Reusing old Sky box for Freesat

tonyyeb · 12 Dec 2017 at 15:53

Hi all

Got an old Sky + HD box that had a dodgy hard drive which only had issues with recording, so thinking about re-purposing it for just Freesat. What do I need to do to get it to work? Do I need to contact Sky to get a Freesat viewing card for it?

Cheers

xs2man · 12 Dec 2017 at 16:36

Do you still have the original viewing card? You should just be able to plug it in and go, and you will get the free channels

pepp77 · 12 Dec 2017 at 16:40

Yeah, if it still has an old viewing card in it then that will do, otherwise they have to sell you one for £25.

Annoyingly I didn't realise that going from Sky HD to Sky Q retained the old viewing card as I was going to use the old box for freesat, but now don't have a card for it

MissChief · 12 Dec 2017 at 17:11

pepp77 said:
Yeah, if it still has an old viewing card in it then that will do, otherwise they have to sell you one for £25.

Annoyingly I didn't realise that going from Sky HD to Sky Q retained the old viewing card as I was going to use the old box for freesat, but now don't have a card for it

Sky can sell you one. £25 I believe. If you already have had Sky Q fitted you may not have the required Hybrid LNB as Sky won' f one by default.

xs2man · 12 Dec 2017 at 17:42

How can you tell if they fitted a hybrid?

When I sent my Sky Q back yesterday, I just took the F-Cable (or whatever it is) out the back of the Q box, and plugged it into the freesat port on my TV, and it works fine.

I certainly didn't make any requests when the engineer came out and upgraded my dish to a new one when he fitted the Q in place.

tonyyeb · 12 Dec 2017 at 17:46

No don't have the original card as that is in my new box. I read somewhere that it should work without a viewing card for Free to air channels but not Free to view which need card for. It seems most channels are Free to air.

Anyone confirm this?