Sky Cards in Dreambox

[christianF]

I've a couple of years old Sky box (model number BSKYB 2600 C1). The card that was delivered with it works fine in my Dreambox DM7020.

A friend wants the same setup, but I just want to make sure that the new card he'll get is the same as mine, or otherwise compatible with a Dreambox?

Also, is there any difference to which card and tuner you'll get if you're in England, North Ireland and Republic of Ireland?


Thanks for any help

 

[mhku]

An activated $ky card will work in a Dreambox.

But how do we know what $ky card you have or you friend will get?

Is it a blue card with a yellow house on it? Or a subscription card?

 

[christianF]

Ah, I should have mentioned that I have a blue card with a yellow house.

How does the activation process work? Is it just that he has to use the card in a normal Sky tuner before he tries in the Dreambox?

 

[mhku]

If you're buying a brand new card from $ky it will need activating in a $ky box.

If it is an old card (but has been activated) a Dreambox will keep it alive.

There are many posts on this topic in the Dreambox section. If you have specific Dreambox questions please post them there.

 

[JTA]

let me just add that my "dealer" has informed me that Sky is going to swap cards later this year, and that he'll be sending out the new cards as soon as he gets them.
I just hope that the new cards will work as well on the dreambox as my current card is performing....... !
and the reason you need is sky box for activation is that the card is linked to the box which was used to activate that card. If you try to activate another card on the same box, the first card becomes invalidated (it will no longer receive any updates, and will be reduced to an FTV card in time). That's why you can't buy a Sky (subscription) card without a sky receiver. only FTV cards can be bought without a receiver, if activated before.

 

[PoloMint]

-JTA Does your dealer have a source for the information about cards being switched this year? It's a very expensive process for Sky to go through given the millions of cards on current subscriptions.

There are plenty of dealers who do card-only Sky package deals for people who already have a sky box, so people don't necessarily need to buy both the box and card from the dealer (but many dealers would want that as they often charge a fortune for box). The card just needs activated in their existing box, a call to the dealer to say it's in the box, then dealer callers sky and all is well.

-christianF - the tuners in boxes form GB, NI and ROI are the same, there may be differences in sensitivity among models/batches, but that's not directly related to what country they were bought in.

 

[JTA]

no source - this is the mail I received last week - note the last sentence :

Message sent to you follows:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Discontinued from the shopping cart from March 1st, Its possible sky will change their cards next year, Jan'08, thus FreeSat cards may become useless, hence I have decided to stop selling FreeSat cards, as of March 1st.

Customers subscribing to sky, all replacements will be sent out as before Free Of Charge.

so it's not just the FreeSat cards but the subscription cards as well - but he did use the term "possible" - I suppose it's a case of 'wait and see what happens' ?

 

[PaulR]

Possible, yeah.

It's also "possible" that I could be the next Prime Minister.

I certainly haven't heard of this anywhere else. I think it's just scaremongering.

 

[bob-1]

Freesat cards are not the same as the sub cards ,i know someone that as had a freesat card for years and its still working.

 

[PaulR]

Freesat cards are not the same as the sub cards ,i know someone that as had a freesat card for years and its still working.

It's true that they're not the same while you're paying for your $ly subscription - you obviously get whatever package of channels you are paying for on top of the FTA and FTV channels.

However, when the subscription is stopped the ex-subscription card is effectively the same as the Freesat card as they both allow you to decode C4, $ly 3 and the Five package as well as setting the default region for the BBC1/2 and ITV1 channels.

There are subtle differences in the way that the cards are treated when you enter a premium channel number and they have a different phone number on the back but they aren't important. Both cards can be kept alive (for FTV channels) indefinitely (or until the next card change) by simply being kept in a $ly Digibox or Dreambox.

 

[erukus]

hi

i am using a sky card in a dreambox 600 and working fine i forgot to pay my bill and they turned off channels do i need to put sky card back in sky box to recive channels as they have been turned on now that i have paid my bill or can it recieve reactivation through dreambox

Thanks

 

[rolfw]

It should reactivate in the dreambox, but if it doesn't, you may need to pop it back in the digibox and call them again, saying that it hasn't reactivated.

 

[erukus]

thanks it has reactivated in the dreambox

 

[Nick -D-vB]

Hi all,

can anyone confirm which Dreambox emus support UK BSkyB EMMs

(not activation just enough to keep the card alive)

So far I have: gbox, cccam, newcs and betad, are there any I've missed?


Also, did anyone ever do an i386 compiled version of the newcamd 5.28 hack?

I've been searching for weeks but I'm buggered if I can find it! 8(


Thanks in advance,

Cheers,
Nick

 

[dasteelman]

cccam works a treat

 

[Nick -D-vB]

Thanks, cccam seems to be the preferred solution these days

but I'm trying to get a list of all the alternatives,

are there any others I've not mentioned above?