Amstrad Drx890 -C, with the original white card in my case.

I was talking with a Sky technical expert today, he confirmed that ANY ex-contract recording box, that was taken out of use EG unplugged before the "Turn card off" signal had been received - say for a month or so after subscription expiry (he suggested give it 3 months), will record & play without an subscription, provided you keep[ the original card & box paired. It is a quirk of their software.
That is pretty well the history of My box, as I understood it.

The Sky technical expert would be wrong then, as that no longer works, ever since the white card was introduced, was it 5 years ago now?

It worked on the previous card (had a picture of a house on it), but not on the white cards. Some get lucky, like yourself, but that is for a different reason (yet unknown), but the Sky+ feature is now enabled on the card, and auto expires if it does not get it's enable signal (which an expired card won't - unless you are lucky).

On the old blue cards, they had to disable the Sky+ feature from the card, thus removing it before the signal was sent, and leaving it out for about 3 months (this is usually when they stopped sending the disable signal), meant the Sky+ feature never got turned off.

Also when the blue cards were replaced by the newer white cards Sky apparently did not send the "kill signal" to all the old blue cards and they continued working for Sky+ features - I have two such cards both recording FTA content.

Sellers on eBay are selling Sky HD boxes which are able to record Freesat channels,how do the get the boxes to record?

Very strange! I also have a blue Sky card which used to make and play recordings on FTA channels only. It stopped working recently and I presumed that some software update had stopped the box from using this card (or it had run out of some refresh timer!)

I wonder if I need to keep it in for longer to revalidate it!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sky-Plus-H...cAAOSwPcVViR55

Like this one - they must have learnt the same trick??

A software update on the Sky/Amstrad DRX890/895 boxes stopped my cards working in them but the cards still work in my Pace TDS850.
It does not neef reactivating - these functions on the blue cards do not "go to sleep".

Reading that it seems dubious to say the least, and rather misleading seeing as he's claiming recording will continue for as long as you use it.

Also charging £89.99 for a second hand Samsung box is a rip-off, especially when you can get a refurbished Humax Freetime box for a tenner more, with all the major catch-up players available, a 500Gb hard drive, guaranteed recording for the lifetime of the box and a years manufacturer warranty.

I know where my money would be going, and it wouldn't be to some dodgy bloke on ebay!

I never had recording facility on this box or card and now I do.

Yes, me too - I can usually find them on car boot fairs, at £3 - £7, the newer smaller 500gb HDD ones, that is - I had the luck to find one with a 2tb drive, for £7 last year.
Cash converters usually sell them at £30 ish.

I'm seriously considering stopping my subs to sky - but have loads of programmes on the planner to watch (mostly BBC, ITV, Ch4).

Does anyone know if i can just get the record facility and the freeview channels? I read somewhere that there is a fee for the record facility but can't find this anywhere on the sky website...

Also, would i have a new card and if so would pairing it wipe out all previous recordings?

Thanks
Ste

When you cancel, you can ask for the Sky+ function to be retained and it costs a tenner a month!

A "Collection"

You can get BT TV for that, with more channels than the Sky £10 sub and yours to keep and record as Youview at £0 a month after your subscription has expired.

How Sky can get away with still doing this is almost beyond imagination.

I have BT TV and I think it is great. I did however, once had a fault with my Internet and I noticed that I couldn't play any Recordings of BT subscription channels even though they were on the recorders drive. But the Freeview recordings worked fine. So I suspect that any subscription content won't play after you cancel.

Thanks Popeye13 i'll give it a go and let you know what happens

If the recordings are from free channels and you are brave enough to remove the hard drive from the Sky box, you can use EXPVR: http://www.ph-mb.com/products/expvr/about
You can then copy all your recordings from free channels, like BBC, ITV, Ch4 and Ch5, to your PC and from then burn them to a DVD ect.
Then you could get yourself a Youview or freesat box, to make future recordings.

I believe the trick, is to cancel your subscription & then disconnect your box (& don't use your card) for about 3 months - then reconnect it, wait for your card to liven up & you should find it will act as a freesat recorder & also play back any non -encrypted recordings you have.
This method stops the box & it's paired card from receiving the "Turn off" recording & PB signal.
Should you wish to watch Satellite signals in the meantime, use another Sky box - they are only a few £ s from car-boot fairs these days.

Absolute rubbish - read post #103

It's not rubbish, because I too now have an ex contract recording box - by using that very method. With a WHITE CARD.

Don't knock it, until you've tried it

Not true with my ex sub white card with the same method.

No, you don't!
The cards need a signal telling them to 'stay alive' and if they don't get that after a certain point, it cuts off ALL paid-for services!
Sky+ is a paid-for service!
So @davemurgatroyd was correct - Absolute rubbish!!!

I have tried it with two cards from friends - both taken out of boxes before cancellation expiry date and left out, one for 4 months and the other for 5 AND neither worked. I have two old blue cards that were replaced with white cards and they both still work in my Pace box but not in Amstrad DRX890s. What box are you using yours in?

Well no, obviously if you cancel your subscription when out of contract you can't play subscription content! But it's otherwise a fully working Youview PVR on all the Freeview channels. Unlike what happens with Sky boxes when you cancel.