Sky+ Installation by local firm

[TEAK36]

Does anyone know how much it might cost to get a local firm to install Sky+?

My mum has just upgraded her SKY+ to SKY HD and has given me her Sky+ box which is only a few months old. I currently have a basic Sky Digi Box. I have contacted Sky and they have told me that because I did not purchase the Sky+ box directly from them they will not carry out the upgrade, even though I was parepared to pay for it, and they suggested getting a local satellite firm to do the upgrade.
My only options now are to Pay Sky the price for a full Sky+ upgrade, which I beieve is about �150, or get a local firm to do the upgrade,but I was wondering if anyone knew how much the going rate would be to get a local firm to do this?
I have been told that the upgrade is very easy to do and should be able to do this myself, but my Sky dish is up on the chimney of my house and I am unable to get up there.

[vehelpfulguy]

>I have been told that the upgrade is very easy to do and should be able to do this myself

Who told you that ?

Do you know how to fit a new LNB to a Sky dish?

Do you know how to re-align the dish after you have fitted the new LNB ?

Would you be happy running an extra cable from your dish to your Sky box ?

It is not easy at all.

Why not phone a local Sky supplier and see what they say about cost etc.

[Dsg]

That was me :-

"You can do it yourself if :

1. Your Dish LNB has a spare connector
2. You can run a cable from the LNB/Dish to your Sky Plus Box easily.

Once this is done you will need to phone Sky & they will talk you through re-programming your viewing card to work with Sky Plus.

I have done this successfully - Good Luck "

Obviously a dish up a chimney does not fit condition 2 !!

[TEAK36]

Thank you both for your answers.

I think I will contact a local firm to get an idea of price. I dont really fancy climbing up the chimney.

I have one more question that you may be able to answer.

Could I use my Sky+ box as a basic digi box? My standard digi box is looking a little battered, and it would be good if I could use the Sky+ box, even if I could not record from it.

[Dsg]

You can just do a straightforward swap with no need to contact Sky.
The Sky+ box will work fine and you will be able to pause live TV & record the programme that you are watching or a programme that is on later on the channel that the box is set to.
What you will NOT be able to do is to record a programme that is on a channel different from the one that you are watching.

[Dsg]

Apologies - You WILL need to contact Sky to match your card to the new Sky+ box - but this is only a phone-call.