Hi, already have standard sky box and have been given a sky+ hd box. although i do not want hd ,can i use the new box to use the recording features by just swapping over my standard box for the sky+hd box ??
You can swap the boxes, however Sky+ features (record, livepause, etc.) are a subscription service ( £10-ish per month) and the second tuner requires a second cable from the LNB.
You will not be able to record anything without subscribing to the Sky+ service. Likewise you will not be able to view the HD channels unless you have the HD subscription. HD boxes have bigger memory though so if you only watch SD channels you will have space to record LOADS more than normal!