What really happens to sky+ recordings when you downgrade your packages?

bona

I have been looking to downgrade my packages to try and save some money each month.

I have loads saved on my sky+ planner from skysports and other entertainment package channels.

In the faq on a digital spy forum thread from 12/07/2007 it says

"Sky+ encrypts the recordings you make, and basically looks at your subscription to see if you are entitled to view/record the programme. If you cancel your subscription, your recorded programmes become unviewable. The only way to view the prorgammes again is to reinstate your subscription to the channel, for example Sky Movies or Sky Sports. There is no way around this."

I am wondering if this still holds true. A week ago someone on the sky telephones confirmed something similar to the above.


When I called last Saturday though to downgrade, I was told that I should wait until my billing date to downgrade to get the full saving. Also I was told that when you downgrade sky wipe all your saved programmes for good and that when you upgrade they will no longer be available. :eek:



So I would like to know if anyone has downgraded recently with programmes saved in their sky planner, for the programmes to disappear and then upon upgrading has found and been able to access the programmes again.

Also does anyone know if you completely cancel all paid for channels and then reinstate some at a later date whether again programmes saved in the planner prior to cancellation will still be there.

I don't know what to believe and I do not want to lose my saved football matches. :eek:

LeeSouthEast

I can confirm you lose access to pre-recorded premium content if you no longer subscribe to the particular package it came from. They didn't delete them but they became unplayable and had to be deleted from the planner manually to save wasting space. Assuming they don't delete them automatically now, then yes, at a later date, they'd come back to life if you upgraded back to whichever package permitted you to record them in the first place.

HTH

onetomany

yes we lost ours, we pay £10 per month to use the recording for the free channels

hobgate

You cant play your recordings back, until you resubscribe, i did after 2 months and was then able to watch the shows i'd recorded.

jackieb

I stopped my HD subscription and can no longer watch anything i'd previously recorded on HD. If you have a dvd recorder you can always record your programmes to disc before you downgrade.

One thing I have noticed since stopping the HD is how much of the Anytime content is in HD. It bugs me as they show films and programmes on mostly HD channels. I get the movies and documentary packages but instead of showing stuff that's on Sky movies or FX or Nat Geo, it's all on there on Sky movies HD, FXHD and Nat GeoHD!! Most annoying.

norbet

jackieb wrote: »

One thing I have noticed since stopping the HD is how much of the Anytime content is in HD. It bugs me as they show films and programmes on mostly HD channels. I get the movies and documentary packages but instead of showing stuff that's on Sky movies or FX or Nat Geo, it's all on there on Sky movies HD, FXHD and Nat GeoHD!! Most annoying.

Sods law strikes again? Could this have anything to do with the fact that you have a HD box? Would a normal Sky+ box have all these HD programmes in Anytime?

hobgate

My box doesnt have anytime!!

jackieb

norbet wrote: »

Sods law strikes again? Could this have anything to do with the fact that you have a HD box? Would a normal Sky+ box have all these HD programmes in Anytime?

I didn't think of that. I'll have to have a look at my parents' normal Sky+ box.

LeeSouthEast

Just checked my Sky+ (non-HD) box. Nothing HD on Anytime.

norbet

hobgate wrote: »

My box doesnt have anytime!!

Sorry was referring to jackieb who was talking about anytime stuff in HD

norbet

LeeSouthEast wrote: »

Just checked my Sky+ (non-HD) box. Nothing HD on Anytime.

As I suspected - the HD boxes have HD specific content then (which makes sense).