Season Pass that doesnt record

[The maverick]

I have no recollection of where I bought the skybox but probably ebay at a guess.

[DX30]

Channels you receive isn't an area I'd ever looked in - all boxes were ticked. I unticked all to 102 channel boxes and kept 970 ticked. When it recorded it still recorded 102 on BBC2 Eng.

If all boxes were ticked you really need to go through the entire list and tick only those that your Sky box has.

This doesn't just affect BBC channels - for instance your TiVo will also have multiple ITV regions on 103 but only one of them is "real".

Channel 4 appears in several places in the TiVo list (104, 117, 135, 934) and again you need to find and tick the "real" Channel 4. You'll find S4C appears at 104 and 134 the TiVo list. Obviously on the Sky box 104 cannot be both Channel 4 and S4C at the same time but it could be either depending on whether or not your Sky viewing card is set to Wales.

Similarly on the Sky box 101 will only output a single BBC1 region, which one depends on where your Sky viewing card is set to. Same for 102 - there will only be one BBC2 region on this number.

So to summarise you need to do the following.

1. Get a list of exactly which channels are present on your Sky box, including the region. Since you don't know the origin of your Sky box look in the Sky On Screen Guide for clues. Only include channels you can actually watch - if you don't have a subscription for the channel leave it off the list. It is essential you get this Sky list right.

2. Go the the TiVo "Channels You Receive" list and tick only those channels on the Sky list. I normally untick everything at the start and then tick only those channels I want.

3. Double check the TiVo "Channels You Receive". If any channel number in "Channels You Receive" is ticked more than once something is wrong - each number in the TiVo list must correspond to a single Sky channel.

4. I'd also check each channel only appears once in the TiVo "Channels You Receive". Although a few channels do appear on more than one number on the Sky box it is best to avoid confusion and only tick one number for each channel.

[The maverick]

Does this mean I wouldn't then (should I so wish) be able to watch the evening news programmes from Plymouth or Aberdeen etc etc? I don't pay for any channels so is there a list of all the free sky channels?

[DX30]

Does this mean I wouldn't then (should I so wish) be able to watch the evening news programmes from Plymouth or Aberdeen etc etc?

No, it just means you need to get the channel numbers right. Ticking channels on the TiVo "Channels You Receive" doesn't magically change what channels are on the Sky card. You will always get the same region for BBC1 local news on 101 regardless of what you tell the TiVo.

If you want the local news for different region look for the appropriate channel in the 900's (in your example Plymouth would be 967 and Aberdeen 951). Note this applies only to the BBC as ITV don't make all their regions available in this way.

Look at it this way. Nothing you do in "Channels You Receive" has any effect on the Sky box. All it does is tell the TiVo what "Channels You Receive" from the Sky box so it knows what programmes are on each number. If you get it wrong it will just confuse the TiVo. e.g. If you tell the TiVo 104 is S4C it will believe you and try and make S4C recordings using 104 even when the Sky box is actually showing Channel 4 on 104. The result is when you play the recording of S4C's "Pobol y Cwm" you find you are watching the "Channel 4 News" instead.

I don't pay for any channels so is there a list of all the free sky channels?

You can download freetoair.doc from here http://www.wildsat.com but it is only a starting point. You will need to work out regional variants yourself.

[The maverick]

Yes but it says channel unavailable (eg 104 channel 4).