Can I simply replace a Sky+ box with a Sky Q one?

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ey143

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My old sky+ box is playing up. Im not in a contract and was using it for the free to air channels. Can I simply replace it with a SkyQ box off ebay and use the same cable from the dish?
 
No the sky Q box requires a different type of LNB (the lump at the end of the arm on the dish) the cabling is the same and I dont think anyone should really be selling their old q box as legally it belongs to sky. better to get a new(secondhand) sky+ box or a freesat box that will allow recording which your old box presumably doesnt do as you are out of contract
 
yeah correct i cant record on it. Bought it 10Y ago in ebay thinking I could. How much would the LNB change cost in parts and what are those boxes being sold on ebay? Are there no free to air channels on there?
 
You can often ask for a sky+ box on your local Freegle group (other reuse groups exist).
As the user owns the box they can be given away freely (not with skyQ).
You then just have to pair your freeview card with it.
 
The + in sky+ is that just the recording element? So if I don't need recording since I don't have a subscription, I just go for a smaller sky box?
 
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ey143 said:
The + in sky+ is that just the recording element? So if I don't need recording since I don't have a subscription, I just got for a sky box?
Click to expand...

Originally it was just Sky Digital. This was Sky's first digital TV box as opposed to to Sky's analogue service before digital arrived. There were no HD channels at that time. Sky Digital launched in 1998.

In late 2001 Sky added a recording feature. This was denoted by the '+' symbol. The new recording boxes were marketed as Sky+. Once again, all the channels were standard definition.

'Sky+ HD' launched in May 2006. These boxes had both the recording feature (the '+') and the High Definition reception capabilities (the 'HD' bit). This marked the first time that a Sky satellite receiver box for the UK market featured a HDMI connector. If you're going to get a replacement Sky receiver, then this is what you want as this is the box that will plug in to a HDMI port on your TV and it will receive box SD and HD Free-to-View channels.

Sky+HD boxes have gone through several iterations of development. Besides the cosmetic changes, the principle technical differences boil down to the following
  • progressively larger hard drives: 500 meg, 1000 meg (1 Terabit), 2 Terabit
  • the inclusion of a live Ethernet port, then wireless first by an external dongle and then eventually built-in
  • dropping the built-in RF2 output socket in favour of a multipin connector for an external RF2 dongle
 
I have had Sky, Sky+, SkyHD+ and now SkyQ, and have used the old boxes for freesat, I have found very few HD channels can be received using the SkyHD+ box without subscription, and as a freesat box the old Sky box likely the best as you could set it to auto change channel as set time, once they included a hard drive this feature was dropped, however that means SCART connector not HDMI so it is a bit of a trade off.

I use an Icecrypt STC3250CCIHD box for free to air, it worked with both terrestrial and satellite seamless between the two, however the satellite electronic program guide (EPG) is useless, it will often on show what is on unless you select the channel, you set channel order so I have ITV1, ITV1+1, ITV2, ITV2+1 etc, so some advantages, and it has more HD programs it will receive than even the SkyQ as I don't pay the extra for HD. As a second receiver it is great, SkyQ allows us to watch 3 TV's we have 4 boxes, so I can watch the Icecrypt when the other 3 boxes are in use, so can watch UK Drama for example, but UK Gold is encrypted so need SkyQ for that, so I can continue to watch a program in bedroom when I know what channel I want.

Free to Air is not the same as Freesat, with Freesat you use the Sky EPG so you get full 7 day guide, with free to air it is a bit hit and miss what the EPG shows. I have a number of free to air boxes, and the EPG is different on each, the Icecrypt also gets Freeview so I have the Freeview EPG, but since I use Moel y Sant transmitter there are very few Freeview programs available, and even when using Moel y Parc I found ITV3+1 would stop showing halfway through a program at around midnight so Freeview is not really anywhere near as good as satellite.

My TV should pick up satellite direct as free to air, however it only seems to pick up around ½ of the programs, I would guess either stuck on horizontal or vertical polarised, so it has a SkyQ box on it never worried about the free to air, I had an old Sky box with SCART and the Icecrypt connected to same TV at last house and even with non HD programs one could see the difference between the two SCART to HDMI on a 32 inch TV at 6 foot, but at 12 foot could no see the difference, I don't have HD eye sight maybe? So using old cast off boxes it is a trade off, but I like being able to set box to swap channel at 8 pm.
 
mattylad said:
You then just have to pair your freeview card with it.
Click to expand...

No such thing. Freeview is the terrestrial service received through an aerial (not a dish). No card needed.

A Sky+ box does not need a card to get free to air channels. If sky or anyone else says you do they are lying. A card can be used to set your region but does not need pairing for that, it can even be expired.
 
fgs winston, stop being so damn pedantic.
freesat then.

And yes the old box will need a card, mine always did to see the free satellite channels.
with no card in it complained about it and would not show them.
 
It is NOT pedantic. Freesat and Freeview are completely different things from different companies.

A sky box does NOT need a card to see free to air channels, if yours did it was faulty. I’ve been in this game since before sky started and do know.
 
A sky card was required once upon a time to watch free to air channels. I remember my sky plus HD box required it whenever I tried to tune into a FTA channel. They must have changed the policy as I have been happily watching FTA without the card in for the last 5 years or so.
 
A sky card still is required to watch certain supposedly FTA channels.
But matron won't have that...
 
ey143 said:
A sky card was required once upon a time to watch free to air channels. I remember my sky plus HD box required it whenever I tried to tune into a FTA channel. They must have changed the policy as I have been happily watching FTA without the card in for the last 5 years or so.
Click to expand...
You are confusing free to air and free to view.

Free to air are just that and are viewable on any sky, Freesat box and generic satellite box without a card.
Free to view are scrambled channels which you can watch on a sky box with card for a fee, currently I believe £25 for the life of the card. There are only about 3 such channels and in my opinion they are not worth the £25 subscription.

At one point BBC channels were Free to view but they got rid of that policy as soon as Birt went.
 
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