confused, sky box question

[zen dog]

Hi there,

I have a question hopefully one of you guys. I have a holiday home in another country. I have had a sky dish installed and have been struggling carrying my sky box back and forth with me. I am worried that my box might be broken or may be lost if my luggage goes missing.

I guess what I am asking is I have seen non sky boxes for sale could I maybe buy one of them and leave it in my holiday home and take just my sky card in my wallet? If that isnt possible then what would be the easiet way to work around my problem.

[Robbo]

Only a Sky box and a couple of other receivers work with a Sky card.

The best bet is to get a 2nd hand Sky digibox from ebay or similar.


For the regular subscription channels the card isn't paired to the box so they will be OK,
but it is paired for the premium channels, so they won't work.

Robbo

[kerrywez]

Hi dog,
Sorry mate the boxes are supposed to be matched to the cards, but I have been able, in the past, to use my card in several different dodgyboxes. I hope that someone can give you a more accurate answer.

All I can say is that the card is supposed to be matched to the box, but I have used my Sly card in different boxes. I would not like to advise you to to go and buy a box of Ebay and then it would not work for you. The difference might be that I was using the card in my home and you would be using it in a different country. I have read about people who changed adress and did not inform Sly of the change and they were not able to use the box in the new house.

Good luck with it and I hope that you will receive a better answer than this one.

Very best regards Wez

[zen dog]

Just a few quick questions

1. What are "premium channels" can you give me an example
2. you said only a few boxes are capable of doing what I want what kind of money do they go for and can you give me a few manufacturers and model numbers?
3. I have sky plus is this going to affect me at all?

Sorry for the stupid questions.

Originally Posted by robbo71

Only a Sky box and a couple of other receivers work with a Sky card.

The best bet is to get a 2nd hand Sky digibox from ebay or similar.


For the regular subscription channels the card isn't paired to the box so they will be OK,
but it is paired for the premium channels, so they won't work.

Robbo

[Robbo]

See this thread re- other boxes that are not Sky:-

Receivers/CAMs that can read a Sky card?


Although if Sky change the encryption these other boxes may stop working with it.

The premium channels are the movies or Sports packages. The 6-mix or whatever they call it these days is unnaffected.

[Jimdefruit]

Another sky box will cause a problem because if you want all the subscribed channels the card will have to be paired to the new box and will then not work in your sky+ box.

You could get a Dreambox 500S because that will read the card for the foreseable future with few problems without causing a problem with your sky+ box.

For a bit more money you could get a Dreambox 7000S or 7020S which, when fitted with a hard drive, will act just like a sky+ box.

[zen dog]

is the dreambox all I would need or would extra hardware? you guys are great btw

[kerrywez]

Hi mate, If you are only wanting a box for your holiday home, I would never recommend a dreambox, they are very difficult to master, unless you are a bit of a PC expert. It is a very good box and is, in my opinion, and well worth the effort that is required to get them the way you are happy with it.

I would suggest that you would be better to have a second hand dodgybox (Sly box) from Ebay, and use it. the dreambox is vastly superior to the dodgybox, but unless you have a notion of receiving satellites other than Astra2 then you would be wasting your money to use it just for your holiday home.

On the other hand if you wanted to, you could have the dreambox to use at home. The 500s+ is very small and it would take up very little room in your luggage, it is about 9insX5insX1 1/2ins. Get a motorised dish set up at home and avail of all that the dreambox is capable of and have the time to get it the way you want it.

Very best regards Wez

[kerrywez]

You would not need any more hardware, other than a better dish and a rotor, if you wanted to go motorised. If yo do not wish to go the motorised route, then the box is all you need and the right EMU, (softcam) for the box, I would recommend the Cccand EMU as it has updated my Sly FTV card without a hickup for well over two years now.

Very best regards Wez

[Jimdefruit]

I am sorry wez, but another dodgybox will not get all the subscribed channels without changing the card and making it useless in the sky+ box.

It will be fine if only the basic ftv channels are wanted but then I think zen dog wants a bit more than those if he has a sky+ box at home.

Yes the Dreambox takes a lot of getting used to but in the end it is very worthwhile.

If you have a permanent internet connection at home and in your holiday home then Dreamboxes at home and in the holiday home can be interconnected such that you would not even need to take your card with you.