The old one (white box from 2006) is on its last legs and after some investigation BT and Virgin are not an option. So… what features does a new style SKY box have over our old one? I’ve seen that it will hook up to wi fi so I assume that I’ll be able to access iPlayer etc through my TV. What about on demand and box sets? We’ll just be going with Variety and Sport packages.

I’ve looked on the SKY website but I’d like some real world experience.

You’ll get HD, all catchup, box sets and …. errr…. what you got before.
Slowing moving towards ditching Sky here.

AFAIK, you can access BBC catch-up but not sure you’ll have “full” iPlayer i.e. what you can get on a desktop, but rather whatever BBC makes available to Sky on catch up.

Box-sets, yeah, there are tons of them.

WiFi hook-up is good – means you download catch-up stuff via web rather than a signal, and can start watching it after 1 or 2% has downloaded. There is the option to download SD or HD versions.

Search function is excellent – brings up a list of all programmes related to the search, when they’re showing (so if eg. you want to series link a show, you can see when it’s being shown at say, the middle of the night and record from there.

There’s a good kids section (for those who allow their kids to watch kids tv – I’m not one of those, no way sir. 😀 ).

See if you can book a free service call. It will be replaced with a HD box anyway ask nicely

AFAIK, you can access BBC catch-up but not sure you’ll have “full” iPlayer i.e. what you can get on a desktop, but rather whatever BBC makes available to Sky on catch up.

DD’s right – very often there’s stuff on the iplayer web site/freeview that doesn’t show up on Sky.

The thing I find most useful is setting programmes to record from my phone. Saved my bacon a few times when the missus asks ‘you did record that thing I wanted to watch didn’t you’!

I’ve tried Humax, Talk Talk TV, and Freeview but for me Sky’s ease of use beats them all.

I too still have an old white box, been planning to get an upgrade for ages but I’ve tried Sky Cust Serv and they want something like £250 for one..

Sod
That

I want a free one, I have been with them (full package,BB,Phone) for what feels like centuries now..

😐

Book a service call the most it will cost is 65 qiud.

The old sky plus box is no longer made so it gets replaced with the next model up. That’s a HD box.

Ohh really ?

Ta

I got offered a new box and free install on the phone last night. They’ve got a shop near me so I’m going to bob in and have a chat face to face.

I want a free one, I have been with them (full package,BB,Phone) for what feels like centuries now..

Phone up, tell them you’re going to cancel.

Clearly I’ve been fobbed off at sometime in the past, I’ll have a chat with them.

Cheers.

This.

“I’d like to cancel” – “why’s that then, sir?” – my Sky box is broken and I can’t afford to replace it.”

The old one (white box from 2006) is on its last legs

Did you have Sky+ on that? Ie, the dual cable feed to the box?

Did you have Sky+ on that? Ie, the dual cable feed to the box?

Yis.

They are rolling out upgrades to certain boxes sky + box is one of them to be upgraded. I don’t know the time scale I’m afaid.
Or 65 quid for a box dish and cable replaced if needed. *cable can last for a surprisingly long time * dishes and boxes get the most abused

you’ll get a much bigger storage capacity on the new box too…
the new boxes should come with built in wifi but check to see if you still need the on demand connector…if you do ask nicely and you might get one for free otherwise they cost about £30 (i think) also try and blag one the 2TB boxes if you can

They said if we got a new box we could keep the old one to watch what we had stored on the planner. Will it still work if I disconnect the feeds or will I have to keep swapping them over?

I ask because the error we are getting is an intermittent fault on the Line2 receiver, which effectively knackers the functionality of the whole box.

That’s most properly the cable dropping it’s signal on input 2. Water ingress a likely culprit.

It’s hit and miss on replaying your old recording most will work but after seeing TV in HD you might not want ever look at it again

so long as the line 2 connector issue can be sorted it will still be usable.
if the cable has water in it then you might want to try and dry it out or get the whole cable replaced….however i think what sky are suggesting to you about still being able to watch the old box is their way of trying to get you to sign up to their multiroom package for an extra £10 per month

Hmmm… Got a service call booked anyway as it could be a cable issue. £30 including a replacement dish/cable /box as required. Sky’s pricing policy really is all over the place!

Are you just able to buy a 2nd hand box from ebay/gumtree and use that?

SKY – Free new box, free installation, better package at reduced price and £100 credit on the account when we went to cancel last month. (Our old box was 10 years olds and was going wrong)

Go on BT and find the package you like, go through top cashback and tell sky what you are getting – At the time I would have got £150 cashback, BT infinity, BT Box, £50 Sainsbury card and bt package. open it on the laptop so you can quote from the bt site. Bingo they gave me the above. Had no intention of leaving.

New box is soooo much better than the old ones

Just rejoined sky as a new customer after a 5 year absence

Sky movies,sports,family pack,sky go extra
Phone , fibre unlimited

£43 per month!

Regards watching your old recordings on the old box, it will need to be fully connected to the dish still and have the existing viewing card in and paired to that box, you can’t just hook it up to a tv for playback.

Plus you don’t want to be swapping the viewing card back and forth between boxes as the viewing cards have your subs on(inc HD entitlement)

Each box needs a viewing card with active subscription to make use of the recording/playback features.

It does so happen that I have a virtually new HD Sky+ box for sale, its the current model with built in wifi connectivity, send me a message if anyones interested.

it will need to be fully connected to the dish still

Are you sure about that? I didn’t think that was the case. Live and learn if so.

The new boxes can play recording if no feed from the dish but only for a short while.
Sky + needs feeds and active card. And don’t swap your cards over from one box to another as will mess your package up. As unovolo typed.