Urgent Sky + question

[Cockeye]

I have been offered a second hand Sky+ Box for 45 quid from someone on the forums.

I don't have a Sky+ subscription, and am only on the basic family pack at the moment.

If I plug the Sky+ box in, and connect the phone line will Sky detect the box and charge me extra per month?

Or can I just plug the box in no problem?

Also, can I hook the box up to my DVD recorder and archive any programmes easily to DVD?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[joconnor]

You will need Sky to come out and install a new part for your dish.

Sky+ runs off two cables (so you can record one thing and watch another). You also need to ring Sky cs and have them activate your Sky+ account.

When I had mine installed the lines were down so the engineer gave me a number to ring. I could not pause or record until I rang that number and had it activated.

[bumfrog]

without paying the extra money for the sky+ service you won't be able to record as far I know.

[Just]

Ok, depends on what you want to do with the box;

A - Record, pause etc etc
B - Use it as a standard sky box to watch some sky channels live

If A then you will need a new bit on the dish, a new cable to the dish and therefore most likely an engineer visit (may as well buy from sky etc).

If B then you don't need anything to change if you already have a dish even with a single cable you can use it as a normal sky box with the advantage of a better picture output (apparently) and optical audio output.

Sky won't automatically charge you anymore, but for situation A you will have to spend a minimum or around £30 a month one way or another.

[Cockeye]

Ah, damn!

Ok, thanks!

[RBZ5416]

Just to clarify, the box will simply function as a standard digibox. To utilise the recording features you need:

A replacement LNB on your dish (unless you already have a dual or quad).

A 2nd cable run from the LNB to supply the additional tuner.

Either an upgrade to you current subscription to include at least 2 premium channels or a £10 pm Sky+ subscription to allow recording on your current package.

Edit:

Too slow - again!