Switched off Sky HD box before end of contract

[PJD]

I carried out the switching off of the Sky HD box before my contract end date,
This was 11 months ago, I pluged it back in today hoping the record function would work but was very disappointed to find out that it did not work
Can this not be done anymore? or is there another way of doing it?
All the other free channels work I even have some free HD channels but not what I'm after.

[digicon]

I am afraid once you stop subscribing the record feature is lost

[PJD]

Yea it is a shame really, I was hoping that avoiding the kill signal would work but from what I have read on Google they use stay alive signals now as appose to kill signals, which stops the whole disconnecting before the end of the subscription