Sky box connection

[paulm]

Took delivery of our new sky hd box recently to upgrade from sky + in time for the world cup

Having installed it though the box showed as not having the phone line connected, despite having just unplugged it from the old box and plugged into the new.

Having isolated all the cabling right back to the master socket it looks like the original phone connection may never have worked as wired by the previous sky installer as only the 2 and 5 connections were made at either end of the cable, and plugging in a normal phone doesn't get a dial tone.

Does anyone know what the telephone connection is used for, if anything, and why sky make it a contractual requirement to have it connected ?

Can't decide if it's worth recabling it properly or not, or maybe I'm misunderstanding how it all works :?

Cheers, Paul

 

[wizer]

Sky used to pester you about it. But ours has been disconnected for months and I have heard nothing. I believe the telephone line used to be used for updates to the box and for pay-per-view purposes, but now they use a different system. Could be wrong tho. .

 

[WoodAddict]

a telephone cable can be wired different for use with voice and data, I can't remember which is which, but data travels down a certain core and voice down another, so it's no surprise that they only bother doing the data connection for the sky box.

Not sure exactly why they ask for it but I did hear that it was used for gathering data on who watches what...... basically viewing figures etc.

They do get upset if you don't plug it in too. My brother had loads of stress after deciding to ditch his landline in favour of his mobile a few years ago. Sky put his rental price up as they said that his contracted demanded the phone line attached.

In the end he just cancelled it and went with diamond cable (then ntl, then virgin) or whatever they're called now!

 

[StevieB]

Seems to be patchy then because I have never had a phone plugged into mine and all I get is a message when I reset the box occasionally. This just clears when you click OK to acknowledge it. I do have sky broadbandso maybe it recognises that instead, but the phone line to the TV box has never been connected (we moved to the house and took our old box so it was never set up by a sky engineer, I just plugged it in).

Steve

 

[TrimTheKing]

Okay, firstly you only need pairs 2 & 5 wired in a phone socket extension(sometimes they will wire a 3rd for the bell but I can't remember which, 3 I think, and I'm not sure whether it's needed or not). Has he wired them up the wrong way round (2 in master to 5 in extension)?

The phone line is used for PPV I believe, and without it you can't order PPV movies, sports etc (only a contractual detail for the first 12 months). The older boxes used to have a buffer mechanism whereby they would store up a certain amount of requests just in case your phone line was down but once the buffer was full it wouldn't allow you any more PPV until you had plugged in a phone line and it uploaded the data.

I'm sure someone will come along and say they get PPV and never plug in the phone line, and that's fine, but I don't have my phone line plugged in and get an error when I try PPV and it will not work until plugged in.

HTH

 

[Racers]

Hi,

2 and 5 is all you need. they also download what channels you watch, so keep off those 9xx channels :wink:


Pete

 

[Chrisp]

Hi
Leave it out unless you are ordering box office or pay per view films, our broadband wouldn't work with the telephone line plugged in and when the engineer came around he just unplugged it and said to plug it in when you want to order something, also the engineer also pointed out that you need to run an installation sequence which wasn't in the instructions and no matter how many calls to sky I made this was never pointed out and the HD box worked like poo until this was done!
Chris.

 

[chris_d]

...our broadband wouldn't work with the telephone line plugged in and when the engineer came around he just unplugged it and said to plug it in when you want to order something

The engineer is a *** - you need an ADSL microfilter for simultaneous broadband and telephone operation. You can buy one at Tesco / Asda quite cheaply.

 

[Bassbear81]

Weve not had ours plugged in for 5 years or so, never had a problem or been pestered about it.

 

[Chrisp]

...our broadband wouldn't work with the telephone line plugged in and when the engineer came around he just unplugged it and said to plug it in when you want to order something

The engineer is a *** - you need an ADSL microfilter for simultaneous broadband and telephone operation. You can buy one at Tesco / Asda quite cheaply.

Chris,
We were using this set up with microfilter in place for 4 years until the HD box was installed, only messed up when the phone line was plugged into the box, without it no problems.
Chris.

 

[paulm]

The thing is, we have been able to use pay per view without a problem with the previous sky+ box, although haven't tried recently, and haven't tried on the new box yet, so presumably the phone line isn't needed for ppv ?

I may need to spring for a few quid to watch something on ppv to see with the new box !

In that event the line is presumably just for them to monitor usage patterns and update software (if they ever really do) ?

Thanks for all the feedback.

Cheers, Paul

 

[monkeybiter]

I'm a bit cautious re leaving it plugged in all the time, a couple of years ago we got an on screen message when trying to order ppv saying our 'credit limit' had been reached. I had been plugging in the 'phone line to order the film, then once playing I unplugged. A rather snotty telephonist explained that the box will 'phone home during the ppv transmission and you are then billed accordingly. Apparently I had stumbled upon a common method of watching without paying, hence the suspicious attitude. I paid the £50 accumulated bill and ppv was again available.

My current Sky+ HD box is permanently connected without a filter and doesn't appear to intefere with adsl. Some modern telephony equipment doesn't need a filter, many dect 'phones for example.

 

[TrimTheKing]

Paul

Switch off the new box and when you switch it on, if the phone line isn't working thn it tells you that you will not be able to use certain interactive services until it is connected.

Can't find exactly which services you will lose, but I know for a fact that if I try and buy a PPV move/event that it won't let me until I plug in the phone line. It gives me a number to call to do it manually.

Re the phone extension, do you have broadband? And is there a microfilter plugged into the extension. If you do have BB then the extension will need a microfilter (or a DSL enabled NTE) to work.

HTH

 

[monkeybiter]

If you do have BB then the extension will need a microfilter (or a DSL enabled NTE) to work.

Mine doesn't and works fine. Still they're only a few quid so it won't hurt.

 

[TrimTheKing]

If you do have BB then the extension will need a microfilter (or a DSL enabled NTE) to work.

Mine doesn't and works fine. Still they're only a few quid so it won't hurt.

Okay, to be more specific, it will work better with a filter as they filter out the noise. Agreed, it may well work without but a lot will have issues.

 

[matt]

Sign up to Virgin instead :lol:

 

[TrimTheKing]

Sign up to Virgin instead :lol:

Would love to but they don't send cables out into the rolling countryside

 

[stage1v8]

Hi Folks,

Here is my 2P worth on this subject (used to work in the sat TV and cable industry)

Phone lines:

As a few have already said, internal phone wiring (both voice and data) runs over pins 2 & 5. Pin 3 is used for the ringing voltage so if you dont have a phone plugged in it isnt needed.

If you have an extension wired in by sky and you dont get a dial tone when plugging a phone in then its faulty along its length somewhere. The cable should have 2 pairs of wires in it so you could try hooking up the other pair as a test to see if the there is a break in one of the wires somewhere.

Any old cheap phone extension lead will do as a temporary measure. The quality of the cabling and fittings that sky use are not very good and contractors will usually buy their own and will usually try to save money somewhere.

Re broadband, You need a micro filter to use a line for phone and internet. If you plug a sky box in without one then your broadband is going to have a issues as the filter splits off the frquencies that the braodband uses and its very suseptable to noise. Every extension socket in use will usually need one unless your clever with the wiring.

Sky & telephone lines.

When you first set a sky box up it will check for an active telephone line. From back when sky digital was first launched the boxes they were subsidiesed and as part of the contract you had to have a telephone line connected. All a sky box does is look for a line voltage.

Once set up if you try to use anything that is paid for it will check for a line voltage before allowing you to book a movie etc. It will then dial up once a day an upload your purchase info. Every account has a credit limit which, as monkeybiter found out, is usually £50. If the box hasnt connected and uploaded your purchases you will eventually hit it and then cant order anything until the box calls home. If you have an old phone with a mechanical bell you can sometimes hear the box call home as you get a short Ting noise coming from the bell as the line connects.

If you dont want to have phone cable running to your sky box then you can get a pair of devices that run the phone extension over the mains cabling in the house. You plug one in next to a phone socket and the other behind the sky box. Hook a phone cable into each end and you have an extension. I think there are wireless versions available now as well.

Hope all this helps someone out there.

Jon

 

[SimonB]

It's mandatory for multi-room, they use it to confirm that both boxes are at the same address to prevent someone getting a cheap box/subscription to use somewhere else.