hey up all! anyone on here give me some advice on this subject? I'd like a sky digibox in the bedroom so i can watch good telly when SWMBO watches corri downstairs! i rang sky tonight and they were pressuring me into having sky+ but this will triple my monthly subscription! and if we go for the digibox it will cost 99quid plus a tenna a month...im not sure if there is a fitting charge either. so it occurred to me that i could buy one used from eBay for 20-50 quid and wire it in myself. will i still need to pay sky a subscription for the other box? is there any websites with all this info on?
This is something I am about to sign up to - how would it triple your subscription, you must be on a very basic subscription? AIUI, if you subscribe to any premium package, the second fee is only £10 a month (certainly is for Sky+)
and if we go for
Yes you would mirror your surrent subsciption, this would enable you to view all your current channels aon the second box, for a fee of £10 a month. The problem with fitting it yourself is that you would need to replace your LNB (which will almost certainly only be a single output one) for a (normally) quad output one. This is something you could probably do yourself but you would need to source one and cable and then fit it.
If you want to do this, you would have to have a new LNB (component in the dish that collects and delivers the signal).
There are dual and quad types available and you have to home run a cable to each receiver (unless you are using a special type of switching device called a multiswitch). You can't just cut into the cable and split it because the receiver sends signals to the LNB to tell it which frequency band and which polarisation to use for a given program.
From Sky you can buy a mirror subscription card for about £15/month.
would be a better source; the £10 a month fee is for the usage of the Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) without which the Sky+ box wouldn't function easily - I think you might be able to programme the box using the manual-setting facility: time-on, time-off, channel-no, but I haven't tried that.
In any case the fee is (currently) waived if you have a 'decent' Sky subscription. We switched over to Sky+ last year and it cetainly has changed our viewing habits without effecting the subscription fee. The cost was purchase of the box itself plus the installation fee - waived due to a special offer at the time.
Although it's not an exact anlaogue;- having a Sky+ box rather than a digibox & VCR is somewhat like acquiring a dishwasher - all the clutter of tapes - have you watched this one? can I use this one to record over? we're never going to watch this recording, are we? We must set the VCR to record that programme while we're out - Oh, I thought _you_ were going to set it up? All is swept away by an unobtursive box that just sits there 'hidin' all its recordings but offers them on a menu, sorted A-Z or time sequence if you want, ready for play (or freeze) with you in control.
AIUI, the Sky+ 'package' installation involves the replacing of the single LNB with a quad-LNB, two of these feeds are then routed to the Sky+ box. If you purchase any of the 'other room' options the additional cables will be run from the LNB to wherever the additional digiboxes are located. [Maximun of two digiboxes or one Sky+.] Each digibox requires a subscription card inserted (and connection to a BT line?), BSkyB charges different fees for the subscription cards dependant on what each receiver wants to see.
i dont subscribe to any premium channels, just the basic 120 chanels, my package costs 20 quid a month...the sky plus would cost me 20 quid extra for the subscription and i have to subscribe to a premium package for 20 quid a month in order to get the sky+ box for 100 quid.
If you're looking for a Sky box, I've got an Amstrad one one sitting around doing nothing. Still packaged. Never used. 40 quid + postage! Otherwise, it goes on eBay...
It is again possible to get viewing cards without subscription (this facility has been missing for a couple of years since the BBC when unencrypted and stopped subsidising the cards). You get over 200 channels, including BBC, ITV and C4. I think the card costs 20 quid one off. Obviously you don't get premium channels and many of the popular entertainment and documentary ones, but it might suit occassional use in a bedroom where 10 quid a month subscription palls.
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sell card only for 20 quid if you trawl enough. You don't have to buy the box for 150 quid. They give a list of channels, too.
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