Freesat & Sky+ box

[anuragsam2]

Get a Dvd recorder (or HDD recorder) and use Sky autoviewing service. No need of subscription then.

[madshaun1984]

This is rediculous, I thought that when you took a sky subs, they installed "your" equipment, and after the 12 month period you owned the box/dish/lnb. if you choose at that point to use "your" equipment for freeview (ie:- freesat) then you should retain full functionality of the equipment, and only see a loss in channels, you wouldnt buy a playstation 3, decide you dont want to play online any more, and expect to have functionality taken away for offline services would you?? (ie:- not be able to play hd movies from your hdd) or you could look at it from another point of view, you go out and buy a humax box for £300 but decide you want to use it with a sky subs account, after the subs period ends, sky stop the pvr functionality on your humax box.

I know its propbrably written in the terms and conditions when you take a sky subs, that you have to use they're equipment for viewing, but surely that in itself is flawed, as the equipment they provide after installation actually belongs to you.

The way I see it, this is a case of sky abusing consumer rights laws, and should be penalised for it, Sky should at least allow the original factory fw for the box's to be installed when a subscription is ended, as that would retain the full functionality of the equipment and allow for pvr use with a freesat card.

Edit:- sorry for bumping an old thread, didnt see the date of the last post before I replied.

[Smithy99]

The issue is that the PVR features rely on live data from Sky, why should they supply this information to someone who is not paying for it?

If you want PVR features without a monthly price, Freeview is the way to go.

[benhamilton]

Just spoken to someone at Sky who tells me that I can still use the full recording features of the Sky+ box after I cancel my subscription and put a freesat viewing card in it. I'm a bit dubious though, has anyone actually done this?

[Smithy99]

They are wrong. The only way it will work is with either a minimum TV sub or a £10p/m Sky+ only sub.

[Grainsalt]

Well yesterday I decided it was time to see if this Free-Channels through Sky+ thing works.

So, I stripped the F-Plugs off the old connection into the living room and replumbed the cabling from the dish into the conservatory, dusted off my old (2 years old) Sky+ box (I am now on V+) and plugged it all in.

Everything came up fine, lots of the freesat channels and radio, record functionality works fine (recorded the Masters last night) and plays back fine.

Stll using my old Viewing Card I got with Sky+ origionally.

Oh, and the "Whats On" TV Guide works fine too .. Haven't tried scheduled recording yet but recording current programs appears in the Sky Planner fine.

Just though I would let you all know incase you have an old Sky+ box and card laying around .. Only weird thing was that ITV didn't come up as it insisted I use channel 993 as it thought I was in London and not in my actual area. But other than that, no worries ..

Kids are watching CBeebies right now .. Didn't cost me a thing (Aside from having the Sky+ box and old card already) other than rewiring the F-Plugs with a sharp knife.

[Grainsalt]

Just thought I would mention though .. Reason the PVR stuff probably still works is that I used to have Sky+ 2 years ago and the card has probably been instructed to still have it. Thats the only explination I can give if it is true that I shouldn't have this functionality.

[peanut]

I think you are right about 'old' instructions on the Sky+ drive.
I cancelled my Sky+ before Christmas and I definitely couldn't use the record facility.
However I had previously attached a spare Sky box to the third LNB terminal and got freesat channels.

After termination of Sky+ contract I could still use both the Sky+ box and the old Sky box to watch freesat but the Sky+ box would not record.

When I restarted Sky+ contract the old Sky box started to show a message on the screen every half hour saying I should contact Sky and pay a subscription fee.Its b****y annoying

I reckon Sky download software instructions to your box periodically to upgrade their control of your Sky+ box

[anointed]

You cant use SkyPlus features without a sub But If you shop around on the net, you can buy freeSat boxes for under £100 or thereabouts that will give you PVR functions like Sky Plus. All you do is plug the old Sky LMB leads fom your dish into it and off you go. That is cheaper than a Skyplus subscription! I will post details shortly.

[pete146]

Sorry - I need this clearing up for me!

I have had a sky+ box for over 4 years, so am well out of contract. I still pay sky for a basic package, and am thinking of cancelling it and moving to freesat.

1) - Do I need to change my card, or will my existing card provide freesat channels once I stop paying sky?

2) - I understand that sky would want £10 per month for me to continue recording to the sky+ box. But, how would they know or prevent this??? The hard-drive is in my equipment, my sky box is not connected to the phone line. Would the record functionality simply stop working???

3) - Wouldn't the TV guide functions etc come from Freesat after I move? If this is the case then surely sky are wanting £10 simply to provide recording functionality?

Many thanks
Pete