Sky+ box: is it any use?

[Eccles]

I have a basic Sky digibox, but haven't had a valid viewing card since the switch to the new cards a few months ago. For £20 (the charge for a new card) I can live without Channel 5 (which is not available here on analogue) until the terrestrial transmitter goes digital next April!

I bought a s/h Sky+ box at the weekend, thinking it would give me hard-drive recording and, hopefully, the ability to set it up to make unattended recordings on different channels (not simultaneously, obviously). However anything to do with recording gives the "Insert viewing card" message, so in fact I can do nothing I couldn't do with the basic box.

Presumably there is no way round this problem, so I have wasted my money! If I did fork out the £20 for a new viewing card, would I be able to set up programmed hard-drive recordings? I've read elsewhere that this would need a monthly £10 subscription, which I wouldn't consider. I only have a single output LNB, so I'm not interested in the full Sky+ PVR features, just the ability to make programmed hard-drive recordings.

Thanks,

Steve.

 

[satelliteman]

You can pay the £10 monthly record tax for the facility.

 

[Analoguesat]

Yup - SKy+ is restricted out unless you have a valid card in the box. As SM says you can pay Sky a tenner a month to activate the recording function, but thats the only way to get the recording function working without paying for a full sub.

 

[Robbo]

BTW, channel 5 is available without the card anyway, as it is a FTA channel on Freesat, accessed via Other Channels on the Sky box.

 

[Eccles]

Well, it looks like the Sky+ box is on its way to the tip, then, because Sky aren't getting any money out of me! The fan is making rather a lot of noise anyway (does it really need to be running in standby?).

I had no idea Channel 5 was available on 'Other channels'. Many thanks for the information; I will investigate further.

 

[Analoguesat]

Why scrap it? Its a perfectly serviceable box for the free channels.

 

[Eccles]

Well, because I've got three basic digiboxes which don't have a buzzy fan running all the time!! Only one dish though, so 2 are 'spares'. I'll check if the hard-drive is any good for computer use.

Anyway, thanks everyone for the help.

Steve.

 

[Lazarus]

"Only one dish" can supply up to eight tuners, though.

So you can use all three of your boxes if you wish, simply by changing the LNB to a Quad or an Octo output one and running more cables.