BBC Card and Box

mossie

I've just purchased a digibox and BBC card on EBay. The BBC card is married to this box so presumably I can't use the card with my own box. Can I instead marry my own sky card to the new box and use both in this box?

Thanks
Mossie

PacMan

Welcome to the boards Mossie.
I personally would leave the two boxes and cards seperate. I am sure what you say can be done, but you would have to ring Sky, and they would see that your account is an Irish one, and the box is a UK one, so they may get suspicious.
Leave them the way they are. That has many advantages. Different programmes can be viewed in different rooms.
Check the "Search" area of the board. Further information should be available there.

Genghis

Welcome Mossie,

I don't think I'd bother marrying the cards to your existing box - another problem is you have got to 'swap' cards everytime you want UK Terrestrial / Sky Sub channels - this is not good for your box. I also believe there are problems if you leave either card out for extended periods of time.

I'd be inclined to pay for a dual or quad LNB which would allow seperate connection to your UK box. Like Pacman says, this has the huge advantage of independent viewing in different rooms.

How much did you get the box for? Which model is it? And which region? Just Curious, I am keeping an eye out for one myself!

mossie

Thanks for the info. How much would the dual / quad LNB cost?

As for the cost of the box, well it cost £122 sterling delivery included. It's a Pace 2500, which is the same as my existing box, and is coming from Merseyside so presumably Granada region.

Thanks again
Mossie

alastair

I wouldn't worry about the 'suspicious sky person'' issue. They won't care where your new box has come from, just tell them your original box has died.
I'm currently replacing my irish digibox (which HAS died) with an ebay UK box, with FTA card. I'm just going to ring 'em up and get my irish card married to the new box. Why would they bother checking if the box has been previously associated with a UK card?
The inconvience of switching the cards whenever you want to look at channel 4 etc. isn't enough to convince me that rigging up a new lnb and running more cable into the house is justified. I'd like all the channels in the sittingroom too, without a rack of digiboxes flickering away.

freetoair

Don't do it in half measures. You've invested 120 on a digibox with UK card. Another 120Eur and you can have your LNB replaced with a Dual or Quad LnB and run the cable into another room.

If you've a wife and kids to compete with it'll be worthwhile as you won't have to argue over channels as there's loads for the kids on Cbeebies, Boomerang, Cbbc plus channel 4, channel 5 etc leaving Sky sports free for you 24/7.

Phone any independent installer in your area and just get the job done, getting the UK box was the hard part the rest is easy.

daveg

Mosse - I'm in the same boat as you - bought a decoder and FTV card from UK from eBay - so I had to purchase a quad/dual LNB.

I bought mine from http://www.brymar.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Satellite_LNB_s_27.html

They have a special at the moment - £50 STG for a quad LNB.
P&P is £15.

jez

Lads,

I just got a second hand digibox from UK .with FTV card.
All is working fine. Also have Pace digibox which I got with my Sky Ireland subscription. I just replaced my analog decoder with the new digibox and moved the dish to get Sky freq. Therefore I have two dishes,two decoders ,one remote. Only one problem. Both decoders change channels simultaneously. Only way out of this I figured is to either prop a video cover in front of one decoder or leave one at a time switched off. Just wondered is there any answer to this. I doubt it but you never know. I want to leave both digiboxes where they are.
Thanks

Charles Slane

Jez,

I don't know how to get around both digiboxes being controlled at the same time apart from your own idea, but here's a suggestion on how to make it work for you -

Either to the tv or video, connect one box by scart and the other by the co-ax (I'd suggest the Beeb one). Tune the Beeb box in on a handy channel on both the TV and video, say channel 9.

Now when you want to watch the regular box, just press Sky and the tv will automatically switch to the regular digibox. When you want to watch the Beeb box, press TV then 9, then cover the front of the remote and press Sky - this way the channel stays on 9, but the remote is in "Sky" mode. Now you can change the channels etc on the Beeb box. And when you want to switch back to the regular box, just point the remote and press "Sky" again.

The obvious drawback is that the Beeb box won't output stereo to the tv, but you may have it connected to a hi fi through the phono outs, so it might not be an issue.

It sounds a bit complicated, but you'd get used to it very quickly.

jez

Charles

Thanks a lot for info. Will check it out.
FYI .My TV and accessories is wired as follows.
Scart Lead from Main digibox to video,scart from video to TV(Room for only one scart on TV)Coax from 2nd Digibox to Video,coax from Video to TV carrying all signals.(There is also an RTE Aerial through Video. Think this is wired as you think.If not wud appreciate feedback.
Thanks again.

Thats roughly the way I have both boxes set up.
I've done something interesting though.
My AV amp can take a second set of main speakers and you can switch either set on or off.
I've wired the second set into the Kitchen/dining room and now have great stereo there.
Argos remote control extenders, mean I can use the amp remote in the kitchen and change the living room channels also.

Regarding the problem of your remote changing both digiboxes at the same time-This set up means they are not in the same room,you have stereo sound in the second room.
You just have the hassle of having to plug out your remote extender when you are only going to be using one of the boxes.

You can also power down the box that you won't be using manually at the start, which is a temporary solution.
mm

alastair

you could always go the cheap and easy route and juggle both cards in the one box. I'm still not convinced there is any real benefit in the multi box scenario.

dmeehan

well the obvious benefit would be that you can watch one channel on the digibox while taping another on the other digibox

mossie

Hi.

I received my box and card today. I swapped boxes and phoned up sky to change my card to the new box. It worked immediately and both cards are now working perfectly.

Mossie

jez

I have a BBC FTV Card and digibox, you cannot get Talksport. Does anyone out there have an idea of how to upgrade without being rumbled.
Thanks

DMC

Unusually for a UK national FM radio station, a normal UK Sky Digital subscription is needed to listen to Talksport.

I always thought that as odd.

Jez, why you need it, I need not know....

Charles Slane

Yeah, you'd have to get a UK Sky subscription, which seems a bit over-the-top for one radio station.

Of course you'd also get ITV2, but even so it wouldn't be worth the effort (you'd have to get a UK mailing address, the problems with having a phone line connected etc etc etc ..)

ejhearn

I am a UK SKY subscriber. I would be willing to tell SKY that i have moved house to Ireland so that i can get the new RTE channels. Does anyone want to do the opposite. Anyone living in Ireland tell sky that they have moved to the UK (my address)?
We could both do each other a favour here. All we need to do is phone SKY and tell them we have moved.
Anyone interested in this setup please contact me at ejhearn@aol.com

telecinesk

I guess weve seen this one but I will ask. I managed to get 3 bbc cards by devious means.All of them were supplied by the bbc with no query for s/n of box.My mates were well suprised expecting the spanish inquisition,not even their tv licence number.Does this mean when I ring up or whoever that they need the s/n or is the over the air command adressing the card specifically.
Did anyone else have this and not asked for box s/n when ringing 2nd time for bbc1 activation.And boring question, if I dump them with a slightly diff s/n Will it make a difference?

anyone? arkan@eircom.net