Sky + HD Box Disabled by Sky when Q Box Installed

[Hamima]

Not at all happy with Sky.

Having been paying over the odds for my current subscription using Sky + HD for quite a while, I contacted Sky and they persuaded me to have a new deal with Sky Q installed.

However, once my new Sky Q was installed, I was annoyed to find that my Sky + HD box was completely disabled, and I could no longer access items in the planner.

I had a couple of small recording of when my mother had sent in handmade birthday cards for my kid, and they appeared on CBeebies.

I contacted Sky to temporarily reactivate my Sky + HD box so I could copy these recordings onto my phone, but after a long drawn out call they completely refused saying that that my old box could only be reinitiated in rare exceptional circumstances.

Does anyone out there know of any way I can remove and access the hard drive myself to view and copy these items, or of any IT professionals who would know how to do this?

Feel the magic this Christmas? I feel more like my Christmas has been stolen... 😞

[Annie+UK]

You cannot have mutliple Sky TV services on the same account/address

Most programmes stored on the Sky boxes HDD are encrypted using the viewing card (That will not be activated for Sky Q)

[Hamima]

I asked them to temporarily re-instate my Sky + HD service instead of my Sky Q, even if it was just for a day, but they said no.

I only wanted to access the planner for a couple of hours.

I didnt even need my old box to get a satellite signal, so there was no need to hook it up or send an engineer round, but they still said no.

From a company at the forefront of innovation, I was apparently asking the impossible.

[Annie+UK]

During the Sky Q install they would have changed the LNB on your dish to one that is incompatible (Wideband LNB) with Sky+ so even if your viewing card was re-enabled for Sky+ your box would no longer work on the dish and you'd not be able to access the planner as the box would not get a signal for it to initialise

[Mark39]

I don't believe there's a process for temporarily reinstating Sky+. Additionally, a Sky+ box has to be connected to a dish to enable you to get to the Planner and a Sky Q LNB is not compatible with Sky+.

[Hamima]

I recorded a BBC show on a box that is mine, and Sky have disabled my ability to view that recording.

Why have Sky made it so that the box needs a signal from them, to allow me to access recordings made from a BBC channel on a box that belongs to me?

[Mark39]

You own the box, but not the service which allows you to access and play back recordings, nor the recordings themselves.

[Annie+UK]

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@Hamima wrote:

I recorded a BBC show on a box that is mine, and Sky have disabled my ability to view that recording.

Why have Sky made it so that the box needs a signal from them, to allow me to access recordings made from a BBC channel on a box that belongs to me?

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You own the physical  box not the software and features of said software plus you don't own the rights to the programmes stored on the Hard Drive, you have the right to access the recordings with a valid sky subscription for the box, which you no longer have

[Hamima]

Thank you everyone who has replied. Your replies have really been very much appreciated and have helped me to understand the full situation.

So bascially I now own a Sky + HD box with which I can do nothing and is practically worthless, unless maybe I can get Banksy to come round and paint something on it!

Oh well, does anyone know if there are any other makes of boxes (freeview/Virgin/Bt/etc) which do allow you to record and watch back at your leisure without the requirement of a subscription, or did this ability disappear with the demise of the old VHS recorders?

[Annie+UK]

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@Hamima wrote:

Thank you everyone who has replied. Your replies have really been very much appreciated and have helped me to understand the full situation.

So bascially I now own a Sky + HD box with which I can do nothing and is practically worthless, unless maybe I can get Banksy to come round and paint something on it!

Oh well, does anyone know if there are any other makes of boxes (freeview/Virgin/Bt/etc) which do allow you to record and watch back at your leisure without the requirement of a subscription, or did this ability disappear with the demise of the old VHS recorders?

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What you are describing is FreeSat for Satellite or YouView for a Terrestrial aerial (Freeview)

[Mark39]

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@Hamima wrote:

Oh well, does anyone know if there are any other makes of boxes (freeview/Virgin/Bt/etc) which do allow you to record and watch back at your leisure without the requirement of a subscription, or did this ability disappear with the demise of the old VHS recorders?

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No, there are plenty of Freesat or Freeview recorders available. Freeview requires a connection to a TV aerial. Freesat requires a connection to a satellite dish - but unless you buy one of the latest (expensive) Freesat recorders, you'll need the LNB on the arm of your dish to be replaced with a hybrid version, which can feed both your Sky Q box and a Freesat recorder.

[HeathHayle]

@Hamima was the programme recorded from the cbeebies nonHD channel because if so you can take the hard drive out and manually extract the programme

[Hamima]

I'm pretty sure it wasnt recorded on the HD channel, no.

[HeathHayle]

@Hamima thats a shame thats one good reason to record in SD

[Hamima]

It wasnt recorded in HD, just normal SD so maybe I may be able to retrieve the recording?

Is there a YouTube video you can recommend?