F.T.V. again

cbweb

Hi,

I`ve read the F.T.V. sticky thread but still need info on the following:

Anybody managed to get BBC digital tv, non Sky, Free-to-Air satellite reception say on a line East from Dublin to Waterford? I`ve checked Wales Hollyhead postal code but it seems this is outside the range also. Note non Sky.

As I understand this it is possible using a F.T.V card in a Sky digi box as per the F.T.V sticky thread to get F.T.V.

However what I need to know is whether the F.T.V satellite reception can be got by not using a F.T.V card in a sky digibox and instead using a satellite dish and some other box with another card that supports F.T.V or even using one of the newer Sony digital tv's which have inbuilt F.T.V cards?

Icing on the cake would be to know if such a setup could be set up say in Wicklow
without a telephone connection?

thanks

Colm

cbweb

Just to clarify that a bit more which reading through sounded a bit vague:

The substance of my question is whether it is possible say on the east Coast near Dublin in a house without a telephone connection to get Free-to-Air satellite reception without using a Sky digi box with a Free-to-View card. Would, with a satellite dish, one of the newer Sony digital tv's with integrated Free-to-Air receivers manage to get a signal; if so, how would you do this?

I managed to check a Hollyhead post code on the Free-to-Air site to check signal coverage, but it gave a negative.

thanks again

Colm

sceptre

I think the two names for the two "services" have you a little confused. Freeview is a terrestrial digital service where by using a set top box, someone can get the BBC digital channels and a number of other free to air digital terrestrial channels through a normal aerial. Depending on your area you may or may not be able to receive this.

Meanwhile last year the BBC started broadcasting free to air on the astra satellites (dumping Sky encryption). Using a different kind of set top box (including but not exclusively a Sky digibox) and a dish pointed to 28.2E, someone can get the BBC terrestrial channels (broadcast from the satellite) and a number of other free to air digital satellite channels. This service can be received anywhere in Ireland.

And I've no idea what kind of tuner is inside the particular TV you have but I suspect it's a digital terrestrial tuner and you need a set top box of some kind for satellite viewing.

mickeyboymel

Integrated digital televisions cater ony for terrestrial digital broadcasts.

As Far as I know,there is also an integrated television with a built in digibox available only directly from Sky at a huge price.

Free to View cards only work on Sky Digiboxes (or the Sky integrated telly) for reception of ITV CH5 & 5, and bear no relation to location or telephone lines.

The normal intigrated televisions and indeed digital terrestrial set top boxes recieve the signal via an aerial and have no relation to satellite dishes.

You can recieve BBC channels on any free to air satellite system with no card.

I think you mean Freeview and Top UP TV which are the UK terrestrial digital providers. They are only available through your aerial.Check out the Terrestrial Forum for various reports of reception. I recieve it here in Westmeath from the North, but poeple have picked it up in Wexford, and The border Counties. The Paisley Transmitter in Wales is where those who have recieved it on the East coast get the signal from.

Originally posted by mickeyboymel
The Paisley Transmitter in Wales is where those who have recieved it on the East coast get the signal from.

Rofl
Are you sure thats not the NI transmitter.
DTT is what its called and freeview is the name of the system.
It's receivable from the presely transmitter depending on your signal strength from maybe wicklow town south to Roslare and well inland from the coast more especially where you have a sea view to the southeast.
South or north of that line and you can for get it.

As sceptre pointed out you are talking about free to air satelite BBC etc and these are available throughout the island with a sky dish and without a card.

mickeyboymel

LOL : Woops that was an unfortunate slip of the tounge:D

celticfc

ROFL

cbweb

Hi All,

Thanks for the fast replies:

"Using a different kind of set top box (including but not exclusively a Sky digibox) and a dish pointed to 28.2E, someone can get the BBC terrestrial channels (broadcast from the satellite) and a number of other free to air digital satellite channels. This service can be received anywhere in Ireland."(Thanks sceptre)

Got it now.

So I just need a good satellite dish pointing at 28.2E Now do you have any info on what other type of set top box to use? Could I use any of these at http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/freeviewreceivers.html
as well, a matter of connecting a socket to the satellite dish?

Any advice on a good satellite dish or how to install it yourself and can the above be used with any kind of tv?

thanks lots


Colm

Greenman

Re on a good dish "I love TRIAX"

Re getting a dish and the bits this fellow is reliable!!!

And for all the DIY info try http://homepage.ntlworld.com/de.sullivan/

Tell us how you get on!!!:)

DMC

Originally posted by cbweb

So I just need a good satellite dish pointing at 28.2E Now do you have any info on what other type of set top box to use? Could I use any of these at http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/freeviewreceivers.html

Hi Colm, welcome along, those you have linked are for Freeview Digital Terrestrial, so useless for digital satellite.

Cheapest way to get FTA satellite for BBC etc would be a second-hand Sky Digibox via Buy and Sell, friend etc. You would need an FTV card for ITV, Ch4 and five, but these are rare now (and getting dearer) to get. ITV should be free-to-air (FTA) like the BBC by late this year.

eoinm1

Hi cbweb

take a look here this lists a number of shops online that will sell you all the required equipment.
You can pick up a satellite reciver from 99 euro and a dish with LNB from about another 99 euro.
Cable is called CT-100 and cost between 70 to 99 cent per meter.

It is reported that some Sky installers are able to offer a sky install with out a landline but charge a bit more for install. this may work out cheaper if you get sky installed for a year you own the box and dish.
So for the cost of about 100 install and 30 odd euro a month for 12 months is about 450 euro for a years Sky family pack and a free sat box and dish after a year.

I hope this helps.
Eóin

cbweb

Hi,

Ideally, I`d like to follow eoinm1's suggestion and get the ecquipment online myself
and do a DIY install.

Eoinm1 reports some SKy installers are able to offer an install without a landline and I`d be very interested in getting the name of someone who would offer this service.
However, have just been on to SKY and while they offer something like this in the UK in ie the service is discontinued by their installers for the past 18 months or so, who now require a landline telephone connection for the install, so there is a question in my mind if an independent contractor can do this.

DMC suggestion of getting a second hand Sky Digibox sounds good, but would it need landline telephone connection to work or to register itself, not sure about this.

Back to Eoinm1, I take it this does not require a Sky Digibox. Required is a dish with LNB, cable wire, and a satellite receiver. I'll check suppliers in the link given but right now am wondering what the satellite receiver is, is this the equivalent of a Sky digibox?

DIY route I assume will not need a landline telephone connection for the satellite receiver to work.

thanks again


Colm

ShaneOC

A second hand Sky box does not require a phone connection (Sky only insist on that for new customers when they take up the free digibox offer).

cbweb

Hi,

Looked at Eoinm1 links and a found satellite.ie with a 339euro incl vat for complete package including installation, its Free-to-Air system with dish and receiver I thought good value compared to DIY so have gone for it.

I`ll let you know if they do a good job of it in Wicklow.

thanks all for the great replies and great info.

Colm

watty

The Sky Digibox only requires a phone line as part of a contractural agreement on *SUBSIDISED* installs. If you put a S/H box on subscription or pay full price for new one, no phone line is required.

The phone operationally is only needed for Email, Online betting, online Sky news voting and online pay for chargeable stuff like some games and PPV films & porn delivered by satellite.


You don't need a phone line.

cbweb

Hi Watty,

Unless they gave me wrong information this morning, they now refuse to do install without a telephone line connection in place, though they said this policy was not for the UK but is the case for ie, won't even let you talk to their sales people unless you have a telephone line there!

Colm

ShaneOC

They may refuse to do an install however you can get a secondhand digibox and set it up yourself without any need for a phone line. I'm pretty sure that if you don't want to go down the DIY route then a local installer will gladly do an installation for you.

DMC

If you get a second hand box, and don't fancy the DIY, I'm sure you'd get a local installer to put the dish up. As said before, a second-hand box and a new contract doesn't require a phone line.

ShaneOC

From what you have said in your earlier posts you don't want a Sky subscription so it is not really surprising that Sky aren't being that helpful.

The secondhand digibox will get you all of the BBC channels plus quite a few others without the need for a card/subscription. Have a look on ebay and you should see plenty boxes for sale.

eoinm1

Originally posted by cbweb
Hi,

Looked at Eoinm1 links and a found satellite.ie with a 339euro incl vat for complete package including installation, its Free-to-Air system with dish and receiver I thought good value compared to DIY so have gone for it.

I`ll let you know if they do a good job of it in Wicklow.

thanks all for the great replies and great info.

Colm

Hi Colm

I take it you went and bought the Strong free to air receiver with installation. This will get you BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, and BBC News 24. Also you will get 5 music channels POP, ChartTV, The Vault, Classic FM, and Channel U. In the news section you will get BBC News 24, Sky News, CNN, CCTV9, euronews, and maybe ITV news (not 100% sure of that one.) there are lots of other channels that I just can't think of right now.

The one draw back of a Non Sky digibox is the lack of interactive. Only a sky digibox will be able to handle the interactive bits.
But the good news is, as the lads above have said, you can pick up a second hand Sky digibox for between 50 euro and 100 euro and you can connect it up to the setup your getting installed.
It is very simple just unplug the Strong box and disconnect the satellite input and what ever output you use (scart or Co-ax) then connect in the sky digibox and make sure to power up is the last step you take.

The hardest part it to install the dish once thats done you should have no problems with the rest.


Make sure to tell us how you get on.

maisflocke

Originally posted by eoinm1

The one draw back of a Non Sky digibox is the lack of interactive.

For some its a draw back, but for others its No more Red dot!

PK - the king

if you want free to VIEW channels then you would want a sky digibox? These channels are encrypted using DVB VideoGuard, and you can only receive these broadcasts properly with a sky digibox & appropriate viewing card. You don't need a phoneline for any digibox - sky only require it for the first 12 months of viewing.

cbweb

Hi Eoin et al,

>I take it you went and bought the Strong free to air receiver with installation.

Yep, and I`ll let you know how I get on with that, it should be installed in the next week or so. Thanks for the suggestion re the second hand sky digibox on Ebay or Buy and Sell, I will look out for one of these later on.

By the way, happened to pass by Dixons in Liffey Valley, Dublin on Saturday. They had a free dvd plus free installation by their own contractors, note not requiring a landline, for one year subscription 28Euro/mnth, 60Euro for the firsts 2 months but you get the full service for this, total 400Euro for one year only, pay annually subs after that, so I`m feeling quite chuffed about the Free-To-Air alternative.

Thanks all for the advice once again


Colm

eoinm1

Originally posted by cbweb
Hi Eoin et al,

..... Thanks for the suggestion re the second hand sky digibox on Ebay or Buy and Sell, I will look out for one of these later on. ....

The rest of the lads had suggested this befor me.
But i'll take the credit any way

By the way, happened to pass by Dixons in Liffey Valley, Dublin on Saturday. They had a free dvd plus free installation by their own contractors, note not requiring a landline, for one year subscription 28Euro/mnth, 60Euro for the firsts 2 months but you get the full service for this, total 400Euro for one year only, pay annually subs after that, so I`m feeling quite chuffed about the Free-To-Air alternative.

Dixons, now that would seem like it is an approved agent.

Thanks all for the advice once again


Colm

Make sure to lets us know how you get on.
Eóin

cbweb

Hi all,


Have to give satellite.ie a plug as they installed Free-To-Air box and satellite dish last Saturday no problems and it works great alongside the original aerial which because its Wicklow gets a good channel 5 reception.

ta all for the help.


Colm

eoinm1

Thanks Colm for letting us know how you got on.

Maybe if you have time you could do up a quick review of the Strong Box as i'm sure other people would like to know about it.

Thanks,
Eóin

Tony

Thanks for the kind words

Originally posted by cbweb
Hi all,


Have to give satellite.ie a plug as they installed Free-To-Air box and satellite dish last Saturday no problems and it works great alongside the original aerial which because its Wicklow gets a good channel 5 reception.

ta all for the help.


Colm

cbweb

Eoinm1 request for a review of the Strong Box?

Here's a limited review then then, the box is STRONG SRT 4155 elegant little box that connects via scart to tv and cable to the dish , rear panel among other ports has serial port you can connect to a pc to download latest software, video scart connector you can use to connect to, you guessed it, your video, audio connector to connect to audio amplifier or hi-fi if you want to make full use of digital sounds from the free radio channels.

Unit comes with a remote control unit simple to use to organise your channels. Menu software allows you to click through 100-200 channels, add to your favourites list to make them easy to find.

On my favourites for radio? Radio1,2FM,Pure Dance,Kerrang,The Hits,Heat, Cross Rhythm, XFM,The Storm,The Mix.

Favs for TV, all the BBC's(regional),CBBC and CBEEBIES(kids),Sky News Eire, ITV News,EuroNews, CNN, S4C, Performance, Information TV(lots on the working of the
EU), BBC Parliament, some sports channels, Rapture, Extreme Sports, some Muslim, Tamil, Indian, Chinese, Urdu stations, music channels including my fav one, 'Ben' from London, which when I watched was broadcasting Nigerian, West African Rock, Fuzi & Juju Explosion, also lots of boring shopping channels.

Hopefully in the future there will be even more Free-to-Air channels added.

cheers

Colm