who want to make money, i.e, they want you to subscribe.
 
Its not Sky's fault - blame ITV!

The want everyone watching the correct region for their advertisers.

You need to Add Channels then use Other Channels to watch Meridian
 
It has little to do with Sky, but more what ITV are prepared to pay for in the programme guide, they pay for one or two regions at the most (I have Meridian on 103 and London on 993.

The boxes are designed for subscription TV, not as FTA receivers.
 
London is on 993 as thats the region that carries the Audio Description track for the blind.
 
BTW if you go down the fsfs card route you will need an address in the Meridian area - if you live outwith that area and ask for a card it will be regionalised to YOUR address! :D
 
FFS, just tuned in Meridian using other channels on the Sky+ HD box I have here, went to watch it, and got "Please insert sky viewing card":-lmao


Incidentally, BBC1 HD works fine, but ITV1 HD, again asks for a card!
 
I think the new EPG software seems to have tuned off "other channels" unless it has a card in it... annoying. (Any old Sky card seems to do, I'm using an old yellow house card in one box to give the other other channels)
 
Lets get the correct facts here
Regionalisation on Sky boxes is set by the postcode the viewing card was despatched to
There are 4 versions of ITV Meridian - two of which are FTA (and should be viewable via "other channels", the other two are FTV and require a valid viewing card.
Similarly two of the ITV 1+1 regions are FTV and two of the ITV1 HD channels are FTV.

To watch appropriate versions without a viewing card on "other channels" you will need to choose the FTA versions (and not the encrypted FTV versions) from here _http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html

The reason some are FTV is because of the lack of transponder space on Astra 2D which will probably change when Astra 1N comes on stream.

The new software reason stated above should (if at all) only apply to recent HD boxes and not SD or Thomson HD boxes.

Moderation Note

Dave, remember to unlink URLs to outside sites please.
 
Yes, it seems that the latest software does in fact stop the viewing of any other channels. I tested on an amstrad sky + hd box drx 780 I think .


Posted with my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for all the advice given here - much appreciated, i got ITV Meridian to work without a SKY card inserted. I did this by tuning in the frequency and storing in other channels - would be nice if i could then place these in 'favourites' without having to got to other services menu and back again - but if it means i can get ITV Meridian without a card it is just something to be put up with (as it has been stated a sky BOX Is designed for subscription and not ease of use without. cheers.
 
You cant on a Sky box, you HAVE to watch it through Other Channels
 
davemurgtroyd said:
The new software reason stated above should (if at all) only apply to recent HD boxes and not SD or Thomson HD boxes.
Click to expand...
I have a Pace 2600C1 that is also doing it now. It's never had any parental lock activated but recently it started asking for a card when trying to access the other channels menu, so I stuck an old yellow house card I had lying about in it and it cured the problem.
 
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