Sky in france and Sky+

happyhero

Hi my sister in law moved to France and took her Sky with her so she could watch some decent TV although thats debateable sometimes.

Anyway her box is playing up and she was looking to get a cheap replacement. I looked on ebay. She is coming over in January so she wants me to get her one cheapish.

Can she use a Sky+ box even though she does not subscribe to Sky+ or have a Sky+ box at the moment, ie can she simply put her card in the sky+ box and get the same she had before?

Is there a reason she should just get an ordinary one and not a Sky+ one?

If it is a Sky+ box and therefore has a harddrive, can you use the harddrive to record? Might be a silly question as I know you have to subscribe to get Sky+ but if you dont does that disable the HD somehow?

Is there a preferrable make she should get for reliability? Panasonic, Pace? I went through loads when they changed one that I had that was faulty until I finally got one without problems that would last. I was told they are nearly all just reconditioned ones and thats why, even though they all look new when they bring them round.

Any help appreciated.

Avoriaz

She will have to subscribe to Sky+ to use the recording facility and Sky security is watertight so there is no point her buying a Sky+ box unless she intends to subscribe to Sky+. It will work fine as a normal Sky box but the recording facility is controlled by Sky. If you don’t subscribe to Sky+ it will not work.

I think it costs £10 per month unless you also subscribe to two premium channels, e.g. Movies and Sports, in which case it is free. Check with Sky for this.

Are you aware that your sister is breaking the terms of her contract with Sky by using it in France? It is supposed to be for UK use only. She is of course just one of many hundreds of thousands of people doing the same thing all across Europe.

Naughty girl.:D

Moneymaker

I got a nice Thomson box off eBay for £20. However, the one I would really recommend is the Pace DS430N. This is not cheap but it's regarded as the best and most reliable.

She must NOT let Sky find out that she's using her card outside the UK or it will be disabled immediately.

happyhero

A

re you aware that your sister is breaking the terms of her contract with Sky by using it in France? It is supposed to be for UK use only. She is of course just one of many hundreds of thousands of people doing the same thing all across Europe.

Cheers guys. Yes she knows she is not supposed to use it there, but like you say everyone is. I read that Sky do not allow it but turn a blind eye to it unless you flaunt it in their face. She organises it through her daughter in UK, so SKY knows nothing about its whereabouts.

So you are saying they are able to disable the HD remotely, I believe you but it sounds crazy that there is a HD in your machine and they can stop you using it from afar. You'd think if you pressed record it would just kick into life. I understand not getting channels if you dont pay for them because they incrypt them but stopping appliances working remotely is another thing.

She was simply looking at a Sky+ box because she saw one going cheap on ebay and it was near her daughter's house in the UK, but she doesn't want to bother with the Sky+ package.

I got a nice Thomson box off eBay for £20. However, the one I would really recommend is the Pace DS430N. This is not cheap but it's regarded as the best and most reliable.

You say the PACE DS430N is good, what about Panasonic, I thought I heard somewhere that most Panasonics are good and hard to get hold of?

Avoriaz

Sky don’t have to “disable” the hard drive, they just don’t “enable” it.

They control Sky+ recording ability in the same way that they control which channels you can watch. For example, if you don’t subscribe to Sky sports, you cannot watch those channels. If you don’t subscribe to Sky+ the box will not allow you to use the recording software. The hard drive would just sit there doing nothing. No matter how many times you press record, the box will not instruct the hard drive to spin up and record.

happyhero

One additional question please, when you do get a new box do you have to do anything ie I think when they have replaced a faulty box for me in the past they do something like phoning Sky and register the card to the box, or something. So if you are changing a box yourself what do you have to do anything or nothing so that it will work?

Moneymaker

I have a Panasonic TU-DSB40 which works fine. But lots of people have reported problems so, if I have to replace it, I'll go for the DS430N.

If you change your Digibox and you subscribe to any "Premium" channels, you'll have to phone Sky and ask them to "pair" the viewing card with the replacement Digibox. They will ask questions about name, address, postcode, viewing card number, Digibox serial number and version number (from the on-screen menu). Ideally the card should already be in the Digibox, set to Sky News, and you should call from a UK phone or UK registered mobile, to avoid awkward questions. If they do ask an awkward question just shout "Coming! - Sorry, I just heard the doorbell - I'll call back" and hang up. You'll get a different operator next time you call.

Disclaimer: I didn't tell you that.