Sky Box

[VonRyan]

Hi

A friend hasa offered me a sky box as he has gone over to Sky + and no longer requires his old type box. I normally use the box that came with the lidl kit with much success, but what channels do you get with the sky box. I know I will have to pay £20 for a card, is that a one off payment or is that per year? Which sattalite do you tune to? Any help would be appiciated

Thanks

Rob

 

[GeorgeB]

Rob,

The freesat card payment of

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Have a look here

http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/

 

[RogerP]

Question regarding the

 

[Reg]

The only boxes that sky cards will work in are sky digiboxes. The encryption used, videoguard, is the sole property of sky and their parent company and can on be incorporated into digiboxes built under licence for sky.

"Its legal corruption in my opinion!"

 

[RogerP]

Reg

not sure my mail was clear enough

Sky let us keep the equipement as we'd paid in full for it. They also said we could continue to use the viewing cards but that only basic 'free' channels would be available.

The digibox that came with my Camping Sat is , from all the documents I have , a Sky compatible one and requires a Sky viewing card.

My question was simply , the Sky viewing cards I have , would they work in this new digibox or do I have to buy a new Sky Freesat card.

I've read somewhere that the cards supplied for home use are coded to the given reciever but these

 

[GeorgeB]

RogerP,

In theory the freesat card is coded to the digibox that you are using, but as always its not quite that simple!

When you buy the card & then receive it, to "initialise" the card you have to put the card into an operational Sky or Sky compatable box that is both switched on & connected to a dish (in other words operational) then phone Sky on the number they provide with the docs that come with the card, you then have to enter your home phone number, this is so that Sky can identify what part of the country you come from so that when they initialise the card you will get your regions ITV & BBC etc.

They will ask you to press the services button & then option 4 "System Set Up" then option 5 "System Details" they will ask you the make of the box, the model number, version number & serial number (all these come up on the screen) then you will have to leave the box switched on & the card in it whilst they send a signal via satelite to initialise the card (all this to get the scrambled free to air channels such as channels 4 & 5, although I'm told that channel 4 is no longer scrambled!)

Whilst you've got these details on screen, note them down on the backing paper that your card came stuck too & always take this with you whenever you go away in the van, I'll tell you why in a bit.

Once the card is initialised you can now use it in ANY Sky digi box!

Now here's what Sky don't tell you, You HAVE to use the card at least once a month, if you don't, you "loose" the scrambled channels & you have to go through all the initialisation rigmarole once again! Just tell them you've been on holiday & yu've "lost" channel 5.

Thats why you need jot down the info that you gave then to originaly initialise the card & if you've got the card in a different box, you use the original info all over again, because if you give them different info they won't re initialise the card for you! I tried once but even when I told them that it was a replacement box they said I'd have to buy a new card!!!!!!

I hope all this make sense.

George

 

[Reg]

Hi Rob

I believe that the freeview cards are not matched to a box. If you are able to set up the new box and leave the card in then it will sort itself out but it sometimes takes up to 72 hours.

I must say that I have never heard of a box not made for sky that will accept a sky card.

 

[Reg]

Hi George

I have just had the same problem and as I said in my last post just leave he card in and switched on (standby will do).

 

[GeorgeB]

Hi Reg,

I was told that you had to go through the intial initialisation to get the regions ITV & BBC, ther is no "default" region.

I also heard that if you "lost" the scrambled channels you could put the card in & left it it would eventually initialise itself, as you said up tp 72 hours (thats 3 days!)but the time factor is the problem, if you phone them then its usually re initialised in about 2 - 4 hours

 

[Reg]

Hi George

Mine actually took about 24 hours but I wasn't in a hurry anyway.

I don't have any experience of the regions mine reverted to it's original setup.

 

[RogerP]

Sort of getting the gist of what you're saying.

To be honest I've only scan read the instructions and details of the equipement so far so I may have missed something

All the set up details supplied refer to Sky , however I think that the digibox can also be used for the Hotbird and Astra 1 satelites.

I'm so green on this subject and there seems to be so much info it just washes over me at time.

If I can recieve from the other 2 satelites what does that mean in real terms. Do I still need a viewing card?

(PS I've not overly fussed about Channel 4 or 5)

 

[Reg]

A digibox can in theory be used for other sats but is very dificult to set-up and only has a limited number of channels you can use.

I just wouldn't bother

You can still receive the FTA (free to air) channels on the digibox without a card i.e the unencrypted ones but as you say not Ch4 and 5. Maybe able to next year. You need to be pointed to the Astra2 system at 28.2E.

 

[AlanAberdeen]

Hi all,

I'm totally lost by all of this and my wife wants sky for the van.

If I were to buy a second hand box off of eBay and use my viewing card from home, would that work?

Also where is the best place to buy a dish kit?

Thanks

Alan

 

[JeremyClarksson]

See my post about Freesat CH4/CH5 lineup.

CH4 is available now on Freesat and CH5 will follow later this year, there are also channels that are FTA (Free to Air) on Freesat but still encoded on Sky.

The only advantage I can see the Sky basic package having is a superiorer TV guide to the Freesat boxes I own.

 

[Reg]

Go to Dixons and sign up for Skys Pay once watch forever.

For

 

[keith_374359621]

Just a word of warning - Freesat has now started and channel 4 film four etc is free. Cannel five comes on free next year. By christmas there should be some 200 free sat channels - check with freesat web site before buying a sky card. a sky card is not for free sat but for freeskysat and a sky box. Other boxes are cheap and now HD is available on freesat so it might be worth buying a HD box from comet or argos or john lewis.

 

[keith_374359621]

Just a word of warning - Freesat has now started and channel 4 film four etc is free. Cannel five comes on free next year. By christmas there should be some 200 free sat channels - check with freesat web site before buying a sky card. a sky card is not for free sat but for freeskysat and a sky box. Other boxes are cheap and now HD is available on freesat so it might be worth buying a HD box from comet or argos or john lewis.

 

[spj]

Hi all,

I know various information has already been given on this thread, but I am still not 100% sure of something,

I did have Sky at home but the subscription has now finished and I get very few channels now, if I buy a