Sky+ without subscription. Does it work?
Discussion
The flat I'm moving into has Sky and freeview all plumbed into each dwelling. The Sky point has two sockets on it and I was wondering, instead of hooking the telly up to freeview why not pick up a Sky+ box off ebay for cheapity cheap and feel the benefit of the additional channels and better quality signal.
Question is, if I do this do I get all the Sky+ gubbins (pause and rewind live TV, record etc) if I just plug it in without a subscription card inserted?
I know nothing of this Sky shenanigans, so feel free to mock if I've asked what would appear to be an obvious question.
Question is, if I do this do I get all the Sky+ gubbins (pause and rewind live TV, record etc) if I just plug it in without a subscription card inserted?
I know nothing of this Sky shenanigans, so feel free to mock if I've asked what would appear to be an obvious question.
I think you need to order a freeview subscription card off of Sky for the box to allow you to watch just freeview. It is a one off charge though. With no card in what so ever the box will just display a message asking for a card.
Sky actually offer normal Sky boxes as freeview boxes anyway (freesat) so it does work but also requires a card to work. If you have an expired subscription for the same house the old card will (atleast it has in the past for me) work.
And the above are correct, for the pause and rewind features to work you need to pay £10 a month to Sky, whilst this seems expensive to activate the features on a box you have already paid for, not a lot of that £10 actually goes to Sky, it goes keep the broadcasters happy.
Sky actually offer normal Sky boxes as freeview boxes anyway (freesat) so it does work but also requires a card to work. If you have an expired subscription for the same house the old card will (atleast it has in the past for me) work.
And the above are correct, for the pause and rewind features to work you need to pay £10 a month to Sky, whilst this seems expensive to activate the features on a box you have already paid for, not a lot of that £10 actually goes to Sky, it goes keep the broadcasters happy.
Another question should be: What channels do you want to watch/pause/record? There are a number of Freesat PVRs that can use the two dish connectors (only two HD channels at the moment)
Freeview will offer 4 HD channels when the switchover is completed (BBC, ITV, C4 and C5). Some of the Freeview PVRs will give you pause/record feature and only require a single aerial connection.
Freeview will offer 4 HD channels when the switchover is completed (BBC, ITV, C4 and C5). Some of the Freeview PVRs will give you pause/record feature and only require a single aerial connection.
Stevenj214 said:
rockandrollmark said:
The flat I'm moving into has Sky and freeview all plumbed into each dwelling.
Does anyone know if it's likely that there will be the 2 connections needed for Sky+ if it has been pre installed?You can get a freesat+, which is the free version. Humax make a receiver but i think its over £300
rockandrollmark said:
Cheers for the advice guys. Good to know that it wouldn't even work without a card.
The flat does have two points necessary for Sky+ but to be honest £10 a month just to watch free channels doesn't sound like money well spent to me. I think I'll just go find a freesat PVR instead.
Go for a Humax at around £250.00 The flat does have two points necessary for Sky+ but to be honest £10 a month just to watch free channels doesn't sound like money well spent to me. I think I'll just go find a freesat PVR instead.
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