Sky card

[ZOE]

Hi i have recently bought 2 sky boxes both of them have cards in. I'm hoping to sell theses cards on but i'm not sure what i have. I have tested the cards on my sky box which i use in my bedroom. Card 1 gets the bbc channels, itv etc but card 2 gets loads more sky one, sky sports news, gold etc. Card 1 is the same as the card i already have in my bedroom. My sky box gets these channels even without any card inserted. I am very confused are any of these cards worth selling? Any help would be appreciated

 

[PaulR]

I've moved thispost to a more suitable area as it has nothing to do with Freesat.

OK, the first thing is that strictly speaking the cards aren't yours, they're $ly's and their Terms & Conditions forbid you to sell them on. In fact Ebay will take down any post selling cards...

The second card is a subscription card that hasn't yet received a signal to take off the subscription channel entitlement. Leave it in a $ly box and it will, sooner or late, be downgraded. Then it will be effectively the same as the FTV (free to view) cards sold by $ly as "Freesat from $ly". The channels that you mentioned on the first card are all FTA (free to air) and can be seen without a card, exactly as you say, so this doen't tell me anything about it. There are a few channels that need an FTV card - $ly 3, Fiver/+1 and Five USA/+! spring to mind - so see if either or both cards open them up.

Not all ex-subscription cards revert to FTV status. I have about 4 cards that, when inserted into a box on one of the above chanels, say "This is the incorrect card for this box". These appear to have been permanently locked to a box for some reason and have no value.

All cards will set the region of whichever box they are inserted into. This means that you get the correct BBC1, BBC2 and ITV1 at positions 101, 102 and 103.

$ly currently sell an FTV card for £20 I think.

Incidentally the current generation of card is white, the previous cards which are blue have no value at all.

 

[ZOE]

Thank you Paul thats a great help x

 

[Hughes]

To back up what PaulR has said, my Sky card used to work in my 3 digiboxes on all channels except premium. However, since I rang sky and upgraded to HD on a second hand box, the card now only works on the HD box. Its only use outside its own box seems to be that it sets the correct regions on channels 101-103. I can no longer use the card in the box upstairs, or at my parents'. This is the only downside in changing to HD, as far as I am concerned!

 

[timo_w2s]

To back up what PaulR has said, my Sky card used to work in my 3 digiboxes on all channels except premium. However, since I rang sky and upgraded to HD on a second hand box, the card now only works on the HD box. Its only use outside its own box seems to be that it sets the correct regions on channels 101-103. I can no longer use the card in the box upstairs, or at my parents'. This is the only downside in changing to HD, as far as I am concerned!

That is a massive downside for me, I swap my card between three SD boxes at times so there is no way I'm upgrading to HD until forced to by Sky if this is the case. At least the temptation to upgrade has flown out the window pretty fast. ;)

 

[timo_w2s]

Not all ex-subscription cards revert to FTV status. I have about 4 cards that, when inserted into a box on one of the above chanels, say "This is the incorrect card for this box". These appear to have been permanently locked to a box for some reason and have no value.

The other week I moved an active Sky card from one box to another within a few seconds and then got the "This is the incorrect card for this box" using that card in any box including the paired box. It took over 3 days left on in the paired box to fix itself although I suspect if I called Sky they could have reauthorised it right away but I was curious to see if it would come back from the dead.

I've since read elsewhere that these Sky white cards can deactivate themselves if they suspect card sharing is being used so I wonder if by switching boxes quickly I confused my card and it shut down (I have never used it for card sharing). Perhaps something similar happened to your cards?

 

[PaulR]

Yes, I have a theory (set out in another thread) that subscription cards at for premium channels (sports and movies) are tied to the box. This would tie in with $ly's efforts to crack down on CS.

It seems that maybe we must add cards authorised for HD as well although perhaps you could confirm what subscription level your HD card has first.