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Sky Digibox Allowed In Hand Luggage?


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Friends have taken a Sky Digibox that they bought on eBay to their holiday home in France.  They weren't able to try it / activate the FTA card in the UK as they dont have Sky at home.  They had a dish fitted in France during their last visit and saw UK TV on the installer's equipment at the time so presume everything's OK with the dish.  They phoned Sky from their mobile to activate the FTA card but cannot get a picture - Sky say it needs to be "upgraded" via a phone line (I think its a Pace 2200 receiver).

So they are going to have to bring the Digibox back to the UK and try it with someone's dish.  They drove to France but will be flying back - are they likely to encounter any problems at Airport Security if they put it in their hand luggage?

Obviously other electronic devices like laptops are allowed in hand luggage but these can be demonstated working if necessary.

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[quote user="Ecossais"]

Friends have taken a Sky Digibox

that they bought on eBay to their holiday home in

France.  They weren't able to try it / activate the FTA

card in the UK as they dont have Sky at home.  They

had a dish fitted in France during their last visit and

saw UK TV on the installer's equipment at the time

so presume everything's OK with the dish.  They phoned Sky from

their mobile to activate the FTA card but cannot get a

picture - Sky say it needs to be "upgraded" via a phone line (I think

its a Pace 2200 receiver).

So they are going to have to bring the Digibox back to the UK

and try it with someone's dish.  They drove to France but will be

flying back - are they likely to encounter any problems at Airport

Security if they put it in their hand luggage?

Obviously other electronic devices like laptops are allowed in hand luggage but these can be demonstated working if necessary.

[/quote]

  • That's a new one on me. I was under the impression that software

    updates took place over the air, and that the phone line was for

    billing purposes...

Have they tried a 'hard boot' to make the box load the latest software?

  • Why not check it in their suitcase ? Although with any luck it won't need to travel !

p

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What are they phoning SKY for  ? ......all you get from a SKY didgy box is the freeview channels you get in the UK ....I dont think you are going to get the  SKY package with their card activated via  FT phone lines ?  ....and the up date is not via the phone anyway. It does a search and up date automatically  when you switch the thing on ... you can force an update by holding a button in and then un plugging it then plugging it back in....Google the instructions under setting up SKY  boxes ....Mine came off ebay.....and I certainly didnt tell SKY I had taken it to France !. Mine gets re booted into a search  for channels  every time I  visit the house as I turn the power off at the mains when I leave it ...I have never had any problems .
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There would be no need to take the box to UK just to activate one of the £20 Sky cards, as that can be done in any sky box in the UK and will then work in any other anywhere.  Maybe the digibox is u/s though.   Whoever fitted the dish should be able to check that for them.

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Many thanks for your advice which I passed on.  Unfortunately they were not able to get a picture.

When searching for channels the receiver reports ‘no satellite’.  They were able to get all info Sky required displayed on the TV screen (don’t know the detail) and from this Sky technical advised that it needed a software update which would need to be done via the telephone line.

As I mentioned in the original post, they don’t have Sky in the UK therefore were unable to check that it worked OK before taking it to France.  They have brought it back to the UK and will try it on a Friend’s dish and phone line.

Frederick – the reason they phoned Sky was that the letter which came with the free to air card said they had to phone Sky to get the card activated.

Thanks once again for your advice.

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A Sky box is small enough to fall within any of the regular airlines weight/size policy (even Ryanair's...!) and I see no reason at all why there should be any problem carrying one on as hand baggage. Very few airports these days require you to switch on electronic equipment and certainly none in France that I've used which is Paris, Toulouse, Bergerac and Rodez, but it might be a good idea not to pack it too comprehensively so that it can be seen for what it is but I think it will likely go through the scaner with little if any comment.

I always have a laptop with me when I travel, plus a raft of associated electronic bits and bobs, and the last time anybody asked me to switch anything on was in Munich maybe 3 years ago but I believe they too have stopped it now.

I think to avoid the hassle of ferrying it backwards and forwards the first thing I'd do would be take it to someone elses house in France with Sky and try it there.

Incidentally, I have bought several Sky boxes on ebay and although sellers are not allowed to advertise cards if you read the descriptions carefully there are receivers for sale complete with one so as long as you make a point of asking if it works for CH4 & 5 you'll get a ready working system and aviod any hassle like this, and the extra expense of course.

I'll bow to the knowledge of others if I'm wrong on this point. but I also think the line from Sky about it needing to plugged into a phone line is BS but all the receivers I have bought have come with working cards so I have never actually bought one from Sky.

If they continue to insist you plug it in tell them you're in rented accommodation and don't have a fixed line and see what they say to that.

PS:

Be careful about forcing an update if you do not have proven good satellite reception, you could destroy the box completely !

 

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A couple of years ago, when I got a couple of FTV cards direct from Sky, it was necessary to have the box plugged into a TV and dish pointing at 28.2 east - then you had to call Sky - they then asked you to look at one of the menus on the screen and read out several of the numbers displayed. The signal was then sent out via satellite to activate the card. It was not necessary to have the box plugged into a phone line.As far as I'm aware - this method has not changed.

Tim

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First of all I'm assuming we are talking about a bog-standard Sky digi box? not a Sky+, HD or anything else fancy?

Has this installation ever had a working signal from Sky with another

box before or has it possibly been used for French satellite reception?

 

That being the case, it sounds to me as if it might be as simple as the

dish not being focused on the satellite properly. As others have

suggested, this box needs attaching to a known good system before

dragging it back to the UK.

You will find that the service menus are quite capable of displaying

all the serial number/card details etc without the coax cable being

even connected to the box, and 'no satellite' would certainly suggest

either 1) The dish is not looking at 28E properly, or 2) the LNB has

died, or 3) The cable is not delivering the signal to the box (this

latter covers a multitude of sins including water ingress at the head

end, faulty connection to the LNB, faults in the run of the cable, or

faulty 'F' connector at the box end).

This set of possible problems is best ruled out by trying a known good box on this intallation.

And I echo ErnieY's sentiment: software updates for a standard Sky box

are sent over the air not via a phone line or we'd all be up the

proverbial creak without the means of propulsion!

p

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[quote user="ErnieY"]

I always have a laptop with me when I travel, plus a raft of associated electronic bits and bobs, and the last time anybody asked me to switch anything on was in Munich maybe 3 years ago but I believe they too have stopped it now.

[/quote]

This was my experience too until my last trip in September where the officials at Bordeaux had me take out my laptop and power it up.  I've never been asked before at the French end and travel quite a lot so maybe things have changed again. 

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The software is updated via the dish, not over the phone.

If the box says no satellite then it's a safe bet the dish is pointing the wrong way - it could be that the installer of the dish whilst he has 'English TV' written on his van you get 'English TV' from most satellites (3 or 4 channels.....), but the sky box must point at a specific satellite in order to receive sky digital.

 

Go to the Astra website http://www.astra.lu/consumer/en/how-to-receive-astra/installation-assistant/index.php and go through the installation guide which will tell you which way to point the dish, elevation and LNB polarisation for your particular geographical location.  For sky digital you need to be looking at ASTRA 2B satellite.

 

For the free view card yes it needs t be activated but as said this can be done by anyone in UK who has Sky - and it gives you extra channels such as channel 4 and 5 plus some others (can't remember them now).  Definately worth it though.

 

So the first thing you friend needs to do is align the dish properly.  Hope that helps!!

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Thanks for all your replies and advice.

They were unable to get it going while briefly in France so have brought the Digibox back to the UK.  They'll connect it up to a friend's dish to establish if the Digibox is OK and activate the card.  If the Digibox works OK, then they'll need to get the dish installer back out next time they're in France.

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