Yup me too. I believe active sky customers who've registered their interest will be offered it first

Any idea when it's supposed to launch?

Yup me too. I believe active sky customers who've registered their interest will be offered it first

Any idea when it's supposed to launch?

Early January was mentioned in the last ream of emails I had.

Slightly OT, we have a Sky+ box in one room and freeview in the other. The freeview is terrible. I can set up the favourite channels one day and a few days later they've moved them around. So, SWMBO was looking at Sky multi room - is there another way or cheaper option ?  The MIL has a sender unit but it only sends the channel that's on in the other room to the portable whereas I think SWMBO wants the option of having two different channels at the same time.

I think multiroom would be the only option, unless the channels you'd mostly watch are on freesat?

I think multiroom would be the only option, unless the channels you'd mostly watch are on freesat?

 

Agreed, as the 2 tuners are in the sky+ box you have. The LNB on the dish should have 4 outputs so a separate freesat box or two is possible - although the bro in law hasn't worked out how sky Q is planning to make use of 12 tuners in one box from existing LNB output and cabling ???

Agreed, as the 2 tuners are in the sky+ box you have. The LNB on the dish should have 4 outputs so a separate freesat box or two is possible - although the bro in law hasn't worked out how sky Q is planning to make use of 12 tuners in one box from existing LNB output and cabling ???

I think a lot of it will be done over the Internet

I think a lot of it will be done over the Internet

I agree most of it will be on demand rather than live there and then. The home cabling from the LNB would be mental.

From the Q blurb I've read, I get the impression the actual recording is in the cloud, as it mentions accessing your recordings from any device anywhere?

From the Q blurb I've read, I get the impression the actual recording is in the cloud, as it mentions accessing your recordings from any device anywhere?

I had an email yesterday and there did appear to be a lot of cloud based benefits.

We used to have a sky box that was ghosting. The engineer said I should take out for a walk!

 

Confused I asked why, he said because the exorcise will do it good.

(I'll get me coat)

I must say that from what I have heard of sky they are a bit rubbish in this respect.

With Virgin there are zero fees for callouts and the last couple of times our box has had problems an engineer has been out within a day or two and either fixed it or replaced it.

Plus they rang me a while back and said we were on an old package and if we upgraded to a new package we would get TV, faster Internet and be paying less per month!

A colleague rang a while back as she had an ancient box. They upgraded her free of charge and moved her to a new package (paying less per month) but she did have to threaten to leave them!

The models are different, on Sky you own the STB after 12months (length of initial contract) VM is rental (you never own the STB).

I wish I didn't own the STB. Then I wouldn't get spam calls from Sky trying to sell breakdown cover for it. If it breaks and they dont replace it, i'll stop the direct debit!

I wish I didn't own the STB. Then I wouldn't get spam calls from Sky trying to sell breakdown cover for it. If it breaks and they dont replace it, i'll stop the direct debit!

Most companies are not even affiliated by Sky, just remember Sky will leave you with a working system for a one off fee of £65. Normally far less than the annual insurance charge.

Hey chaps, resurrecting an old post.  To my utter amazement, my wife cancelled Sky this morning.  We went through all the processes and they did indeed waive a call out charge and the £3 extra per month that they said it'd cost for a new box.

 

So talking to Sky technical last night after we lost signal completely, the chap did some testing and confirmed everything (hardware) to the tuners checked out, so he said the box has died.  Interestingly we had a second identical box, which was working but had a high pitched whine we couldn't put up with.  This second box, when connected up also said the same 'no satellite signal is being received' message.

 

Now I've been looking at Freeview/sat recorder boxes.  We have a phone line connection, unlimited wifi (BT infinity), an aerial and sat dish (two cables - presumably twin tuners).  But I've found a minor hiccup (which Lee may have previously alluded to) as our TV has an aerial in, three scarts and nothing else.  If Mr Currys is to be believed, not having an HDMI connection means we'll have to miss out on catch-up and other services.  But I'm struggling to get my head around it and stopped him as he started showing signs of wanting to sell me a TV with HDMI et al.

 

Some Freeview boxes have scart connections, but the freesat boxes all seem to rely on HDMI, which means we'll need to consider freeview only unless we change TV.

 

The Humax 2000T:

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertainment/digital-and-smart-tv/set-top-boxes/humax-hdr-2000t-freeview-hd-recorder-500-gb-21653452-pdt.html

appears to tick the boxes for us.

 

But then there's Panasonic's, Icecrypt and Samsung Blueray players (BD7500/8500) which also do the same thing and get good reviews (though I presume Blueray players are HDMI and won't have scarts) and it's at this point I get thoroughly confused with it all.

 

I'd be quite happy to change TV, though I have to say the picture quality on our 100hz CRT takes some beating.  However this will further confuse things as my son gave us his old 40" smart TV, but SWMBO couldn't get on with it coz it had a 'flicker', apparently, which gave her a headache.  So it went to friends.

 

I might as well get the Humax 2000T I think - unless anyone has any other suggestions, keeping it simple for a luddite like me please.

 

Gaz

Edited 12 March, 201610 yr by V6TDI

If I was fault finding something similar at work and I found two units both showed the same fault when connected to the dish, I would suspect the dish or cable run was at fault. As there are two cables to the dish, I would hazard a guess at the LNB being full of water (if you can get at the dish it's the grey circular thing on the end of the arm. Of course you might have two boxes with exactly the same fault, but even then I would suspect something external caused the failure. If the dish is at fault, a Sat receiver wont work on it though.

 

CPC sell Scart to HDMI convertors as do Maplins (probably PC World too I guess?)

 

Roughly speaking, the two cables are for the polarised receive 'ariels' in the LNB bit of the dish. There is a horizontal one and a vertical one (hidden in the thing that looks like a cap of an aerosol, usually grey) , the LNB then does some clever stuff to send the signals in a way the satellite box can use them. There is a bit of electronics in that thing that looks like a cap, and it needs power from the satellite box (Sky or free sat), this 'phantom' power uses the same two cables that connect the box to the dish's LNB.

Edited 20 March, 201610 yr by Lady Elanore

Thanks Amanda 

 

I agree, two boxes that were working suddenly having the same fault, makes me quite suspicious of 'the box is dead' rhetoric.  Our dish is only about 8' off the ground and faces the weather.  I might take a peek when the grounds a bit firmer under it.

 

We went for the freeview box in the end, and I'm glad to be shot of Sky.  The only thing I think I ought now to do is change the aerial as it's an old analogue one and I presume changing it to a digital one might improve signal reception.  It's fine at the mo', but we've lost the picture for a few moments a couple of times.

 

Gaz

Thanks Amanda 

 

I agree, two boxes that were working suddenly having the same fault, makes me quite suspicious of 'the box is dead' rhetoric.  Our dish is only about 8' off the ground and faces the weather.  I might take a peek when the grounds a bit firmer under it.

 

We went for the freeview box in the end, and I'm glad to be shot of Sky.  The only thing I think I ought now to do is change the aerial as it's an old analogue one and I presume changing it to a digital one might improve signal reception.  It's fine at the mo', but we've lost the picture for a few moments a couple of times.

 

Gaz

If you mean the Ariel on the roof don't bother paying extra money on a 'posh' one. If your picture is already fine and the signal strength is good, you won't see any improvement. You do sometimes see a blockiness in pictures due to bandwidth restrictions, but that's to do with the broadcasters and the transmitter folk, not your bits and bobs. If you have lost picture it might just be the Ariel is misaligned or the Co-ax cable is compromised in some way. Ariels last for decades generally.

 

If you are very near the sea, you may sell have a bit of corrosion due to salt in the air and rain. This would certainly kill your LNB if it got into it and corrode things like the clamp on your roof ariel etc

Edited 20 March, 201610 yr by Lady Elanore

Going to FV and ditching Sky is a bad idea in my experience. The DTV needs retuning at least every two weeks when they've moved the channels around, and if you've got a set list of favourites, it's a right PITA having to update it and move them around so that they stay in the order you wanted them in, in the first place. I'm looking at getting a means of having Sky in two rooms (not multiroom) rather than perservering with FV. I think it's rubbish.

Going to FV and ditching Sky is a bad idea in my experience. The DTV needs retuning at least every two weeks when they've moved the channels around, and if you've got a set list of favourites, it's a right PITA having to update it and move them around so that they stay in the order you wanted them in, in the first place. I'm looking at getting a means of having Sky in two rooms (not multiroom) rather than perservering with FV. I think it's rubbish.

I know what you mean about the new FV Channels, but my Panny sorts them out in pretty much the same order for me, if that makes sense and as it just does my region (I ask it to) I don't get duplications of some of the Welsh channels (I live in Manchester).

 

I looked at SKY Q and was told it would cost me an extra £10 a month, but the only reason I could see for it was to use it as multi-room, which is something I don't need. Of course there will be 4K along soon, but I imagine there will be another £10 a month to find for that too (I don't have 4K yet as I'm not upgrading my receiver and 2 year old TV just for that, as well as the very expensive UHD Blu Ray player costs)  :(