Sky Box using UK sky card

[nobbyz]

Hello,

I think this has been dealt with before, but I don't remember seeing a definitive answer.

I have a sky box in the apartment in FV which I gave up using a few years back because I could not justify the subscription cost to myself.

It is still there all the connections working.

If I take  my UK Sky  card over and plug it into the sky box, will that work?  Or is there some kind of twinning which happens between the box and the card?  I really don't want to invalidate the card for future UK use!

Thanks

Nobby

[Deso]

The cards are paired to the box they are in so it won't work in another box without pairing them to that box.
SKY did this to stop people taking their cards to other boxes.

[nobbyz]

Thanks Deso,

just what I feared,
Regards
Nobby

[Globetrotter]

Plus things have altered over the last couple of years with Sky putting their channels on the new satelite, unfortunately the new satelite footprint is primarily focused on the UK, so picking up a decent signal is now very difficult even for people living in France/mainland Spain with some of them having to upgrade to a 3mtr dish, in Fuerteventura I think the norm is at least a 3 and a half to 4 mtr dish, which price wise you are looking at thousands of euros plus where to site one that large, 10 years ago we used to get all the channels on a 1mtr dish, see link.
http://www.stevelarkins.freeuk.com/skytv_reception_europe.htm

[satandpcguy]

Actually....

A Sky card will work in any sky box.

But not for premium channels like Sky Sports, Sky Movies / Cinema or Sky HD channels. To watch these channels the card needs to be paired to the sky box.

So you can take your card and put it in another Sky box and watch Sky One, but you will not be able to watch Sky One HD.

As for the signals, most (but not all) Sky pay channels are on the European beam, which has much better (and generous) coverage in your area, than channels on the UK beam (BBC ITV C4 Five for example) whose reception in your area requires very large dishes. So dish size required depends on which channels (free or pay) you want to watch rather than just generalising that "you need a big dish).

[nobbyz]

Thanks for that.

Is there any danger that if I do this and bring the card back to UK, it will no longer work in the original paired Box?

Thanks
Nobby

[satandpcguy]

None whatsoever.

But if it does, it is easier to pair it back in the UK than Spain.

[margerita]

I took my sky card from Ireland to Fuerteventura some years ago. It didn't work, just blank.I don't have a phoneline just an average sized dish.maybe I need to get it paired when I arrive.Thank you.

[satandpcguy]

I took my sky card from Ireland to Fuerteventura some years ago. It didn't work, just blank.I don't have a phoneline just an average sized dish.maybe I need to get it paired when I arrive.Thank you.

Again, you only need to get the card paired to the box for the Sky premium channels like Sky Sports, Sky Movies / Cinema or Sky HD channels.
Non HD Sky channels will still be available to you even without pairing.
"just blank" - you would have got an on screen error message saying what the issue was eg no signal, wrong card, technical fault, card fault... Phoneline is not needed to be able to receive channels via satellite....

[margerita]

Thank you Satanp. Will take card with me next time I go over.