I have a Sky setup, with a subscription card and a small dish, in Cyprus.
Yesterday I changed the digibox, and of course lost most of the channels. I
phoned Sky to marry the card to the new dish, but after waiting more than 12
hours it hasn't happened. I will wait a little longer and then have to reuse
the original box.

My question is, does anyone know which signal (channel) is used to send the
marrying signal? Because of my small dish and location I don't receive all
the channels, but I could temporarily move the box and card to someone here
with a bigger dish, but noone here receives every channel, and I would like
to check they receive the data one first.

Y.

Y Dangle wrote:
: My question is, does anyone know which signal (channel) is used to send the
: marrying signal? Because of my small dish and location I don't receive all
: the channels, but I could temporarily move the box and card to someone here
: with a bigger dish, but noone here receives every channel, and I would like
: to check they receive the data one first.

I do not recall Sky asking me to chance to a particular channel to do this
so I would guess its ALL the encrypted ones.

What information did you tell Sky. They need to change the receiver details
on their screen and then send the 'marry signal' (which is more like a
command 'card #nnn pair to receiver #mmm'

Sky always say "Command may take up to 4 hours" but it almost always happens
before they have stopped speaking!

On Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:57:33 -0000, Y Dangle wrote:

I have a Sky setup, with a subscription card and a small dish, in Cyprus.
Yesterday I changed the digibox, and of course lost most of the
channels. I
phoned Sky to marry the card to the new dish
snip

I'm sure you withheld your number but would Sky not see that the call was
international? I'd understood that an international call would cause them
to look closely at the account to see whether their TnCs were being
flagrantly violated. Perhaps their desire for income means that they now
turn a blind eye to this and ignore the knock-on effects on the geographic
licence rights and restrictions for the stuff they handle.

I know that Sky (the telecoms outfit) and Sky (the satellite TV outfit)
are not synonymous but, given the general attitude towards the law
displayed by companies sharing certain individuals in their senior
management, I wouldn't be convinced that an effective Chinese Wall exists
between them. Even if SkyTV should only see a "number withheld" flag
and/or an "international call" flag, the actual number is carried in the
call setup and might be made available to them (due solely to an error or
oversight, obviously, and not by intent).

Cyprus used to enjoy the benefit of a strange hotspot in the coverage map
but the moves to 2D means that 3M (even near Pafos) is, in my experience,
no longer really adequate for evening reception. Just how "small" is your
dish?

jonphred wrote:
: I'm sure you withheld your number but would Sky not see that the call was
: international? I'd understood that an international call would cause them
: to look closely at the account to see whether their TnCs were being
: flagrantly violated. Perhaps their desire for income means that they now
: turn a blind eye to this and ignore the knock-on effects on the geographic
: licence rights and restrictions for the stuff they handle.

Your thinly disguised rant at Sky ignores the fact that the CS Person would
TELL THE CALLER if they thought they were from abroad! In this case they
seem to have accepted the request to pair the smartcard without comment.

Brian Mc wrote:
Y Dangle wrote:
: My question is, does anyone know which signal (channel) is used to send the
: marrying signal? Because of my small dish and location I don't receive all
: the channels, but I could temporarily move the box and card to someone here
: with a bigger dish, but noone here receives every channel, and I would like
: to check they receive the data one first.

I do not recall Sky asking me to chance to a particular channel to do this
so I would guess its ALL the encrypted ones.

AIUI it's any transponders that carry BSkyB SI data, so that would even
include the BBC channels.


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

Mark Carver wrote:
: AIUI it's any transponders that carry BSkyB SI data, so that would even
: include the BBC channels.

I don't think you can be correct here. As I understand it Videoguard is NOT
carried within the SI data - but has its own stream.

Brian Mc wrote:
Mark Carver wrote:
: AIUI it's any transponders that carry BSkyB SI data, so that would even
: include the BBC channels.

I don't think you can be correct here. As I understand it Videoguard is NOT
carried within the SI data - but has its own stream.

It may well do, but AIUI VG and SI always co exist, to ensure that VG 'items'
always get updated ASAP regardless what Sky Platform channel the box might be
tuned to.



--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

Mark Carver wrote:
: It may well do, but AIUI VG and SI always co exist, to ensure that VG 'items'
: always get updated ASAP regardless what Sky Platform channel the box might be
: tuned to.

You may be correct! I had been assuming no VG updates could occur if BOTH
the tuners were on FTA channels. It would be fairly easy to tell if anyone
logs the data stream from the box to the smartcard.

"Brian Mc" wrote in message
...
jonphred wrote:
: I'm sure you withheld your number but would Sky not see that the call
was
: international? I'd understood that an international call would cause
them
: to look closely at the account to see whether their TnCs were being
: flagrantly violated. Perhaps their desire for income means that they now
: turn a blind eye to this and ignore the knock-on effects on the
geographic
: licence rights and restrictions for the stuff they handle.

Your thinly disguised rant at Sky ignores the fact that the CS Person
would
TELL THE CALLER if they thought they were from abroad! In this case they
seem to have accepted the request to pair the smartcard without comment.


Answering a few questions:
Yes I did withhold my number. The polite Indian (I'm sure all his calls were
international!) gentleman said the marrying would probably be immediate, but
might take longer. He did not ask me to tune into a specific channel.

My dish is 1.5m, in Larnaka (where reception is generally weaker than
Pafos). I receive most of my subscription channels, various other TV, BBC
Radios 1 2 3 4 WS and more, and , by adding them as 'extra channels' some
ITV regions and Ch4 (not very well).

I've just reinstalled the old box, and the card is still fine in it!

Y.

Y Dangle wrote:
: Answering a few questions:
: Yes I did withhold my number. The polite Indian (I'm sure all his calls were
: international!) gentleman said the marrying would probably be immediate, but
: might take longer. He did not ask me to tune into a specific channel.

Did the "polite Indian gentleman" take the serial number (at least) and other
data for your new receiver? Without that it just does not work!

If he did then it looks like he perhaps did not action the change correctly"