Freesat from Sky not working

[MartinB87]

I was a "regular" Sky customer some years ago but after realising that we didn't use any of the pay-to-view channels we opted to switch to Freesat from Sky with a "Sky+" subscription a few years ago - mostly to allow us the ability to pause/record FTA TV.

This has worked absolutely flawlessly up until one day last week when one morning it just stopped working.

We can no longer play our recorded items, nor pause live TV.

The error message says:

"Live pause is not available"

And then when you press the yellow button it says:

"This service is currently unavailable. Please check your Sky viewing card is inserted and try again later".

The Sky box is a DRX890W-C.

[Mark39]

Have you tried restarting your Sky box? Switch it off at the plug for at least 4 minutes.

[MartinB87]

Yes, I've switched it off for an entire hour, and no difference.

I forgot to add, when on the main home page I get the following:

"Top Picks is only available with an active Sky TV Subscription"

Which is odd, because as far as I'm concerned I still have an active Freesat from Sky subscription. 

[GD1]

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@MartinB87 wrote:

Yes, I've switched it off for an entire hour, and no difference.

I forgot to add, when on the main home page I get the following:

"Top Picks is only available with an active Sky TV Subscription"

Which is odd, because as far as I'm concerned I still have an active Freesat from Sky subscription. 

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But that is not a full Sky TV subscription so the top picks won't display for you as you don't have the correct subscription.

You are only getting access to the free channels via freesat from Sky.

[MartinB87]

I would tend to agree, except I have had the Top Picks showing since I changed to Freesat from Sky with the Sky+ in 2017. Now I don't have anything, and as far as I'm aware nothing has changed.

[Annie+UK]

It could be that someone at Sky has spotted their mistake and corrected your viewing card OTA

[Mark39]

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@MartinB87 wrote:

"This service is currently unavailable. Please check your Sky viewing card is inserted and try again later".

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Your 'Plus' (record/live pause/playback) permissions are stored in the Viewing Card so it sounds like either a problem with the Card, or those permissions have been revoked for some reason. Either way, you'll need to call.

[MartinB87]

@Annie+UK - When you say, "spotted their mistake" what do you mean? What mistake

@Mark39 - OK, I'll try to give them a call tomorrow.

[Annie+UK]

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@MartinB87 wrote:

@Annie+UK - When you say, "spotted their mistake" what do you mean? What mistake

@Mark39 - OK, I'll try to give them a call tomorrow.

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I did not see your first post I only read the one about "Top Pick" 😞

[MartinB87]

@Annie+UK - No worries, thanks for replying though. But to the best of "our" knowledge the Sky+ subscription that I have, for my Freesat By Sky has not been discontinued? It should still work just fine?

[MartinB87]

Ok, so I've called and spoken to someone at Sky who tells me that "Sky+ is no longer available" and that my only option is to upgrade to SkyQ for £44/month!?

Surely that isn't right is it?

[Annie+UK]

Please Note: Sky+ is now a legacy service that Sky are replacing with their newer services: Sky Q (all issues will be fixed during a Sky Q install), Sky Glass and Sky Stream

Sky+ and earlier boxes are unsupported by Sky and have been for a while now, the last manufacture of Sky+HD boxes was approx' 9 years ago, there are no onger any new boxes available thus the reason for dropping support

[Mark39]

It's not available to new Sky+ subscribers. Are you still paying for a Sky+ subscription?

[MartinB87]

@Annie+UK - Thanks, I can't be the only person who this has happened to, why are there not more posts about it?

Seems odd as there isn't really much to it, just leave me to record and pause - no need to turn it off!

So my only options really are to pay an extortionate amount of money to get what I already had, or go elsewhere?

[nigea99]

hi @MartinB87 

I don't know what you have been paying SKy & for how long but you may be better getting a dedicated freesat box capable of recording