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Can I take my Sky+ box & card to another house and watch it normally?

PeronessDSPeronessDS Posts: 168
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in Sky #1
Can I take my Sky+ box & card to another house and watch it normally? When I stay at my GF's house can I just unplug my Sky+ box and take it with me and plug it in at her house? She has a normal non sky+ box. I wasnt sure if there was any issues with doing that? It'll read the chanels from the Sky card right i.e. I won't only be able to watch the channels she subscribes to?

Thanks in advance
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  • BKMBKM Posts: 6,912
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    #2
    PeronessDS wrote: »
    Can I take my Sky+ box & card to another house and watch it normally? When I stay at my GF's house can I just unplug my Sky+ box and take it with me and plug it in at her house? She has a normal non sky+ box. I wasnt sure if there was any issues with doing that? It'll read the chanels from the Sky card right i.e. I won't only be able to watch the channels she subscribes to?

    Thanks in advance
    Yes you can do that just fine!

    The Sky+ box (as all Sky boxes) needs a satellite feed to boot up (so cannot be used at a house without one) but just connect it to her dish and all will work as you wish. If she only has a single feed from the dish it will be somewhat restricted in only being able to record one thing.
  • CRTHDCRTHD Posts: 7,602
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    #3
    PeronessDS wrote: »
    Can I take my Sky+ box & card to another house and watch it normally? When I stay at my GF's house can I just unplug my Sky+ box and take it with me and plug it in at her house? She has a normal non sky+ box. I wasnt sure if there was any issues with doing that? It'll read the chanels from the Sky card right i.e. I won't only be able to watch the channels she subscribes to?

    Thanks in advance

    Just to add that, your box, at her house, with her card in, should allow you to view all but the premium* channels she subscribes to.

    *I.E> Sports & Movies.
  • sodafountainsodafountain Posts: 16,844
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    #4
    CRTHD wrote: »
    Just to add that, your box, at her house, with her card in, should allow you to view all but the premium* channels she subscribes to.

    *I.E> Sports & Movies.

    Although i think the OP was taking HIS box with HIS card.

    Why would he put her card in, might as well use her box then :confused:
  • PeacockAntonyPeacockAntony Posts: 626
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    #5
    The only issue you may have is that the Sky+ boxes need a dual satellite input, and your GF might only have one with her box only being a standard Sky box.
  • Chasing ShadowsChasing Shadows Posts: 3,096
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    #6
    PeacockAntony wrote: »
    The only issue you may have is that the Sky+ boxes need a dual satellite input, and your GF might only have one with her box only being a standard Sky box.

    Only if recoding one channel whilst watching another. For watching alone, only one input is needed.
  • PeronessDSPeronessDS Posts: 168
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    #7
    BKM wrote: »
    Yes you can do that just fine!

    The Sky+ box (as all Sky boxes) needs a satellite feed to boot up (so cannot be used at a house without one) but just connect it to her dish and all will work as you wish. If she only has a single feed from the dish it will be somewhat restricted in only being able to record one thing.

    Many thanks BKM. That's great :) By way of explanation I couldnt remember what wires fed into the box, for some reason I had this idea that my phone line connected to it, and therefore wondered whether the box was 'tied' to my particular phone number. (my phone line is seperate and a BT one)
    CRTHD wrote: »
    Just to add that, your box, at her house, with her card in, should allow you to view all but the premium* channels she subscribes to.

    *I.E> Sports & Movies.

    Thanks CRTHD, good point :)
    sodafountain wrote: »
    Although i think the OP was taking HIS box with HIS card.

    Why would he put her card in, might as well use her box then :confused:

    It would mean I can record things when using her card, I presume :)
    PeacockAntony wrote: »
    The only issue you may have is that the Sky+ boxes need a dual satellite input, and your GF might only have one with her box only being a standard Sky box.

    Ah I see what you mean, if it is just a single satellite input, does that mean I cannot use it at all, or as BKM mentions, I'd only be able to record one program at a time? hmm

    _______

    Just to say a big thankyou to you all for taking the time to answer :) Cheers.
  • CRTHDCRTHD Posts: 7,602
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    #8
    sodafountain wrote: »
    Although i think the OP was taking HIS box with HIS card.

    Why would he put her card in, might as well use her box then :confused:

    Well it wasn't too clear but I got the impression that perhaps "she" may subscribe to some channels that the OP didn't ("I won't only be able to watch the channels she subscribes to?") so just wanted to point out that he could if he wanted to.
  • PeronessDSPeronessDS Posts: 168
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    #9
    Chasing Shadows wrote: »
    Only if recoding one channel whilst watching another. For watching alone, only one input is needed.

    hmm I see your point. As her Sky box is (or looks) like an old one, chances are it is a single sat input..if so, does that mean I'll need a whole new dish/cable or is there some kind of adaptor?
  • Chasing ShadowsChasing Shadows Posts: 3,096
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    #10
    If you want full use of your Sky+ box at her house - i.e. the ability to record one channel whilst watching another, or the ability to record two channels at the same time - then you need two cables running from the dish to the two inputs on your box. The dish won't need changing, but the single LNB on the front of it will need swapping for a quad (twins are difficult to come by nowadays, quads are easy). Then you will need to run a second cable from the dish to the box. There is no adapter that can split a single cable into two.
  • BKMBKM Posts: 6,912
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    #11
    PeronessDS wrote: »
    hmm I see your point. As her Sky box is (or looks) like an old one, chances are it is a single sat input..if so, does that mean I'll need a whole new dish/cable or is there some kind of adaptor?
    No! - Sky+HD boxes can be set (in the menus) to use a single feed as best as they can - but I am not sure that this also applies to Sky+ (which it sounds like this is).

    With a single feed (connected to LNB1) a Sky+ box will

    1) Boot
    2) Allow watching of live TV
    3) Record Live TV
    4) Play recordings

    What it will NOT do (without tricks!) is make "timed recordings" - unless anyone can tell me if Sky+ now HAS a single-LNB mode!
  • sodafountainsodafountain Posts: 16,844
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    #12
    PeronessDS wrote: »
    It would mean I can record things when using her card, I presume :)

    Think you are confusing things and people.

    No, you would not be able to record on your box with her card, for many reasons, the main one being you have already stated she doesn't have a + box, just a standard one, so her card won't have the recording features on it anyway.

    Even if it did, it would only allow recording of FTA channels, and not subscription channels when put in a different box to the one it belongs to.

    As for the telephone connection, this is used for things like ordering Box Office Movies, it is only tied to a phone line when you have multiroom, then ALL boxes on that subscription need connecting to the same working phone line.
  • davemurgatroyddavemurgatroyd Posts: 13,328
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    #13
    BKM wrote: »
    No! - Sky+HD boxes can be set (in the menus) to use a single feed as best as they can - but I am not sure that this also applies to Sky+ (which it sounds like this is).

    With a single feed (connected to LNB1) a Sky+ box will

    1) Boot
    2) Allow watching of live TV
    3) Record Live TV
    4) Play recordings

    What it will NOT do (without tricks!) is make "timed recordings" - unless anyone can tell me if Sky+ now HAS a single-LNB mode!
    There is a relatively simple way of recording timed events with only one feed - my "patented\" method of a few years back which still works on Sky+ boxes
    All you need to do is connect the single cable to input 1 and set a manual recording on a channel you never watch lasting 24 hours repeated daily which will always fail but take virtually zero hard disk space. Delete these failed recordings when the next dummy starts.

    This works because input 1 is the channel normally used for viewing (from switch on with nothing recording) and input 2 is normally used for the first scheduled recording. If an input is already in use the box will automatically switch to the other input for whatever it wants to do. Because the dummy manual recording is already telling the box that it is already using input 2, anything else will happen on input 1. With this setup you can do any one of three things
    1 Watch one channel.
    2 Record one channel (either timed via Planner or by pressing Record whilst viewing).
    3 Record one channel and watch a previous recording.

    For recordings from the planner it is best to leave the box in standby and doesn't need to be left on any particular channel (DO NOT leave on channel dummy recording is set on)
  • PeronessDSPeronessDS Posts: 168
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    #14
    deleted
  • BKMBKM Posts: 6,912
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    #15
    davemurgatroyd wrote: »
    There is a relatively simple way of recording timed events with only one feed - my "patented\" method of a few years back which still works on Sky+ boxes
    That was what the "without tricks" was referring to!:D I just could not remember it in all its details!
  • DipsDips Posts: 1,100
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    #16
    If I take my card (which has all the channels) round to a box which has freeview channels only will it work?
  • rocketronnie75rocketronnie75 Posts: 400
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    #17
    You can get a free upgrade to a sky+ box from sky on the website. The downside is you will start a new 12 month contract.

    http://www.sky.com/shop/customer-shop/box-upgrade/
  • davemurgatroyddavemurgatroyd Posts: 13,328
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    #18
    Dips wrote: »
    If I take my card (which has all the channels) round to a box which has freeview channels only will it work?

    The other box does NOT have Freeview channels - what it has are the FreesatFromSky (FSFS) channels (Freeview is DTT via an aerial and has a different channel lineup to FSFS). Your card will allow viewing of all non premium channels (i.e. mot Sky Sports or Sky Movies) in any Sky box and if the other box is a Sky+ or HD+ box then it will allow recording of FTA channels (i.e. channels which do not require a card to view).

    See here for a fuller explanation of what is possible - http://www.avforums.com/forums/sky-sky/1312207-sky-cards-using-other-sky-boxes-pairing-etc.html
  • TuvokTuvok Posts: 1,149
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    #19
    This may already have been mentioned in the previous posts - but they were too long for a simple answer.

    So here goes

    Viewing card and box are paired.

    If person A has a box but does not subscribe to eg. the movie package, using person B's card which has movies will NOT give movies in Person A's box

    If Person B takes their box with card to Person A's house, they could connect it to Person A's cable (always have power turned off when connecting/disconnecting cable.). If only 1 cable, connect it to LNB1 input on B's +/HD box.

    Remember however, if Person B tries anything that involves the box phoning Sky, then the Sky systems will recognise that B's box is not where it supposed to be!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,655
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    #20
    As long as it's not a multiroom box, you'll be just fine!
  • crunchiecrunchie Posts: 595
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    #21
    Can I replace my mother's old Sky Box with my unused Sky+ Box? Will it cost her any extra to use the Sky+ facilities?
  • Chasing ShadowsChasing Shadows Posts: 3,096
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    #22
    crunchie wrote: »
    Can I replace my mother's old Sky Box with my unused Sky+ Box?

    Yes, but without a second input running from dish to box she'll only have limited Sky+ functionality.
    crunchie wrote: »
    Will it cost her any extra to use the Sky+ facilities?

    Not if she has a Sky TV subscription. Yes, if she has no subscription and only watches the free channels.
  • crunchiecrunchie Posts: 595
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    #23
    Chasing Shadows wrote: »
    Yes, but without a second input running from dish to box she'll only have limited Sky+ functionality

    Thank you - do I have to advise Sky that I ewant to swap the boxes or can I just put her card into my spare Sky+ box at her house? (she has a Sky subscription). Or do I have to phone Sky to "pair" her card with my unused box?
  • Chasing ShadowsChasing Shadows Posts: 3,096
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    #24
    Phone to pair the card and box - and also to get Sky+ activated on her card.
  • crunchiecrunchie Posts: 595
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    #25
    Thank you Chasing Shadows, much appreciated :)
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