Sky Digital FAQ

Summary: This article answers questions about the UK digital television satellite system "Sky Digital": the equipment needed for reception, and channels and services carried. This FAQ primarily describes the Sky Digital package as provided to UK residents. Residents of the ROI may not have full access to all the features or channels, nor may the purchase subsidy or its UK requirements necessarily be applicable to them. Residents of other countries should be aware that most of the SkyDigital service is restricted to people with the use of a UK or ROI address.

These are the questions that are answered here:

5 >Is it true you can't record Box Office movies?

The very first thing to try if your box is doing strange things is to reset it.
Remove your card. Put Digibox in standby. Switch the box off at the mains for at least 30 seconds. While unplugged, wipe the gold contacts of the card carefully with a dry tissue to remove any static build-up. (Note: use a tissue, not a jumper!) Switch the mains back on. Allow the box to restart which takes about 20 seconds. Insert viewing card when prompted. 
This cures most common problems. If it doesn't work then you can look a bit further for the solution to yours.

The "add channels" function is there so that if a satellite channel wishes to start up but not pay for inclusion in the electronic programme guide, they can still be accessed by viewers, using the "Services" menu. At present there are no extra English- spoken television channels available in this way, but a good few radio services. See www.lyngsat.com for full lists of all channels.
You can input the following frequencies to get the ITV channels as broadcast to other regions:

10.832/H 22.0 and 5/6 Gives:
Carlton/LWT
Carlton Central
Carlton Westcountry
HTV West
HTV Wales

10.891/H 22.0 and 5/6 Gives:
Anglia
Border England
Border Scotland
Granada
Meridian
Tyne Tees
Yorkshire

10.906/V 22.0 and 5/6 Gives:
Channel
Grampian
Scottish
UTV

And these frequencies are for the BBC channels:

Sky Digital comes from a different satellite, in a different position, than analogue Sky - so you won't get any of the old German channels that you used to get from analogue Sky. The digibox is not a fully-featured digital receiver, can only pick up certain digital channels, and has no facility for adding other decoding modules for other satellite operators. Despite that, there are some channels that are available to you if you have a motorised dish - again, the Lyngsat site carries full details. However, be aware that by moving your dish away from the SkyDigital satellite you may be operating the equipment outside the terms of your contract.
If you use your digibox to view channels from another satellite you may find that it needs rebooting when switching back to Astra2. Try this workaround: After moving back to Sky at 28E, select ITN News (on EPG 525). Wait a few seconds and this channel should be received OK and then all the others should start working again too.

All the BBC channels are now available. See the frequency lists above.

Yes, that's mainly true - they use Macrovision (which, incidentally, VCR tapes and DVDs also use). Sky say that most movie- makers insist on copy protection for pay-per-view channels. Not all Box Office movies (though the vast majority) are copy protected - any copy-protected programme is marked "C" in the information section of the EPG. Macrovision works by adding extra brightness pulses into the part of the signal that the TV doesn't normally display because of overscanning. The brightness pulses upset the automatic level control of the video which ends up overdimming the picture. Macrovision blockers are available, but to use them to breach copyright is illegal. Very, very old videos will record a Macrovision signal.

FTA channels, like Sky News and QVC, are Free To Air, meaning that you can watch them without a card. The BBC channels are also FTA. ITV, C4 and C5 are Free To View, meaning that you can watch these channels without subscription but you will still need a card for copyright reasons. At the time of writing no one is now issuing these cards so if you don't have one already then you will need to subscribe to Sky in order to view these free channels. You may like to complain about this situation to your MP or the Department of Culture
If you are still using an older type viewing card with a blue sky/clouds picture and the words "Sky Digital" on the front to view the FTV channels then the card may stop working soon. At the moment there is no way of replacing your card other than by subscribing to Sky. See above. If you have a dark blue card with a yellow "house" design on it then the FTV channels should continue to work for some time.

Sky decided that the EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) was enough for most people, so removed the limited programme listings in the magazine.

At the moment, boxes run almost identical software and hardware, and all boxes offer virtually the same features - although independent testing by the satellite press does reveal differences in picture and sound quality. All remote controls are the same. Some brands have extra connectors on the rear. See below. Most people seem to find that the Panasonic boxes have the fastest menu display and on-screen graphics.

All boxes have mains input, dish input (F-type), TV SCART (composite video out, RGB out), VCR SCART (composite video in/out, RGB loop-through in), Telephone line (RJ11), Aerial in, RF out 1, RF out 2, Audio out (2 phonos), RS-232 (apparently disabled), Digital interface (for which nothing exists yet). Sony digiboxes and the Sky+ also have a digital output, which carries sound data only. This is fully functional, despite anything you may have seen from Sky, Sony or on the newsgroups though only the Sky+ model supports DD 5.1
Grundig model /2 and 3000 series boxes have an S-Video mini-DIN output plug, as does the Sky+

If you will agree to having your phone connected to the digibox then Sky give you one box for free.. The price of installation, which is obligatory, varies from £0 to £100 depending on who you get to do it, whether you subscribe and which package you take. Only one "free" box per customer. If you don't want (or can't have) the phone connection then boxes cost around £250 - £300 from dealers. There are sometimes special offers to be had on Sky's website and the usual one involves taking the full package initially though you can downgrade to a cheaper option after the first month..

You can use your box without a card to view the BBC channels that you are used to. You would get quite a few extra channels free (like BBC Three, BBC Four, CNN, Sky News, Travel and many shopping and Asian channels). There are also many radio channels, some of them exclusively digital. There is an opportunity, however, to get subscriptions to other programme providers like Asian channels, adult channels and a racing channel, without having a Sky subscription. Much of the output of the main broadcasters is in widescreen.

Ask nicely, and you may get a choice of box but you probably won't. If you go to an independent dealer, rather than one of the chains, you stand a much better chance of getting the box you want (and an earlier installation, too). You may pay a bit extra for this.

You can reprogram it. See http://www.burgins.com/skydigital.html or http://www.sathelp.co.uk or http://www.screen-link.co.uk/skyremote.html.
You will also find full instructions on how to programme your remote if you push the “interactive” button and follow the prompts through from the “Sky Questions” option.

The TVLink is available from 0870 333 7775, for £14.99 inc VAT and P&P. You can also buy different versions of TVLink from high street electrical stores and satellite dealers from between £10 and £20. They allow you to watch the same Sky channel on a second TV, lets you control the digibox from there too, and also acts as a distribution for your normal terrestrial TV channels. It uses coaxial cable, which you need to buy and fit yourself. It works fine, although other equipment (remote control extenders from Rabbit, Powermid and One 4 All are also available) would allow you to control your video, DVD etc too. Note that the TVLink available from Sky when you order the box also includes installation and a second remote for an all-in price, whereas the mail-order version doesn't include the second remote, nor the installation. http://www.tvlink.co.uk/  If you have any amplifiers or other loft splitters etc. between the Digibox and the remote TV then you will need some special equipment to "loop" the remote signal around the device. This equipment is made by the same people who make the Sky remote extenders. There are now several of these.
If you don't fancy having cable running over your house then you can buy a video extender for about £50 and up. These use microwaves to send the picture and sound to your second TV. They also normally have a return path for the remote control signals thus allowing you to change channels or operate your VCR etc. remotely.

You can get a second cheaper subscription from Sky. The monthly subscription is £15 for a card that will "mirror" your existing subscription. Sky will also sell you another box for £220 or you can get one elsewhere. You will need to keep both boxes connected to the same UK phone line in order to have this cheaper second subscription

Go into the hidden installer's menu and activate the RF2 power output: Services 4 - 0 - 1 -select You must connect the TV Link to the RF2 socket. Never be tempted to activate the RF2 power output if you are not using a TV Link. If you have any splitters, distributors or amplifiers in the circuit that aren't directly compatible with the TVLink then you may need to fit a special "looper" device around them.

The phone connection is primarily for Sky Active, the interactive television service, for e-mail and purchasing goods. It is also used by Sky to communicate which pay-per-view events you've bought, which software version your box is running and possibly your use of interactive advertising . It is unclear what other information is transmitted to Sky through the digibox phone link; Sky claim that they do not send any programme viewing information from ordinary subscribers. If you're a Sky+ user, your additional Sky+ contract gives Sky the right to take your viewing information: both live and recorded. They also have the right to know when you fast-forward through segments of programming. Your contract lets Sky, and programme providers, get this data, minus any personal identification: so next time you forward through the ads during Emmerdale, it's possible that YTV know that at least someone hasn't seen the ad break.
The phone connection is not obligatory, although most people agree to it because it gives you money off your first digibox. In any event, you do not need a phone connected to your standard box after the first year's contract, though you may wish to keep the box connected. If you have paid full price for your box or if you have bought one second-hand then it will never need to be connected to the phone.
Sky BoxOffice events are still bookable if you unplug the box but you'll need to ring customer services yourself and you won't be able to order things from Sky Active.
All boxes will receive software upgrades in the normal way regardless of whether they are connected to the phone or not.
If you have a cheap "mirror" subscription and second box then both boxes must be connected to the same UK phone line for as long as you maintain the mirror sub.
If you have a Sky+ installed by Sky then the phone connection is also obligatory for the first year. It is unclear whether this applies to Sky+ boxes not fitted by Sky.
Sky appear to use caller ID for verifying whether or not the mirror sub boxes are on the same phone line but they do not seem to use caller ID verification for regular digiboxes or for the Sky+. In fact they don't actually seem to check the existence of the phone connection at all, except for the mirror sub.

No, the satellite tells the box to phone home, which it does (through an 0800 freephone number). It will check whether you are on the line first.

It's a nicely behaved box, and it checks whether you're on the phone before using it. So, no. Some people report it slows their connection down. That might be true; modems are very fickle. However, the problem is more likely to be in the extension you've had fitted, rather than the digibox. If it bothers you then just unplug the phone connection whilst surfing.

Recently released and causing significant problems with some boxes. Push the “TV Guide” button on the remote to bring up the 7-day TV guide. If you highlight a future programme and push “select” you will bring up another screen (which can also be accessed as option 0 from the main TV Guide menu). This screen lists programmes that have been added to the timer. Push the red button to make the programme “autoview” which should mean that the box will change to that channel automatically as the programme starts. A few programmes also have the “series” option available when they are added to the personal planner. When set this should make the box switch to every showing of this series of programmes. Some VCRs will automatically go to record when the personal planner switches on an autoview programme.
You can modify all your personal planner settings from the PP menu in the main TV Guide menu.

Only a problem if your picture freezes. The signal strength reading is pretty meaningless. The signal quality is the important one. Some digiboxes seem to report this info in a very different way to others, and upgrades of software seem to change the signal strength and quality meter software. Don't worry too much what this says - worry if your picture freezes at the first hint of rain, because that's not normal. Any signal quality reading of over 40% should be OK. Check your signal by selecting : services 4 - 6.

Check what's near your box. Mobile phones, cordless phones, PCs and other things broadcast radio signals. Your Digibox, just like other electrical appliances, picks up radio signals. Add interference from these things and it can completely confuse the box, causing picture freezes. See what happens if you move things away from the digibox, or switch things off.

First try a reset (see above). This cures most problems. Some people have reported that performing a 'new installation' via the installers menu (services 4-0-1-select) can bring the box back to life. Failing that reloading the software can solve quite a few problems. And if all that doesn't work then Sky will currently come out and either fix or replace your box for about £65.

You may have a 22khz switching problem.

The 22khz problem prevents the LNB from switching between the upper and lower bands when the receiver sends a 22khz signal to the cable.
It can be caused by the following:
1) A faulty LNB that just doesn't switch - there is a known problem with one old batch of Grundig LNBs.
2) Duff cable or some in-line gadgetry that doesn't allow the signal to pass.
3) A faulty digibox that doesn't output the signal.
4) A known incompatibility between some models of Panasonic digibox and some Cambridge LNBs.
Testing your box on a friend's dish and vice-versa will normally isolate the problem.

You can also test the problem by doing this:
Try switching to ITV, unplug the LNB and plug it straight back in. If the picture appears but doesn't return when you switch away and back again then you have the problem.

First, simply unplug your box from the mains and then plug it back in again. This triggers any new software that your box may have downloaded. If that fails: Remove your card. Switch the box off at the mains. Press and hold the backup button down on the front of the box (not the remote), then switch the mains back on without releasing the backup button. Wait for about 20 seconds, until you see a message appear on your television (which only appears on a SCART lead) and all the lights come on on the front of the digibox. Then release the button. Follow the instructions ie don't do anything for the next ten minutes after which time the box will restart. Forcing a software upgrade is not normally required since Sky upgrade all box software automatically. Furthermore both new and old software may be transmitted simultaneously so, if your box hasn't been told to upgrade, you may still receive the old software. Experience shows that many boxes download upgraded software but do not activate it until you switch the box off and on at the mains. When Sky wish to upgrade your box they simply send it a signal to switch off.

Go into the installer setup menu (see below). But before you do, why aren't you connected by the SCART lead? You get a better picture, access to widescreen functions, and stereo sound.

Services - 4 - 0 - 1 - select. Be careful what you change. Be sure you know what you're doing. You can ruin your box. Take care. etc.

You can't. This is primarily for marketing purposes, so that (for example) Sky News is always on channel 501. There are a few regional differences to channel numbering; for example, Channel 4 for Welsh viewers is on 184, while Wales's own fourth channel, S4C, occupies the 104 channel slot.

As a general rule you should make your connections as described here. If you have very specialized equipment then these suggestions won't be suitable.
For the aerial lead:
Aerial=RF lead=VCR=RF lead=TV
In other words you don't need to have an RF (aerial) connection to or from the digibox unless you don't have any scart connections. The same applies to any other such device (DVD) that you may have.
If you have another TV on which you want to view Sky in use in another room you should do this:
Aerial=RF lead=VCR=RF lead=Digibox (RF in)
Then from the digibox you should run RF outlet 1 to your main TV and RF outlet 2 to your remote TV.
If you get interference you may need to adjust the RF output frequency of the digibox.
If you have a DVD (or similar) then connect its RF input to the RF output 2 of the digibox and run the RF lead to your other TV from the DVD RF output.

For the scart connections:
You should always use scart connections if your TV and VCR support them (almost all do).
VCR=scart=Digibox=scart=TV
Set your digibox to RGB output and be sure to use the RGB scart input on your TV. There is no need to connect the VCR directly to the TV unless you have an S-VHS VCR with S-Video output in which case you should connect the VCR to the your TV's S-Video input using the correct cable.
If you have a DVD etc. then try connecting them up like this:
VCR=scart=Digibox=scart=DVD=TV (if your DVD has two scarts that support RGB loopthrough) or just connect the DVD directly into another scart socket on your TV.
If your TV has only one RGB scart and the DVD doesn't have two scart sockets with RGB loopthrough then you may need to buy a proper automatic scart switcher with full pass-through. Don't be tempted to buy cheap scart "splitters": they don't work properly.
If you don't want this extra expense then you could try using your DVD's S-Video output directly connected to the S-Video input of your TV, if it has one.

PAL essentially encodes the SkyDigital picture then sends it to your TV, which decodes it again. It results, on most sets, in an artificially sharp picture and colour crawl; it also makes the EPG flicker like mad. RGB only works via a fully-wired SCART lead, but takes this decoding/encoding loop away, which makes the picture look clearer. For optimum results, re-adjust the brightness/colour/contrast once in RGB mode, if your set allows this. RGB mode is highly recommended for most televisions; some users may find that their television is not able to change colour and/or brightness, leaving them with a dull picture, however.
Set your digibox to output RGB from the services: system setup: picture menu.

The reason why involves a timing issue for PAL encoding, and most TV sets are set up at the factory for PAL, not RGB. Your television set may have a PAL/NTSC358 setting, in which case use "NTSC358". Otherwise, you may be able to find an engineering test menu for your television set to shift it permanently to the right to compensate. The author used Altavista and searched for his TV model name.

BBC1, 2, 3, 4 and ITV1, ITV2, Channel 4 and Channel 5 show various programmes in widescreen. BBC News24 is a fully widescreen channel. All the Sky film channels are now widescreen.. For sport, Sky's premiership football, cricket and superleague coverage is in full widescreen It is expected that other channels will progressively go widescreen. The sound, incidentally, is Dolby Pro-Logic (although many programmes are just in stereo). Dolby Digital isn't available on SkyDigital except when using a Sky+ box.
Set your digibox to widescreen from the services: system setup: picture menu.

Currently S4C and S4C2 are transmitting a permanent widescreen flag which means your television will think everything is widescreen on those channels. This is fine when broadcasting 16:9 widescreen programmes, but not so fine when they broadcast 4:3 programmes, which appear with black bars to the left and right. BBC NEWS24 is a full widescreen channel, but much of its material (most reports and filler programmes) is shot in 4:3. They artificially enlarge the picture to make it appear more widescreen, but there are still black bars at each side of the picture.

For a "normal" TV, the ratio is 4:3 (i.e. it's "four" wide, and "three" high). For widescreen, it's 16:9. But for some widescreen films, the ratio of width/height is 2.35:1 - which is even wider than TV widescreen. The bars at the top and bottom of the screen are therefore still there. All commercials are supplied in widescreen format, but many channels do not broadcast them in widescreen, shrinking them to 14:9. This again adds black bars at the top and bottom of the picture.

Analogue teletext is available, but not on all channels. Sky have now launched SkyText, a clearer, digital-text service, on their channels. The BBC also have their own digital text service, with better graphics, clearer screen type. The 'old' teletext has disappeared, or will disappear, from channels with an enhanced digital text service. Digital text looks nice but sadly much of the content of analogue text is missing from it.

Sometimes the box forgets about old analogue teletext. To get it back, just reboot your box.

Sky+ is a new type of digibox that has a built-in hard drive that enables you to record one channel whilst watching another. It costs about £250 to buy and your dish needs to be modified to use it (the new parts are included in the box). You need to take out an extra subscription to get the full functionality. For a full description of the Sky+ offer and box see this Sky+ FAQ: http://www.toreadmore.com/sky+/

Sky Active contains shopping, film reviews, games, and other information, available by pressing the "Interactive" button on your SkyDigital remote control.

PlayJam is an interactive games area of SkyDigital; with a large amount of different games to play. By calling a premium-rate line, you can register your score and be in with a chance of winning prizes.

Using the SkyDigital definition of 'interactive' (i.e. you press buttons and things on the screen change), you'll find interactive areas on television services QVC and Simply Money, and some commercials are accompanied by a "Press RED now" graphic, linking through, usually, to their areas on Sky Active. Sky News has an impressive extra service called Sky News Active (again, reached using the red button): this contains updated news and features, as well as four extra screens of video. Sky Sports does interactive football matches (offering different camera angles and extra information), as well as a pay-per-play game for football viewers called SkyPlay. The BBC produce a similar interactive news product to Sky News Active, which you can access by hitting the red button during news programmes or from the text button at any time. They have also pioneered a stunning interactive version of "Walking with Beasts" that equals anything that you may find on a DVD. They also produce interactive sport, which currently offers a choice of audio track and highlights, but no extra camera angles: this is currently available during FA Cup matches. ITV2's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" is not currently available as interactive on SkyDigital, but is planned to be so sometime during 2002. 'Interactive' features are usually announced with an on-screen graphic, generally marked "Active" or "Press red", though sometimes only shown as a red button. In many cases you can access them from the text button also.

Push the "back up" button to make the red dot disappear for a while. Or press the red button then quickly press backup before the interactive stuff loads. The red dot will be gone until you change channels. This doesn't work for the BBC channels.

Only email, through Sky Active and Talk21. (It's quicker and easier to set up a Sky Active e-mail address via www.talk21.com.)

Soon - but only WAP sites. Sky announced that WML support will be added, and it seems to be, though currently to sky.com only.

There isn't one. That little slot is apparently to stick your "Mondex" card in, but not yet and, by the looks of it, probably never. See www.mondex.com
Soon all UK credit cards will also have a chip built into them and these may be used in the interactive slot one day.

Normally, no. In a very heavy thunderstorm, either where you are, or where the uplink to the satellite is, then sometimes you may get slight problems; the author's box locks up in a very heavy thunderstorm. If it happens more often than this, your dish was not set up correctly, and that'll teach you not to have gone to an independent installer. When snow is blown onto your dish and settles, you may not be able to get anything at all - this is both normal and also very rare. To protect your box always unplug it from the mains and the telephone before thunderstorms.

Other discussion areas are available, notably usenet's uk.media.tv.sky , uk.tech.tv.sky and alt.satellite.tv.europe

Write a better one or contribute to the improvement of this one by posting about it in the group in which you read it.

Credits and copyright Simon Gardner, Graham Sorenson, Nathan Irving, Simon Walker, Jomtien, Ali, Steve Thomas, Mark Wayt, Dave Aspinall, Charlie Pearce, Richard Lambley, Ian Boswell, Kev, Mike Henry, Tim Gray, Spycatcher, Bob Lucas, Peter Pratten, Gareth Kitchener, David Clark, Ross Lockley, Julie Brandon, Watty, Hoop.

This FAQ was originally written and maintained by James Cridland.

Jomtien has now gracelessly, sorry, graciously accepted this thankless task.