Sky Replacement Card

will-in-estoril

You old $ky card is now an ice scraper, nothing more.

Phone Nollywood (geographical 0207 number.) Do not mention your $ky subscription at all. Tell them you have a digibox with no card. If they try and refer you to $ky, tell them that $ky have said that they (Nollywood) must provide the card. Pay by PayPoint, not credit or debit card.

Once the card is received call them to activate it. They can be a bit rubbish in not entering the card into the $ky database initially: what this means is that your card will not regionalise. They eventually sorted it for me ok.

NonGeographicalMan

will-in-estoril wrote: »

They can be a bit rubbish in not entering the card into the $ky database initially: what this means is that your card will not regionalise. They eventually sorted it for me ok.

Will,

I expect that its entirely probable they have now had more practice at setting up completely brand new customers with new viewing cards since you made your post in the forum. You were obviously a guinea pig as probably before you they had only ever added rights to view their channel to existing Sky viewing cards.

But Sky themselves clearly showed on their replacement card website that this company and several others were alternative sources to Sky who could issue you with a brand new viewing card.

dougz_2

will-in-estoril wrote: »

You old $ky card is now an ice scraper, nothing more.

It still gives me all the PVR functions. If I get a brand new white card from Nollywood then PVR will be disabled I assume. I don't know if I would be able to swap between the cards as needed, or would the white card kill of the blue somehow? Or does anyone know when my blue card is likely to die completely anyway?

NonGeographicalMan

dougz wrote: »

It still gives me all the PVR functions. If I get a brand new white card from Nollywood then PVR will be disabled I assume. I don't know if I would be able to swap between the cards as needed, or would the white card kill of the blue somehow? Or does anyone know when my blue card is likely to die completely anyway?

Sky probably still haven't killed the old cards off by changing their encryption system yet but they must be about to do so any time soon. But don't you get messages on all your recordings demanding that you contact Sky to get a new viewing card all the time now?

dougz_2

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

But don't you get messages on all your recordings demanding that you contact Sky to get a new viewing card all the time now?

The messages aren't on the recordings, they send them over the air. They seemed to have stopped doing it constantly, I can go days without seeing one, then suddenly they are back, but it depends on the channel and is never as bad as it was.

NonGeographicalMan

will-in-estoril wrote: »

$ky has not handled this changeover as smoothly as the last. However, they are on top of their game when it comes to encryption, so that it will not be long before it changes.

The difference would seem to be the much larger number of FreesatFromSky and PayOnceWatchForever viewers plus also ex subscription viewers than at the time of the last changeover.

As Sky's records of such Sky box users seem to be either poor or non existent and they also seem to have been determined not to just bulk issue free replacement viewing cards to everyone on this group if they can get away with it they seem to have had to delay the changeover of the encryption system for much longer than they originally planned so as to avoid too much adverse publicity from cutting off any viewers without them having had adequate warning time to do something about it.

alexeix

Hmmm...I'm having trouble finding anyone in the UK with Sky who will initialise the card for me; everyone's worried that it might affect their subscription.

I've read online that as long as the card is in the decoder box in Spain, I can ring up from the UK and get them to initialise it, i.e. there's no way for Sky to know the physical location of the card.

Is that correct?

If so, it will save me a load of hassle.

Also, what's the actual process when you phone them? Do you need to do anything on the decoder (will I need to have my folks on another phone call)?
Thanks.

Inactive

alexeix wrote: »

Also, what's the actual process when you phone them? Do you need to do anything on the decoder (will I need to have my folks on another phone call)?
Thanks.

I have activated a few of these cards in the UK for friends in Spain.

You need the card in the receiver when you ring Sky, they will ask you to go to the Services menu, give all of the details of the receiver and card number then they will activate it within 24 hours, it will, once activated work in any Sky Receiver.

It will not work if the Sky Receiver does not have the latest software, something that is quite common with Sky Receivers in Spain, due to poor signal quality.

So I'm afraid it isn't very easy to do what you suggest.

alexeix

So if a friend with a Sky subscription removes their card, inserts my Sky Freesat card and then goes through the activation process with Sky, they will subsequently be able to just put their card back into the decoder and their subscription will continue unaffected?

There is some concern from people I've asked, that the card pairs with the decoder, so they may have problems with their own card, after going through this process with mine.

Inactive

alexeix wrote: »

So if a friend with a Sky subscription removes their card, inserts my Sky Freesat card and then goes through the activation process with Sky, they will subsequently be able to just put their card back into the decoder and their subscription will continue unaffected?

There is some concern from people I've asked, that the card pairs with the decoder, so they may have problems with their own card, after going through this process with mine.

That is a question I cannot answer, I have used spare ( different ) Sky receivers to activate each card individually.

I have a distinct feeling that your friends concerns could be well founded, I wouldn't risk it personally.

The only sure fire safe way is to bring the receiver back from Spain and activate the card here in the UK, or buy an old Sky receiver for around a fiver at a Car Boot Sale and use that for activation.