Subscribing to Sky...

[DaveOwl]

We started subscribing to Sky in our house in September 2001 (Sept 11th ) up until last year then we cancelled all the packages so just have a box which acts more or less like Freeview.

If I want to get Sky in my room would this class as being part of multiroom or would it not matter if the other has been cancelled? I am tempted to go for a Sky+ box but having heard about all the issues with these is it worth bothering with?

The most important part of it all though is that I do not have an aerial socket in my room (the only one is downstairs in the living room) so would the Sky engineer put this in for me as part of the free installation or would that be an extra charge?

 

[West]

Afaik, you would need an active sky subscription in order to do this. Plus you have to pay an extra £10 a month anyway for Sky+

And as for the aerial socket, sky would have to do an instalation, you would need the purchase the Sky+ Box (Circa £99) and then pay £50 for Standard instalation (if there isnt some offer on where you get it free mind)

Hope that was some help, they've been carp for us frankly when we moved, they were so carp my mum swindled a free box and installation out of them for when she wanted my sister to had sky for her TV and Sky+ in her room.

 

[Sonea Fifer]

We started subscribing to Sky in our house in September 2001 (Sept 11th ) up until last year then we cancelled all the packages so just have a box which acts more or less like Freeview.

If I want to get Sky in my room would this class as being part of multiroom or would it not matter if the other has been cancelled? I am tempted to go for a Sky+ box but having heard about all the issues with these is it worth bothering with?

The most important part of it all though is that I do not have an aerial socket in my room (the only one is downstairs in the living room) so would the Sky engineer put this in for me as part of the free installation or would that be an extra charge?

You dont need to pay the extra £10.00 pm as Sky have recently done away with that - you would however have to subscribe to multiroom and keep both boxes connected to the telephone line.

I've had Sky+ pretty much since they launched it and i've found it to be an excellent service. Further information can be found here bud click me

 

[West]

You dont need to pay the extra £10.00 pm as Sky have recently done away with that - you would however have to subscribe to multiroom and keep both boxes connected to the telephone line.

I've had Sky+ pretty much since they launched it and i've found it to be an excellent service. Further information can be found here bud click me

I stand corrected, never knew they had done away with that, tempted to get me one now

 

[Spleenus]

Why would he need to subscribe to multiroom when the other box is just acting as a freesat box. Nothing to do with Sky anymore?

 

[DaveOwl]

Thanks for the replies. So if we paid say £19 a month for most of the mixes and I got a Sky+ box for my own room it should reactivate the package for the whole house so it would work again downstairs on the original box?

Unfortunately I don't have a phone socket upstairs either - is being connected a requirement? Our old box was never plugged in for the 5 or so years we used it.

 

[Shmo]

Might depend on the installer. The guy I had just ran an extension cable to activate the card then he took it away and I haven't plugged it into the phone line since. I believe that the T&Cs state that you are required to keep it plugged in though.

 

[West]

Well you would pay £15 for the basic package if you were to do that, then £10 for Multiroom ontop of that.

 

[schnipps]

No i dont think so, the box downstairs is just a box receiving freeview, its your (household's) box. If you want it in your room only it has nothing to do with downstairs and you would be the main box with the subscription.

If you pay £15 you get 2 mixes, soon to rise to £17 then you could buy a Sky + box from Sky for £99 and get it installed into your room for £30. The box downstairs would not be reactivated iirc and to get it reactivated you would either have to have it as the main box and you are multiroom with the + box or you are the main box and *** one downstairs is multiroom. As for the phone connection i havent plugged mine in and its fine.

 

[gjrc]

i think sky plus is brilliant, never had any problems with and and dont know how i ever lived without it!!

 

[atpbx]

Thanks for the replies. So if we paid say £19 a month for most of the mixes and I got a Sky+ box for my own room it should reactivate the package for the whole house so it would work again downstairs on the original box?

Unfortunately I don't have a phone socket upstairs either - is being connected a requirement? Our old box was never plugged in for the 5 or so years we used it.

No, it wouldnt do anything to any box, it would allow the viewing card you have to register on the network and then the box to decode the programs you have subscribed too.
So your viewing card would work and nobody elses.

 

[DaveOwl]

Thanks for the info. I think I will ask my parents to reactivate their box downstairs and pay half of the main channel subscription with me (should be £19) and I will pay the £10 a month for the multiroom myself. If that works it would probably be the best solution. They might get a little jealous about my Sky+ box though

 

[utajoker]

I am tempted to go for a Sky+ box but having heard about all the issues with these is it worth bothering with?
[\QUOTE]

i have sky+ in my room for a month or so and aint had any problems, what are the issues u have heard?

edit* my quote broke

 

[DaveOwl]

i have sky+ in my room for a month or so and aint had any problems, what are the issues u have heard?

Well on BBC's Watchdog for instance it seems many customers have had boxes that have died on them. Maybe it doesn't happen with newer revisions...

 

[meghatronic]

You know, we had Sk for 3yrs and never kept it plugged into the phone line.... what's the big deal with it?

 

[misterPK]

For a similar price to the sky+ box you could get a satelite tv card and record them on your PC instead. Bonus is that way you have better storage options with hard drives and DVDs.

PK!

 

[Begbie]

You know, we had Sk for 3yrs and never kept it plugged into the phone line.... what's the big deal with it?

Only needs to be plugged in if you have mulit-room. There is some issues with them, nothing more than you would expect tho. Got HD + SKY+ myself and never had a problem with either.

Cheapest package is 17 a month + the extra 10 if your wanting an extra vc active.

The sky+ box is 99 and standard installation is 30.

 

[stoofa]

When you first subscribe to Sky you are offered Free Installation.
Part of this deal is that you keep the box connected to your phone line for the first 12 months.
This connection is checked by Sky and if it is found to be disconnected they will first send you a letter explaining your contract.
If they still have problems they will invoice you for the installation fee - your initial installation is only free so long as you connect to the telephone for the first 12 months.

Sky+ is really the best thing since sliced bread - we took it on after they dropped the £10 a month for it.
However if I'd known it was as good as it is I would have happily paid £10 a month.
It really is an excellent piece of kit.
Buy one now and it could be either a Pace, Amstrad or Thompson box.
You can't unfortunately specify which one you get - the Amstrad one seems to cause the most problems.

The boxes come with 160GB HD's which would be enough for 80hrs of recording...if Sky didn't now reserve space for their "Anytime" system.
So a box will give you aprox. 40hrs of recording.
You can however upgrade the HD (by voiding your warranty of course).
Only certain HD's work - I've got a 250GB (about the maximum to put in a Plus box) which gives you around 85hrs of recording time.

 

[alexthecheese]

Why do they actually need it plugged in to the telephone line though? What is that about?

 

[Begbie]

When you first subscribe to Sky you are offered Free Installation.
Part of this deal is that you keep the box connected to your phone line for the first 12 months.
This connection is checked by Sky and if it is found to be disconnected they will first send you a letter explaining your contract.
If they still have problems they will invoice you for the installation fee - your initial installation is only free so long as you connect to the telephone for the first 12 months.

Sky+ is really the best thing since sliced bread - we took it on after they dropped the £10 a month for it.
However if I'd known it was as good as it is I would have happily paid £10 a month.
It really is an excellent piece of kit.
Buy one now and it could be either a Pace, Amstrad or Thompson box.
You can't unfortunately specify which one you get - the Amstrad one seems to cause the most problems.

The boxes come with 160GB HD's which would be enough for 80hrs of recording...if Sky didn't now reserve space for their "Anytime" system.
So a box will give you aprox. 40hrs of recording.
You can however upgrade the HD (by voiding your warranty of course).
Only certain HD's work - I've got a 250GB (about the maximum to put in a Plus box) which gives you around 85hrs of recording time.

You don't get free installation anymore, its 30bucks (my pound key doesn't work) you still get free stbs, not sky+.