Satellite with Irish channels - without Sky sub!!

emul

Right I'm a newbie so go easy!!

I am living outside Cork option is either sat or aerial - I have aerial with basic eight at this stage - but reception is not good.

Looking at sat I don't really want Sky - because most of it is no interest. However if I install a FTA system I can't get RTE1/2/ TV3 & TG4 - all mandatory(the missus) so I appear to have no choice other than Sky.

Except - my neighbour has a Sky Digibox - can I use this in conjunction with any Sat dish and get all the FTA and RTE etc.....or do I have to sub to Sky?

If I use a Freesatfromsky card would that get me RTE etc.

Again I am a) new b) hoping I am posting to right forum c) within the rules - apologies if in breach of any.

Eoin

DMC

Rules are fine, yer well within them, and its the right forum.

The main Irish 4 are only available via a Sky sub on satellite. Even with cable or MMDS, you can only watch RTÉ/TV3/TG4 in digital, via subscription. And a Freesat card wont work, thats really just for Channel 4 and five.

BBC and ITV (and their spin-off channels) are FTA.

€21.50 per month is the minimum for RTÉ/TV3/TG4 on Sky.

emul

DMC - Many thanks for the quick response. One other question - If i have a Sky sub for 1 year and cancel - what do I end up with? I assume all the FTA channels and no RTE etc, in which case I'll pick up an FTA kit for EUR100.

Again thanks

Eoin

givecredit

I would recommend that you subscribe to Sky for one year, To minimum subscription, ie 2 mix for e11.25 for first 4 months and e22.50 for remainder, ie 8 months. then in the 11th month ring sky to cancel your subscription and buy a ftv card from ebay.ie for circa e50 and you will end up with the following:
see below.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/satellite/freesatepg/

By subscribing to sky, you get free Sky box and free installation and access to some pay tv channels for one year. all this for only e225.00 spread over 12 months.
If after the 12 months you dont buy the ftv card you will get all the channels listed in link except CH4,cH5 and Sky3. Most probable that Ch4 will not require a card in 2008, We are also hopeful that same will apply for E4,MORE 4and Film4,
fILM 4 will be available with any sky card,uk or irish FREE from July Onwards.

emul

Sounds good - am I right in thinking though that I'll lose RTE 1 /2 , TV3 & TG4?

Thanks

Eoin

DMC

Yep. Only with a subscription will you see RTÉ/TV3/TG4 in a digital format. If the subscription stops, you wont get them anymore.

egal

givecredit wrote:

I would recommend that you subscribe to Sky for one year, To minimum subscription, ie 2 mix for e11.25 for first 4 months and e22.50 for remainder, ie 8 months. then in the 11th month ring sky to cancel your subscription and buy a ftv card from ebay.ie for circa e50 and you will end up with the following:
see below.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/satellite/freesatepg/

By subscribing to sky, you get free Sky box and free installation and access to some pay tv channels for one year. all this for only e225.00 spread over 12 months.
If after the 12 months you dont buy the ftv card you will get all the channels listed in link except CH4,cH5 and Sky3. Most probable that Ch4 will not require a card in 2008, We are also hopeful that same will apply for E4,MORE 4and Film4,
fILM 4 will be available with any sky card,uk or irish FREE from July Onwards.

I always thought an ex-sub card would continue to receive C4, FIVE and Sky3. No?

watty

egal wrote:

I always thought an ex-sub card would continue to receive C4, FIVE and Sky3. No?

A UK card yes, a ex-sub ROI card only Sky3.

watty

DMC wrote:

Yep. Only with a subscription will you see RTÉ/TV3/TG4 in a digital format. If the subscription stops, you wont get them anymore.

Though the Teletext and subtitles (really page 888) still work, handy for some UK/Mainland Europe.

emul

DMC, Watty

Thanks for the info.

Eoin

Skyuser

RTÉ are a shambles that they don't offer FTV, they should be made by the goverment to do so.
A couple of days ago on Gerry Ryan 2fm show, he was attacking one of these pyramid schemes women and she said to him about what his show does. He replied with his show is about presenting a programme to get money from advertisers. Said nothing about the TV license money or being the national broadcaster......fat slob!!

emul

Skyuser

I agree what the **** do we pay our TV license for ?

Eoin

Skyuser

Yes exactly. As the national broadcaster, they get the TV license revenue. With that they 'should' have a responsibility to provide free service on satellite for people who's aerial coverage isn't great.
I nearly fell into a coma when they bothered to change to widescreen....

watty

The TV licence is really though a tax on TV viewing. You pay it even if you don't watch RTE at all. Nothing to do with FTV RTE on Satellite.

RTE has no obligation to be on satellite at all, though personally I think a FTV card would make more sense than DTT in cost and environmental impact at this stage.


There is no point in RTE widescreen as non-pay tv viewers are now getting poorer picture and can't get WS RTE at all.

DMC

Skyuser wrote:

A couple of days ago on Gerry Ryan 2fm show, he was attacking one of these pyramid schemes women and she said to him about what his show does. He replied with his show is about presenting a programme to get money from advertisers. Said nothing about the TV license money or being the national broadcaster......*** ****!!

Going OT.

Isn't it the job of our public service broadcasters to tell people about shady scams and dodgy deals?

Thank you RTÉ, for bringing this regional issue to a national audience.

Oh, and btw, 2FM is a net contributor to the RTÉ revenue kitty, in that it pays its own way from advertising and takes nothing from the licence fee. It supplements stuff like drama on RTÉ Radio 1 to live concerts on Lyric FM.

And no matter what you personally think about Mr. Ryan (I have similar views) its not nice to call him names.

ShaneOC

watty wrote:

There is no point in RTE widescreen as non-pay tv viewers are now getting poorer picture and can't get WS RTE at all.

This is a ridiculous statement.

Nobody is saying that RTÉ were the cleverest of people to make the deal with Sky which means that you cannot get the Irish channels without subscribing to Sky, however there are many thousands of people who are paying for Sky subscriptions and who are benefitting from widescreen transmissions.

Skyuser

DMC wrote:

Going OT.

Isn't it the job of our public service broadcasters to tell people about shady scams and dodgy deals?

Thank you RTÉ, for bringing this regional issue to a national audience.

Oh, and btw, 2FM is a net contributor to the RTÉ revenue kitty, in that it pays its own way from advertising and takes nothing from the licence fee. It supplements stuff like drama on RTÉ Radio 1 to live concerts on Lyric FM.

And no matter what you personally think about Mr. Ryan (I have similar views) its not nice to call him names.

Ah yes TV license money DOES go to 2fm, it was mentioned loads of time on 2fm. LOADS i tells ya....

Round Cable

From RTÉ "RTÉ 2fm and RTÉ Publishing (RTÉ Aertel, RTÉ.ie, RTÉ Guide) do not receive any public funding."

They also claim that 1.5 million people in Ireland tune into RTÉ Radio each weekday. I don't know...

DMC

Round Cable wrote:

From RTÉ "RTÉ 2fm and RTÉ Publishing (RTÉ Aertel, RTÉ.ie, RTÉ Guide) do not receive any public funding."

They also claim that 1.5 million people in Ireland tune into RTÉ Radio each weekday. I don't know...

2fm is self-sufficient. As for the 1.5 million, not as implausable as it sounds, when you figure the listenership to Morning Ireland, Marty Whelan, Pat Kenny and Gerry Ryan.

Uuuh Patsy

DMC wrote:

Rules are fine, yer well within them, and its the right forum.

The main Irish 4 are only available via a Sky sub on satellite. Even with cable or MMDS, you can only watch RTÉ/TV3/TG4 in digital, via subscription. And a Freesat card wont work, thats really just for Channel 4 and five.

BBC and ITV (and their spin-off channels) are FTA.

€21.50 per month is the minimum for RTÉ/TV3/TG4 on Sky.

DMC, you seem to know a bit about this kinda stuff. Would you know if something like this... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8740388855.... would work in Dublin (i.e. the digital tv end of it)?

watty

No. Not unless you get perfect UK analog TV. It is DTT=DVB-t= UK Freeview.

There may be trials of DTT soon from Three rock for 2 years. But I don't know when they start, how continious they will be or what will be on them (maybe only RTE).

I'd wait till any Irish DTT service is announced before buying a DVB-t / DTT card or box.

watty

ShaneOC wrote:

This is a ridiculous statement.

Nobody is saying that RTÉ were the cleverest of people to make the deal with Sky which means that you cannot get the Irish channels without subscribing to Sky, however there are many thousands of people who are paying for Sky subscriptions and who are benefitting from widescreen transmissions.

I have NO objection to anyone benefiting from WS, but why should the direct RTE customer suffer a reduction in quality to give a service only to those paying for subscription TV. A better compromise would be Films in letterbox on analog off air and Animorphic WS on Digital pay TV till there is an Irish Digital Platform.

DMC

Uuuh Patsy wrote:

DMC, you seem to know a bit about this kinda stuff. Would you know if something like this... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8740388855.... would work in Dublin (i.e. the digital tv end of it)?

'fraid not. As watty correctly said, this is for digital terrestrial TV, and not a device for digital satellite.

If anyone is looking at picking up gear from the UK, whenever you see "Freeview" it referrs 99% of the time to digital terrestrial TV. Buyer beware.

Antenna

emul wrote:

I have aerial with basic eight at this stage - but reception is not good.

Have you tried to improve your terrestrial reception at all ? - with a knowlegeable (for your area) aerial installer. It may be the installation is poor, or repositioning the aerials (to avoid obstructions etc) may greatly help.

You don't mention your area but is it one where other people have problems?