converting sky+ to freesat

frugglewump

My friend has sky - £34/month package and the sky+ box.

He wants to convert to freesat by cancelling - but also wants to keep the sky+ box. Does anyone know if they take it away and give you a normal box when you pay the £20?

Yes I know he should phone and ask - I have mentioned this several times, but am getting nowhere so thought i'd ask on here.

marble

I thought that a Sky+ (or Sky) contract was for 12 months? After this, you can do anything with the box you want.

If you cancel a Sky+ contract and take freesat, you will definitely lose all the recording features of the Sky+ box (it will return to having the features of a normal Sky box).

If your friend is outside of 12 months, they will keep the Sky+ box, but the recording features will be turned off remotely by Sky.

Al

BexTech

When you cancel you lose the recording function, if you want to keep the recording function you need to pay £10/month.

The box is theirs to keep, even if you cancel before 12 months, but if you do cancel before 12 months, you will have to pay to the end of the contract.

You don't need to buy a £20 "freesat" card, the current subscription card will become a FTV card AKA Freesat card, even if Sky try and tell you otherwise.

The "Freesat" FTV card is only required for Ch4, Five and Sky Three, all the other free channels are FTA so require no card. The card is also used to tell the box which BBC/ITV regions to use at 101 - 103.

FTA = Free To Air - No subscription required, no viewing card required.
FTV = Free To View - No subscription required, viewing card is required.

carl310166

BexTech wrote:

When you cancel you lose the recording function, if you want to keep the recording function you need to pay £10/month.

The box is theirs to keep, even if you cancel before 12 months, but if you do cancel before 12 months, you will have to pay to the end of the contract.

You don't need to buy a £20 "freesat" card, the current subscription card will become a FTV card AKA Freesat card, even if Sky try and tell you otherwise.

The "Freesat" FTV card is only required for Ch4, Five and Sky Three, all the other free channels are FTA so require no card. The card is also used to tell the box which BBC/ITV regions to use at 101 - 103.

FTA = Free To Air - No subscription required, no viewing card required.
FTV = Free To View - No subscription required, viewing card is required.

I can confirm this,BUT it took me almost a month during Jan/Feb this year,and many many phone calls to Sky to try and arrange this,nobody on the telephone at Sky knew it could be done,but did manage to get emails from them to say it deffo could be,unfortunately the call centre staff didn't agree. In the end,i emailed James Murdoch directly,and soon enough,it was sorted.

That being said,i am an unlucky when it comes to ringing people who don't know what they are doing,so you may get it sorted straight away.

wdywuk

One thing to note, and this was the case about a year ago, when you cancel your Sky+ subscription, the recording features turn off - that also includes the "auto-tune" feature in your planner (it turn to the desired channel at the relevant time).Don't know if they have changed that - but since the Sky+ only had a "record" rather than a "switch channel" feature that may be the reason why.

Jean_Lawton-Day

I'd like to know what channels are available on Freesat?

456789

Jean_Lawton-Day wrote: »

I'd like to know what channels are available on Freesat?

http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/freesat-tv-choice.aspx

http://www.freesat.co.uk/index.php?page=whatson.Main

BexTech

Remember all the FTA channels listed on FreesatFromSky are viewable on the BBC/ITV Freesat service, many directly via the EPG, the others you have to add via the add channels. Note there are 3 or 4 channels that are not FTA but FTV listed and therefore require a Sky box and card though no subscription.

missile

frugglewump wrote: »

My friend has sky - £34/month package and the sky+ box.

He wants to convert to freesat by cancelling - but also wants to keep the sky+ box. Does anyone know if they take it away and give you a normal box when you pay the £20?

Yes I know he should phone and ask - I have mentioned this several times, but am getting nowhere so thought i'd ask on here.

I did that and I can confirm the Sky+ box loses the record feature and you cannot access any recorded programs either. You do not need to buy card, the existing card works as a free to air card.

Sky sends out a signal to cancel the extra features on the card. I have been told, if you remove the card from the box for .......... (a while) you can avoid the turn off signal.

Your friend would need to buy a Freesat box and card if he wants to view their premium channels. Some TVs like Panasonic have a Freesat facility http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/711712/index.html#anker_711715

PLEASE make sure to send Sky cancellation by registered post.

BexTech

missile wrote: »

I did that and I can confirm the Sky+ box loses the record feature and you cannot access any recorded programs either. You do not need to buy card, the existing card works as a free to air card.

Sky sends out a signal to cancel the extra features on the card. I have been told, if you remove the card from the box for .......... (a while) you can avoid the turn off signal.

Your friend would need to buy a Freesat box and card if he wants to view their premium channels. Some TVs like Panasonic have a Freesat facility http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/711712/index.html#anker_711715

PLEASE make sure to send Sky cancellation by registered post.

That should be the existing card works as a Free To VIEW card. Free To Air channels don't require a viewing card (and therefore no such thing as a free to air card), just the 3 or so FTV (Free To View) channels.

perfectcover

Hi,

I'm fed up with paying for the monthly package with my Sky+ box. I understand that to keep the recording part of the Sky+ box with only the free to view channels I have to pay £10/month

Therefore I want to buy a Freeview + recorder to watch and record HD programs from the Freesat.

Is this meerly a swap of the boxes?
Or do I need a new dish?
Any other comments would be welcome.

I'm looking at the Humax Foxsat 320Gb HDR box - any comments on this?

Cheers

Clive:T