Old recordings not playing with new subscription

[innercry]

Recently the original contract (in ex's name) that I had for my sky+ ran out and I took a new one out in my name but since then I cannot view old recordings that were done on the previous subscription and different viewing card.

Just before it came time to switch viewing cards, I could not view any recordings or make any recordings, but I was still receiving all my channels. Rang Sky as I figured that it was time to activate my account which they did, but despite confirming I had a SKY+ box and account it still did not work! Rang them again and they tried to tell me that the box was not a Sky+ box! Finally after plenty of time on the phone they apparently re-activated my box to be a Sky+ box, by resending some data to it. This allowed me to record new programmes and watch them back, but not to watch the old recordings.

I'm assuming that the recordings are tied into the viewing card number and that each time you record something the recording is tagged with the viewing card number, and then when you come to play back, a comparison is made to confirm that the number the recording has matches the viewing card number. However, I was told that all recordings would work as it was only dependant on the Sky+ subscription being active.

Does anybody have any detailed information on how the sky+ system works as I would like to try and find an explanation without having to ring sky again?!

I also find it odd that they had to tell the sky+ box that it was in-fact a sky+ box after they had already activated my account, which to me suggests that the original reason why my sky+ features stopped working (just before I had my current account activated) was because they had deactivated that feature within my box, but hadn't deactivated my channel subscription.

If anybody can shed some light on this it would be greatly appreciated!!

[rasb0]

I merely moved my old + box to a bedroom, replacing a standard digi-box. Using the card from the old digi-box on the Sky+ box rendered the old recordings unobtainable (lost for ever, well I could swap the cards and get them re-matched to the respective digi-boxes, but I just can't be bothered with the hassle).

You are right in your assumption that the recordings are tagged to a specific card. Change the card, lose recordings!

Sky can activate or deactivate Sky+ functionality at will (ie: the box becomes a standard digi-box).