Sky TV

[Tirisdeach]

Hello all

We let our Sky subscription lapse quite some time ago (yet again!). We are considering renewing but only if we are likely to get good coverage in our motorhome, in the UK initially.

Does anyone have recent experience? I am assuming I will be provided with a new Sky box. Will my 'old' box suffice in the van?

I appreciate we will not be able to get live sport or movies.

We have a RoadPro sat-dome.

Any words of wisdom welcome from this newbie. Thanks

 

[Gorse Hill]

Make sure it's not the sky Q, I recently did the same and found that Sky Q won't work in the van as it has a different LNB setup and the viewing card for the sky Q box won't work with the hd box
Had to change back to Sky HD box

 

[Stonemags76]

Need multi room to enable your old box to work in the van, but coverage is good down to southern France with our 85cm dish. In Spain Sky channels are all we can get, but you get your full subscription, just not BBC, ITV etc.

 

[Kingham]

I had the RoadPro fitted to my last van and subject to the usual 'line of sight' rule to the satellite, there were only a few UK sites that I visited where I couldn't lock on and these were usually due to hills or dense trees.

It worked well in the Vendee region of France too, but I didn't get the opportunity to try it any further south.

It was a bit of a surreal moment the first time I tuned in in the Vendee, to see my local news presenter, presenting the local news back home on BBC Look North.

I don't subscribe to Movies or Sports, so never noticed if they were available away from home, but with my Sky card in, I got exactly the same channels as at home. If I forgot to take my card, there were still plenty of channels available.

 

[Just smiffy]

If you only watch the normal channels you don't have to renew at all, you will still get BBC 1,2, itv c4 c5 and quite a few others.....

I had an old sky box in mine and I just bought a humax box for about £40 and it works a treat and get lots of channels on freesat, enough for me...

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[Kool Kroozer]

Do these sky HD boxes have to be powered by 240v or can they run 12v ?

 

[Kingham]

Do these sky HD boxes have to be powered by 240v or can they run 12v ?

240v

 

[wizzer59]

Wouldn't touch sky with a barge pole, bloody money grabbers
Thinking of changing my name to Skybasher

 

[Kool Kroozer]

240v

Thats us out then Very rarely use sites so no hook up for us.

 

[Padraigpost]

The sky viewing card is linked to your sky box, your old box will not receive any subscribed channels, you will need to take your new sky box with you, we take ours and it works great.
Don

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[Speve]

J

Do these sky HD boxes have to be powered by 240v or can they run 12v ?

we run ours off a 150w invertor but you won't get anything in western Spain the box won't initialise.

 

[Kool Kroozer]

J

we run ours off a 150w invertor but you won't get anything in western Spain the box won't initialise.

How much did you pay for a 150w invertor Alan ?
Also, how many leisure batteries you running with it ?

 

[Doctor Dave]

I had an old Sky box given to me together with an old viewing card. I have never subscribed to Sky, but the old card was for the same region as I live in. With the card in place in the box I get the local regional stuff with no problem. Without the card being inserted it is still possible to get all of the UK regions, but at the top end of the channel numbers. The original box I was given packed up working but I was given another and that works just the same, ie with or without the viewing card. Note that this setup only gives me the free channels.


Dave

 

[Bart]

i would just get a freeSat recorder , job done nothing more to pay , esp to rip of sky
BTW i'm thinking on looking at a disk sometime for the MH , i'd prob buy 2nd hand if poss and fit myself.
What size of Satellite Dish should i look for use in Europe , most likely Spain

 

[Deleted member 29692]

What size of Satellite Dish should i look for use in Europe , most likely Spain

If you want to guarantee all UK channels everywhere in Spain then you need a far bigger dish than you could fit on your van.

Go for an 85cm dish and when you get far enough South that you can't receive a signal just accept it. When the atmospheric conditions are kind and you pick up a signal a long way South treat it as a bonus.

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[Silver-Fox]

With regard to powering the box.

Can I ask is it like our BT box that the plug steps down the voltage and I'm guessing to around 12v

 

[Just smiffy]

The humax runs on 12v

Link Removed

 

[Littlewheels]

Those the Sky box is 240v it has an in built transformer its only actually 12v and ,therefore, uses a few watts when run through an inverter.

 

[Lorryman100]

You don't need a Sky box to receive Sky channels just the Sky viewing card,

For the last couple of years I have only taken the sky card away with us in the tin tent and now with the motorhome as I have had one of these receivers fitted instead of taking the sky box. It runs off 12v and is stuck onto the rear of the telly using the supplied foam pads.

http://www.pulsat.com/products/SAB-...eceiver.html?gclid=CNOplpeAjtECFVTnGwodfZ4B3g

This picture shows where it is mounted on our Avtex telly, excuse the wiring as the picture was taken as it was all put together to ensure it worked and received/ decrypted sky channels. In this picture I piggy backed the receivers 12v connection onto the TV power feed which I have done away with and both the TV and receiver have their own independant 12v supply.

The problem with this receiver though is for most viewing cards it is plug and play, if not the firmware has to be updated to allow the decryption program to work on your sky card. Another issue is that you do not get the sky scrolling bar for each channel instead you get an EPG screen which allows you to set up your favourites ie sky programs you watch all the time. With this there is another issue, you get all the regional channels of BBC, ITV etc as it is not set to a specific region like the sky box.
The pro's are its size, its HD, 12v and is inexpensive compared to buying a second hand sky box.

HTH Brian.

 

[Lorryman100]

Meant to say that I have a pace javelin 12v sky receiver in the loft if anyone is interested in it.

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[Tirisdeach]

You don't need a Sky box to receive Sky channels just the Sky viewing card,

For the last couple of years I have only taken the sky card away with us in the tin tent and now with the motorhome as I have had one of these receivers fitted instead of taking the sky box. It runs off 12v and is stuck onto the rear of the telly using the supplied foam pads.

http://www.pulsat.com/products/SAB-...eceiver.html?gclid=CNOplpeAjtECFVTnGwodfZ4B3g

This picture shows where it is mounted on our Avtex telly, excuse the wiring as the picture was taken as it was all put together to ensure it worked and received/ decrypted sky channels. In this picture I piggy backed the receivers 12v connection onto the TV power feed which I have done away with and both the TV and receiver have their own independant 12v supply.

The problem with this receiver though is for most viewing cards it is plug and play, if not the firmware has to be updated to allow the decryption program to work on your sky card. Another issue is that you do not get the sky scrolling bar for each channel instead you get an EPG screen which allows you to set up your favourites ie sky programs you watch all the time. With this there is another issue, you get all the regional channels of BBC, ITV etc as it is not set to a specific region like the sky box.
The pro's are its size, its HD, 12v and is inexpensive compared to buying a second hand sky box.

HTH Brian.

You don't need a Sky box to receive Sky channels just the Sky viewing card,

For the last couple of years I have only taken the sky card away with us in the tin tent and now with the motorhome as I have had one of these receivers fitted instead of taking the sky box. It runs off 12v and is stuck onto the rear of the telly using the supplied foam pads.

http://www.pulsat.com/products/SAB-...eceiver.html?gclid=CNOplpeAjtECFVTnGwodfZ4B3g

This picture shows where it is mounted on our Avtex telly, excuse the wiring as the picture was taken as it was all put together to ensure it worked and received/ decrypted sky channels. In this picture I piggy backed the receivers 12v connection onto the TV power feed which I have done away with and both the TV and receiver have their own independant 12v supply.

The problem with this receiver though is for most viewing cards it is plug and play, if not the firmware has to be updated to allow the decryption program to work on your sky card. Another issue is that you do not get the sky scrolling bar for each channel instead you get an EPG screen which allows you to set up your favourites ie sky programs you watch all the time. With this there is another issue, you get all the regional channels of BBC, ITV etc as it is not set to a specific region like the sky box.
The pro's are its size, its HD, 12v and is inexpensive compared to buying a second hand sky box.

HTH Brian.

Thanks Brian, this looks a great idea and at £89.95 is inexpensive. Have a good day. Cheers, Neil

 

[Bart]

If you want to guarantee all UK channels everywhere in Spain then you need a far bigger dish than you could fit on your van.

Go for an 85cm dish and when you get far enough South that you can't receive a signal just accept it. When the atmospheric conditions are kind and you pick up a signal a long way South treat it as a bonus.

Thanks ill have a measure next time i'm up and see if a 85cm dish will fit where the tv aerial is atm.