topic Re: Not able to get Free to View Channels in Archive

Not able to get Free to View Channels

Fueat16363 — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 11:32:12 GMT

Recently my 78 year old mother in law's TV broke so we bought her a new one. However the tv's connection did not allow a scart cable which she used to connect to her old free to view sky box.

So managed to get a 2nd hand HD box and connected this up to TV. Used the old card which came with it but will not show itv3 hd channel or any of the other free to view channels.

Does this 78 yr old, partially sighted lady, who only watches ITV3 have to buy a subscription in order to watch what she should be able to for free ?

Any help or advice greatly appreciated

Regards

Chris

Re: Not able to get Free to View Channels

Annie+UK — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 11:33:51 GMT

Did you pair the viewing card from the old box to the new?

http://activatemychannels.sky.com (the instructions given via this link seem to use your sky account to determine which Sky Box type (Sky+/Sky Q) they are targeted to)

Or

Perform a New Install (instructions can be found in my FAQ link below)

Re: Not able to get Free to View Channels

pjhaahl — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 11:34:51 GMT

@Fueat16363 Have you paired the viewing card to the new box

https://www.sky.com/help/diagnostics/sky-viewing-card/sky-viewing-card

Re: Not able to get Free to View Channels

robjc — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 12:04:46 GMT

@Fueat16363

Assuming you get the card paired ok, be aware that unless you are paying a for Sky subscription

with the HD pack, the only ITV channel available in HD will be the main 'ITV1' channel.

regards

Re: Not able to get Free to View Channels

jim8sky — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 17:57:00 GMT

@Fueat16363

The simplest way to get the free to view channels is to plug a TV aerial in to the TV.

There is very little difference these day between what is on Freeview Digital TV and free to view via a satellite.

Lots of teh freeview channels are in HD so makes sure she tunes in to the right one e.g. BBC1 SD is channel 1 and

BBC HD is 101

Re: Not able to get Free to View Channels

Mark39 — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:55:50 GMT

@robjc wrote:

@Fueat16363

Assuming you get the card paired ok, be aware that unless you are paying a for Sky subscription

with the HD pack, the only ITV channel available in HD will be the main 'ITV1' channel.

Not sure the card can in fact be paired if there's no TV subscription. Either way, ITV3 is available free to air in standard definition only as @robjc posted.

Re: Not able to get Free to View Channels

Fueat16363 — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 20:11:34 GMT

I agree completely, however she is also suffering with the early signs of dementia and as such is fixed to her routine. Changing it by offering different remotes, channel numbers at. Can really confuse and stress her.

It's taken several weeks of constant reminding that she has to use a silver remote to switch the bee TV on.

I guess we will have to resign ourselves to the fact she can only watch standard TV.

Re: Not able to get Free to View Channels

Fueat16363 — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 20:18:48 GMT

Thanks for that, but due to her dementia she is use to itv3 being on channel 117, which it was on the old standard box. What confuses even further is that her TV guide magazine only has channel 117 list for itv3. It's a real pain and is becoming blatantly obvious that Sky along with other companies have no interest in people with disabilities.

She paid for the free to view box but is now unable to watch what she use to watch because of advances in technology which she is unable to keep up with, and isn't her fault.

One day we will all be like that I guess,

Re: Not able to get Free to View Channels

Fueat16363 — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 20:21:02 GMT

I have tried that but after entering account number it says it doesn't recognise the details. It was an account that was setup in 2007 so suspect it's long since been deleted.

Re: Not able to get Free to View Channels

OurJ — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 09:35:47 GMT

I completely agree!

My Mum is elderly, is displaying signs and symptoms of early dementia and has recently moved home to be nearer to us ( so we can keep a closer eye on her!)

she was previously a loyal Talk Talk customer with the BASIC TV package and I discovered to my horror she was 5.5 yrs out of contract and paying 3x more than anyone else on the basic package ( £60.47 pcm) AND paying £2.75 pcm per paper bill !!!!

So when she moved, we switched her to SKY Essentials and she just wants to access the main four channels, freeview and catchup however, it’s not easy to navigate the systems!

If there was a way to simply list All what she DOES have access to rather than ‘ here’s what you could see if you paid more! ‘ it would be sooooooo much easier to assist relatives with disabilities especially memory issues or lack of confidence when it comes to complicated handsets. Sky just need to keep it simple.

Re: Not able to get Free to View Channels

oj01 — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 09:40:25 GMT

@OurJ You could set up the Favorites channels to only include those she can access.

Re: Not able to get Free to View Channels

OurJ — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 16:13:36 GMT

@oj01 thank you! I will look into that. Favourites is a good idea. Thanks.👍🏻

Also we’ve realised the handset is not responsive for certain buttons ( only supplied two days ago, we’ve replaced the batteries) so I’ll be requesting a replacement.

We’ve also double checked the set up today as the engineers came two days ago BUT understandably couldn’t come into the house so all instructions were relayed through the window, with a bit of improvised sign language ..... anyway, we realised that the set up needed redoing. That’s now done.

Problem is although we have a HD Box we can NOT download catchup on HD only SD for some reason!

All good stuff, just ironing out the teething issues the BIG job is teaching my Mum a whole new set up after years of doing something else. A reliable handset would be good, my Husband is convinced this handset is not new and probably recycled.