uk freeview in ireland?

jackbauer

hi all,

with the recent demise of ftv sky cards i'm looking at options for recieving uk chans in ireland.what do u all reckon are the chances of being able to recieve the uk freeview digital chans in ireland? i live in the greystones area on the east coast? a high gain antenna and booster pointed at wales? any sugestions welcome. i have read some posts on digital spy about people getting freeview in the wexford area.

cheers.

Smeagol

I'm not shure about the east, here in the northwest it is possible but because of the low power on digital quite hard. You need a very good picture from analog. In order to pick it up here on the Sligo/Leitrim border I have to go on the hill nearby, no chance at home. But I'll keep trying.
btw. while watching the other board, take a look at the thread about the Technisat box, I just love it, the box that is.;)

Ok, I'm down in Arklow and freeview works fairly well about 7 days out of ten from the Presely tx in pembrokeshire.

Most people north of arklow, and certainly in Wicklow town and up to Greystones would use the Arfon relay in N wales.
Arfon doesn't broadcast Dtt unfortunately.
I would imagine, presely analog is possible, where you are but , Freeview would be very variable if there at all.
Blaenplwyf may be possible. I've tried it here and got reasonable analog, and some dtt but not as good as presely.
Blaen would be a direct uninterupted seapath from here though as is presely.
To try Blaen, you need a good group A aerial and amp, whilst presely is group B.
Both are horizontal.
You would also have to consider having at least a twin ( ie two aerials together ) or most likely a quad array in order to have enough gain.
The other thing to consider around Greystones, would be your proximity to three rock which might rule out Blaen
There is a local RTE relay there also isn't there, which may cause problems as the Dtt signal at that distance would be very sensitive to nearby stronger channels and would most likely be wiped out.
mm

rcunning03

just a general query is uk freeview and dab radio available in n.ireland if so how can you recieve the signal in dublin

GerardKeating

Originally posted by rcunning03
if so how can you recieve the signal in dublin

Drive up to the boarder...


There is no DAB broadcasting south of the boarder

rcunning03

just found this link for dab coverage looks like ni will get greater coverage

http://www.bbc.co.uk/digitalradio/listen/where.shtml

jackbauer

thanks for the info.to be honest i'm going to give it a try anyway as the outlay is not a lot and i can always use the gear if i move to the uk:D

i have found the tv antenni and rf in general to be a "black art" and my attitude is to just give it a try. i'll post back the results.

cheers.

punks77

I am looking to find out which equipement I should check out , if I am going to try and receive Freeview channels in Dublin .

At the moment I might splash out on a Septal Daewoo Freeview receiver and a DAT High Gain AERIAL.

Do spuds outhere think I should go with this or use a Freeview receiver with a Dish .

All Suggestions welcome

Punks77 - Dublin :dunno:

Mike 1972

DAB transmissions have been recieved in the Dublin mountains but unless youre living high up or near the border/eastern coastline its probably a waste of time

Many parts of NI itself dont get DAB yet

Mossy Monk

Originally posted by punks77
Freeview receiver with a Dish

a Sky Digibox with FTV card will work almost everywhere (line of sight) so it will be a handy back up plan if the terrestrial option doesnt work

SRB

Ok it's been said 1000 times before BUT just in case - you CAN'T use a Freeview DTT box with a dish. Also, DAB transmissions in NI are limited because RTE still use Band iii for Television.

lawhec

Originally posted by punks77
I am looking to find out which equipement I should check out , if I am going to try and receive Freeview channels in Dublin .

At the moment I might splash out on a Septal Daewoo Freeview receiver and a DAT High Gain AERIAL.

Do spuds outhere think I should go with this or use a Freeview receiver with a Dish .

All Suggestions welcome

Punks77 - Dublin :dunno:

I'd have to say you have no chance of getting the full Freeview service in Dublin either from Divis or Brougher Mountain as RTE1 and Network 2 from Three Rock Mountain will wipe out two of the DTT multiplexes while Mount Leinster may also be strong enough on TV3 and TG4 to wipe out another two. This leaves for Divis only two multiplexes left, on Channel 34 (Mux D, which carries The Hits, TMF, UK Brightideas, FTN and a host of radio channels) and channel 48 (Mux C, which carries UK History, Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Travel), and even in the former case that may prove difficult as a very weak digital signal will be sandwiched between locally strong Network 2 (ch 33) and TV3 (ch 35) signals from Three Rock.

The furthest reception south from a Northern Irish DTT transmitter remains Mullingar, receiving Mux 1 (BBC) from Brougher Mountain on ch 30.

lawhec

There are currently two DAB services in Northern Ireland, provided by the BBC and by Score Digital.

The BBC service only comes from Divis at the moment

The Score Digital service is broadcast from at least five locations, covering most of Northern Ireland.

punks77

srb ,

i have been told that I can use a Freeview Dig Sat Receiver with a dish to access the UK channels in Dublin and other Euo channles depending on which sat.lite the dish is configured too .

so are u saying , getting Freeview channels with this equip is not possible

any other views welcome

punks77 - dublin

DMC

Ahhh, misunderstanding of terms here, I think.

Freeview is the brand name given by the BBC and Crown Castle, its owners, to the Digital Terrestrial network in the UK, using domestic transmitters.

A Freeview Digital Terrestrial set top box, which I think the Septal Daewoo Freeview receiver is, will not work with Digital Satellite, two completely different technologies.

But most of not all the channels broadcast on Digital Terrestrial are broadcast on Digital Satellite.

DAB is Digital Radio, another kettle of fish.

Hope this helps,

flutes

just to carry on from what punks77 was saying,
can you receive ITV & channel four in ireland if you have a new freeview card if so what type of digital sat receiver do you need without going near sky?

ShaneOC

ITV & Channel 4 use Sky's scrambling system so you must use a Sky digibox to get these channels. Obviously you must also have a card that will unscramble these channels, i.e. not an irish sky subscription card.

There is currently no way of getting ITV & Channel 4 here without having a Sky box.

flutes

Jack, i'm greystones aswell. can you let me know if you have any luck getting DTT freeview at all, much appreciated,

ted

watty

Free To Air = NO CARD NEEDED. Satellite OR terrestrial digital.

Freeview = Purely the UK DTT/DVB-T Digital Terrestrial system. NO CARD needed. Uses a box connected to a TV aerial.

Free To View = FTV = Satellite ONLY. a CARD is NEEDED. It used to be free and now costs a once off £23.50. Till Sky change the system. For UK, ONLY a Sky Digibox works. Other countries also do FTV (Netherlands, Switzerland). The non-UK cards will NOT work in a Digibox


Free To Air receiver= Not a Digibox. But SATELLITE ONLY It might optionally have card slot or hole for module (CAM) for a card. Only NON-Sky cards can be used if it does have a card slot.

Freeview box or Receiver: Only works for UK Digital TV via an Aerial. NOT cable or Dish.

The FREE BBC Interactive, Sky 2 Week planner/Program guide and Sky Interactive, Digital Text Services and interactive shopping channels ONLY work on a Sky Digibox, but no card is needed, nor a subscription.

The over 22 BBC channels DO NOT need a Card. But for full value you DO NEED a digibox. Only "basic" reception on a Non-Sky box.


BOXES for different systems TOTALLY incompatible:
Cable, Satellite and Terrestrial all use DVB system for digital (similar to DVD coding), but the frequencies and the kind of modulation is different.

Satellite 10..12GHz downconverted to LNB o/p: 750MHz ... 2150MHz, four modes of LNB and PSK modulation

Cable: 175MHz .. 420MHz, one mode and basic QAM16 or QAM64

MMDS 2.5GHz down converted to cable band or TV band: QAM or COFDM depending on country.

Terrestial: 470MHz .. 860MHz, vertical OR horizontal depending on area. COFDM and other systems including QAM. UK system incompatible with Swedish/Spanish/Irish system.


Also a USA box may be for driving NTSC sets only and may only work on PAL DVB with
a component video to SCART adaptor. USA uses Component instead of SCART (Which is a French idea).



There is NO such beast, except in minds of Irish TV dealers as a "Freeview" Satellite Receiver. A Free To Air receiver has no card slots. A reciever, with non-Sky card slots or a Digibox can be used as a Free To Air receiver, WITH or WITHOUT a card inserted, WITH or WITHOUT a subscription.

For full BBC Interactive and "Digital Text" on a Digibox is The ONLY solution. If you get subsidied install, downgrade after 1 month and cancel after a year it can work out cheaper than many "Free To View" non-Sky boxes.

You OWN the Sky Digibox and gear from day1.

The UK £23.50 once off card ONLY gets CH4 (NOT E4), all ITV1's (NOT ITV2) and "Five". It can be swapped with a Sub card, or a UK Sub card can be paied for each month and gives all the FTV card channels and becomes a FTV card after is cancelled.

A Cancelled Irish Sub card gives more channels upside down in the slot!


Technically DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) is very similar to DTT (DVB-t) using COFDM, but of course 110% incompatible.


The only terrestrial Irish Digital service is Digital MMDS on 2.5Ghz, which is Pay only and you can't buy a box.

nkel

Hi all

Sorry to jump aboard but I've a few questions about the best possible options, both to receive uk stations at the minute and to receive the rte digital channels (for futureproofing).

I live on the east wexford coast and could clearly pick up the UK analogue channels from Wales before the digital switchover. Firstly wondering whether it would be possible to pick up the UK freeview through a current aerial (with the obligitary set-top-box) and avoid installation of a satellite based service?

Secondly I'm wondering whether the current aerial could pick up the rte digital channels once plugged into a set-top-box?

I've heard that theres an incompatability of formats between the UK and Irish services which would require two seperate boxes. Is there any way around this?

Thanks for any help

fat-tony

You should really start a new thread - this one is six year's old

watty

New thread needed

Or not needed. All answered on other threads. No. You only need a "Freeview HD" box if you really can receive UK TV via aerial

http://www.saortv.info/about/n-i-digital/

and good FAQ here
http://www.techtir.ie/blog/lawhec/saorview-in-ni

STB

Cant believe I just read the whole page......

DMC's post put me wide to the date!

nkel

nkel wrote: »

Hi all

Sorry to jump aboard but I've a few questions about the best possible options, both to receive uk stations at the minute and to receive the rte digital channels (for futureproofing).

I live on the east wexford coast and could clearly pick up the UK analogue channels from Wales before the digital switchover. Firstly wondering whether it would be possible to pick up the UK freeview through a current aerial (with the obligitary set-top-box) and avoid installation of a satellite based service?

Secondly I'm wondering whether the current aerial could pick up the rte digital channels once plugged into a set-top-box?

I've heard that theres an incompatability of formats between the UK and Irish services which would require two seperate boxes. Is there any way around this?

Thanks for any help

Where are you in wexford?
Can you see forth mountain?
You'll get uk freeview alright if you had welsh analogue , all you need is an mpeg4 capable tv which will receive saorview and ukfreeview or a uk freeviewhd tv which will also do both.
But you need to be able to see forth or suir valley or gorey or indeed receive kippure on ch54.
Kippure works well in parts of east wexford I hear.
Mt leinster will not work if you have welsh freeview as mt leinster saorview shares a channel with the uk presely transmitter.

petronius

Having trouble with getting freeview from wales - I was getting a signal on a loft aerial last time i was looking at it.
SAORVIEW seems to block everything
I have attached a mast head amp but no luck - maybe its the generic 12v PSU i have doctored to link to it?

Sponge Bob

all of it or some of it ?? what channels are missing ??

A loft aerial is useless for freeview in wexford.
It will get channels only some of the time whereas a roof aerial is 98% reliable.

PotBelly

Sorry if this is a little off topic but i cant seem to find a definite answer using search but

1) Is analogue up north switching off during the same time period as down south?

2) If so, can i use my saorview TV to tune in digital bbc1 UTV etc (similiar to what you get now on analogue)? I am in bettystown in louth.

3)If so, should i be able to pick them up now?

Sam Russell

PotBelly wrote: »

Sorry if this is a little off topic but i cant seem to find a definite answer using search but

1) Is analogue up north switching off during the same time period as down south?

2) If so, can i use my saorview TV to tune in digital bbc1 UTV etc (similiar to what you get now on analogue)? I am in bettystown in louth.

3)If so, should i be able to pick them up now?

1. yes
2. yes, but not BBC HD, etc.
3. No, unless you have a super aerial - they are increasing the power of DTT after ASO.

PotBelly

Sam Russell wrote: »

1. yes
2. yes, but not BBC HD, etc.
3. No, unless you have a super aerial - they are increasing the power of DTT after ASO.

Cheers Sam

Whats the story with bbc HD etc?

PB

Mr McBoatface

BBC1 HD etc will be broadcast on FreeviewHD using the new UK standard MPEG4 DVB-T2, Freeview(standard definition) uses MPEG2 DVB-T and Saorview(HD and SD) uses MPEG4 DVB-T.

If the TV you use for Saorview is actually a FreeviewHD certified model it can work with FreeviewHD, Freeview(standard definition) and Saorview providing it can get a signal for both sevices. If the TV is Saorview(DVB-T) certified only it can only work with Saorview and Freeview.

The Cush

PotBelly wrote: »

Sorry if this is a little off topic but i cant seem to find a definite answer using search but

1) Is analogue up north switching off during the same time period as down south?

This from a reliable source in NI

Sam the Aerialman wrote: »

Just to add Arqiva have confirmed that Divis will switchover in November 2012 not March 2013 as is commented in places. There will be a planned retune of frequencies at possibly Divis & Caldbeck to uprate the COM muxes at Caldbeck which are currently low powered.

Brougher will go in April in time for the Olympics and Limavady will go in September. There's to be some re-jig to switch Crystal Palace, Rowridge & Hannington in Q1 of 2012. Midhurst and Heathfield will then be switched over mid summer.

and this the present position down here

On Thursday 29 July 2010, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources , announced that analogue terrestrial television will be switched-off in the State in Quarter 4 of 2012, in conjunction with analogue switchover in Northern Ireland.

Source: ComReg

watty

Ryan needs to sign an order with date for ASO or the retailers may have a case to sue him for each month past the two years before ASO signed order date.

jobyrne30

jobyrne30 wrote: »

BBC1 HD etc will be broadcast on FreeviewHD using the new UK standard MPEG4 DVB-T2, Freeview(standard definition) uses MPEG2 DVB-T and Saorview(HD and SD) uses MPEG4 DVB-T.

If the TV you use for Saorview is actually a FreeviewHD certified model it can work with FreeviewHD, Freeview(standard definition) and Saorview providing it can get a signal for both sevices. If the TV is Saorview(DVB-T) certified only it can only work with Saorview and Freeview.

@ potbelly
I'm receiving bbc1 hd and itv1 hd from wales with a sony freeviewhd tv and an aerial pointed to a welsh transmitter and another one pointed to the arklow transmitter.
Both the UK hd services,the normal freeview services and the saorview channels all appear on th eone epg.
You can sort and order the channels in any position you like on that epg.

BBC1 hd,ITV1 hd and ch4 hd wont be available from NI transmitters untill analogue switch off there.
Some planned new very low power local saorview transmitters may block out some of the NI transmitters locally in another example of poor tx planning.
Others will advise on that but I understand theres one in Drogheda planned.

PotBelly

Thanks for all the info lads.

Cheers

PB

mathie

Anyone know a list of channels you can receive with an aerial poiting at Wales?

thanks

St Senan

mathie wrote: »

Anyone know a list of channels you can receive with an aerial poiting at Wales?

thanks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_digital_terrestrial_television_channels_%28UK%29

dowtchaboy

Dear God I have wasted yet more of my life..... reading a thread from 2003 ....aaagh!

Only spotted it when someone said you can only get Ch4 on Sky......:)

Would it be possible to colour code old threads so they go browner the older they are or something???

Booms

Brilliant idea!

FRIENDO

@ mathie

I'm unable to pick up mulitplex C, its on channel 45 which clashes with Mth Lenister, (living in Co. Wexford).

Sam Russell

dowtchaboy wrote: »

Would it be possible to colour code old threads so they go browner the older they are or something???

That's like most things in life!

ardmacha

That's like most things in life!

my hair started as brown and has an increasing silver content

dowtchaboy

Somebody (Myles na gCopaleen maybe?) reckoned the most important skill needed by a solicitor was good colour vision - so he could find old files by year based on what shade of brown they had become!

Chris Doherty

Dont know if this is of any help. but I bought a Sat Dishs from onr of the German supermarkets, but could not set it up.( maybe being on the ground was the reason) but plugged it in to the sky wires/Dish and hey presto it worked,

Mr. Rabbit

Chris Doherty wrote: »

Dont know if this is of any help. but I bought a Sat Dishs from onr of the German supermarkets, but could not set it up.( maybe being on the ground was the reason) but plugged it in to the sky wires/Dish and hey presto it worked,

I assume you wasted your money buying the sat dish then ?

watty

Chris Doherty wrote: »

Dont know if this is of any help. but I bought a Sat Dishs from onr of the German supermarkets, but could not set it up.( maybe being on the ground was the reason) but plugged it in to the sky wires/Dish and hey presto it worked,

Alignment has to be a fraction of a degree vertically and horizontally. If a line to the South west South East has clear view of the sky at an elevation of about 22 degrees a dish will work in a short trench in the ground!

That said the German Supermarket dishes are poor quality but do actually work.

Gerry Wicklow

watty wrote: »

Alignment has to be a fraction of a degree vertically and horizontally. If a line to the South west has clear view of the sky at an elevation of about 22 degrees a dish will work in a short trench in the ground!

That said the German Supermarket dishes are poor quality but do actually work.

South EAST, Watty you are definetly under the weather lately:)

watty

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Watty you are definetly under the weather lately:)

So far under I'm tempted to write will, check online wooden overcoats and if I was a horse they might shoot me already.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

championc

I just cannot understand the lengths that some people will seem to go to to get UK channels with an aerial rather than simply getting a dish and receiver. OK, there might be a few extra channels but really, for me, perfect quality 24 x 7 x 365 wins every time.

FRIENDO

@Championc

I have perfect Freeview from Wales running to 3 TV's. No set top box required, cheaper for multi room and one remote control.
I get stronger Freeview signal than Saorview.
In the past I could pick up BBC Wales analogue on an indoor aerial
Channels such as Yesterday and Quest are a bonus and with the issue of Channel 45 Co-channel interference to be sorted in 2012 channels Dave, Challenge and Pick TV will also be welcomed.

championc

It makes sense if you can pick it up with a rabbits ears but as I said, the length that some people are going to to just even "try" and get Freeview seems mad to me. I certainly wouldn't be putting up big roof aerials for borderline possibilities. It's so much simpler to nip to Aldi or B&Q and even start with a basic dish.