losing sky channels

soolin

I've got sky + and in the past week have suddenly started to lose channels, what happens is that when you select a channel, usually a movie one, all you get is a bright blue screen. I have phoned them up several times and they have talked me through all sorts of updates to software and checking my leads but they are baffled.

The channels I usually lose are odd movie channels, not all of them just some of them intermittently. The only thing Sky can sugegst is that they cancel my viewing card which means I lose sky entirely, and issue a new one that will probably take 5 days to arrive, however they see even that is just a off chance thing as if the card was faulty I would lose all the service or all the premium channels, not just a few of them.

The only other thing I have noticed is that I have the warning battery indicator showing on the task bar and despite changing the batteries in the remote the warning does not go away. Could this be a hand set issue and if so is it simple to get another sky + remote?

jackthenipper

If they were to send you a new viewing card, when you recieved it & it was activated they would be due you a loss of viewing credit from the time the card was disabled to you getting the new card as its not a fault that you have caused its something that they need to rectify. ITS iether the viewing card or the actual card reader built into the box, which would need the box replaced, this is what they would need to do if the replacement card was unsucessfull.
Hope this helps.

Inactive

soolin wrote: »

Could this be a hand set issue and if so is it simple to get another sky + remote?

It sounds possible, replacement handsets are available on fleabay etc.

soolin

I think I might try the new remote first as last night the channels all came back again at about 9pm as they have done for the past 3 nights. I still have all the channels now and if the usual pattern is followed I should start losing random channels from about 2pm this afternoon. It is so odd though that I only lose a few channels, and they are not always the same ones although they are always in the 300s.

I am hoping it isn't the sky box though as I am out of warranty.

soolin

Sorry can I please ask another question? I've had a look through various Google searches and know that if I buy a new remote I must make sure it has the same colour button as the one I am already using, but do I have to 'link' it in at all to the TV and box or will it come ready to use?

Stupid question I know but a few years ago I bought one of those multi handset things and when it arrived it had a thick booklet about how to link it in with all the machines using codes and things and it went waaaay over my head.

Inactive

It should work straight " out of the box ".;)

jackthenipper

You can use any sky remote on the boxes, the multi function remote controls dont operate the sky box.

Inactive

jackthenipper wrote: »

You can use any sky remote on the boxes, the multi function remote controls dont operate the sky box.

Not strictly true, a standard Sky Receiver Remote Control will not operate a Sky + Receiver and a multi function R/C can be programmed to work a Sky Receiver, albeit not very effectively.

gnatschuffed

I can't see how it would be the remote tbh. Have you tried turning the box off at the mains completely for a few minutes then switching it back on? This should at least reboot the box. Is the signal quality and signal strength okay? Hopefully once you have the new card, you can isolate the card from the problem.

BTW, if you do buy a universal remote, take a look at the Logitech Harmony range. They start at £40 for the 525. I still use one for my bedroom and now use the Harmony One (about £100) and they're very easy to programme (done online) and use and really simplify your setup. Unless you have lots of equipment e.g. AV amp and so on I wouldn't normally recommend one but they do cut down on coffee table clutter and they will work with absolutely everything as long as it's a well known brand name and a few others besides. They work flawlessly with sky, sky+ and sky+ HD boxes. The person saying that "multi-function" remotes don't work properly must be referring to a 'One 4 all' type (cheap and nasty) remote which I would not recommend at all.

jackthenipper

Inactive wrote: »

Not strictly true, a standard Sky Receiver Remote Control will not operate a Sky + Receiver and a multi function R/C can be programmed to work a Sky Receiver, albeit not very effectively.

I didn't say a standard remote would operate a sky+ box, what i did say was that all remotes will work on boxes. If i was talking about sky+ then i would have said sky+.
The reason i said standard box is due to the op saying his remote was inop on his Amstrad digibox which is not sky+.

NineThreeNine

This happens on my old box. We ended up finding out that it was just a certain set of channels that always did this, but you could use other channels to get to them.

For example, ITV 1 (channel 103) gave us a blue screen; however, you could access it by going to channel 401 (Sky Sports?) then going to ITV 1.

I believe Sky Sports 1 worked for all of these channels.