Sky+

[Steve Wilson]

I'm thinking about getting Sky + (the PVR box), but the Sky website isn't very informative and, if experience is anything to go by, phoning them up won't shed much light either, so hopefully somebody out there will know more. My questions are:

1. What is the telephone connection used for? Is this to download the TV schedules (essential), or just to allow access to the "interactive" services, which I'm not interested in anyway? If the latter, is there any reason why the box won't work if not connected to the telephone? Reading the terms and conditions on the Sky website, it's actually a condition that the box is kept connected to a phone line for the first

12 months. Why?

1. The room I want to put the box in doesn't have a phone socket (well it does, but it's not connected up). Given all the phone extensions I already have elsewhere in the house, I'm not keen to wire in another. Is there a wireless solution?

Thx Steve

[Andy Hall]

The program guide is delivered digitally over the satellite - it doesn't need the phone.

The phone connection is used during initial registration to pair the viewing card with the box (although that can be done separately), for interctive services (where they make money) and for upload of data from the receiver for marketing purposes. It's also used for pay-per-view services. Urban legend has it that they can upload details on your viewing habits but Sky do not confirm or deny it AFAIK.

The contract for reduced price receiver and/or service requires you to have the box connected to a phone line for the first year, and yes they do check periodically, and will bill you if you break the agreement. Periodically the box will dial out using an 800 number.

After the year you can do what you like if you don't want interactive or PPV service.

The typical solution is to use a phone-over-mains adaptor, but they are pretty expensive (£80).

one I found at random.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[parish]

read this which highlights a limitation with the Sky+ box that may, or may not, be an issue for you.

[Laurie R]

It's only a contract condition if you order the subsidised Sky+ package (was £199, now £249 plus £1 install) direct from Sky. If you buy a retail Sky+ box from Dixons, Ebay etc you don't need a phone connection. As well as the interactive & box-office reasons already mentioned, Sky can send a satellite order to a subsidised Sky+ box to "phone home". They can validate the CLI and disable the box if it doesn't respond or has been moved to a different address.

uk.media.tv.sky and uk.tech.tv.sky are better places for further questions.