Sky HD - advice please

scottishminnie

I currently have a sky box (original box when I joined sky 18 years ago) and pay the full £47.50 per month for movies, sport etc.

The box is on it's last legs, an increasing number of channels are not available with error messages or are fragmented. I don't think it's worth repairing the existing box and started to look at what I could get from Sky now.

I've tried the phone call claiming to be thinking about cancelling etc but no joy so I need to work out the best option which I think is the current offer of a Sky+HD box and subscription for a £30 installation fee and £9.75 extra per month for the HD part so I'd end up paying £58.25 a month.

My question is - I don't have an HD tv - will the engineer be able to tell this and refuse to install the box and if not will it make any difference that I don't have an HD tv?

My reasoning for this offer is -
for an existing customer to get a basic sky+ box is £149.
for me to take the HD offer would cost £30 + £117(12month min subscription x£9.75) = £147

that way if I didn't want the HD at the end of the year I figure I could downgrade my subscription. I can't see any clauses which say they would take the Sky HD box back.

Happy to take advice in case I'm missing something here - I'm just assuming the fact that my TV isn't HD would simply mean I wouldn't see any change in the picture.

Thanks

Marty_J

The installer will certainly notice you don't have an HD TV, but I can't imagine it'll make any difference.

Have you considered FreeSat?

scottishminnie

I hadn't thought about Freesat since I thought that was just for the free channels - I don't want to lose the existing sky channels I have just get a box which works.

maxtweenie

Just tell the engineer the HD TV is being delivered next week. Then ask him to set up Sky on your existing TV until it's delivered.

MX5huggy

I can't believe SKY are not just rushing round with a new box for you.

The cheapest option is just buy a box off eBay and put your card in it. I sold one for £25 the other week. To part fund my move to freesat

sunshine54

sounds to me like its the LNB failing rather than the box, in which case a new sky box or freesat box won't help.

scottishminnie

I wondered if it was the satellite dish rather than the box - either way Sky wanted £60 for a callout. They told me I couldn't buy a new dish only a new box but if I get a new box and there is still a fault and it turns out to be the dish they would repair or replace it.

I did ask if there were recommended suppliers where I could buy a Sky + box from but they told me the only place I could buy a box was directly from them. I know you can buy them on ebay but I figure there's no warranty there and if it turns out to be the dish then I've bought a new box and still have to pay sky to come out

My husband thinks I should just bite the bullet and pay the £149 for the sky + box as he doesn't want HD but I just don't feel I'm getting much for my money. Maybe I'm just being miserable, the sky rep did point out I'd been very lucky to get 18 years out of the existing box with no problems, but then they've had 18 years of max subscriptions

spike7451

Marty_J wrote: »

The installer will certainly notice you don't have an HD TV, but I can't imagine it'll make any difference.

Have you considered FreeSat?

No,I've fitted a few HD Sky systems without the TV,All he'll do is record that you dont have a HD TV & it's up to you to set the box up when you get the TV.Sky'll charge you if you want an engineer to do it later.

If your cable runs over the roof (IE,Dish at back & tv in front) mention to Sky about that as the engineer should replace the old cable as well as fitting a new one.

HTH,
Spike

Devin_Shockwell

scottishminnie wrote: »

I'd been very lucky to get 18 years out of the existing box with no problems, but then they've had 18 years of max subscriptions

Sure that's not months? :rolleyes:

I went through a few Sky+ Boxes in my time and always sourced them from ebay. Just look for the good ones from reputable sellers, it's a risk but a hell of alot better than ordering from Sky. Just to throw this in perspective, I bought 2 Sky+ Boxes one of which I upgraded to a 250GB hard drive and also got an additional box for the multi-room (non Sky+) for less than the cost of a single Sky+ box from Sky direct! Once you get the box it's a simple matter of setting it up and calling Sky to register the new box with your subscription.

Also with the new Sky HD interface that they are rolling out I'm not sure I'd recommend this box for standard definition televisions. You might have troubling working out whats what on the small resolution screen. Having said that I did buy an additional Sky HD box and installed it in the 'multi-room' without HD subscription but on a HDTV. Took a little time to explain to Sky I simply wanted the freeview HD channels which was the reason for my upgrade but they eventually understood and linked the box to my subscription minus the paid HD content!

scottishminnie

I'm not planning to use the sky+ box for recording (or very little anyway) so not worried about the hard drive size. Apologies if this sounds stupid but if I buy one from a decent source is it simply a case of unplugging the cables from the back of the old box and plugging the new one in.
Also when you call sky to register the new box do they ask you where you got it? They told me they were the only approved sellers and there was no warranty on boxes from elsewhere (I'm beginning to think they may have told fibs??)

scottishminnie

Devin_Shockwell wrote: »

Sure that's not months? :rolleyes:

I guess 18 years is quite good - do you think I could sell the old box on ebay as an antique sky box!!