Sky Box only playing 3 channels

rattyjack

Our Freeview Digi-Box, which is about 5 years old now, is starting to play up. So we retrieved our old Sky box from the loft to see if we could use that instead. But it is only letting us tune into BBC1 BBC2 and ITV.

Does anyone know why this is happening??

Thanks.

edna_clouds

To get CH4 and CH5 you will need to get a freeview card from sky. I think they are £20 ish.. If you have got a old sky viewing card with the yellow house on it leave it in your receiver for a day or two to see if it will reactivate..
Are you sure you can only get those three channels? Can you get Sky news(501) and other free channels..

The sky card is called FREESATFROMSKY.

rattyjack

Thanks for that, we have got the old sky card with the yellow house on, so we shall have another go!!

Thanks again.

BexTech

rattyjack wrote: »

Thanks for that, we have got the old sky card with the yellow house on, so we shall have another go!!

Thanks again.

That sounds like the latest issue card.

BBC1, BBC2 and ITV are all Free To Air so don't require the card.

Though you'll be getting the other BBC and ITV channels too though and around 100 other Free To Air channels.

The FreeToView card AKA FreesatFromSky Viewing Card (don't confuse with Freeview) will need to be used for Ch4, Five, Sky Three, Five US and Five Life.

Your own viewing card becomes a FTV card so that is fine.

However as the card has missed the keep alive signals, you will simply need to leave the card in the digibox for 24 - 72 hours and it will receive a signal from the satellite and wake up again.

I'm surprise however you weren't using both the Freeview and the satellite box all this time, especially with the 100 or so free channels on satellite.

rattyjack

Thanks for that,

Just wondered whether we need to leave the skybox in standby mode or left on over this period, whilst its re-setting itself??

BexTech

Standby is fine as it's not really that much of a standby, just cuts the picture off to the TV.

sco0ter

You might have to force a software/firmware upgrade.. That way you wont have to wait 4-5 days for sky to do it

Inactive

rattyjack wrote: »

Our Freeview Digi-Box, which is about 5 years old now, is starting to play up. So we retrieved our old Sky box from the loft to see if we could use that instead. But it is only letting us tune into BBC1 BBC2 and ITV.

Does anyone know why this is happening??

Thanks.

First of all, let us know the Make / Model of your Sky Box, secondly let us know which software it is on. ( This can be found in the service menu ).

The problem is because the Sky Box has been disconnected, it has missed software updates that Sky send automatically.

A forced software update may cure your Sky Box, depending on make / model, otherwise leaving it connected and plugged in, it will auto update itself, however this could take some time for certain models of Sky Box.

edna_clouds

If you want to force a download disconnect the power supply and then press back up on the front of the receiver and reconnect whilst still pressing the back up button until you get the software update message on your screen..
This however will not get your card to activate any quicker..

sco0ter

Switch off the receiver at the mains wall socket. Press and hold the front panel "backup" button and switch the mains power back on. Continue to hold the button for 20 seconds or until the LEDs all light (depends on the make/model). As soon as this happens, you'll see a message on the screen (only if you have connected via the TV Scart). Leave the receiver for at least 15 minutes to download the software via satellite.


Note that this will not work unless the receiver is getting a good signal! DO NOT ATTEMPT IT if your signal or signal quality is very low or fluctuating. On Grundig models, this is often a sign of a power supply fault and attempting a software download can corrupt the internal memory - permanently - making repair impossible or very expensive.

After a forced download you should switch the receiver off at the 230v wall socket for ten seconds. Remove the card. Switch back on. Wait till it asks for the card then insert it. This sequence is occasionally necessary to solve problems caused by the download, although I don't know why! The same sequence repeated a couple of times will often clear unwanted "Personal Planner" entries.


Note that a software download will occasionally change user settings back to factory standard (for example the UHF output channel to 68).

BexTech

Though the above won't wake the viewing card up, that has to be left in the box for up to 72 hours.