Hard drive upgrades

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#661424 25-Jul-2012 08:04

As Kynar mentions the files are still encrypted with NDS videoguard plus any other file protection imposed within the machine, so there is no way you can use the files externally without decrypting them via an NDS videoguard subscription card and the obvious continual rolling validation of keys from sky.

Cyril

surfisup1000

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#661450 25-Jul-2012 08:35

Kyanar:

That's exactly what the $500 is. Of course, if you open it you're actually breaking the law (it's not just breaking the terms, it's actually vandalism since it's not your device you're disassembling and the owner didn't give you permission). If you have the device for more than about 3 years I think it is, paying the $500 is actually cheaper than paying $15 per month.

I don't see the point of wanting the eSATA enabled either - you can't put the recordings on DVD. Besides the fact that it's illegal, they are not in any format that you could realistically use.

I don't believe this is vandalism - vandalism is to cause destruction or damage.

Upgrading the sky box might breach the 'contract' between sky and the customer, but I wouldn't think it to be illegal.

Personally I have no problem with anyone who tries to upgrade their mysky hard drive.

I recently tried to 'pay' to upgrade my mysky HDi box to the slightly larger drive, and, they want $600 (and, i've already paid $600 for my current mysky box). Sky are completely unreasonable with this upgrade fee.

MikeB4

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#661590 25-Jul-2012 11:19

surfisup1000:
Kyanar:

That's exactly what the $500 is. Of course, if you open it you're actually breaking the law (it's not just breaking the terms, it's actually vandalism since it's not your device you're disassembling and the owner didn't give you permission). If you have the device for more than about 3 years I think it is, paying the $500 is actually cheaper than paying $15 per month.

I don't see the point of wanting the eSATA enabled either - you can't put the recordings on DVD. Besides the fact that it's illegal, they are not in any format that you could realistically use.

I don't believe this is vandalism - vandalism is to cause destruction or damage.

Upgrading the sky box might breach the 'contract' between sky and the customer, but I wouldn't think it to be illegal.

Personally I have no problem with anyone who tries to upgrade their mysky hard drive.

I recently tried to 'pay' to upgrade my mysky HDi box to the slightly larger drive, and, they want $600 (and, i've already paid $600 for my current mysky box). Sky are completely unreasonable with this upgrade fee.

As one does not own a MySky box it could will be seen as deliberate damage and Sky would definitely have the legal right to charge for for the full replacement costs for the device.

To open the box and do anything to is very very wrong.

floydbloke

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#661639 25-Jul-2012 11:55

surfisup1000:

I recently tried to 'pay' to upgrade my mysky HDi box to the slightly larger drive, and, they want $600 (and, i've already paid $600 for my current mysky box). Sky are completely unreasonable with this upgrade fee.

Ring them again and speak to a different CSR. Another $600 doesn't sound right. I paid the initial $600 for the tilver MySky, then $45 for the HDi and was quoted $99 to upgrade to the MySky+. (Or was it $150, can't quite recall but it wasn't $600, it was some time ago. We decided not to go ahead with it because the current somewhat limited size at least forces us to get on with it and watch and delete the stuff we record.)

Did Eric Clapton really think she looked wonderful...or was it after the 15th outfit she tried on and he just wanted to get to the party and get a drink?

Kyanar

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#661648 25-Jul-2012 11:58

surfisup1000:
I don't believe this is vandalism - vandalism is to cause destruction or damage.

Upgrading the sky box might breach the 'contract' between sky and the customer, but I wouldn't think it to be illegal.

Personally I have no problem with anyone who tries to upgrade their mysky hard drive.

I recently tried to 'pay' to upgrade my mysky HDi box to the slightly larger drive, and, they want $600 (and, i've already paid $600 for my current mysky box). Sky are completely unreasonable with this upgrade fee.

It is illegal - it's not yours, so without the owner's permission you are breaking the law by tampering with it.

And I assume you having no problem with people opening up Sky's boxes and fiddling with the internals that you see no problem with me coming into your house and replacing all the wallpaper and changing the locks? I don't need your permission of course - it might breach the "contract" between you and me but I wouldn't think it to be illegal. Personally I see no problem with anyone who wants to change things up in your house.

Niel

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#661823 25-Jul-2012 15:43

surfisup1000:
Niel: Opening the box is against your contract with Sky, so the T&C of this forum will probably not allow its discussion.

Which T&C?

Not illegal as far as I know.

GeekZone's T&C or FUG or whatever does not allow the discussion of how to do illegal hacking. As others already explained, even if you pay the $600 for MySky it is still not your property. The Sky contract actually states they have full right to enter your property at any time to inspect or exchange the equipment. It also states you are not allowed in any way to interfere with the equipment.

The Sky contract actually allows them to track what you watch and use the information for any purpose they want. It also allows them, if they were to enable Ethernet port or eSATA, to scan your network for information. It states they can download any software to the STB to do whatever they want.

You can never have enough Volvos!

JimmyH

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#662022 25-Jul-2012 21:02

Kyanar: I don't see the point of wanting the eSATA enabled either - you can't put the recordings on DVD. Besides the fact that it's illegal, they are not in any format that you could realistically use.

I think you miss my point slightly. I was saying that if I could use the eSATA port to plunk in a decent amount of storage, then I wouldn't need another device or the ability to record to DVD, and at that point I would be willing to move from my current STB-recorder combo to a MySky. My suggestion was, in fact, that they could easily encrypt the eSATA recordings to ensure that this scenario was impossible.

In any event, it's pointless worrying too much about the copyright angle. If someone wants to get recordings off then it's pretty easy to do already without compromising the box, it's just that you have to cap the HD output in real time using readily available hardware (costs circa $400). Haven't done it myself, but I have seen it done, and it is trivial.

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JimmyH

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#662054 25-Jul-2012 21:50

surfisup1000:
Kyanar:

That's exactly what the $500 is. Of course, if you open it you're actually breaking the law (it's not just breaking the terms, it's actually vandalism since it's not your device you're disassembling and the owner didn't give you permission). If you have the device for more than about 3 years I think it is, paying the $500 is actually cheaper than paying $15 per month.

I don't see the point of wanting the eSATA enabled either - you can't put the recordings on DVD. Besides the fact that it's illegal, they are not in any format that you could realistically use.

I don't believe this is vandalism - vandalism is to cause destruction or damage.

Upgrading the sky box might breach the 'contract' between sky and the customer, but I wouldn't think it to be illegal.

Personally I have no problem with anyone who tries to upgrade their mysky hard drive.

I recently tried to 'pay' to upgrade my mysky HDi box to the slightly larger drive, and, they want $600 (and, i've already paid $600 for my current mysky box). Sky are completely unreasonable with this upgrade fee.

Yeah, it is vandalism, and it's not just a breach of contract angle that you need to look at - that's a red herring. You modify hardware that you don't own, without the permission of the owner, in a way they haven't approved. If I was in Sky's shoes I would take a pretty dim view of it and, at a minimum, replace the unit and charge you for the full replacement cost. Just because there isn't a contract saying that you won't alter their equipment doesn't mean that you have the right to do so. Moreover, it is irrelevant whether the price they want to charge for an upgraded unit is reasonable or not, you still don't get the legal right to modify hardware that you don't own.

Bottom line - it isn't yours to alter, and if you do so you potentially open yourself up to a world of hurt.

Niel

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#662143 26-Jul-2012 06:09

Even plugging the access card into a non-Sky STB is against the T&C. I believe that is something that was added to the contract in the last few years because I do not recall seeing it in the contract I signed many years ago - when there were no other STBs.

You can never have enough Volvos!

surfisup1000

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#662159 26-Jul-2012 07:44

floydbloke:

Ring them again and speak to a different CSR. Another $600 doesn't sound right. I paid the initial $600 for the tilver MySky, then $45 for the HDi and was quoted $99 to upgrade to the MySky+.

Oh you must have gotten lucky .

I rang them and requested the $99 upgrade from mysky to mysky+. The csr was confused and spoke to a supervisor for around 10 minutes trying to figure it out.

She said I was ineligible for the $99 upgrade because I was on the initial $600 mysky and had later paid $45 to upgrade to mysky HDi. She said that taking the $45 upgrade offer made me ineligible for the $99 mysky+ upgrade. So, I'd have to pay $600 again for a complete new box. She was very definite about this.

floydbloke

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#662189 26-Jul-2012 09:17

surfisup1000:
floydbloke:

Ring them again and speak to a different CSR. Another $600 doesn't sound right. I paid the initial $600 for the tilver MySky, then $45 for the HDi and was quoted $99 to upgrade to the MySky+.

Oh you must have gotten lucky .

I rang them and requested the $99 upgrade from mysky to mysky+. The csr was confused and spoke to a supervisor for around 10 minutes trying to figure it out.

She said I was ineligible for the $99 upgrade because I was on the initial $600 mysky and had later paid $45 to upgrade to mysky HDi. She said that taking the $45 upgrade offer made me ineligible for the $99 mysky+ upgrade. So, I'd have to pay $600 again for a complete new box. She was very definite about this.

That's a shame...and a rip off... Admittedly the offer I received was way back when the MySky+ was first released. Must be 12 months or so ago now. I guess they've changed their offerings.

Did Eric Clapton really think she looked wonderful...or was it after the 15th outfit she tried on and he just wanted to get to the party and get a drink?

mattbush

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#662608 26-Jul-2012 20:10

KiwiNZ:
surfisup1000:
Kyanar:

That's exactly what the $500 is. Of course, if you open it you're actually breaking the law (it's not just breaking the terms, it's actually vandalism since it's not your device you're disassembling and the owner didn't give you permission). If you have the device for more than about 3 years I think it is, paying the $500 is actually cheaper than paying $15 per month.

I don't see the point of wanting the eSATA enabled either - you can't put the recordings on DVD. Besides the fact that it's illegal, they are not in any format that you could realistically use.

I don't believe this is vandalism - vandalism is to cause destruction or damage.

Upgrading the sky box might breach the 'contract' between sky and the customer, but I wouldn't think it to be illegal.

Personally I have no problem with anyone who tries to upgrade their mysky hard drive.

I recently tried to 'pay' to upgrade my mysky HDi box to the slightly larger drive, and, they want $600 (and, i've already paid $600 for my current mysky box). Sky are completely unreasonable with this upgrade fee.

As one does not own a MySky box it could will be seen as deliberate damage and Sky would definitely have the legal right to charge for for the full replacement costs for the device.

To open the box and do anything to is very very wrong.

Life is full of VERY WRONG things yet we still do them..quite often this is how change occurs.

Kyanar

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#662636 26-Jul-2012 21:12

mattbush:

Life is full of VERY WRONG things yet we still do them..quite often this is how change occurs.

I'm sorry, but I don't think tampering with someone else's property is acceptable, no matter how "ok" you see it. And it's certainly not just a way of "making change occur".

JimmyH

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#662652 26-Jul-2012 21:30

It's like modifying a car.

If I sell you a car, it's your property, and you are pretty much free to do whatever you like to it (although certain things mean you won't be allowed to take it on a public road any longer. It's no one's business what you do with it when you own it - repaint it, fit a new engine, or set fire to it as you please. It doesn't matter what the original manufacturer or car yard would prefer, it's yours.

If I rent you a car, then I would be pretty angry (and justifiably so) if it was returned with a new paint scheme, a wide exhaust, and a souped up engine with nitrous fitted. I would come after you legally.

Saying that you were just making it better, or that it was justifed because the rental cost I charged for a more powerful car was outrageous, wouldn't help you in court.

You need to either:
(i) put up with it.
(ii) cancel your subscription and walk away
(iii) try find a way of doing what you want without damaging someone else's property

surfisup1000

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#662654 26-Jul-2012 21:36

Kyanar:
I'm sorry, but I don't think tampering with someone else's property is acceptable, no matter how "ok" you see it. And it's certainly not just a way of "making change occur".

Lighten up, why so severe an attitude for such a minor transgression?

I'm sure Sky will receive the STT in exactly the same condition. Otherwise sky will invoice the cost of damage. Alls good.

People break T&C all the time, sometimes you pay a fine for doing so.

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