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Sky free sat
jacko - 6/3/11 at 07:33 PM

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/forum/8/viewthread.php?tid=151113
Hi all after all my problems with sky they are giving me a FREE sky + hd box
What i would like to know is if i keep my old box / dish can i use it in my caravan for freesat ? if so do i need a card from sky ? to make it work
If not Sky who from ?
Thanks
Jacko

RazMan - 6/3/11 at 07:50 PM

You can use it anywhere you like but you will need a card from Sky to view Freesat.

big_wasa - 6/3/11 at 08:20 PM

You will only get a handfull of channells if you just plug it in with no card.
You can add the channells manually. Do a search on google and people offering all sorts on ebay..

[Edited on 6/3/11 by big_wasa]

balidey - 6/3/11 at 08:24 PM

You can't use a Sky box for Freesat.
What you see on Sky for free are Free to view satellite channels. There is a very distinct difference

nickw2000 - 6/3/11 at 08:25 PM

try just freesat info on website

nickw2000 - 6/3/11 at 08:25 PM

try just freesat info on website

http://www.freesat.co.uk/

nickw2000 - 6/3/11 at 08:25 PM

http://www.freesat.co.uk/

scudderfish - 6/3/11 at 08:32 PM

You also lose the PVR functionality.

slingshot2000 - 6/3/11 at 08:34 PM

Put the spare 'Murdoch money box' in the caravan and rig it up. When you leave home, remove 'Murdoch card' from home 'Murdoch money box', slip it in your wallet and take it with you.
When you get to your caravan, remove the 'Murdoch card' from your wallet and slip it into the caravan 'Murdoch money box'.
Unless you can be in two places, watching two lots of 'Murdoch money' at the same time, I cannot see any drawbacks to this!
My brother-in-law does this every Friday night when he leaves home for his caravan.
Result ?

Regards.
Jon.

balidey - 6/3/11 at 08:37 PM

Not sure that works all the time. I tried using my parents card in my old sky box and it said something like 'this is not the correct card, please call sky on.... '
So don't pin your hopes on that working.

jacko - 6/3/11 at 08:38 PM

quote:
Originally posted by scudderfish
You also lose the PVR functionality.

What is the pvr ?

jacko - 6/3/11 at 08:40 PM

quote:
Originally posted by nickw2000
http://www.freesat.co.uk/


If i get all that on your link it will do me for in the caravan

balidey - 6/3/11 at 08:41 PM

Nope, as I wrote above, Freesat is NOT available on Sky boxes

stevebubs - 6/3/11 at 08:49 PM

Yawn.

http://www.sky.com/shop/freesat/home/

scudderfish - 6/3/11 at 08:54 PM

quote:
Originally posted by jacko
quote:
Originally posted by scudderfish
You also lose the PVR functionality.

What is the pvr ?


The ability to record programmes or play back anything you've recorded before.

balidey - 6/3/11 at 09:00 PM

quote:
Originally posted by stevebubs
Yawn.

http://www.sky.com/shop/freesat/home/

I stand corrected. Freesat IS available on Sky boxes. But only if you pay them £25 for a card.
I am sure this is a new feature as before they never used to allow Freesat on Sky.

jacko - 6/3/11 at 09:01 PM

quote:
Originally posted by scudderfish
quote:
Originally posted by jacko
quote:
Originally posted by scudderfish
You also lose the PVR functionality.

What is the pvr ?


The ability to record programmes or play back anything you've recorded before.

not bothered about that as long as the wife and Daughter can get corry etc

blakep82 - 6/3/11 at 09:07 PM

quote:
Originally posted by balidey
Nope, as I wrote above, Freesat is NOT available on Sky boxes


yes it is lol

anyway, you can't just remove the card from one box and plug it in the other when you go to the caravan as suggested above, as you'd have to phone up to pair the card to the old box, then phone to pair it to the new box when you get home. there is a way you can do it yourself through the box, but it would have to be in a phone line to do that.

freesat yes you can do it. if you've got no card in the box you'll get some channels, bbc, itv etc, a freesat card (one off payment of about £20 from sky i think?) will give you all freeview channels, and a few more.
with no card in, you'll automatically get bbc london, the freesat card will set you to the correct local region

matt_claydon - 6/3/11 at 09:08 PM

There seems to be some confusion here between 'Freesat' (run by Freeview), and 'Freesat from Sky' (run by Sky).

http://www.freesat.co.uk/

http://www.sky.com/shop/freesat/home/

balidey - 6/3/11 at 09:10 PM

Yes, i did correct myself above after reading the link. But just removing a card from a Sky box still does not make it freesat. They are just the free to view channels.

But, does anyone else see the irony on spending £25 for something called FREEsat ?

blakep82 - 6/3/11 at 09:11 PM

quote:
Originally posted by balidey
Yes, i did correct myself above after reading the link. But just removing a card from a Sky box still does not make it freesat. They are just the free to view channels.

But, does anyone else see the irony on spending £25 for something called FREEsat ?


same as spending anything on a freeview box i guess, how much are they? 20-30 quid for a cheap one,

jacko - 6/3/11 at 09:13 PM

quote:
Originally posted by blakep82
quote:
Originally posted by balidey
Nope, as I wrote above, Freesat is NOT available on Sky boxes


yes it is lol

anyway, you can't just remove the card from one box and plug it in the other when you go to the caravan as suggested above, as you'd have to phone up to pair the card to the old box, then phone to pair it to the new box when you get home. there is a way you can do it yourself through the box, but it would have to be in a phone line to do that.

freesat yes you can do it. if you've got no card in the box you'll get some channels, bbc, itv etc, a freesat card (one off payment of about £20 from sky i think?) will give you all freeview channels, and a few more.
with no card in, you'll automatically get bbc london, the freesat card will set you to the correct local region


Thankyou Blake
That is just what i was hoping for so all i have to do is ask sky for a freesat card and pay £20 -25 great news
I wonder if the engineers fitting my new box will have them on there van
Graham

blakep82 - 6/3/11 at 09:17 PM

i er, had the misfortune of working for sky for a while last year...
don't think the engineer will, or at least they're not supposed to you can always ask

edit: foret that, they definitely won't have cards on the van, cards are always posted out, because they are set against your name and address, engineers never have any sort of cards on the van.

[Edited on 6/3/11 by blakep82]

jacko - 6/3/11 at 09:21 PM

Thankyou all for this superb info his forum know every thing
Thanks
Jacko

ChrisW - 6/3/11 at 09:26 PM

quote:
Originally posted by balidey
anyway, you can't just remove the card from one box and plug it in the other when you go to the caravan as suggested above, as you'd have to phone up to pair the card to the old box, then phone to pair it to the new box when you get home. there is a way you can do it yourself through the box, but it would have to be in a phone line to do that.


This used to be the case years ago, but not now. Once the card is activated for the first time (which you will have to do in your 'home' box) it will work in any Sky box. Whether all the functionality will work is another question, but if it's just viewing channels you want to do it will be fine. I've got several Sky boxes on various rigs and often swap my card between them when I wouldn't want to take my expensive HD box eg Le Mans last year we ran on an old Pace box and I just stuck the card in my wallet every time we left camp.

The only downside is that the home Sky box stops working when there is no card in it so any shows you've got recording will fail.

Chris

blakep82 - 6/3/11 at 09:38 PM

^ that does happen in some cases, but most cases, the tv will show up with a message saying, 'this is the wrong viewing card for this sky box, please call customer services for assistance' where the card will have to be paired with the new one. again, i worked for sky until october, and had this same question about 30 times a day lol

once a card is paired with a box, it will only working with 1 particular box. but as before, there are some instances where it works in others. you might be lucky, but i wouldn't count on it

ChrisW - 6/3/11 at 11:39 PM

quote:
Originally posted by blakep82
^ that does happen in some cases, but most cases, the tv will show up with a message saying, 'this is the wrong viewing card for this sky box, please call customer services for assistance' where the card will have to be paired with the new one. again, i worked for sky until october, and had this same question about 30 times a day lol

once a card is paired with a box, it will only working with 1 particular box. but as before, there are some instances where it works in others. you might be lucky, but i wouldn't count on it


Well I can only speak from my experience, which is that I have never had a box that my card doesn't work in. It's been used in at least four different boxes other than my Sky+ HD, all different manufacturers, all of them eBay specials (ie the boxes were just random ones, not associated with me in any way).

But yes, many years ago, I had problems moving the card between boxes and had to ring Sky to get them to pair the box and card together. We're talking 7+ years since I had to do that though.

Chris

blakep82 - 6/3/11 at 11:46 PM

weird, must be something to do with the card then....

Mr G - 7/3/11 at 12:16 AM

You CAN swap cards from box to box without the need to specifically pair it as I've been doing it for ages on different cards and boxes. You won't be able to get the movies or sports on a different box though but the other packages work.

Every time they send out new cards to everybody then this feature stops though which is when you get the 'this is the wrong card for this box' message - When you think about it what people would be able to do is give their old card to a friend/family member etc to use until it is turned off and use the new one they have recieved themselves.

I know because I've had no trouble swapping before a new viewing card roll out and then couldn't while it was in progress and quite a while after it had finished. I've just this minute popped the card out my sky HD box and popped it into a spare sky+ upstairs and can get all the subscription stuff no problem again.

You won't be able to live pause or record the subscription channels though iirc but you CAN pause/record if its a free to air (FTA) channels (can't be arsed to go up and swap it again!)

Oh and there are only a few channels that need a £20 or £25 card from sky for you to be able to view them - it used to be more but the channels went free to air - It used to be itv,channel 4,channel 5, sky travel/sky 3 but think its only sky travel/sky3 and sky sports news now.

Cheers

G


[Edited on 7/3/11 by Mr G]