less HD channels in ireland than the uk

cartman51773

do you think we should complain to sky that we have at least 10 less HD channels and still pay more than we do in the uk. the €15 HD subs is a joke. hopefully it will come down in price. :mad:

Mr McBoatface

cartman51773 wrote: »

do you think we should complain to sky that we have at least 10 less HD channels and still pay more than we do in the uk. the €15 HD subs is a joke. hopefully it will come down in price. :mad:

Complain ? No
Leave on mass ? Yes

There are alternate ways to receive quality TV in this country, both PAY TV and Free To Air.

Minstrel27

Some people are not happy with what they are paying for yet still pay Sky every month.

I really do not understand why people who are unhappy with the service provided do not cancel their accounts. It is the only way that Sky will sit up and take note.

cartman51773

thats what i did at the start. said i was leaving and they offered me free HD box and subs and sky sports for the year. just shows you they can do it. but there is no way i will pay 15 euro next year for the hd. its just not worth it.

Minstrel27

Let's not forget that UK Sky customers pay a lot less for their subscriptions too.

watty

Freesat HD PVR for all the UK HD is the solution. No sub.

You can then cut down Sky sub to minimum (Sky sport?) or cancel. Use the Sky box just a FTA receiver. It's not like UPC. Still all the best channels (and actually more on EPG from BBC & ITV) when you cancel and take out Irish card.

Or take out Irish card to see missing channels.

200motels

watty wrote: »

Freesat HD PVR for all the UK HD is the solution. No sub.

You can then cut down Sky sub to minimum (Sky sport?) or cancel. Use the Sky box just a FTA receiver. It's not like UPC. Still all the best channels (and actually more on EPG from BBC & ITV) when you cancel and take out Irish card.

Or take out Irish card to see missing channels.

You can't get Sky Sports as a stand alone channel, you have to have at least one mix.

lgs 4

cartman51773 wrote: »

do you think we should complain to sky that we have at least 10 less HD channels and still pay more than we do in the uk. the €15 HD subs is a joke. hopefully it will come down in price. :mad:

come down in price, you mean go up in price, uk vat rates go up next month :eek:

cartman51773

i know its a joke alright. it gets dearer every few months but what other choice do we have. upc is utter rubbish and not available everywhere

_Kaiser_

cartman51773 wrote: »

i know its a joke alright. it gets dearer every few months but what other choice do we have. upc is utter rubbish and not available everywhere

That's the problem... whereas in the UK there's lots of different cable companies and a decent Freesat/Freeview offering for pay TV content, here in Ireland you only really have UPC (which as cartman says isn't available outside the cities), or..... Sky.

It's the same story with decent broadband.. yes if you're in Dublin you can get "proper" high-speed broadband (not the "next generation" :rolleyes: 8MB offering eircom and the resellers are touting) from UPC, but outside of these locations... suck it up and pay more for less!

€22 (or whatever it is now) per month for the "basic" Sky package is still very high considering the most viewed channels are FTA/FTV - with the exception of Sky 1 of course.

Charging again for HD and AGAIN if you wanted HD on your multiroom sub (which you ALSO pay extra for!) is just abuse of their dominant market position, but seeing as there is no real competition and our regulator is toothless, why wouldn't they??

Personally I think I'm going to ditch them entirely in the new year in favor of a FTA satellite/terrestrial setup once the Saorview service launches and the standards are finalised.

jc84

aren't most of the HD channels British anyway so why would Ireland get all of them, Ireland doesn't even contribute 1 HD channel to the lineup

cartman51773

they all are but we are paying the HD subs for them so why not get the ones that the uk also get.

watty

The non-pay TV channels (Free SD & HD) pay Sky for EPG in UK.
Sky has to pay them if Sky put a "free" channel on Irish EPG.

There is believe it or not sound logic to this.

Johnmb

jc84 wrote: »

aren't most of the HD channels British anyway so why would Ireland get all of them, Ireland doesn't even contribute 1 HD channel to the lineup

The average British person doesn't contribute any HD channels either, they pay for a small number of other people to contribute them. The Irish pay more for the HD and get less, via Sky. Although, if we go Freesat HD, we get the exact same number of HD channels as an equivalent British person. So its only Sky who have chosen to rip of the Irish customers, and it is simply the fault of those customers who are not happy about it allowing themselves to be ripped off.

Johnmb

watty wrote: »

The non-pay TV channels (Free SD & HD) pay Sky for EPG in UK.
Sky has to pay them if Sky put a "free" channel on Irish EPG.

There is believe it or not sound logic to this.

If Sky gave a damn, the easy way around this would be a software update allowing the user to add other channels to free EPG slots, either any slot, or to be safe, a range of slots could be reserved for this purpose. You can only add a limited number of other channels, so there are plenty of free slots to accompany them.

Storm 10

If I pull out the sky card and restart the decoder will I get the free to air HD channels through the sky dish

cartman51773

no cos the channels on the new HD boxes are cached on the sky box so you cant re set back to the epg. i know we can get a freeview hd box but whats the point in having 3 stb in the house. one for the freeview, one for sky and one for the irish saorview.

Johnmb

Storm 10 wrote: »

If I pull out the sky card and restart the decoder will I get the free to air HD channels through the sky dish

Yes, as long as it's a Sky+HD box.

cartman51773

if your sky box is on the irish epg and you remove the card it will stay on the irish epg. you can no longer trick the boxes by removing the card.

Johnmb

cartman51773 wrote: »

if your sky box is on the irish epg and you remove the card it will stay on the irish epg. you can no longer trick the boxes by removing the card.

You turn it off, pull out the plug, wait a minute or two, plug it back in and turn it back on, all with the card removed, and there it is, the English EPG. Just like I have here in front of me. The only problem I have with the HD box is that other channels can't be accessed any more (although Five is the only channel that I have there that is not on the EPG). On the SD Sky+ box, the English EPG is there, and other channels can be accessed without any problems.

Strawberry HillBilly

Johnmb wrote: »

You turn it off, pull out the plug, wait a minute or two, plug it back in and turn it back on, all with the card removed, and there it is, the English EPG. Just like I have here in front of me. The only problem I have with the HD box is that other channels can't be accessed any more (although Five is the only channel that I have there that is not on the EPG). On the SD Sky+ box, the English EPG is there, and other channels can be accessed without any problems.

Do you not need a $ky Card in the SD $ky to be able to access the other channels ??

Johnmb

Strawberry HillBilly wrote: »

Do you not need a $ky Card in the SD $ky to be able to access the other channels ??

Not in the one I have in any case. I can't even see a list of Other Channels on the Sky+HD box, it just tells me to insert my card, but on the SD Sky+ box, they are all still there, and accessible, although all except Five are on the EPG now so it's not a big deal. I've disconnected the Sky+HD box now as I got a Technomate to go with a new motorised system, but the SD Sky+ box is still hooked up and working the same as usual as far as I know. I'll double check it tomorrow to be sure though!

Mayo Exile

Johnmb wrote: »

The only problem I have with the HD box is that other channels can't be accessed any more (although Five is the only channel that I have there that is not on the EPG).

You can access the other channels in a HD box without a card. Its a PIN code related issue. You need to go to the PIN/Parental etc menu. Enter your PIN (with card in box). If you have never changed the PIN number its normally the last four digits of the Sky viewing card number.

Remove all parental restrictions such as access to adult channels etc. and save these changes. Now press the Blue button. It disables PIN areas (greys out tabs) dealing with other channels etc. You should now be able to view other channels without a card.

snaps

Get a UK FTV card for a once off 20£, you'll have bbc 1 hd, bbc hd, itv hd, ch4 hd, ch5 hd.

Aerial then for your Irish stations, job done.

cartman51773

Johnmb wrote: »

You turn it off, pull out the plug, wait a minute or two, plug it back in and turn it back on, all with the card removed, and there it is, the English EPG. Just like I have here in front of me. The only problem I have with the HD box is that other channels can't be accessed any more (although Five is the only channel that I have there that is not on the EPG). On the SD Sky+ box, the English EPG is there, and other channels can be accessed without any problems.

you can no longer do this on new sky+HD boxes as the EPG is cached on the hard drive and you cannot remove the irish EPG without rebooting the box and loosing all recordings. if you turn off at the wall even for a day when you turn back on without a card the irish EPG loads up again. there is no way round it.

Johnmb

cartman51773 wrote: »

you can no longer do this on new sky+HD boxes as the EPG is cached on the hard drive and you cannot remove the irish EPG without rebooting the box and loosing all recordings. if you turn off at the wall even for a day when you turn back on without a card the irish EPG loads up again. there is no way round it.

It must only be on very new boxes (who would be still under contract), the one I have is barely over a year old (the original one was replaced just before the warranty was up, and I got a new Samsung in its place in about Sep/Oct 2009). As for loosing all your recordings, they are lost once you cancel your subscription regardless as to whether you reboot it or not.

cartman51773

ye i think the software has been updated on the new boxes and they wont allow you to trick the EPG like you used to be able to. typical clever sky again. it was handy for recording other channels alright