Thinking of moving to SKY...

[chocky909]

I'm thinking of getting SKY installed in the next couple of months. I've currently got all NTL services. NTL phoneline, digital TV and BB. I'm going to cancel the NTL Digital TV obviously. Was looking at the full £42.50 p/m package with multiroom, so £52.50 p/m with 3 months 1/2 price. I've just got a couple of questions that someone here may be able to answer.

1. Will I need a BT telephone line or will an NTL line be OK? - I know the SKY STBs need to be connected to a phone line for the 1st 12 months of connection (never really understood why though). It won't be a massive problem reconnecting to BT mind.

2. I've only got 1 phone point. Will it be a problem connecting BOTH STBs to the one line? Will the SKY installation take care of this? The phone socket is right next to the TV but I want a second STB in my room which is about 10 metres away down the hall.

3. I notice that when selecting your equipment, there is no option to have 2 SKY+ STBs. Not a problem really, as the second standard STB is free but, can you buy a second SKY+ box and use it as a replacement. Are there any problems? I really want SKY+ on both sets.

4. What is the best way to get this started? Just go to the SKY website? Or is there some way of getting a better deal? I've seen 4 months 1/2 price around town but it always seems to be 3 on the website.

5. Is there a good SKY oriented forum (similar to this one) around that anyone could point me to for when I have moved?

I'm sure there are other questions but I can't think of any right now...

[nffc]

1. We have Sky+ on an ntl line. Works OK but the thing is just connected to the phone for the PPV services if you wanna subscribe via phone, usage stats etc.
2. They'll install a phone splitter or something, to get the cable to the sky box.
3. dunno
4. ring sky, high street and other stores also sell Sky.
5. you could try digital spy but the least said about there the better, least said soonest mended and all that.

Don't get an Amstrad box though, they really are the pits.

[gazzae]

If you have more than one sky box then they have to be connected to the phone line permanently. This is so that sky can check you haven't given one to your mate down the road.

[chocky909]

Originally Posted by nffc

1. We have Sky+ on an ntl line. Works OK but the thing is just connected to the phone for the PPV services if you wanna subscribe via phone, usage stats etc.

Ok, well that's not a problem, I'll just decide whether to go back to BT or not after speaking to 'retentions' as long as there are definately no drawbacks (besides it being NTL)

Originally Posted by nffc

2. They'll install a phone splitter or something, to get the cable to the sky box.

Hopefully

Originally Posted by nffc

3. dunno

Originally Posted by nffc

4. ring sky, high street and other stores also sell Sky.

I could do that, I was just wondering if there was any point. I've only ever seen the '3 months 1/2 price' which is sometimes 4 months.

Originally Posted by nffc

5. you could try digital spy but the least said about there the better, least said soonest mended and all that.

Care to expand on that? I've been there a few times, mainly to discuss my Freeview PVR. Always seemed quite civil...? Are you talking about the 'social' threads?

Originally Posted by nffc

Don't get an Amstrad box though, they really are the pits.

I assume you're talking about a box I might get as a replacement for the multiroom. Which are the good ones then? Do you know where the best place to get them is? Ebay? Maybe I could get a cool 'modded' one with 500GB hard drive or something?

Originally Posted by gazzae

If you have more than one sky box then they have to be connected to the phone line permanently. This is so that sky can check you haven't given one to your mate down the road.

Hmmm... so you could have a cable trailing from you satellite/junction box to your next door neighbours TV, but not a cable connected from your phone line? If you're going to do one, surely the other is no trouble.

Anyway, I'll just have to pit up with the whole evil Big Brother Rupert Murdoch **** thing.

[gazzae]

Originally Posted by chocky909

Hmmm... so you could have a cable trailing from you satellite/junction box to your next door neighbours TV, but not a cable connected from your phone line? If you're going to do one, surely the other is no trouble.

Anyway, I'll just have to pit up with the whole evil Big Brother Rupert Murdoch **** thing.

I'm not sure what you mean.

If you have two boxes then you are getting a reduction on the subscription for the second box therefore Sky insist on having it connected to the phone line so they can check that it is at the right address. If they didn't do this then you could simply give the second box to someone else.

[nffc]

My main problem with DS is the amount of - well - something else that rhymes with civil really. Plus the admins are over-zealous and there's no real rapport with the members.

Amstrad boxes... we have one. Records when it feels like (the record light is arguably an ornamental feature), crashes when it loads planner with a message "for your information, please wait" ad infinitum - i left it for half an hour once. Plus your recordings are plagued by video and audio breakups
even though every time I check it both transponder units are getting a full-ish signal strength/quality. The noisy fan is guaranteed to kick in at a quiet time :S
The Thomson boxes are better (but noisy) and the Pace ones are the tops but the Amstrad ones are cheapest. We've had 2 Amstrad boxes and 2 dish/receiver units fitted and the same problems...

HTH

[chocky909]

Originally Posted by gazzae

I'm not sure what you mean.

If you have two boxes then you are getting a reduction on the subscription for the second box therefore Sky insist on having it connected to the phone line so they can check that it is at the right address. If they didn't do this then you could simply give the second box to someone else.

Doesn't matter, must have wires crossed. I still don't know whether you mean give it to someone (ie next door neighbour) while is still connected to your satellite (basically subscription sharing or 'multihouse') or you just mean someone using your box elsewhere. Although why you'd let someone use your second box while paying £10 a month for multiroom, I don't understand. Also I assumed that the box was your property after the 12 month subscription was over. So why must it be connected all the time?

Very confused about the whole 2 box thing - especially as I want SKY+ in both rooms. HAS ANYONE OUT THERE GOT MULTIROOM WITH 2 SKY+ BOXES?

Originally Posted by nffc

My main problem with DS is the amount of - well - something else that rhymes with civil really. Plus the admins are over-zealous and there's no real rapport with the members.

Amstrad boxes... we have one. Records when it feels like (the record light is arguably an ornamental feature), crashes when it loads planner with a message "for your information, please wait" ad infinitum - i left it for half an hour once. Plus your recordings are plagued by video and audio breakups
even though every time I check it both transponder units are getting a full-ish signal strength/quality. The noisy fan is guaranteed to kick in at a quiet time :S
The Thomson boxes are better (but noisy) and the Pace ones are the tops but the Amstrad ones are cheapest. We've had 2 Amstrad boxes and 2 dish/receiver units fitted and the same problems...

HTH

Oh, well. I won't get the digitalspy logo tatoo'd on my **** just yet...

From what I hear, you can't really affect which boxes you receive? So I'm guessing the Pace are the best. Also heard that different models have different size hard drives in them too.

Anyone know what the deal is with SKY+ models and which one I'm likely to get?

[gazzae]

Originally Posted by chocky909

Doesn't matter, must have wires crossed. I still don't know whether you mean give it to someone (ie next door neighbour) while is still connected to your satellite (basically subscription sharing or 'multihouse') or you just mean someone using your box elsewhere.

Using the box elsewhere.

Originally Posted by chocky909

Although why you'd let someone use your second box while paying £10 a month for multiroom, I don't understand.

Because you could halve the subscripton with a mate. Sky's top package plus multiroom is £52. You could say to a mate lets take out multiroom, you take a box to your house I'll have one at mine and we'll each pay £26.

Originally Posted by chocky909

Also I assumed that the box was your property after the 12 month subscription was over. So why must it be connected all the time?

Because your getting a discount. You can pay the full subscription on the second box an then you don't need to have them connected.

[Druchii]

Quote:
Originally Posted by chocky909
Also I assumed that the box was your property after the 12 month subscription was over. So why must it be connected all the time?


Because your getting a discount. You can pay the full subscription on the second box an then you don't need to have them connected.

So, why hasn't anyone come up with a way of faking the reply from the boxes back to Sky yet? Surely this would be highly profitable for them?

[chocky909]

Originally Posted by gazzae

Because you could halve the subscripton with a mate. Sky's top package plus multiroom is £52. You could say to a mate lets take out multiroom, you take a box to your house I'll have one at mine and we'll each pay £26.

OK we were talking about the same thing. What I said originally was, to share one subscription between 2 neighbours, there'd be a cable running from house 1 (the subscriber), to house 2. So, if you've got a cable running between houses, why not just have another cable, a phone extension, running between the houses too?

That is - how is needing to be connected to the home address's landline at all times, preventing you sharing the subscription? If you're willing to run a cable to another house you can run a phoneline extension too, solving the problem.

NEWSFLASH

I just realised what your point was. A friend living in a differnent location (not your street) with an EXISTING satellite setup but NOT paying SKY anymore could plug in YOUR 2nd box and card.

I was thinking of the setup where they'd be connected to YOUR satellite - meaning they'd have to be a neighbour. It never occurred to me that you could use a different satellite. I assume there ARE some neighbours who do this (a strategic hole in the shared wall would do the job).

Do you get me now?

---------- Post added at 22:59 ---------- Previous post was at 22:56 ----------

Originally Posted by Druchii

So, why hasn't anyone come up with a way of faking the reply from the boxes back to Sky yet? Surely this would be highly profitable for them?

Like a little electronic box that fakes a landline signal? Sounds tricky, depends on what the STB does with this connection to check. I'm sure the thing would be out there if it was possible.

[gazzae]

I think Sky use CLI to check on the box, they send a signal to the box via the satellite and then the box dials up sky.

[Druchii]

Originally Posted by gazzae

I think Sky use CLI to check on the box, they send a signal to the box via the satellite and then the box dials up sky.

If it was only next door it would be easy to set up a bluetooth device etc... you get my drift by now, just a thought really, i'd better stop before i violate the User Policy os this place.

[nffc]

Originally Posted by gazzae

I think Sky use CLI to check on the box, they send a signal to the box via the satellite and then the box dials up sky.

Hmm. Wonder how it manages that, without obviously taking the phone line or being itemised on bills etc.

Any sky techs know?

[RealDiamond]

After 12 months you dont need any phone line. it is the veiwing card that controlls what channels decription works. If you have the right credit cards you can get the sky+ box and dish and installation for Half price. Once your on your second month, you can change the selected package to anything but you must continue paying for a package for 12 months, after that Sky have to Provide the Freeview viewing cards and you keep the dish and box. secondly due to the LNBs only allowing Four connections, each dish can only support up 2 Sky+ Boxes, or 4 normall freeveiw Satboxes, when you get sky each viewing card is encoded to each box. Sky controll that at their end . I've moved FROM Exeter to Bournemouth but still get the local channels from Exeter and have multi room active with no phone line at all.

---------- Post added at 16:22 ---------- Previous post was at 15:57 ----------

sky+ boxes are avalible in 3 models the badge on the front is all that visable diff on the first 2
1 the cheap £50 -£100 one is max of 80Gb
2 is the £150-£200 SKY+160 Ie 160Gb storage
3 NEW one, £300 .SKY+HD well ya kinda guess. its the 160GB model With the MPEG4 decoder as well as MPEG2 decoder and extra output connections for HDTV channels

---------- Post added at 16:24 ---------- Previous post was at 16:22 ----------

Originally Posted by nffc

Hmm. Wonder how it manages that, without obviously taking the phone line or being itemised on bills etc.

Any sky techs know?

just dials out a freephone number at night time. itemised bills require specific request to display these numbers

[ian@huth]

I have Sky+ with a second Sky+ box as the multiroom box. When I first got Sky+ I had my standard digibox moved to the study as the multiroom box. Last year Sky were doing an offer of a Sky+ box for £49 with free installation if you took or had multiroom. I took advantage of this offer and despatched my old standard digibox to the loft as a reserve in case of problems with one of the Sky+ boxes which couldn't be fixed for several days.

As a new customer you can get Sky+ for £89 and take advantage of their current offer of a second Sky+ box for £89 with free fitting of both for taking multiroom.

Sky are now fitting octo LNB's in some installations. These have eight connections and you can connect any combination of boxes noting that Sky+ boxes and Sky HD boxes require two connections each with a standard digibox requiring one connection. If you have an octo LNB with two Sky+ boxes connected on multiroom you will have four spare connections. You can put up to four standard digiboxes on these spare connections at no additional monthly charge if you just have them as Freesat boxes or £10 per month extra for each with a mirror subscription of your main boxes. Freesat boxes do not require connection to the phone line.