Going from Sky+ HD to Freeview/Saorview

Freeview all depends on your location, I believe Swords wouldn't be close enough to the UK or the North for signal. However, you can get either Freesat or free to air from your dish.

Saorview, signal should be strong enough indoors so a simple indoor aerial might be enough.

I'd recommend a Freesat/Saorview Combo box if you don't plan on changing the TV itself. DID had one on offer lately but the link I was going to provide isn't up anymore so probably out of stock now.

Your dish should be pointed in the right direction to get the free to air channels available on the astra (?) satellite. If you own the SKY+ box (don't know - never had one) you should be able to tune that to the free to air channels (BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc) then just stop paying the subscription - SKY will disable the card but the free channels should still be viewable. Other than that one of the satellite tv shops should be able to sell you a receiver for a reasonable price - get them to set it up first and then all you will have to do is swap it in for the SKY box (i.e. plug it into the satellite cable (F-Connector)) and away you go.

If you want Saorview then you really need an aerial. Again fairly simple to setup - just get a combo box (rather than a receiver) and plug the aerial into the aerial socket and satellite cable into satellite socket and away you go.

I have one of these http://www.satworld.ie/amiko-alien-2-triple-plus-tuner.html and one of these http://www.satworld.ie/revez-hdts810-combo-receiver.html (in different rooms)

Both work fine off a sky dish with a 4 port LNB and one of these for Saorview http://www.satworld.ie/mini-uhf-log-periodic-aerial-revez.html

(No affiliation to the shop mentioned - I am sure any satellite TV shop will have the same or similar items)

If you want saorview then you will need an aerial of some sort, whether that be in inside or rooftop aerial will depend on your location. Check with the neighbours to see what they have or just have a look around at the rooftops.

For the FTA channels from your dish why would you buy another receiver when you have a fully functional Sky box? The combo boxes are handy but not necessary as most of the stuff you would be watching would most likely be via your satellite dish. But if you wish to spend the extra money on a combo receiver then thats fine otherwise just get a saorview approved box for the terrestrial channels. Pricewise you are probably looking at around 35 - 40 euro.

Another point to watch out for if you intend using the Sky box as a FTA receiver is that the box will keep the Irish EPG - i.e 101 RTE1, 102 RTE2 etc. As you are no longer a Sky subscriber at that point you wont be able to view those channels and you wont get the ITV channels or channel 5 etc. To overcome that have a search on Adverts.ie for a "Sky card" which you should pick up for about a fiver and when you use that you will then get the full range of the UK channels.

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I'll tell you, while I don't mind really, the clutter would drive my wife mad, and I want a simple all in one system that just works, hopefully from the one GUI and programme guide.

The easiest clutter free solution and easily distributable around the house would be Saorview combined with Freeview from a transmitter in NI into a Freeview PVR, of course that depends on what the Freeview signal is like in Swords. Have a look around the area for aerials pointing northwards or ask a local aerial installer for advice.

Regarding the Saorview and Freesat solution, there isn't a combined receiver yet but may be on the way according to an article in a recent edition of the Sunday Times, no details announced yet (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=97656653#post97656653).

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Don't need to distribute the signal around the house, I just use my NAS and stream downloaded media from there, which is the source of 9/10s of what we watch, it's for the handful of times we are too lazy and just flick on the Sky box to watch muck on one of the many channels of the stuff there.
A combo box will do the trick nicely and save me €54 a month too boot.
Not sure my young fella will appreciate losing Cartoon Network though

If you are technical enough to stream a NAS around the house then just get a Linux Combo Box running Enigma2. They can access your NAS as well. Linux boxes allow Sky like feel (even down to similar GUIs!) You can combine the Irish channel off an aerial and the free satellite channles like BBC/ITVs etc in one channel list and record etc.

Enigma2 also allows plugins like Ondemand which gives you TV3 and RTE players.

One of the cheaper ones out there is the Xtrend 8000 (2 x dvb-s, 1 x dvb-t config) 239
scroll down to the variations and choose the Xtrend ET 8000 HD 2x DVB-S2 / 1x DVB-C/T2 Hybrid Tuner PVR Ready Linux Full HD HbbTV Receiver

https://www.hm-sat-shop.de/en/hdtv-receiver-sat/xtrend/1938/xtrend-et-8000-hd-pvr-ready-linux-full-hd-hbbtv-receiver

You can then install the base image from a variety of sources which are discussed widely here and in the Foreign Satellite forum

corcaigh07 wrote: »

Would you consider a telly with built in Saorview and built in Freesat? That way, you get rid of the need for a box at all and less clutter.

Not much good if you feel like recording something.

weslers wrote: »

Trying to setup Freeview on Samsung smart TV if anyone has had any luck

Are you in a Freeview coverage area with an aerial pointing at a UK transmitter?