New Sky boxes required..?

[woborny]

A client of mine has started to see the following on screen message

"you will soon stop receiving your sky channels"

She says that is all, nothing else on the screen. (which I kinda find hard to believe)

She has an old SD sky box.

And Sports channels.

I wonder if this is the start of a SD to HD box swap for their premium content users to improve their security...?

 

[timo_w2s]

There was some rumour about a new red Sky card coming out but I haven't heard anything recently. What are the chances of a new card only working in newer HD boxes?

 

[excollier]

Every chance....it's aimed at stamping out card sharing.

 

[Captain Jack]

I am surprised they haven't stopped this during the previous card change. I guess there's only so much they can do with old boxes in existence.

Maybe I can finally upgrade my old 500Gb drive model for a new one?!

 

[timo_w2s]

If they wanted to get more secure HD boxes in circulation they should also start to move some encrypted SD channels over to DVB-S2 and MPEG4 (or just drop the premium SD channels altogether, although it's nice to record in SD sometimes if hard drive space is limited). It would mean they could squeeze a lot more SD channels into one transponder and reduce satellite costs (and no doubt a good excuse to reduce SD quality further so they can push the HD subscription on more people).

FTA SD would be harder to move though due to all the Freesat SD boxes and FTA receivers out there but perhaps some of the smaller commercial FTA channels might want to reduce transmission costs.

 

[Captain Jack]

Yes, that's a good idea re MPEG4. More efficient than MPEG2 with better picture quality (IMO).

 

[wod]

Hmm might be a good idea soon to swap the my mums sd box for one of them hd multiroom little receiver things, she ain't bothered for recording.

She does ask why I get a better picture on my TV and told her I have the hd box lol.

 

[woborny]

Bit if a false alarm...

It is a new message Sky put on your screen if you pay by credit card, and that card is nearing the expiry date....!

So the message is to update your CC details with sky, or if you do not, then you may lose your sky channels.!

 

[timo_w2s]

Is this a new policy? When I used to pay by card it never expired or needed updating (which I always thought was a bit worrying).

 

[PaulR]

Bit if a false alarm...

And yet I confidently expect to see this false alarm to spread across and outwards as "proof" of a new box rollout!

 

[Fisty McB]

I wonder how many Sky subscribers there are that are still only using SD Sky or Sky+ receivers? Even those who may have HD receivers for their main TV might have SD boxes in the likes of bedrooms or sun rooms.

 

[excollier]

Sun Room? I forgot how good the weather is over there in "sunny Tyrone". It's always pissing down here in Donegal.....

 

[Topper]

My only receiver is an SD box, a Sony....never had a sky plus box

 

[Analoguesat]

My only receiver is an SD box, a Sony....never had a sky plus box

Is that still that old Sony you had from me a couple of years ago??

If so great to see its still going!

 

[wod]

Is that still that old Sony you had from me a couple of years ago??

If so great to see its still going!

my mum still has a pace 2500 digibox I think not sure if correct model number which is still working fine.

I think it must be well near 10 year old maybe more.

 

[Topper]

Is that still that old Sony you had from me a couple of years ago??

If so great to see its still going!

Yep still working fine regardless.

 

[daro2096]

Off topic I know but I wish they would switch over all the freeview muxes over to dvb-t2. 6 HD channels or 20 SD ones per mux. That would make it 100 SD stations and 18 HD.