Can sky+ box be used without the decoder card?

kalaika

Hi all.

Sorry if these questions seem basic, but I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to satellite TV...

I have recently moved into a new house and the previous owners have left their sky dish and sky+ box here for us. (They emigrated so was of no use to them). They have obviously cancelled their subscription and send back/destroyed their decoder card but I have two questions about whether we can use the sky+ box for anything without subscribing:

1. I have seen on the sky website http://packages.sky.com/see/FreeAirChannels.aspx that I should be able to receive some free-to-air channels (basically the Freeview ones) but can I just plug in the box to my TV and watch these or do I still need a decoder card to "authorise" the box to work? Also, will the dish need any alteration to pick up these channels or should it be good to go?

2. Assuming that the answer to 1 is that I should be able to pick up the free channels, will I be able to use the sky+ box as a hard disk recorder to record and play back the free channels, or does the recording capability only come with a decoder card?

Thanks in advance for your help!

simoncrouch

In theory yes it will work, problem you have is you will only be able to record a channel you are not watching if you have a 2LNB input onto your dish. Otherwise you'll only have one signal, namely one channel at a time.

Inactive

In a nutshell, yes to question (1), plug it all in and try it.

NO to question (2) You will need to subscribe to Sky for the recording facility to function, minimum subscription is I believe £10 a month.

macman

The box will work as a receiver without a viewing card (you just lose the encrypted channels), but the recording function will not operate.
A replacement viewing card will cost you abot £20 from SDky for the other channels.

Moneymaker

But the £20 "Freesat" will not get you record/playback functions. The only way to get that is to subscribe to the minimum package. You can then cancel that (either within 7 days* or after 12 months) and drop to the £10 per month subscription that gets you ONLY the ability to record/play Freesat programmes.

*Usually takes a bit of persuading and a few days of phone calls.