Will Freeview work in Donegal?

Paddy20

As I live in Donegal, and I am getting a bit fed up paying for a monthly sub to Sky.

Would anyone know if the Freeview box digital programmes works in Donegal. Either through a normal analogue aerial or a Skydigibox.

Thanks,

Paddy20.

Mike 1972

Ummm it all depends on where in Donegal you are.
If you live near the border pick the first NI town on a line between you and the Limavady (or Brougher if youre nearer that) transmitter find out its postcode and do a postcode search on the freeview website.

Its not foolproof but it should give you some idea

Paddy20

Mike 1972,

Very many thanks.

I live in the Twin - Towns of Ballybofey & Stranorlar. Strabane would be Brougher Mountain I think which is around fourteen miles from me.

I will try and find out the Strabane postcode and try the search you suggest.

Paddy20.;)

lawhec

Brougher Mountain & Strabane are NOT the same sites!

If your aerial is vertically polarised it will be for Strabane, horizontal will be Brougher Mountain.

Paddy20

Northern Correspondent,

Sorry, but as I am no techno whizzkid, that info is not a lot of help to me in relation to my original question?.. Whether I can get a freeview box to work in Donegal/Ballybofey & Stranorlar either through my Sky Satellite digibox set up or my high gain aerial on my chimney?...

Thanks anyway.

DMC

Freeview is Digital Terrestrial TV, which only works through an normal UHF aerial, nothing to do with Sky Digibox and its dish, which only does Digital Satellite. You need a seperate Digital Terrestrial receiever, around £100 stg to receieve the Freeview channels.

Now, look at your aerial. If the aerial has its dipoles running vertically (polorised), as NC said, you are getting your normal analogue signal for the 4 UK channels from the Strabane transmitter, horizontal for Brougher Mtn in Fermanagh.

And how good is the analogue reception for BBC 1 etc. That can be a deciding factor in seeing if you can get Freeview.

Inishowen

I am living in Inishowen and looking at Limavady, and can pick up Freeviev perfectly, using a Thompson DTI 1000.

I have a separate Group C/D ariel in my attic for the Thompson. A neighbour can pick up Freeview from Divis.

Paddy20

DMC & Inishowen,

That sounds promising. I used to be able to receive a perfect BBC 1 & UTV etc analogue reception until a bottling plant behind my house decided to expand and built large metal clad buildings right behind my house in what was an empty field.

These new buildings blocked my reception of all the channels except RTE. I can still with the help of a booster box get BBC 1 & UTV etc, but the quality/reception is very poor. Thats why I ended up getting Sky over a year ago.

I see that QVC the shopping channel has two FREEVEW Digital terrestrial channel receivers, one is Thompson & the others name I can not recall but they are both under £90 Stg and I suppose I could take advantage of their 30 day money back guarantee and just try it out to see if it will work?.. as I am fed up paying the Sky subs every month.

Cheers for the info.

Paddy20.;)

byte

I work with a guy from Stranorlar and indeed, you would be picking up your NI signals from Strabane. Looking at the digital transmitter list here Strabane doesn't transmit digital signals. The only DTT transmitters in NI are Brougher Mtn, Divis and Limavady.

You should be able to pick up the analogue signals better by erecting a higher-gain aerial or moving it somewhere. AFAIK, signals in Twin Towns is generally quite strong.

Maybe you should get your local Aerial Installer to test with a signal meter to see what would be the best approach (can't remember the name of the TV shop near the GAA pitch but I think he installs aerials).

Paddy20

Hi byte,

You are right about the I should be receiving a strong signal, I was before the well known bottling plant built new metal clad buildings behind me?.. the local TV dealer is "View with McHugh" and he has installed a high gain Aerial, very big and long along with a signal booster to help my analogue reception.

It has brought all the signals back, but with onscreen interferance which fluctuates from bad too unwatchable, particularly UTV & CH4.

Thats why I had to go for the Sky familypack from View with McHugh, I know the owner Cahal for many years since he moved in too Ballybofey from the North. He has told me that Freeview is not available in Ballybofey. However, I am having doubts as to whether he is correct. So it looks as though I will just have to get hold of a Freeview receiver/box and try it out. If it is a failure then I can return the Freeview box to the supplier QVC.

Many thanks byte for your help. This is turning out o be an interesting exercise and learning/education experience.

Good luck.

Paddy20.:)

byte

Ah McHugh that's it! Couldn't remember.

I agree with Cahal and you will be wasting your time getting a DTT box as Strabane isn't upgraded to transmit DTT.

Genghis

Paddy,

Why don't you just get a freeview box from Argos in Derry, instead of the shopping channel. A lot easier to bring back if it doesn't work (I think they have a 14-day returns policy).

Good Luck

lawhec

The Argos 16 day money back offer excludes DTT converters.

watty

Are Argos scared you'll wear it as hiteck knickers or "copy it"?

Why should it be excluded?

BTW *EVEN* if something is "excluded" but turns out th be mis-described or faulty you can demand your money back anyway. Sale of Goods Act or summat.

Paddy20

I am not one to advertise commercial enterprise, but I have purchased via my computer from QVC.Uk and their no quibble 30 Day money back guarantee beats any other option for me as I am disabled and mainly housebound 24/7. They will even arrange to pick up from your home, if you are disabled and find going to a Post Office difficult.

Paddy20.;)

Paddy20

byte,

Well, after some asking around. I was told that if I removed the Skycard from my digibox, then unplug the digibox from the mains and then re-insert the Skycard upside down in to the digibox and power up again. I might be able to receive Freeview* channels from the Sky equipment which I now get to keep as I have been a subscriber for over 12 months.

I did this and guess what?... I am NOW receiving 59 TV channels!, plus 44 Radio channels, 103 channels in total, and they are mainly all FREEVIEW*!, beat that EH.

Apparently, inserting the Skycard upside down activates the digibox EPG whatever that means. Now I have Freeview channels, so who needs a damn Freeview box anyway?.. not me for one.

So, its bye bye Sky subscriptions, and I can not wait to see Cahal the TV Dealer?.

Just thought, you and others on this forum might find my experience enlightening, and maybe helpful. Why pay through the nose for a Sky package, when it is possible to receive 103 Freeview* Digital channels for nothing*!!.

All the best.

Paddy20.;)

watty

Avoid Confusion.. Don't call Satellite Freeview



Freeview:
DTT or DVBt( Digital via UHF aerial Terrestrial)
Includes ITV, C4, Five and ITV2
Requires a UK DTT receiver connected to Aerial
About 29 Channels
Only a few Radio


FTA, Satellite FTA:
DSAT or DVBs (Digital via Ku band Satellites 22,500 miles away)
EXCLUDES ITV, C4, Five and ITV2
Requires ANY DVBs Satellite Digital revceiver or Sky+ or Digibox connected to an LNB (horn like box) on a Dish
About 1100 Channels can be got easily in Ireland.
A fixed dish and single LNB can only "see" one Satellite slot , "Sky" at 28E is actually from 4 satellites.
Typically each satellite has 50 to 100 free radio and 80 to 200 Free TV


FTV, Free To View Satellite:
DSAT or DVBs (Digital via Ku band Satellites 22,500 miles away)

INCLUDES ITV, C4, Five and ITV2 from "Sky"

Other countries (Netherlands, Switzerland, Scandinavian run similar schemes. Often there is a once off Admin charge or a small annual charge for "Administration" In the UK BBC paid 82% of this and Five/Ch4 paid 18%. ITV paid nothing. With withdrawal of BBC (now FTA, not FTV) the UK scheme has collapsed. Most of the FTV cards are being turned off and no new ones issued.


Requires Sky+ or Digibox connected to an LNB (horn like box) on a Dish, and FTV card, which used to be free but can't be got anymore. Other countries use basically any Digital Satellite Receiver NOT a Digibox, with a suitable card slot for the FTV card.

Subscription Satellite
Unlike MMDS and Cable, ALL the gear is youors from day1. You may have a minimum 1 year contract initially.

If you cancel you still get all the FTA channels.


With Satellite you can change which Satellite your dish points at by either moving the dish or switching to a different fixed LNB on the dish. An 80cm dish with three LNBs can easily get 3 Satellites giving about 600 TV and 550 Radio FREE.

Paddy20

watty,

Yep, you be right. Your post has also taught me a lot!.
However, as I am not a techie and it is all double dutch to me. All I know is that I have now cancelled my Sky subscription and I am now receiving over 100 channels Free* or FTA Satellite, as you state, and this to me is a hell of a lot better than paying Sky a monthly subscription for a Family package of about 40 channels.

The money I will now be saving will pay for my UTVip XL 180 hours a month Internet access package. So, I am laughing all the way to the bank.

Thanks to your very informative post, I now know the differance between Freeview* & FTA Satellite etc.

I checked the FREEVIEW* website and I seem tobe getting most of their 30 odd channels, and those that I am not getting on the Satellite, UTV & Channel 4 etc, I can get anyway from my Analogue aerial.

All the best.

Paddy20.;)

watty

I cancelled a long time ago, renewed last december (for Holiday extras.. a mistake) cancelled again in July.

The extra money (27 Euro) buys two or three DVDs extra I really want to watch (and repeat) as apposed to Sky reruns...

We had kept it a bit longer to watch All Creatures Great & small, and I discovered I could have bought the series on DVD instead of the Sky subs all those months!

lawhec

Channel available on UK DTT (Freeview) that are not free-to-air on the Astra 2 & Eurobird 1 satellites (which Sky uses)

* ITV2
* Sky Travel
* UK History
* The Hits
* UK Brightideas
* FTN
* TMF
* Sky Sports News

Of course not all of them will appeal to everyone, but it's a fairly varied bunch.

Also DTT carries "five" which is not transmitted on analogue from Strabane or Brougher Mountain, and is not FTA on satellite, with it's free-to-view options no caught in a complete muddle.

Astra 2 & Eurobird 1 do carry a few decent FTA channels, thinking off the top of my head the BBC Channels of course, Chartshow TV, The Vault, POP, Channel U, Reality TV along with a load of very low budget TV (Friendly TV, BEN, L!ve TV), a sh*tload of shopping channels and a few "God" channels and news channels.

Here at home either the eight analogue terrestial channels ($ UK or 4 Irish) or the Freeview channels make up most of my viewing - for Sky it is more of a matter of flicking through some twenty Music Video channels or Challenge TV & Bravo - I watch little else that is "Satellite exclusive", say the occassional WWE wrestling.

Horses for corses of course, though I brought a Panasonic Freeview adaptor for my gransparents who love the choice available, except their aerial isn't strong enough for the Mux D for UK Brightideas, so a new high-gain aerial is going up shortly.

Paddy20

Northern Correspondent,

Quote your good self:- " a sh*tload of shopping channels " end quote.

I have question this sweeping statement condemning all shopping channels received. Personally, I have found that shopping with QVC has saved me a lot of money on all types of goods, due to their enormous buying power and the fact that I only pay the UK VAT rate of 15%, plus I have lost track of the number of items that I have purchased from BID-UP.TV, a 17 hours a day live auction available on your TV and Computer, not to mention the fact that I practically furnished my house with winnig bids on Bid- Up.

How could anyone who is saving a small fortune in Rip-Off Ireland not be happy with channels like those 2 examples ?.... IMHO it is the way to go.

Paddy.;)

Originally posted by Paddy20
plus I have lost track of the number of items that I have purchased from BID-UP.TV, a 17 hours a day live auction available on your TV and Computer, not to mention the fact that I practically furnished my house with winnig bids on Bid- Up.
Paddy.;)

Jayus Paddy , your, house must be filling up by the sounds of things, if I go to donegal, you won't be giving me the spare room then...:D


I think what NC meant, was something along the lines of... you wouldn't be looking foward to an evening in after work, chinese meal, bottle of wine and hours of entertainment in front of the shopping channels...

See'ing that you have the web, heres a tip for you as well, pass it on, there are many shopping sites on the web too. Try
www.google.ie and do a search for shopping.
I think QVC have a web site also maybe.
It's easier on the sites as you can look for what you want as opposed to buying what you maybe don't want on a shopping channel.
Spread the word;)
mm

Paddy20

Man,

You are right. The damn spare room is full of empty packaging!.

I have already sifted through the shopping channels on the web until I became cross eyed, and whittled the wheat from the chaff.

Personally, I now only ever recommend 1 general shopping channel www.qvcuk.com
and www.bid-up.tv
The live auctions channel , both are on the internet and television live. I enjoy them as they can be very entertaining to watch.

I use specialist sites for music cds or dvds, and only two in total www.cd-wow.com
britanniamusic.uk

P.

lawhec

To be fair, I wasn't making a target of QVC or bid-up.tv, both of which are among the few half decent shopping channels (and ironically are both on Freeview!) - my main gripe is with the near endless amount of rolling infomercial shopping channels that brodacast with bitrates making the picture marginally better than a real player video stream on a 28.8K line. As you can guess, it is not my type to sit down and watch, except to have a laugh.

It would not surprise me if a combined FTA satellite & freeview comined box comes on to the market in the near future, giving the best of both worlds.

watty

If you get one of those "styled" Shuttle PC cases to living room / HiFi and put a DTT card and DVBs card (good ones with TV out, not the cheap Skystar 2 type).

Add XP Media Centre Edition

Remote handsets come with the cards.
They do TV set OSD.

Voila ... FTA and Freeview with PVR (180G or 2x IDE = 360G) disk with DVD Writer / player too (need Graphics Card with TV out for DVD). WinDVD has a hardware IR remote and handset too.

Might be doable under 2000 Euro.

(My PC has OSD / Remote to Living room TV and lives in Garden Workshop with WinTV card and Satellite TV card. Remote channel change, record and playback all with OSD menus. The DVD playback only on PC screen and no DVD writer yet...).