Sky satelite systems

[Andrewbutcher]

Hello all, i am sure this question has been asked before, but please humour me!

I am considering buying a satelite system for the caravan, we have sky at home, but i didn't want the hassle of taking the sky box from home every time we went away!

Is it possible to buy a new box,compact dish and still use our existing card from home, or do we have to use our existing box from home? we only want to use sky and not the free view system!

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Many thanks, Andrew & Sally.

 

[Robtel]

Try this link

http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/
Very informative and David Sullivan who runs the site is very good at responding to emails with questions.

Robert

 

[Andrewbutcher]

Try this link

http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/
Very informative and David Sullivan who runs the site is very good at responding to emails with questions.

Robert

Thank you Robert, i will take a look!

 

[markw]

Your sky card is matched to its decoder, so it is not possible to use it in another decoder, we just take the decoder and card from home when we go away.

I did get another decoder myself thinking that i could just take the card, but as above this is not possible, so I looked into the possibility of cloning the decoders so the card always thinks its in the same one, however I am told this is only possible with 2 identical model decoders and even then is not a home job and is expensive, much easier to take your decoder and card from home.

 

[Rod_5041370]

I have 2 Sky boxes and only 1 card which works in both but I do not subscribe to premium channels such as movies, sports etc. which I understand are tied to a specific box.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

You can get BBC1 ,BBC2 and ITV + some news and other channels with no card at all.

I've been doing that today as I keep a

 

[spj]

Hi all,

I too am in the process of looking at sky dishes, I have been told that smaller dishes will not work in Scotland but a 60cm dish will be ok. I am led to believe the Sky card is tied to your box as others have said and the cardless boxes will only get the free channels, also the Sky boxes only draw around 30 watts and can be run from a small inverter which will be cheaper than a 12v box. From what I have found a 60cm dish on a tripod with a sat finder and a 100w inverter can be bought new for around

 

[WatsonJohnG]

I have used a similar system to that but the standard Sky dish takes a lot of beating and is a lot cheaper.

They are often at car boot sales and I got a Sky dish and Sky digibox with brackets and cable but no remote for

 

[Rod_5041370]

I run my Sky box, a Toshiba LCD TV and a micro stereo system ( because the TV audio is C**P) from a 300 watt inverter.

I use an 80 cm dish on a tripod as this set up works down to Northern Spain.

I keep a second Sky box in the caravan and take the card from the box in the house.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Why do you take the card?(not a provocative question just curious)

Is it matched to more than one box?

You can get BBC1,BBC2,ITV and some news channels with no card at all now.

 

[Rod_5041370]

Why do you take the card?(not a provocative question just curious)

Is it matched to more than one box?

You can get BBC1,BBC2,ITV and some news channels with no card at all now.

Works in both boxes as long as you don't want the pay channels such as movies and sports.

You can't use Pay As You View anyway unless you have you phone connection.

 

[Frank_374237154]

No,the ID of the box is matched to the card.Every time your box expires and you put a new one in you have to contact sky with details,and they re-register you.

Amazingly the same thing happened when I purchased a freesat card to go into my spare box.

 

[Rod_5041370]

Sorry Frank but you are wrong.

I've been using one card in two boxes for a nmuber of years and my son always takes his when he travels on business to use in the hotel boxes.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

I would agree with Frank on that one as you can only watch the subscription channels on the matched digibox.

You can watch BBC 1,BBC2,ITV and several other channels with no card at all.

So I've just tried it swapping cards and to my surprise you can get Ch4 and Ch5 plus Sky1 and a few more I suppose if the card is in the wrong box.

You can not get the subscription sports etc channels but you can get quite a lot.

We take the box from home with its matched card and Sky+ as we usually fall asleep before the end of a program and on Sky+ we can watch it when we wake up!!!!

Also HRH watches every single premiership match which could account for so much sleeping

 

[trucker]

andrew there is a company called SDS which advertise in the PC mag each month, there shop is on the outskirts of Barnstaple in devon however they do alot of mail order business from the mag.

My point is that I had the chance to pop in there yesterday and spent about 15 to 20 mins going through all my concerns and questions, the chap i spoke to was very knoledgable and more than willing to help with all my questions.

Im going back next week to pick up a kit, but having it upgraded to 64cm dish so I cxan us it in France

Give them a call they do mobile satalite kits from

 

[cokey1970]

I agree with Rod on using the same card in different digiboxes.

I have a Pace digibox at home and a Grundig box for the caravan. The card works in both boxes without any problem giving me all channels. I have never had to call Sky's rip-off customer service lines to match the card with the box.

 

[Themass31]

I agree, I did have sky+ and multi room but got sick of paying all that money so I got rid of sky+ and multi room, but kept a basic package downstairs in the sky plus box, when I go away in the van I take the box from up stairs with the card from the box downstairs and still get all the channels I pay for.

mass

 

[WatsonJohnG]

That is surprising but if it works for you then don't tell Sky!!

I tried swapping cards yesterday when this subject came up and wrong card in wrong box comes up with the message "Wrong card for this box" or words to that effect

 

[woodbush]

I have wired my caravan with the digibox under the bed. I take my box from home. I bought a 48cm dish, tripod and 10m of sat cable from ebay for about

 

[f baker]

I have wired my caravan with the digibox under the bed. I take my box from home. I bought a 48cm dish, tripod and 10m of sat cable from ebay for about

 

[f baker]

gismo is the size of a cigarette lighter and turns your telly into h.d and allows it to function like sky+, franklin

 

[JeremyClarksson]

Franklin

"gismo is the size of a cigarette lighter and turns your telly into h.d and allows it to function like sky+"

You are right about the PVR function which will give you the ability to pause/record as Sky+ but it can not change your TV to HD unless it is an HD ready one and you have the corrct connections (HDMI).

However.....some laptops do have screens capable of an HD display (so no lead required), you can also connect a larger LCD display which could run HDTV from the computer and these are a lot cheaper than LCD TVs of the same size.