miaviv Posted January 26, 2006 Share Posted January 26, 2006 I know that I'll get the usual BBC, ITV Sky News etc. but will I get Channel 4 and 5 and Sky One ?I'll have the blue card with yellow house on. This box has beenin the UK unused for about 6 months, should I plug it in and "activate"the card and box when still in the UK or can i do this when I come overto France. My Dad already has a box but is scared that I willmess up his system and box if I plug mine in to see if it works. Is it likely that my dad will have problems getting his to work once wehave tested mine ? He has loads of option channels (sport etc)and of course doesn't want to lose them !How much should I pay for a second hand box ? Not sure what the going rate would be .... Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eslier Posted January 26, 2006 Share Posted January 26, 2006 The box will work fine in France and if the card is your ex-contract card it should enable you to get ch4 & 5 as well as all the FTA BBC & ITV channels. You won't get Sky1 without a subscriptionbut you should get Sky3 and Sky News.If you've got a dish at home then take that with you too. A minidish will work fine in most areas of France providing it is set up carefully.Tryng your card in your father's digibox shouldn't cause any problems but change the cards over whilst the box is switched off and unplugged. When you swap back again all your dad's sbscription channels will be restored.To get an idea of the cost of second hand digiboxestake a lok on ebay uk. The Panasonic ones are the best and consequently usually go for a little more but in my opinion are worth paying a little extra for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted January 26, 2006 Share Posted January 26, 2006 This site should give you the details you need.regardsSimon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyn_Paul Posted January 28, 2006 Share Posted January 28, 2006 [quote user="miaviv"]I know that I'll get the usual BBC, ITV Sky News etc. but will I get Channel 4 and 5 and Sky One ?I'll have the blue card with yellow house on. This box has beenin the UK unused for about 6 months, should I plug it in and "activate"the card and box when still in the UK or can i do this when I come overto France. My Dad already has a box but is scared that I willmess up his system and box if I plug mine in to see if it works. Is it likely that my dad will have problems getting his to work once wehave tested mine ? He has loads of option channels (sport etc)and of course doesn't want to lose them !How much should I pay for a second hand box ? Not sure what the going rate would be .... Thanks[/quote]If you unplug you dad's box and temporarily connect yours to verify everything is OK then re-connect his there is no reason at all why it shouldn't work perfectly again.p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miaviv Posted January 29, 2006 Author Share Posted January 29, 2006 Thanks for all your replies. One more question, if I get the box,plug it in successfully here in France, can my Dad use his own card(from UK box) for which he subscribes to Sky Sport etc in my skyboxwhen he comes to visit ? will he get his channels (including hisoptions) during his stay and will it bugger up anything for him when hegoes back to the UK afterwards ??? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyn_Paul Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 His card in your box : Best case - everything he has at home. Worst case - you get a message saying 'you need to subscribe to this channel' when he puts his card in your box. Some premium channels are card+box specific; The Movies are, apparently, but I don't know about the Sports stuff. If he unplugs his box from the mains before removing the card to bring to France, then puts it back in again before reconnecting the mains on his return, it won't even know the card has ever moved!If your box displays any 'funnies' when its home card is plugged back in, I suggest disconnecting it from the mains then reconnecting without a card, then again with the card already inserted. Thus when the software starts from scratch and looks for the the channel/region settings it first finds nothing so goes to default settings, then the 'proper' date on its original card.p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh4 Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Having accidentally mixed up cards and boxes in the UK we got a message that the card and box did not match and could receive nothing at all apart from the message, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Sky have the facility to pair boxes and cards very closely if they care to use it (which they did back in summer 2003 when there was a complete card re-issue in progress) but at the moment - generally - a lot of the bog standard channels don't seem to mind a non-paired card being used; (I've just tried here and our FTV card can be swapped with our subscription card).But as andyh4 says there is always the odd unexplained exception!The only way to find out is to try..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyn_Paul Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 [quote user="andyh4"]Having accidentally mixed up cards and boxes in the UK we got a message that the card and box did not match and could receive nothing at all apart from the message, [/quote]Were you a permium subscriber ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh4 Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Sky movies, documentaries but not sports etc. but it was back in 2003 so it could be that Martin has the explanation and it was linked to the issue of the new cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyn_Paul Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 [quote user="andyh4"]Sky movies, documentaries but not sports etc. but it was back in 2003 so it could be that Martin has the explanation and it was linked to the issue of the new cards.[/quote]My betting is that Sky Movies is the deal breaker here. though as Martin said, Sky has the ability to pull more channels into the restrictive net at any time. And each new version of the software throws up new and exciting bugs when faced with a whole range of manufacturer's kit of a hugely varing age. The (continuing) miracle is that any of it works at all! (see adjacent thread re-disappearing EPG details).p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miaviv Posted January 31, 2006 Author Share Posted January 31, 2006 My box here in France won't be connected to a phone line (obviously) sodoes my Dad's card at home in Uk feed from his phone line to get skysports or is it independent ? Will it work if he just brings ithere and sticks it into my skybox ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted January 31, 2006 Share Posted January 31, 2006 Sky Sports should work fine. All the telephone line does is to act as the billing system for when you order pay per view stuff, gamble on line, shop on line, etc etc. If you disconnect it you won't be able to do those things. Everything else goes on working.The card itself is turned off or deactivated via signals broadcast via the satellite. Contrary to some of the myths one reads, Uncle Ru has no way of telling where your box is if it isn't connected to a phone line! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now