# Using Sendkeys (or alternatives?) to clear Sky info message?



## rog2054 (Jun 9, 2002)

Hi.

I have a Sky box connected to my Tivo. Approx 5 minutes after changing channels on the Sky box, a friendly message from Sky appears on the screen saying my viewing card is due to expire and I will shortly lose that channel, and to go to their website to request a new one. This has been happening since August last year, and i have not lost any channels...which leads my to believe this is a marketing ploy to get more money from me!

I have contacted Sky about a replacement freeview viewing card, but they want to charge me for this.

This message is quite prominent, and stays on screen until the Sky 'backup' button is pressed, or until a channel change.

(I should point out i only receive the free-to-air channels on Sky, via a lapsed Sky sub)

I *do* intend to restart my Sky sub later in the year, when finances allow, however for now its the free-to-air stuff or nothing. And i def don't want to spend money on a Sky FTA card now to only throw it in 6 months when i restart a proper Sky sub anyway.

What i'm hoping exists, is a way to get the Tivo to periodically (say every minute?) send a 'backup' IR to the Sky box - currently nearly all my Tivo recordings have this silly message on the middle 1/3rd of the screen, which as you can imagine spoils the viewing somewhat!

If anyone can help that would be appreciated, otherwise i think i'll be sadly ditching Tivo for now, and using freeview via aerial (I have been using the free stuff via the Sky dish instead because the reception is more reliable).

Any ideas?
Thanks.


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## PhilG (Jan 15, 2002)

I'm sure there were some hacks around here somewhere to do with getting rid of the dreaded "red dot" - which also involved either a "backup" or "Sky" keypress

Try searching on "red dot"

Phil G


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## Trinitron (Jan 20, 2003)

If you have Sky+ HD, go here
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=407911

Otherwise, this should sort it out
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=402609

The message is genuine. Sky are reissuing all their viewing cards, so will eventually disable the old cards. It's only £20 for a Freesat by Sky card, which will get rid of the message and give you all the FTV channels.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

rog2054 said:


> If anyone can help that would be appreciated, otherwise i think i'll be sadly ditching Tivo for now, and using freeview via aerial (I have been using the free stuff via the Sky dish instead because the reception is more reliable).
> .


You can use your Tivo with a Freeview box anyway providing you're reasonably careful about the box you use so it's fairly stable and has control codes.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

There are two possible options to resolve your problem:-

1. Remove the Sky viewing card from the box. The annoying messages about replacing the viewing card now disappear on all the tv channels (eg all BBC and ITV channels plus all C4 channels apart from C4 HD) but you will no longer definitely be able to get Fiver, FiveUSA or Sky Three and depending where you live you may not be able to get ITV1 or Five without a valid viewing card in the card slot.

ITV1 and Five can be added as Other Channels but you won't then have any EPG listings for them or be able to access them using channel numbers in the usual way. This means you won't be able to record ITV1 or Five with Tivo.

2. Your best bet is to get a new Sky viewing card. will-in-estoril on the digitalspy and Moneysavingexpert forums has identified the cheapest route is to subscribe to Nollywood Movies (Sky Channel 329 but the subscriptions are not sold by Sky but by Nollywood Movies itself) for two months using Paypoint and then unsubscribe. During this time Nollywood Movies will send you a new viewing card. The fact that the old Sky viewing card gives you constant pop up messages allows you to insist on this happening right away.

See www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1194389

and

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2135509

and

www.nollywoodmovies.tv

At the end of the day this is a lot cheaper than getting a reliable Freeview box (the only decent Sony one from Sony costs around £50 secondhand on Ebay) and there is a much wider range of FTA news and movie channels available on a Sky box than a Freeview box, although if you like Dave or Virgin1 or Sky Sports News then you will only get those free on Freeview.


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