Sky+ or sky HD box without subscribing to sky

[timbo343]

Can someone answer these questions about a sky box. Im thinking about getting one as the signal quality around where i am for analoge tv is s****:

 

Would it be possible to buy a Sky+ box and a dish and not to subscribe to sky so i can get the free to air channels and record and pause live tv to the HDD?

Could i buy a Sky HD box, not subscribe to sky but still watch BBC in HD?

Does the free to air include the channel Dave?

 

 

Thanks

 

Tim

Edited May 6, 2008 by StewartKnight
Swearing

[Jackd]

You cant pause live tv or record it if your not subscribed to Sky+, we got a sky+ box from a friend and we tried it using our normal sky card and it just didnt allow us to record or pause live tv without subscribing to Sky+.

 

Dont know if it actually works without subscribing at all though.

 

Jack

[Edu-IT]

You would need a Sky card in the box for it to function at all I think and as Jackd pointed out you need a Sky+ subscription for the Sky+ functions to work.

 

Could i buy a Sky HD box, not subscribe to sky but still watch BBC in HD?

Definitely not.

 

You could look at this though.

freesat from Sky - A new way to get free digital satellite TV

Edited May 4, 2008 by Edu-IT

[john]

From what I rememebr you can get the boxes but for the + to work you need a valid sky+ subscription and for the HD you do need a Sky HD Sub. You would also need to pay for a Sky FTV Card (FreeSat Card I think its name is) to de-encrypt some of the FTA channels such as 4 as despite it being FTA its broadcast encrypted so you need to buy this card to de-encrypt it. I don't think this card de-encrypts the BBC HD stuff though.

[smileydman]

This is a list of FREE channels. Both FTA (Free to air) and FTV (Free to view). You need a card from SKY £20 to see FTV.

http://www.wickonline.com/fta.htm

 

Most of the cheap DIY install kit £50-70, support FTA only.

Edited May 4, 2008 by smileydman

[torledo]

You would need a Sky card in the box for it to function at all I think and as Jackd pointed out you need a Sky+ subscription for the Sky+ functions to work.

 

Definitely not.

 

You could look at this though.

freesat from Sky - A new way to get free digital satellite TV

 

So free sat has an extra 156 channels of dross and '+1' channels for you to avoid as compared to freeview at an additional cost of £150 and an unsightly dish outside you're house.

 

There's one born every minute for these lot...check the channel listing under movies and look what's offered apart from what's available on freeview (film 4 and film4+1). I rest my case.

 

I'd steer well clear of freesat....if you can get it, freeview is a much better option. Won't cost ought either apart from 10 quid for a receiver from argos.

[timbo343]

Fair enough. Think questions have been answered then. Thanks everyone. Might just go buy a PVR...

[plexer]

Just to confirm that yes unfortunately pause and rewind do not work without a £10 pm sky+ sub.

 

I bought a 80GB samsung pvr because of this and you can press record so that it starts to record what you are watching and then when you come back you press play to chase play it.

 

Can only record one channel at a time though.

 

If you can get digital tv you can get dual tuner pvrs for that.

 

Ben

[Edu-IT]

Just to confirm that yes unfortunately pause and rewind do not work without a £10 pm sky+ sub.

 

I bought a 80GB samsung pvr because of this and you can press record so that it starts to record what you are watching and then when you come back you press play to chase play it.

 

Can only record one channel at a time though.

 

If you can get digital tv you can get dual tuner pvrs for that.

 

Ben

Sky got rid of the £10 a month subscription charge. Now all you have to do is pay for the box and installation. Obviously you still have to pay the regular Sky subscription charges but there is no additional charge on top of this for Sky+.

 

So free sat has an extra 156 channels of dross and '+1' channels for you to avoid as compared to freeview at an additional cost of £150 and an unsightly dish outside you're house.

I've never looked into it myself, just heard about it. I wouldn't buy it personally.

[dancingdruid]

Sky got rid of the £10 a month subscription charge. Now all you have to do is pay for the box and installation. Obviously you still have to pay the regular Sky subscription charges but there is no additional charge on top of this for Sky+.

 

Sky plus for a subscriber is free. Sky plus for someone who is not paying to receive channels is £10 per month.

 

I wonder how many people think that it is worth £10 per month when you can get some channels thrown in for a few quid more.

 

 

From Sky's T&C

Sky+: Sky+ box normally £149 with Sky TV or £99 when its your first Sky+/HD box and you also take Sky Broadband and Sky Talk or Sky Multiroom. £199 for non-Sky TV customers. Only compatible with digital satellite. Sky digital subscription required for Sky digital programming. Sky+ can store an average of 40 hours of programmes at a time. Sky+ subscription required to use Personal Video Recorder features of Sky+ (free while you subscribe to any Sky digital package, otherwise £10 a month). Minimum term for Sky+ subscription 12 months. Sky selects your equipment.

[localzuk]

What about signing up for the BT Vision system? I have one, you can watch and record at the same time, and there is on demand content. No HD at the moment though.

 

But then, it doesn't exactly cost a lot!

[MkII]

Interesting, didn't realise the Sky+ PVR functions were limited to subscription! Seems a bit cheeky, especially as they charge some people full price for it.

Makes BT Vision look more attractive.

[Butuz]

You would need a Sky card in the box for it to function at all I think and as Jackd pointed out you need a Sky+ subscription for the Sky+ functions to work.

 

Definitely not.

 

You can plug it in and it will work!

 

If you take a Sky+ HD box, plug it onto a dish - you will get normal freeview channels - Plus 3 HD channels (BBC, Channel4 and Luxe). You won't be able to record or pause or rewind etc - you need a sky subscription for that. But you can watch normal channels plus the three HD channels above. Works a treat - heroes is in HD on BBC, and there are always HD films on the C4 channel.

 

It's all good! Though a Sky+HD box is a bit overkill - possdibly the most expensive and powerful freeview box on earth?!!

 

Butuz

[torledo]

You can plug it in and it will work!

 

If you take a Sky+ HD box, plug it onto a dish - you will get normal freeview channels - Plus 3 HD channels (BBC, Channel4 and Luxe). You won't be able to record or pause or rewind etc - you need a sky subscription for that. But you can watch normal channels plus the three HD channels above. Works a treat - heroes is in HD on BBC, and there are always HD films on the C4 channel.

 

It's all good! Though a Sky+HD box is a bit overkill - possdibly the most expensive and powerful freeview box on earth?!!

 

Butuz

 

didn't realise channel 4 had a HD channel....

 

What can you do with a PVR like tivo when used with something like freeview or a sky subscription without + ?

 

Can you for instance schedule recordings, record more than one channel, and record a channel while you watch a programme on a different channel.

 

The pausing of live tv i would expect that to only be available with a sky+....but the other stuff i would expect from a PVR.

[SteveBentley]

The BBC and ITV are launching a freesat service today, not to be confused with Sky's freesat. I suspect that HDD recorders for that won't be too far away if they're not already here

[Scotmk]

I have standard sky, and I purchased a "Sony Rdr HXD870 Dvd 160gb Hdd Recorder", it has a cool function called ilink (or something like that) which connects to the sky box, and snychs with it, gets all the channel info and guide etc, through the sony menu. and basicaly have sky + without a sky + box, you can pause live tv and do everything as if you had sky +, schedule recording and everything, cost about £200 quid, best thing I every bought, also plays divx, has memory card slot, usb slot, the lot. (even get multi-region) with a bit of googling...........

[Butuz]

didn't realise channel 4 had a HD channel....

 

Channel 4 - C4+1

 

Was only launched recently - unfortunatly seems to use a lot of upscaled contect because more often than not the quality just isn't quite there. Bit like BBC HD.

 

I doo miss the SKY HD channels - the footy, and even ultra-old films like Star Wars A New Hope just looked great. Unfortunatly it just wan't worth £60 odd a month.

 

Hopefully in a year or two I can resubscribe when there is more content.

 

Butuz

[oalcock]

It might not be anywhere near as good but why not try using freeview +???