new Sky+HD user - some questions

herman2811

Just subscribed to sky for the first time, and got a HD box.

First couple of questions that spring to mind:

Are there any issues with switching it off completely overnight, ie, from the wall socket, rather than leaving it on standby using the remote?

Also, do I need to keep it connected to the phone line at all times? (for system updates?)

Am sure I'll have more questions as I use it more...!

Thanks in advance

Edit: another question: I have a 250GB box - how can I see how much space is remaining? Thanks

SkyMan

Hello,

You are fine to switch your box off at the mains at night time. To avoid damaging the hard drive, please hold the standby button on your sky remote control. While holding it, watch the light on the box, it will change from green to AMBER. Keep holding the standby button until the light on the box goes to RED. Then switch it off at the mains supply.

Software updates are done through a dedicated transponder on the satellite, so there is no need for the phone line to be connected (unless you have multiroom, you must keep all of your boxes connect at the same time so sky can see that they are all still in the same house). If you disconnect the telephone line, you will not be able to use any interactive services, or book box office movies/events through the handset. Other than that, everything will work fine.

To see how much available space you have on your planner, press TV GUIDE, followed by the GREEN button to see your planner. Above where your recordings are, running from left to right is a "meter" of how much space you have used, at the right hand side you will see a percentage of the space you have left.

I hope this helps, if you have any more questions give me a shout

(sky employee)

penrhyn

Sky boxes are designed to be left on all the time. If you switch them off at the wall they will take up to a couple of minutes booting up and loading the EPG.
They are also designed to automatically go into low power standby mode over night.
Anytime programmes are downloaded over night although this is not a problem with the Anytime + internet service.

spike7451

SkyMan wrote: »

Hello,

You are fine to switch your box off at the mains at night time. To avoid damaging the hard drive, please hold the standby button on your sky remote control. While holding it, watch the light on the box, it will change from green to AMBER. Keep holding the standby button until the light on the box goes to RED. Then switch it off at the mains supply.

Software updates are done through a dedicated transponder on the satellite, so there is no need for the phone line to be connected (unless you have multiroom, you must keep all of your boxes connect at the same time so sky can see that they are all still in the same house). If you disconnect the telephone line, you will not be able to use any interactive services, or book box office movies/events through the handset. Other than that, everything will work fine.

To see how much available space you have on your planner, press TV GUIDE, followed by the GREEN button to see your planner. Above where your recordings are, running from left to right is a "meter" of how much space you have used, at the right hand side you will see a percentage of the space you have left.

I hope this helps, if you have any more questions give me a shout

(sky employee)

That is contradictory to what we were told as Sky Engineers,all that is doing is shutting down the box fully instead of putting it into Standby.
It takes the same amount of time,longer in fact,to reboot the box from shut down.
Sky boxes should be left on at the mains at all times unless going away for a long period of time.Constantly switching on & off at them mains has a detrimental affect on not just the hard drive,but also the PSU & can affect the LNB.
You will also miss the updates sent to your box which are mainly done at night,this can also cause problems with the box.
As well as that,if you have your TV aerial routed thru the Sky box,turning off the power will vastly degrade the picture on other sets in the house.

HTH,

Spike (ex Sky Field Engineer)

penrhyn

I agree with Spike.
(Never been a Sky engineer!)

SkyMan

Yeah, shutting the box down before switching it off at the mains should avoid any adverse effects on the PSU or hard drive though (as far as we have been told). It is definitely better to leave it plugged in, some people like them switched off for "safetys sake" because they are in the habit of switching everything off at night, others think its to save money on electricity. Leaving the box plugged in will have a very minimal effect on the electricity bill. Standard anytime programmes will not record onto the box if it is off at the mains.

herman2811

I guess the general consensus is to leave it on standby then.

What are the thoughts on leaving the phoneline connected?
Skyman - I see on another thread, you were saying that Sky expect a call-back from the box each month? So I should leave it connected?

SkyMan

It is not necessary to have the box connected to the telephone line, unless you have more than one sky box. If you have 2 or more sky boxes they must all be connected to the same phone line, this is so that sky can see that all the boxes are in the same house.

If you only have one sky box, you should have it connected to a telephone line for the first 12 months. However sky do not enforce this at all. The phone line is only required to use interactive services (such as billing) and to book pay per view events through the handset. If you don't have the phone line connected, you will have to call sky to book any pay per view movies or events.

If you don't want it connected, then just disconnect it. I promise you, sky will not be bothered in the slightest.

All other functions will be fine.

I hope this helps.

Give me a shout if you have any other queries.

miss_trust_2

just a small reminder, that if you are within your first 12 months of contract your box should be connected to the telephone line, if i can remember (from working with sky) it was terms and conditions

penrhyn

miss_trust wrote: »

just a small reminder, that if you are within your first 12 months of contract your box should be connected to the telephone line, if i can remember (from working with sky) it was terms and conditions

Yes but the condition is not enforced unless you have multiroom.

miss_trust_2

I had to deal with customers phoning in to complain to sky because they had reinforced it to those within minimum term and not on multi room, so they can enforce it - just not done right across the board - and that's what customers agreed to within the term and conditions when they signed up for sky so if they get penalised for disconnecting then blame no-one but themselves - sorry to sound harsh but true

Always enforced with multi room, as you rightly say