Sky box portability?

lockers

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I've got some programs/films recorded in my Sky+/HD box - if I took the box away with me, would I be able to watch them if I attached the box to another TV?

I believe that where I'm going has a sky dish and box but currently does not have a subscription (just freeview). Would I need to connect the cables from the dish to make it work?

Alternatively, would my viewing card with full subscription work in the box that's already there?

I'm envisaging the answers to these to be no, but just wanted to check!

If the answer is no, how does it know that the box is somewhere else, is it picked up by information from the dish or the phone line?

Any help would be much appreciated - thanks.
 
The recordings are paired to the smartcard.

If you took your box and card away with you, you would be able to watch your recordings even if there is no satellite signal. The box doesn't know or care where it is.

You can't use your card in the other box without getting it paired (phone call to Sky). You would need to then call them again when you return.
 
The recordings are paired to the smartcard.

If you took your box and card away with you, you would be able to watch your recordings even if there is no satellite signal. The box doesn't know or care where it is.

You can't use your card in the other box without getting it paired (phone call to Sky). You would need to then call them again when you return.

Thanks Steve.

So... if the box doesn't care where it is, I would be able to watch/record new items as well if the existing dish/cables are functioning?

No doubt Sky would charge a fee for temporarily pairing with another box, so if I could avoid that and use my own box to watch live TV, that would be ideal.
 
Yes, your box will continue recording at the temporary location.

You need to make sure there are two feeds from the LNB though - otherwise you will get lots of failed recordings. The box isn't very graceful with only one input (although there are workarounds).

Sky don't charge for the pairing but I don't think it's a good idea when you have Sky+ / Sky HD - moving the box makes more sense.

Steve
 
As far as I'm aware this is incorrect. Unless this has changed recently the reception of a satelite signal is required in order to watch recorded items.
 
I believe there will be a satellite signal and quite probably 2 feeds, so hopefully I should be fine and be able to watch/record as normal.

Thanks for all the info - much appreciated.
 
Don't know what may have changed - but approximately one year ago, my neighbour moved house and whilst waiting a few days for the Sky installers to fit the dish, they were able to wade through the backlog of stuff on their box.

This was a Sky+ unit, not Sky HD, and it was over a year ago.

Steve
 
Hmm... just had a quick poke around in Google and it seems I am definitely wrong.

No signal, no playback...

It doesn't affect the O/P though as he is confident that there is at least one active cable at the new location. I am positive that playback was possible in the case of my neighbour though. How odd.
 
Hmm... just had a quick poke around in Google and it seems I am definitely wrong.

No signal, no playback...

It doesn't affect the O/P though as he is confident that there is at least one active cable at the new location. I am positive that playback was possible in the case of my neighbour though. How odd.

Unless there was a fault in the box it has never been possible to play back recordings without a satellite feed since Sky+ came out. Within the last year or two the time limit for no satellite signal has been increased to something like 20 or 30 minutes to cope with extreme weather conditions - originally it was only a minute or two. The satellite signal is required by the software to check the validity of the subscription card in the box.
 
Thanks for everyone's input, it worked a treat - had 2 feeds from the dish - so no problems at all.

I highly recommend using Sky multi-room....over 400 miles apart!!
 

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