About to move to HD...guidance requested

[Chris43]

Hi,
I've been a Sky customer for many years, and wen the terrestrial TV stopped its analogue service, I went to Sky Multiroom, but didn't take the HD service. Sky supplied a HD+ box and we moved the old Sky box to the other room.
Now I want to upgrade to HD and ideally do this in both rooms. I assume that they will replace the old box, and upgrade the viewing cards in each.
One option however, would be to use the old box a freesat box, but I don't now how to organise that, and would like some advice before talking to Sky. Forearmed is forewarned!
If anyone can give me advice, that would be great.

[Koala5]

If you cancel the multiroom subscription then the old box would become a freesat box without you actually doing anything, however if it is a Sky+ box you would lose the record facility's on it and obviously you would not get HD in that room either.

[Scubbie]

Yes you could just cancel the Multiscreen subscription, but that wouldn't give you HD in both rooms.

Instead what you can do is pick up a second hand Sky+ HD (DRX890 or DRX895) from a local shop. Set it all up in place of the old Sky+ STB, swap the viewing card over. The follow the on-screen prompt to pair you viewing card to it.

Once that is all done, just give Sky a friendly call and get the HD subscription added.

Just a friendly piece of advice with prices though. Popular websites subch as eBay tend to have boxes going for silly money. The same is true for national chains such as Ca$h Convertors. Try not to spend anything over £25 if you can help it.

[Chris43]

Thanks. HD in the other room isn't really a need, at least not until our 20y old Sony 17" finally gives up the ghost. Most of the time it is listened to, not watched quite as much. But when that day comes your suggestions will be a great help, or when the stb gives up, which is obviously possible.

[bubblegun]

Hi,
I've been a Sky customer for many years, and wen the terrestrial TV stopped its analogue service, I went to Sky Multiroom, but didn't take the HD service. Sky supplied a HD+ box and we moved the old Sky box to the other room.
Now I want to upgrade to HD and ideally do this in both rooms. I assume that they will replace the old box, and upgrade the viewing cards in each.
One option however, would be to use the old box a freesat box, but I don't now how to organise that, and would like some advice before talking to Sky. Forearmed is forewarned!
If anyone can give me advice, that would be great.

If you upgrade to HD and already have a Sky+HD box then all they do is switch on that function on your existing box. I may be misunderstanding what you posted but if you wanted Sky+HD in the second room you would need to buy another box for £199 + £15 delivery or possibly get a 2Tb box for either £49 or £149 + delivery, or as Scubbie suggested buying a second hand 3rd party box. [Edit] In fact there's a 3rd option where you can get a refurbished box for £30 from Sky Technical if you tell them you have a faulty sky+ box.

[Chris43]

Thanks for the information. No, we don't need HD in the second room, so a simple Sky Freesat viewing card is what I'll go for. It's annoying that I've been paying for multi-room for a couple of years now, but only now come across the this option. But I suppose that Sky wouldn't know my viewing habits for the 2nd box.

[seawright]

No need to buy a Freesat viewing card. Just cancel your Multiscreen subscription and your existing viewing card becomes a Freesat viewing card (without support) after thirty one days.

[Chris43]

Once again, thanks.
This raises one more question - I probably don't want more than BBC1, BB2, ITV1, C4, 5, and BBC News 24. Will doing this give me these channels?

[gymno]

It certainly will.

There's a comprehensive list of channels here:
List of Channels on Sky - TV Channel Lists

[bubblegun]

It certainly will.

There's a comprehensive list of channels here:
List of Channels on Sky - TV Channel Lists

Just to point out that this is where this forum is better than "Official Sky" forum where they would probably suggest you buy a Freesat card for £25 when there is no need to do this.