I've had a Sky+ HD box passed on to me and I was wondering why people
buy them on eBay?

If you want the + bit you need to subscribe.
If you want the HD bit you need to subscribe.
If you want Freesat then you need a Freesat box.
If you want free sat from Sky then you need to enjoy scrolling through
an EPG of things you can't watch.

I'm just wondering what their value is when Sky give you a free box
anyway for subscribing?

"Lucky13" wrote in message
...
I've had a Sky+ HD box passed on to me and I was wondering why people buy
them on eBay?

If you want the + bit you need to subscribe.
If you want the HD bit you need to subscribe.
If you want Freesat then you need a Freesat box.
If you want free sat from Sky then you need to enjoy scrolling through an
EPG of things you can't watch.

I'm just wondering what their value is when Sky give you a free box anyway
for subscribing?


To use if for the free programs.
Better boxes/EPG than Freesat ones maybe, more free programs particularly
radio than Freesat or Freeview.

Might want then for use in another room.
Might not be able to get terrestrial signals.

Might want it as a replacement subscription box.

Lots of good reasons.
Regards
David

The "...+HD" bit is useless without a subscription, as far as I know.

But the Skybox itself is fine for watching "Freesat from Sky". You can get
the boxes almost for nothing, then pay out your £20 for the card, and you've
got a pretty good free satellite service for the one-off cost of the card
and the box. Some people would even give you an old box.

Nowadays the cost advantage over a low-cost Freesat box seems pretty
marginal, but a few years ago it was a good way to go. I bought two boxes,
with two cards, and coupled them up via a messy switching arrangement so I
could record from one (onto a DVD recorder) whilst watching the other.

SteveT

On 22 Aug, 19:08, Lucky13 wrote:
I've had a Sky+ HD box passed on to me and I was wondering why people
buy them on eBay?

If you want the + bit you need to subscribe.
If you want the HD bit you need to subscribe.
If you want Freesat then you need a Freesat box.
If you want free sat from Sky then you need to enjoy scrolling through
an EPG of things you can't watch.

I'm just wondering what their value is when Sky give you a free box
anyway for subscribing?

You get BBC HD and ITV HD free

On Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 at 12:24:06h -0700, wrote:

You get BBC HD and ITV HD free

and Luxe HD TV.

On 22/08/2010 20:35, J G Miller wrote:
On Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 at 12:24:06h -0700, wrote:

You get BBC HD and ITV HD free

and Luxe HD TV.


Ah that certainly is an eye opener to me, I wasn't aware - thank you

I suppose they are going for less than a lot of the HD Freesat boxes as
well.

I still don't think I could ever justify buying one, the "upselling" EPG
from Sky would annoy me too much.

Thanks again for the info tho.

On Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 at 20:39:10h +0100, Lucky13 wrote:

I suppose they are going for less than a lot of the HD Freesat boxes as
well.

The thing is though, you could buy an FTA HD receiver and also receive
these HD stations for free as well as many others which are not on the
$ky EPG and so are deliberately non-user friendly to tune in via
$ky's Other Channels.

On Aug 22, 8:42*pm, J G Miller wrote:
On Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 at 20:39:10h +0100, Lucky13 wrote:

I suppose they are going for less than a lot of the HD Freesat boxes as
well.

The thing is though, you could buy an FTA HD receiver and also receive
these HD stations for free as well as many others which are not on the
$ky EPG and so are deliberately non-user friendly to tune in via
$ky's Other Channels.

I've recently discontinued the use of two Sky boxes with Sky Freesat
cards and started using genuine Freesat boxes. The relief is enormous.
To avoid hearing that woman tell me lies about 'saving enough
electricity to power Birmingham' every time I turn the box on is by
itself easily enough to justify the expense of the two new boxes. Then
there was the annoyance that if I accidentally landed on a pay channel
I had to press back up because the box would not move otherwise. Then
there was the terrible signal and quality meters. I use one box in the
motorhome, and lining the dish up using the Sky box was a nightmare.
Those meters just don't work, and they were forever locking up. With
the Humax I can line the dish up in seconds, and I don't really need
to turn on the direction finder meter thingy I have. Then there was
the fact that 'other channels' are deliberately awkward to use on the
Sky box. I know the Humax isn't perfect in that respect but it's
pretty good.

Bil

On 22/08/2010 20:42, J G Miller wrote:
On Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 at 20:39:10h +0100, Lucky13 wrote:

I suppose they are going for less than a lot of the HD Freesat boxes as
well.

The thing is though, you could buy an FTA HD receiver and also receive
these HD stations for free as well as many others which are not on the
$ky EPG and so are deliberately non-user friendly to tune in via
$ky's Other Channels.

This is my major gripe and misunderstanding about why people want to buy
these boxes!

On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:08:56 +0100, Lucky13
wrote:

I've had a Sky+ HD box passed on to me and I was wondering why people
buy them on eBay?

If you want the + bit you need to subscribe.
If you want the HD bit you need to subscribe.
If you want Freesat then you need a Freesat box.
If you want free sat from Sky then you need to enjoy scrolling through
an EPG of things you can't watch.

I'm just wondering what their value is when Sky give you a free box
anyway for subscribing?


I got a standard sky box off eBay several years ago I believe when
Sky+ was just coming out. The reason is that the standard Sky boxes at
the time from Sky didn't have the optical output for the audio so I
got a Sony box off ebay.

At first I was just using it as a freesat box before the term freesat
really took off. I got one of those cards from I think it was the bbc
to watch the free channels.

I also have my own dish that I bought and can also turn it to tune
into some foreign channels if I can be bothered to. It's not ideal
through a Sky box but can still be done.

I subscribed a short while later to the Sky service.

I should really get Sky+ now. I probably will get it soon. Not sure
whether it is going to be easier to get a Sky+ box via Sky or off
ebay. If you do it yourself though you can get the best box for your
needs and its your property.

Usually when Sky brings out a new service such as HD it costs more to
subscribe to it until they then bring out the next thing. So what I
usually do is wait until it becomes free or part of the standard
scription with no additional costs. So now Sky HD is out I am thinking
of getting Sky+. When the next thing comes out which may be something
like Sky 3D I will then think of getting Sky HD and so on.