Sky to replace 90,000 HD boxes




Thousands of Sky+ HD customers are to have their boxes replaced after a fault was discovered by manufacturer Pace.

Anyone affected is also being given three months' free subscription to Sky's HD pack, worth £29.25, when they have their box replaced.


The 90,000 boxes in the first batch from Pace are model numbers 9F3001, 9F3002, 9F3003 and 9F3004.

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I am currently back in the UK, with the plan to return to Switzerland ASAP. Whist here I took the opportunity to subscribe to Sky+ HD, so that we would have a kosher box and subscription when moving back to Switzerland.

We were issued with one of the affected PACE boxes, and had it swapped this morning. I asked the technician what the problem with them was and he said that they had some components which were not seated correctly on the circuit boards. He has given us one of the Thompson boxes as a replacement.

Initial reaction is not good!

On the PACE we had a signal strength around 75%, quality 50%. Now we have signal strength around 0% (yes nothing!) and quality around 90%.

Pictures appear blocky. Check Sky News' info bar at the bottom and the text blurs, especially when there is fast moving action in the main area of the screen!

We have not had any issue with sound and picture being out of sync which others have reported.

I have already made the call for the box to be swapped out again, requesting a PACE (as I believe these receive the better reception in low signal strength areas, i.e. outside the UK) although others have recommended the Samsung box. I have no idea how these compare?

According to the Sky press release on the issue, there isn't a safety problem with the boxes, so as long as yours is still working you are probably best to just keep it?

Is that why they have reduced the price in the UK to £49.00 ?

They are also trying to do away with standard boxes. That way they can get the extra HD subscription.