Converting to Multi-Room

eirman

My mother is moving out of her own house into a granny-flat at my sister's house.
The granny flat is equipped with the necessary satellite connections.

My mother has her own Sky HD Subscription with an 80% full drive, so she wants to keep her recorded programs.

My sister also has an identical Sky HD sub (usual + movies).
=======================================
I presume the following is what needs to be done:
> Move the box to it's new home in the granny flat.
> Cancel the account.
> Before (or as?) the 31 days notice expires my sister adds the box to her account.

Will this work?
Will the same card be used or will Sky issue a new one?


NOTE: Both boxes can be connected to the same landline if necessary (Is it necessary?)

The Cush

Once the account is cancelled the recordings will not be accessible with a new card/account.

Decent Skin

The Cush wrote: »

Once the account is cancelled the recordings will not be accessible with a new card/account.

This.

One of them is, unfortunately, going to lose their recordings if one or the other account is cancelled.

You could keep the two subs going until they've watched everything and then transfer, but otherwise they're going to have to decide whose recordings are disposable.

Sky MAY be able to do something different if you ring them, but I haven't heard of it being done; let us know how you get on so that the info might help someone is a similar situation.

Vic_08

Easiest is to cancel the sister's account and request a multi-room on the other one, changing the address to the new one. recordings on the cancelled box will not be accessible as they will send out a new card even if you keep the same box as it is the card the recordings are linked to.

There is nothing to be lost in asking them to cancel the account and add the second box and card to the first account as multi-room, as long as both accounts are out of contract they can't stop you cancelling one if they say no.

There is no landline connection necessary any longer.

muffler

Sky would probably provide your mum with a free home move

eirman

That's quite quite dismaying news - If it's true.

Are you 100% sure that recordings made with one card,
cannot be viewed with another card (which has been paired by Sky to the box).

If it is true ......
That would mean that all recordings are uniquely encrypted on each and every box out there.
It would also mean that if anyone's card is ever damaged/lost/faulty, all recordings are lost ?????
Surely this cannot be true!
=============================================================
I think I'm going to have to post on the Sky Community Forum.

Vic_08

eirman wrote: »

That's quite quite dismaying news - If it's true.

Are you 100% sure that recordings made with one card,
cannot be viewed with another card (which has been paired by Sky to the box).

If it is true ......
That would mean that all recordings are uniquely encrypted on each and every box out there.
It would also mean that if anyone's card is ever damaged/lost/faulty, all recordings are lost ?????
Surely this cannot be true!
=============================================================
I think I'm going to have to post on the Sky Community Forum.

Either;

1 It is true.

or

2 The three people who replied to your query (none of whom you have thanked for taking the time to help you BTW) have lied to you.

Decent Skin

Vic_08 wrote: »

Either;

1 It is true.

or

2 The three people who replied to your query (none of whom you have thanked for taking the time to help you BTW) have lied to you.

In fairness to the poster the three of us could be unaware of some extra Sky procedure by which they could enable this, and I can see how disappointment at the news would be the first thought.

Decent Skin

eirman wrote: »

That's quite quite dismaying news - If it's true.

Are you 100% sure that recordings made with one card,
cannot be viewed with another card (which has been paired by Sky to the box).

If it is true ......
That would mean that all recordings are uniquely encrypted on each and every box out there.
It would also mean that if anyone's card is ever damaged/lost/faulty, all recordings are lost ?????
Surely this cannot be true!
=============================================================
I think I'm going to have to post on the Sky Community Forum.

A replacement card would have the same account details. You're talking about changing / merging accounts - completely different scenario.

Having read your post in full though I can see where the poster above was coming from, as there is a vibe of "I don't like what I hear and will assume you guys don't know what you're talking about and so will go elsewhere" off the above, which does seem dismissive and ungrateful.

I will, however, be even more helpful and save you a trip / search:

http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Archived-Discussions/Can-t-view-old-recordings-on-sky-box-with-new-card/td-p/2202917

I'm afraid there's no possible way to do it. The DVB-CSA keys have been encrypted by your old Sky viewing card with a key that only it has. The only way to decrypt those keys and consequently your recordings is with the viewing card they were made with.

KReid

Different product I know, but my UPC/Virgin box was upgraded recently, I asked the engineer can I keep my recordings but he said they are locked into the device, he never mentioned the use of a card, but I guess the card acts as a password to decrypt the data and stops people trading boxes? Although I don't know why people would do that really.


Im guessing then there is no way to take the data off the Sky box onto a external harddrive?

Vic_08

Decent Skin wrote: »

In fairness to the poster the three of us could be unaware of some extra Sky procedure by which they could enable this, and I can see how disappointment at the news would be the first thought.

They can pretty much do anything they like, the NDS encryption is owned by Sky. Replacement cards will allow access to recordings from the card they replace, for example when they have replaced all cards to upgrade security.

They will not do it for a different account on the same box.

KReid wrote: »

Different product I know, but my UPC/Virgin box was upgraded recently, I asked the engineer can I keep my recordings but he said they are locked into the device, he never mentioned the use of a card, but I guess the card acts as a password to decrypt the data and stops people trading boxes? Although I don't know why people would do that really.


Im guessing then there is no way to take the data off the Sky box onto a external harddrive?

It is possible to extract the recordings and anything from an unencrypted channel can be watched on a PC easily but the encrypted recordings cannot.

It is (or was) possible to copy and merge recording from different boxes and transfer to a new box with a third party program (ex-pvr) but the same viewing card restriction applied, this prog is no longer being updated so may not work properly.

Sky could if they wanted offer such a service themselves or enable the boxes to transfer via usb or ethernet but they do not want to.

Decent Skin

Vic_08 wrote: »

They can pretty much do anything they like, the NDS encryption is owned by Sky. Replacement cards will allow access to recordings from the card they replace, for example when they have replaced all cards to upgrade security.

Yup. Which is why I said that the replacement for a lost/damages card was a different scenario.

They will not do it for a different account on the same box.

Again, as suspected.

It is possible to extract the recordings and anything from an unencrypted channel can be watched on a PC easily but the encrypted recordings cannot.

Wasn't even aware that the unencrypted ones could be watched on PC, so that's a plus from this thread's existence.

It is (or was) possible to copy and merge recording from different boxes and transfer to a new box with a third party program (ex-pvr) but the same viewing card restriction applied, this prog is no longer being updated so may not work properly.

Sky could if they wanted offer such a service themselves or enable the boxes to transfer via usb or ethernet but they do not want to.

Hence the "may offer", but as I said, not the norm.

Decent Skin

KReid wrote: »

Different product I know, but my UPC/Virgin box was upgraded recently, I asked the engineer can I keep my recordings but he said they are locked into the device, he never mentioned the use of a card, but I guess the card acts as a password to decrypt the data and stops people trading boxes? Although I don't know why people would do that really.

No issue tranding boxes. They will pair an existing card to an alternative/replacement box, whether or not they have supplied it.

Im guessing then there is no way to take the data off the Sky box onto a external harddrive?

See above

eirman

Thanks for the all the useful contributions - Sorry for being such a skeptic.

The most relevant part of this article is ....

....... The code word (which changes every few seconds) is send as another type of packet in the transport stream. It is however sent in an encrypted form (using VideoGuard, which as Avoriaz says, is a completely secret algorithm) so must be decrypted by the viewing card.

Sky+ complicates this a bit more. When a recording is made the encrypted code words are not saved (unless you have a very old Sky+ box). The box instead sends the encrypted code words to the card and 'asks' it to re-encrypt them. The card then sends back a code word which can only be decrypted by that specific card (this is why you have to have the same viewing card that you used to record). This transformed encrypted code word is then saved in the recording meta data (the XM* files on the hard disk).



So it's a matter of persuading Sky!