Sky + (Sky plus) in France

[audiop]

Anyone upgraded to Sky plus from standard Sky over here ?

I want to do this and it is my intention to buy a Sky+ box , a quad output LNB and some dual feed cable on ebay whilst back in the UK over Xmas, then get the card upgraded by calling Sky (from the UK of course) and asking them for a "clone" card to use in the old sky box in another room.

Would love to hear from anyone who has done the same or similar !

 

[AnOther]

Don't you have to have Sky + installed by Sky themselves at the registered address ?

[audiop]

That would be what Sky would like you to believe ! You can buy 2nd hand Sky + boxes (loads of almost new ones on ebay UK due to people upgrading to Sky HD), it is a doddle to install yourself, if you already have a sky set up you just need a new 4 output LNB, some new cable, the Sky + box and your card upgraded.

[AnOther]

There you go then [:D]

I've just got bog standard Sky and have never really been bothered with Sky+ nor HD so not delved deeply into the if's and but's.

Good luck

[Anton Redman]

I believe you have to continue to subscribe at £ 10 a month to keep the recording part of the system working.

[audiop]

That has changed in that if you now have a monthly sub of £30 or more, Sky+ is free, so it is now a very attractive option if you DIY your own system - its the having it in France side of it which is difficult !

[Ron Avery]

What about if you don't have SKY subscription?  Is it possible to use a SKY + box in France to record programmes?  If not, is there anything out there (except for a video recorder), that can perform the same function as the SKY +box ie record other programmes whilst others are being watched?

[Tim]

Not sure about about the Sky + plus Ron, but I'm sure that someone on here will tell you - but to be able to get one channel and watch another you need a twin lnb for the dish and a second receiver of some kind, although I did notice that our local Leclerc has a twin tuner sat box for sale - not tried one though. I've got a couple of Sky boxes and they work quite well with a Sony DVD recorder which has a 'synch record' facility - this enables you to put programmes to be recorded in the Sky planner and the Sony 'talks' to the Sky box and records automatically - almost like a Sky+ box.

Tim

[AnOther]

I have had a pait of TiVo's for a good while. Coupled to 2 sky boxes the setup caters for just about any combination of watch and/or recording.

This topic has been dicussed before http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/997174/ShowPost.aspx

[Ron Avery]

Thanks for the tips but I have two boxes, I was just wondering if you could install a SKY + box in France as they are going cheap on eBay with the HD upgrades. With the benefit of having the regional variations BBC Scotland has a lot of popular programmes on different times and days to the BBC English stations, but as usual despite absolute rubbish on most days the schedulers always manage to put good programmes together on some nights and a SKY + box would be ideal for recording the "other " programmes or while I am watcching French TV of course.[Www]

[Joerger École]

I have the Sky+  box and another Sky box. Both work fine.  During a period that I did not have a subscription, just FTA, the Sky+ recording features did not work.  You must have a Sky+ subscription. As an earlier poster said, at a certain price point in the subscription the Sky+ feature is free, errr... no extra cost.

As mentioned by another poster, a solution for recording is a DVD recorder with a hard disk. Some have a synch feature so you get essentially the same functionality as with the Sky+ box.

Best luck! 

[audiop]

[quote user="Ron Avery"]Thanks for the tips but I have two boxes, I was just wondering if you could install a SKY + box in France as they are going cheap on eBay with the HD upgrades. With the benefit of having the regional variations BBC Scotland has a lot of popular programmes on different times and days to the BBC English stations, but as usual despite absolute rubbish on most days the schedulers always manage to put good programmes together on some nights and a SKY + box would be ideal for recording the "other " programmes or while I am watcching French TV of course.[Www][/quote]

Ron, this i what I am planning to do, I have already bought a 2nd box off Ebay (£67) and had it delivered to my UK address, I now need to order a quadout put LNB and some twin feed cable as you need two feed from the quad to the Sky+ box - this is what enables watching one channel whilst recording another.  I then need to temporarily set up the system in the UK and put in my current Sky viewing card, then phone Sky and give them details of the box and my viewing card so that they can send a signal to the box which will enable the card for the Sky+ features.

All this is neccessary because of the fact that you are not legally allowed to receive Sky outside of the UK as Sky's broadcasting licence only covers the UK. I have been told that if you phone Sky from France, there is a good chance that they will cut off your card !

Interested to note your comments about the regional variations, there are loads of different regional channels like you say and that gives more choice of quality amongst the sea of rubbish !

[AnOther]

[quote user="audiop"]more choice of quality amongst the sea of rubbish ![/quote]

Methinks you must be watching a different Sky to the me. Even if you said chance of quality you'd be stretching it [blink]

"Regional Variation" mostly means little more than 5 minutes of local news or the odd ethnic programme, or sometimes just a minor time differential.

Re phoning Sky, no reason you can't do it from France so long as you use a mobile and don't tell them where you're calling from. If you were say renting a flat or house in UK and didn't have a phone line this is what you would have to do isn't it.

Q: Do they have caller ID or similar and therefore the ability to detect a call from a non UK mobile ?

[Ron Avery]

[quote user="ErnieY"]

[quote user="audiop"]more choice of quality amongst the sea of rubbish ![/quote]

"Regional Variation" mostly means little more than 5 minutes of local news or the odd ethnic programme, or sometimes just a minor time differential.

Ernie my friend I do wish you would check your facts before posting.  Have a look at the SKY programme guide for Tuesday and look at BBC 1 Scotland, have a look at BBC 2 Wales on Friday evening.  Are they minor variations?

BBC 2 Wales has live rugby every Friday and the gardening programmes go out a different night.  There is a soap called River City on BBC Scotland shown when Holby City goes out to the rest of the UK, so that goes out on Thursdays in Scotland, there is often live football on BBC 1 Scotland so all those replaced programmes get shown at different times and dates. BBC Scotland and BBC NI also has their own comedy and local programmes that often push the Friday night programmes on BBC 1 London back after the 10 o clock news and Friday night with Jonathan Ross goes out later, these are just a few examples of regional variations that you can use to advantage. 

[/quote]

[AnOther]

My dear friend Ron,

Virtually everything you detail falls under the heading of ethnic does it not and the quantity of those, relative to total Sky output, I think qualifies the description of "the odd programme"

audiop suggested that one's viewing quality could be enhanced by regional variations which is what I tend to disagree with. Whatever time or channel it goes out on, dross is dross, regional variations may give you more opportunities to watch it !

I did not say you couldn't use it to your advantage, which of course you could.

[:D]

[audiop]

Methinks you must be watching a different Sky to the me. Even if you said chance of quality you'd be stretching it [blink]

"Regional Variation" mostly means little more than 5 minutes of local news or the odd ethnic programme, or sometimes just a minor time differential.

Re phoning Sky, no reason you can't do it from France so long as you use a mobile and don't tell them where you're calling from. If you were say renting a flat or house in UK and didn't have a phone line this is what you would have to do isn't it.

Q: Do they have caller ID or similar and therefore the ability to detect a call from a non UK mobile ?

 

Yup they do have caller ID so if you call from a french landline they will pick you up on it !If you use a UK mobile they will want to know why you are not calling from home - The last thing you want to do is arouse suspicions that you might be using the equipment outside the UK.

I don't know how strict Sky are on this because there are dealers out there offering Sky in France they obviously must know how to handle the Sky outside the UK issues.

Sky includes to me the UK BBC etc channels where most of the good stuff is, although Channel 4 and E4 we like as well "Lost" "Prison Break" etc.

[Panda]

Interestingly when I called Sky about a subscription I wanted to cancel because I was moving to France they said, could you not use someone elses address and keep the subscribiton that way! 

I have also phoned from my French landline and they did not mention it, so I think that some of the reports of being cut off are hear say, they want you to be a customer, they might have to be seen to not actively promote the use of Sky in France but from my experience they don't go out of their way to stop you and in fact encourage you to do it.  It's all business to them!

[Bilbo]

I have an existing Sky subscription, registered in the UK and updated to Sky+ via the excellent service of www.brittany-satellites.com They supplied the box and I arranged for my card to be updated whilst I was in the UK. However I am sure they would be able to arrange this for you. You do need a twin feed from your dish, but being able to watch one channel and record another so easily is well worth it, especially as you can play back the programs fast to miss out the adverts!!

You must have a subscription, which I believe must cover at least Movies or Sports. Whilst you can receive free to air programmes without a card, I don't think you can record.

You could have two separate Sky boxes with one linked to your video to record, but the advantages of the Sky+ hard drive recording are well worth it, IF you have a Sky subscription.

[audiop]

[quote user="Panda "]

Interestingly when I called Sky about a subscription I wanted to cancel because I was moving to France they said, could you not use someone elses address and keep the subscribiton that way! 

I have also phoned from my French landline and they did not mention it, so I think that some of the reports of being cut off are hear say, they want you to be a customer, they might have to be seen to not actively promote the use of Sky in France but from my experience they don't go out of their way to stop you and in fact encourage you to do it.  It's all business to them!

[/quote]

Well that is very interesting -  I was told about not phoning from France by a dealer who wanted to charge me €50 and another £30 for his UK Sky agent to update the card ! Seems to make sense what you say about Sky wanting to keep their customers, I think I will make a call to Sky and say that I was thinking about upgrading to Sky+ in the UK and would it be OK for me to use the equipment also in France.

[ChezShells]

If you can do without CH4 or 5 you can buy twin tuner sat recorders in France without the need for subscriptions.

[AnOther]

With the increasing availability and take up of Freeview etc. Sky are haemorrhaging customers and will do almost anything to retain existing ones. Just like the mobile phone companies.

They know that once you're gone you're gone for good.

Other than Sport and Movies, neither of which I have nor want BTW, there is no "killer" reason to be with Sky. 

[audiop]

Maybe not in the UK but French TV is a pile of s~~t !

[audiop]

CH 4 in my opinion has a lot of good progranmming so I would not want to ne without it. Channel 5 - I don't think I have ever watched anything on that channel, it is actually worse than ITV and that is saying something !!

[Fridgeman]

Hello

Just to poke my nose in here, I can see where both ErnieY and audiop are coming from and I do miss a couple of the programs on channel 4 ( soon to be FTA ) but I would NOT pay Sly Murdoch a penny and yes French TV is not that great but with a standard digital receiver I can get ALL the FTA channels and no I do not watch the shopping channels or the other not so good channels, IMO there is still plenty of good quality TV on Astra 28.2, there again what qualifies good TV, one mans meat is another mans poison, thousands must watch and buy off the shopping channels otherwise they would not be there and millions of French people must watch French TV and they can not all be wrong.

Satellite TV is a hobby for me and I have a motorised system so I received channels from satellites from 42 east to 62 west, at the moment 24 satellites in total and I have not bothered to count the channels, I receive all the FTA French channels and all the other French channels [;-)], I also get channels from many other countries such as Bulgarian folk music which is not to everyone's taste, I can watch it for about 30 minuets before I change channels  so we all have our own opinion of what is good or not, I like sport but I would not pay murdoch so I could watch it that on my part is a choice there are many people who cannot afford to so they miss out.

Removes Nose..........

Peace to you all.