sky digibox

[Dianes]

Hi,

Apologies if this has been answered before, my search facility doesn't work.

We have a holiday home in France, which we have been renting out this year. At the beginning of the year we installed a satellite dish with a freeview digibox, and purchased an ITV card.

When we leave the house for any length of time, we turn off all the electricity, etc. On one return the ITV took some time to activate. However, we have been told that if you leave the electricity off for too long, we may lose it altogether. This was fine during the summer months when guests were in the house for most of the time, but when we shut up for winter, we are not sure what to do now, because we don't like the idea of leaving any electricity on.

Any advice please?

Thanks,

Diane

[Eslier]

Section "B1h" of the "freesatfromsky" Terms & Conditions certainly implies that you may be right in your assumption that the card may become invalid if the digibox is not left connected to the mains for any length of time.

Your card, however, will work in any Sky digibox so why not take it home with you to the UK and plug it into your box there from time to time. Better still, take the digibox too and change the lnb on your home dish to one that provides two or more outputs and install the second box in another room of your house !

[Baz]

I would  never recommend leaving a card in a digibox with the power on and nobody at the house for a long time. If you have an electrical storm the card can be destroyed, it has happened to me. During storms you probably will have difficulties receiving pictures, so I advice removing the card.

If you do not use your card for more than a month, then Sky will have probably updated and your card will not work. All you need to do is place the card in the digibox and set to Sky News and all will work within 24 hours. In the unlikely event of this not working just carry out a forced download but this should only be done as a last resort. Look at this website for instructions, but a word of warning you must follow them exactly otherwise you can detrop your digibox.

http://www.satelliteonline.co.uk/forced_downloads.htm

Baz

[Gwynydd]

[quote]Hi,Apologies if this has been answered before, my search facility doesn't work.We have a holiday home in France, which we have been renting out this year. At the beginning of the year we installed a ...[/quote]

However, we have been told that if you leave the electricity off for too long, we may lose it altogether.

No, you won't.

http://www.bigdishsat.com/troubleshooting_2.php

[Chrisdubna]

[quote]However, we have been told that if you leave the electricity off for too long, we may lose it altogether. No, you won't. http://www.bigdishsat.com/troubleshooting_2.php[/quote]

Too definite, the correct answer is yes you might lose signal.  If you are travelling backwards and forwards maybe you need to travel with the box, otherwise you have to leave it on.  If you are really concerned about spikes and electrical storms then use an APS which are usually used to protect computers.

CHRIS

[Ron Avery]

[quote]However, we have been told that if you leave the electricity off for too long, we may lose it altogether. No, you won't. http://www.bigdishsat.com/troubleshooting_2.php[/quote]

No you won't lose any channels but you might find that if it is regionalised, IE set up for Scottish BBC ITV CH 4 etc , it may revert to default,  which I believe are London settings, if that is what you have or want anyway, then just turn it off and take out the card.

[Dianes]

OMG, you are all talking jargon, and I don't really understand!!

We don't have a digibox at home, and have an old TV with no scart socket, so not sure we can use it here. We only bought it for the rental market really.

Still not sure what to do, but we don't like the idea of leaving the electricity on, even to just one socket. Hate the idea of losing everything, and it is difficult to phone the helpline because in theory we should not have the digibox in France.

[Chrisdubna]

[quote]OMG, you are all talking jargon, and I don't really understand!!We don't have a digibox at home, and have an old TV with no scart socket, so not sure we can use it here. We only bought it for the ren...[/quote]

Sorry, Ron Avery is correct that you will not lose ALL channels.  There are a few which are not encrypted eg BBC1, BBC2 and Sky News and these will always work with or without a card but if the box with a card fails to receive its update signal it will de-activate and therefore lose any channels which are encrypted eg ITV, ITV2, Ch4 and Ch 5.  This is not the software update but the registration update.  I was called out only this week to a box which had been left disconnected from the electricity supply for several months and it needed a call to Sky (from a UK contact) to get it working.

You can use a UK TV in France and it will work with the Sky Digibox by using the aerial (RF) Socket.  You will not be able to receive up French TV.

If you do not want to leave it switched on then you MIGHT lose channels, it is not definite because the update is not done on a fixed time scale.  You comment on jargon (sorry to confuse) but you know enough not to ring up Sky from France - you could use an Internet phone though which does not reveal which country you are dialing from.

Hope that helps, if you are still confused email me direct with your phone number and I'll ring you and talk you through the issues.

CHRIS

[Gwynydd]

[quote]Sorry, Ron Avery is correct that you will not lose ALL channels. There are a few which are not encrypted eg BBC1, BBC2 and Sky News and these will always work with or without a card but if the box wi...[/quote]

I was called out only this week to a box which had been left disconnected from the electricity supply for several months and it needed a call to Sky (from a UK contact) to get it working.

I'm curious to know why you would want to put a customer to the expense of a call out if the problem was a de-activated card. Couldn't you have just told them over the phone that there was no fault with the equipment and they just need to phone Sky?

[Gwynydd]

[quote]OMG, you are all talking jargon, and I don't really understand!!We don't have a digibox at home, and have an old TV with no scart socket, so not sure we can use it here. We only bought it for the ren...[/quote]

Still not sure what to do, but we don't like the idea of leaving the electricity on, even to just one socket. Hate the idea of losing everything, and it is difficult to phone the helpline because in theory we should not have the digibox in France.

I work for a firm in North Wales and part of our activities are satellite installations. We have a lot of customers who have holiday homes here so only visit occasionally, very much like holiday homes in France.

 Here, customers turn their electricity supply off when they are away. This can be for 9 months or more. When they come back, their digibox still works on FTA channels but their viewing card has fallen asleep. So they get the BBC but not ITV.

Even after 9 months away, our customers advise us that: 

1.The card wakes up all by itself in a few hours.

2. The card does not self destruct 

3. They do not need to call Sky.

4.They do not need to do a forced software upgrade.

5.They do not need to leave the digibox on a specific channel.

6.The digibox does not lose its regionality

So, despite the well meaning advice, you should follow your instincts and shut the electricity off. Your digibox and card will come to no harm. Promise.