Is their box for Freesat recordable?

Mike

No - recording on Sky requires a subscription, you need to buy a specific Freesat recorder.

Thanks for that Nigel!

Best regards,

<ike

No but if you're an ex-Sky customer with a Sky+ (HD) box, you could still be able to record....

Recently cancelled Sky after many years, realised I wouldn't be able to record anymore but didn't matter as have a Freeview+ box.

However, read somewhere that Old Sky viewing cards (Blue with picture of house on) could sill have the + features (apparently never disabled and signals no longer sent to them). After a search through the cupboard, found my old one out, tried it and hey presto!! It works! Live Pause, recording, viewing any previous FTA recording.

Prefer Sky software to the rubbish Sagem Freeview+ we have so reverted back to Sky box

Worth a try, apparently easy to purchase the cards on ebay too but pot luck wheather they would have the + features

I tried that a while ago with an old blue card but with no luck. It just said to contact Sky to get a new card.

Don't the old blue cards have to be paired to the box to record?

Hmmm, not sure. Maybe but as the one I sued was MY old card then it worked. Can you not do a "manual" pair via services menu and a new install?

Maybe I was lucky but I heard about it, tried it, and worked straight away!

It only works if the blue card was previously used with a Sky+ box, otherwise the recording feature was never enabled (apparently).
My old blue card didn't allow me to record on a (more recently purchased) Sky+ HD box.
When the card was active, I only had a non-recording Sky box.

Chris.

Yeah I think the old blue card trick is fine if it's your own one, but I wouldn't risk spening any money buying one from the net.

Well maybe I'd spend a few pence on the off chance, but not much more than that.

SKY still could send out a disable signal. Plus by getting a decent freesat PVR you will save money on electrical costs.

Thanks for that - I'll give it a try!

Mike

Well blow me it does work, I still have the house card and it lets me record (I had the first generation Sky+ box years back so it was activated for this).

I notice you cannot watch catch-up TV though, the on demand service reverts to Showcase.

So the box you currently use isn't paired to that blue card then but recording works?

Yes that's right. I had an ordinary Sky (non PVR box) with the blue house card. Sky offered me a free upgrade to the first generation Sky+ box and the blue house card was activated for Sky+ on that old box.

When the new white cards were issued I got one of them whilst I still had my old Sky+ box. Then I was upgraded again to the new Sky HD box and my white card was paired with the HD box.

Until last night I had never even thought about putting the blue card in the HD box, I keep the old cards just for fun (I still have the original Sky clouds card from analogue days over 20 years ago). In it went, when I pressed pause on a free channel it said to wait - initialising card, then it happily recorded. If I went to a subscription channel I got the message this is the wrong card for the box.

This is good news as I am ditching Sky shortly when I can get a better priced Humax Freetime box. I thought the Sky box would sit on a shelf gathering dust, but since the PVR functions still work this gives me more options.

Viewing cards with Sky+ activated on them have never needed pairing for Sky+ functions on FTA unencrypted channels. This applies to both old blue cards where Sky+ has not been switched off and any active white sub card with Sky+ active on it.

So what about white cards which have been cancelled, does the recording still work on these?

NO

Pleased I hung onto the blue house card then

I've got a Sky+HD box with an old blue card and the recording works fine.

Problem is though it won't decode ITV1 HD and 5HD.

You have to ask why some ITV1-HD regions are still encrypted tbh.

Some ITV SD regions are still FTV as well, it depends what satellite beam they are on.

Rather more than that they are all on the Astra 1N spot beam now.

10936 V has Meridian South in the clear and Central West encrypted.

http://en.kingofsat.net/find.php?question=ITV1-HD

Yeah, I thought they were all on 1N, which makes the encryption all the more puzzling.

Very odd though, that ITV1-HD Meridian South is my nearest region and is in the clear but my freesat box picks up ITV1-HD London instead.

Doesn't really matter to me, but it's listed on that website as being Sky & freesat.

Thats about 75p a year

Something drastically wrong with your abacus

Sky+/Sky HD box in sby approx 22W, First generation Freesat+ boxes approx 0.75W (the generation 2 HDR-1000s 0.5W in accordance with latest eec power saving regulations}

Difference is 21.25W. Assuming 16hrs every day thats 16 x 21.25 Watt/hrs every day. Multiply by 365 gives 124100 watt hrs per annum . One unit is 1000 watt hours so the extra power is 124 units/year. With the latest increase in power costs 1 unit could easily cost 17p. That makes the extra energy cost around £21.00, add the £10.00 monthly recording fee gives an annual cost of approx £140.00 pounds annually if you want to record.

That kind of makes your 75p/year somwhat suspect , where did you get this number from (suspect a rather biassed and shall we say based on zero factual basis)