Switching from SKY + / SKY HD to SKY Q - some points to note

[nigea99]

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@LP wrote:

@nigea99  Thank you for an informative post.  I am back in this dilema once again.  I had an order about 18 months ago which had to be cancelled as the engineer on arrival said it was too far from the main BT hub to serve the rest of the house.  It was a nightmare to revert back to Sky+ and took nearly 12 months to get the refund!!  I am now (with the latest letter warning about no more suport) - thinking about trying again.  

We have 3 parts to the house all of which are served by the same BT network - boosted by BT mini disks. 

1 x Sky+ in small sitting room with an RF device to the adjacent bedroom (just one of these is in use at a time)

The other Sky+ box is in another part of the house on a multiroom contract.

I would like to add another box / connection into my son's bedroom plus another box into our main sitting room

ie total of 1 master and 4 slaves.  What do you think?

Broadband speed - download 425-500Mbps

Really resitant to changing as know I will struggle with any new interface but keen to get the additional boxes.

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hi @LP  (cc @Rickie )

First of all the lack of Software updates they have mentioned is not necessarily the problem they may be intimating at - SKY + boxes have had no real updates for years.

Thus you are very likely to be OK until your existing boxes  fail for other reasons (e.g. disk failure).

There has been a erecent change of policy which means you can no longer pair your card(s) with another box so cannot buy & use Second Hand SKY +/HD boxes to get round a failure

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OK now regarding SKY Q & minis - cut & paste from my initial notes:

There is, usually,  an up front, admin  charge for each mini although this is often free for the 1^st mini.

Even though the 1^st mini may not incur an admin charge one is not always sent by default so make sure you get this confirmed.

You can only use a maximum of 2 minis at the same time (only one if you have the non UHD box I mention) although you can have up to 4  on the account 

As mentioned above SKY Minis do not support 4K.

SKY Minis get their content from the Main Box and connect to it via wifi or ethernet – they do not connect directly to the Dish

Recordings

Sky Minis do not store the recordings on the mini box – all recordings are stored on the main box & there is no user profile system to separate recordings made from a mini from those made on the main box or by a different user.

Thus, anyone migrating from the old multiscreen with separate boxes may have issues that all the recordings are only stored on the main box and available to all (which can be an advantage)

Some people do get connectivity issues between the main box & minis, although most don't – members here & SKY Technical support can usually help to get these resolved

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Regarding connectivity, should you did get probelms with the minis not talking too well with the main box if your router & discs are all at suitable positions I believe you probably can connect all boxes via ethernet to the discs/router  & there may be other options

I have to admit I am a bit surprise by the engineer's comment about your BT router being too far  to serve the rest of the house as the Minis don't use your wifi network (although as above you can use ethernet to connect all boxes to your home network)

Broadband speed is not an issue

Important Notice for Sky+/HD users:
Please note that you are no longer able to pair your viewing card to a Sky+/HD box that the card is not already paired to, so if your Sky box fails you cannot replace it with another and you'll need to move to either Sky Q, Sky Glass or Sky Stream to access Sky content

[LP]

Well. That new rule re card pairing is a pain as that was my fallback!!! Certainly can't use Ethernet cable as it would be over 150m from the main BT hub and have to go around the outside of the single storey building.  

[LP]

Absolutely 👍. Helping my mid 80s mum to learn a new interface is not going to

happen! I'm staying as I am 🙂

[Lostssoul]

When did the new policy about pairing come in please. I recently 1 month ago, bought a 2nd hand sky +HD box because my old sky + box wouldn't show HD channels. This worked perfectly until about 3 days ago, and it is now saying it needs pairing, and it won't pair. I've followed all the guides, and it won't work, so I rang Sky and they have been unable to pair it, so offered me a replacement viewing card or swap to Sky Q.

I've opted for a new viewing card, but reading this I'm not sure this will work.

Sky never mentioned this policy in my call, and they box worked perfectly with my old card until 3 days ago, so something changed their end, or my old viewing card has suddenly failed. 

The new viewing card is on its way, so we will see what happens then. 

Looks like I might need to look at Sky Q sooner than I thought

[Daniel0210]

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@Lostssoul wrote:

When did the new policy about pairing come in please. 

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@Lostssoul 

If I remember correctly the 20 something of October 2024. 

[Lostssoul]

I've just read on another thread that from 29th October you won't be able to pair a viewing card to a new/ different HD box, but I had the box running with my existing viewing card weeks before before this date.

Im not sure it's a coincidence that it's just stopped, but I'll wait and see what happens with my new card

[SKY1992bf]

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@Lostssoul wrote:

I've just read on another thread that from 29th October you won't be able to pair a viewing card to a new/ different HD box, but I had the box running with my existing viewing card weeks before before this date.

Im not sure it's a coincidence that it's just stopped, but I'll wait and see what happens with my new card

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@Lostssoul  if you are using a box and viewing card that was paired together before 29th October call sky and they can resend the signals 

If you are trying pair a viewing card to another box that it wasn't previously paired to it won't 

sky are also no longer issuing replacement viewing cards for Sky+/+HD Boxes as of 29th October 

[roshazy]

Good morning

I appreciate you are not a Sky employee but I found your recent post very interesting -

"if you are using a box and viewing card that was paired together before 29th October call sky and they can resend the signals".

We lost the Sky+ HD  signals to our second box on 15th August and despite great efforts to have them restored, we have been told by Sky that it's not possible,

Shall we try again? We still have Sky+ HD on our main box.

[SKY1992bf]

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@roshazy wrote:

Good morning

I appreciate you are not a Sky employee but I found your recent post very interesting -

"if you are using a box and viewing card that was paired together before 29th October call sky and they can resend the signals".

We lost the Sky+ HD  signals to our second box on 15th August and despite great efforts to have them restored, we have been told by Sky that it's not possible,

Shall we try again? We still have Sky+ HD on our main box.

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@roshazy it depends as to what the on screen error message you are seeing 

is it "no satellite signal "

the signals I'm referring to only apply to boxes that have been switched off for some time meaning that the card has lost its authentication code to the box it's already paired to 

[Lostssoul]

Hi

The viewing card was working fully on the new box before 29th Oct so I'm assuming it was paired.

I called Sky and they were unable to get it to pair. 

They said they are sending a new viewing card so I'll see what happens.

They never asked me for the viewing box ID, so I have no idea what box they were trying to pair it to.

Also only 1 box shows on my Sky App, but they said that didn't matter.

Thanks for your reply

[roshazy]

Hi

No, this was an issue that occurred after we agreed to upgrade to Sky Q - a couple of weeks prior to the installation date, we lost all Sky channels and functionality (pause, rewind etc) to our second box even though we were still subscribed and paying for multiscreen. Basically they turned us off too early because when the Sky engineer came to instal Sky Q he said our property wasn't suitable and it wouldn't work so left without installing, When I asked if he could at least restore Sky+ to our second box before he left he said he could only carry out the work on his worksheet, so no.

Tried ringing Sky to restore but the answer I got was "there's no work around" by which I understood that the Sky+ signal to our second box had been switched off irrevocably.

If you're in the know, I'd love to know if this is correct or not as I'll try again!

Thank you

[Pommern]

I've accepted that I may have to upgrade to Sky Q ( or Sky Stream / Glass ) if one of my three Sky+ HD boxes fail, but I'm in an interesting position regarding Sky Q.

I currently three satellite dishes. An old 1 metre dish between 19 and 13 degrees east ( which I never use these days  ) and two dishes for Sky at 22 deagrees east,  one with an octo LNB and the other with a quad LNB, so every room is geared up for satellite, bar three of the bedrooms ( I have 5 bedrooms ). I have a Freesat box in one of my reception rooms.

If I go for Sky Q could I get Sky to install a completely new dish, say in the same position as the old 1 metre dish, which would mean I would retain all my old cabling for Freesat and still have Sky Q ? 

I'm not sure if Sky would do this as installation seems to consist of changing the LNB. Since I have a quad and an octo LNB what are they likely to say if I asked them to install a completely new dish ? 

I could of course go for Sky Stream or Glass and simply leave the old satellite cabling intact. 

[Chodley]

The old cabling should be fine but yeah it'll need a new LNB (but if it's getting a new dish that's nothing)

[Pommern]

The main Sky Q box would be in the lounge so a new dish and a cable ( som3 drilling through the wall required ) would be needed.

Not sure if a Sky installer would do this.

My other alternative is to get a private areal contractor to do that part of the installation.

I should be able to attach the cables to the Sky Q box and pair the card myself, 

[Pommern]

I don't really want to change the quad and octo LNB's.