Dodgy Sky+ boxes

[leeslover]

I got Sky fitted tother day - I asked about how we go about getting Multi-room installed, the contractor who was fitting it said he could do it privately on the sly - said he'd fit us 2 Sky+ boxes for a total of £150. Now that is cheap as chips, and I reckon I could sleep at night without giving Mr Murdoch any more money, but how does this work? Specifically, am I going to get busted for it or will they not be able to tell?

[Guest sheridans_world]

I got Sky fitted tother day - I asked about how we go about getting Multi-room installed, the contractor who was fitting it said he could do it privately on the sly - said he'd fit us 2 Sky+ boxes for a total of £150. Now that is cheap as chips, and I reckon I could sleep at night without giving Mr Murdoch any more money, but how does this work? Specifically, am I going to get busted for it or will they not be able to tell?

 

Sky+ requires to feeds to the dish for EACH box to be able to work. I have it at home.

 

I do know there are eight ports on the dish so i guess it could be done. Dont know how it would affect recording all your programs though... Just stick to normal sky boxes in the other rooms. S'only a tenna a month so would take 15 months before the £150 is worth anything.... might have changed by then anyway if another digital company gets large....

[Inspiral_Carpet]

I got Sky fitted tother day - I asked about how we go about getting Multi-room installed, the contractor who was fitting it said he could do it privately on the sly - said he'd fit us 2 Sky+ boxes for a total of £150. Now that is cheap as chips, and I reckon I could sleep at night without giving Mr Murdoch any more money, but how does this work? Specifically, am I going to get busted for it or will they not be able to tell?

 

I'd be careful mate. I know a sub-contracting aerial guy up here. He is straight and tells me it is very difficult to beat the "system". He has also told me a lot of horror stories about things that dodgy contractors have offered.

 

You will need 4 LNB outputs to run 2 Sky Plus boxes but most new dishes will have those. You will also need two viewing cards from Sky (sounds like you are being offered dodgy ones). Sky are very careful with multiroom. As has been said, it is an extra tenner a month and so Sky are concerned that unscrupulous neighbours may share a dish and have a feed through the wall so that they both get the works for less than two separate systems.

 

Consequently, both boxes need to be plugged into a telephone line permanently. During the night, Sky will occasionally send a request for the box to "call home". If both boxes send differing telephone information back, then you will get invoiced for two separate systems back-dated. Similarly, if both boxes are not plugged in, Sky's policy is to shoot first with an invoice.

 

Now it may not work like this. Maybe the engineer knows how to get round these problems. The thing with Sky though is they change things regularly to avoid fraud.

 

One other thing, to activate Sky+ recording facility, you have to call Sky yourself. Again, maybe there is a workround that this dodgy Engineer is aware of.

 

You may be paying £150 for something that works now. In 3 months time however, you may be stuck with something worthless.

[Stevie_J]

I got Sky fitted tother day - I asked about how we go about getting Multi-room installed, the contractor who was fitting it said he could do it privately on the sly - said he'd fit us 2 Sky+ boxes for a total of £150. Now that is cheap as chips, and I reckon I could sleep at night without giving Mr Murdoch any more money, but how does this work? Specifically, am I going to get busted for it or will they not be able to tell?

I heard the same but, according to a Sky bloke I asked a while back, this isn't actually possible.

[footy68]

I have Sky+ Andy, and I doubt the Engineers promise. I had the multi-room put in upstairs, but said as I had to route the phone cable I would sort it myself. I had no intention of messing with my carpets or drilling through walls and so left it. About two phone calls later I received a letter basically telling me to get it connected or pay the full subscription like yesterday. The Engineer explained they 'ping' a signal to the box and the box sends a reply with which they can update your system and all the rest of it, or basically see if you are fleecing them. In all honesty it is a good system, but wouldn't mind a third box to keep son number 2 quiet.

[leeslover]

Possibly being thick here but are you talking multi room as in distribution to multi rooms, or multi room as in getting different chanels in several rooms. If its the 1st its dead easy, would be glad to help. If its the 2nd not sure. We have had Sky and then used a 2nd box as a freeview that was easy to distribute / switch. with a bit of kit from Lektropak.

It's different channels in the different rules. Sounds like it's a bit dodge, I'd be livid if I paid the muppet engineer and then had to fork out to Sky anyway.