A few Questions On Freeview / DAB / DTT Trial

eirman

I just moved to Ardee and I get great reception from Claremont and Divis. I can receive all the UK NI freeview TV & radio stations. I can also receive all Irish DTT broadcasts. However, there are few gaps in my knowledge .......................

I can receive the RTE rolling news + sport headlines service on a Sony bedside DAB radio but I cannot receive them on either of my DTT set-top boxes. Why ?


The now & next info comes in fairly fast. However the 8 day guide is quite slow to come in. In order to get the full guide I have to tune into a BBC and wait, then an ITV and wait, than an RTE and wait. Is this normal ?


Why is Channel 6 encrypted ?


I searched rte.ie but I cannot find a schedule for RTE choice. Any ideas ?


RTE 1 Extra seems to be a clone of RTE 1. Does it ever have it's own programming ?

byte

With relation to the RTE rolling news service, it's probably only available on DAB, and not DTT, explaining why you can't receive it via your DTT boxes.

Channel 6 is encrypted as part of the trial. What will happen with its status after the trial ends, I don't know.

As for the other queries, I haven't a clue. No DTT trials for me yet

eirman

byte wrote: »

With relation to the RTE rolling news service, it's probably only available on DAB, and not DTT, explaining why you can't receive it via your DTT boxes.

That explains a lot - So DTT Radio and DAB radio are on different frequencies

Digifriendly

Do you mean Clermont Carn rather than Claremont? I think the latter is a district in the city of Derry! Just out on interest are you on high ground as you're picking up DTT from both N.I and ROI very clearly? I only live about 15 miles from the Divis transmitter and have had problems with breakup on one of the mutiplexes!

eirman

Digifriendly wrote: »

Do you mean Clermont Carn rather than Claremont?

I meant Clermont Carn. I live two km north of ardee. the aerial is a common 10 element type originally used for analogue reception. I have line of sight to the Mournes.

APPROX SIGNAL STRENGTHS
30% ITV & Virgin
40% FIVE
60% BBC
95% RTE

AyJay

Eirman, what sort of signal are you getting analogue from Divis? I live near Castlebellingham and the signal is ok -a bit grainy but watchable. Am curious to see if I could receive Freeview being an exiled Nordy!

AJ

DMC

eirman wrote: »

That explains a lot - So DTT Radio and DAB radio are on different frequencies

Totally different. Some of RTÉ's digital channels are on the DTT trial, all of them are on DAB.

(welcome back, btw!)

eirman

AyJay wrote: »

Eirman, what sort of signal are you getting analogue from Divis? I live near Castlebellingham and the signal is ok -a bit grainy but watchable. Am curious to see if I could receive Freeview being an exiled Nordy!

I looked at UK analogue for a grand total of 5 minute! The signal and telext seemed excellent as far as I can remember. (I have a NI Sky+ Subscription) The only analogue I ever really watched was TV3 as I cannot get it on Sky.

With regards to your own situation, If you cannot receive good analogue teletext you probably will not receive all freeview services. Get one of thoses 42 element wide band aerials fitted.

You can pick up basic freeview boxes very cheap on ebay. I got a Nokia for £6 + postage. However I would recommend buying one with at least a 160gig hard disk. If you cannot receive freeview at least you will be able to record the Irish channels and skip all the adverts.

p.s - DO NOT buy a BT freeview box

DMC

Normally a good rule of thumb, if you can get Channel 5 from Black Mountain (near Divis), then its quite possible to get DTT/Freeview from Divis.

AyJay

Thanks Guys. Can't get C5 at all - guess I'll have to wait for Freesat.

watty

"Five" is unlikely to be on Freesat any time soon, and maybe never. C4 is likely sometime this year.

AyJay

Thanks Watty.

I've read about Five not going FTA according to their Customer Relations people, but they currently are FTA on Astra 2B (found a link on DS yesterday)

Was just mentioning C5 as DMC had said it was a good rule of thumb. TBH I'm not that worried about C5 as I don't think much of their programming.

I have a satellite FTA system already but want a decent PVR so need an EPG that is better than Now and Next. Was just considering Freeview from Divis but that seems to be a non-runner.

AJ.

watty

Use Diguide on the PC?

Even possible if you have HD TV to get a shoebox / compact PC with HDMI out and have it in living room at main tv, with satellite card for direct recording.

Only consider the PC route for PVR if you have HD TV (true 1920 pixel 1080 lines, interlace & progressive) set with HDMI and get a graphics card that does HDMI too. I've not seen a PC yet that on SCART or composite is as good as a €99 DVD recorder.

Charlie-Bravo

Rather than pushing a portatble TV around the house, is there any decent DVB PCIMCA cards available for laptops as a DVB tuner?

Also, I'm in Greystones in Wicklow...is there any major problems that anyone knows of using laptops in this neighbourhood or generally in Ireland?

Any help is appreciated,

Thanks, Astro

watty

I've tried two. Worse than Maplin's 10" portable DTT/Analogue combo LCD TV.

Laptops generally only good for US TV. Tend to be 60Hz. European TV is 25i, or 50Hz refresh if you de-interlace. I have a very high end CRT I can just about get going at 100Hz, you still need good de-interlacing, but at least the frame rate does not need changed which ALWAYS looks terrible on movement.

A few laptops allege to do 50Hz. TV still looks rubbish compared to a €100 TV.

towbar

eirman, Can you tell me what setup you have aerial and amplifier

North of Dunleer and only get 1 of the digital muxes from Divis.

marrm

AyJay wrote: »

Thanks Watty.

I've read about Five not going FTA according to their Customer Relations people, but they currently are FTA on Astra 2B (found a link on DS yesterday)

Was just mentioning C5 as DMC had said it was a good rule of thumb. TBH I'm not that worried about C5 as I don't think much of their programming.

I have a satellite FTA system already but want a decent PVR so need an EPG that is better than Now and Next. Was just considering Freeview from Divis but that seems to be a non-runner.

AJ.

1. Five on ASTRA2B? Where? Could not find it listed on Lyngsat. Any details would be much appreciated - frequency etc.

2. I'm in Dublin, with a view of the Wicklow Mountains. Please somebody tell me if I should be able to get FTA DTT a) right now or b) when. If right now, what channels / frequencies? I've scanned Euore frequencies, UK frequencies, etc etc, but al I get is the CA channels at the moment.

Any replies from anyone who's been there and has the answers?

Thanx

Geemac

Details:

12.304 H
1429______Showing Sky Poker
Five T2 Reg 2_______Showing Channel 5 (FTA Version)
Retail Info __________Showing Sky Digital Retail
Retail Info___________ Showing Sky Plus Digital Retail
9355 ______ Showing Jetix

marrm

Geemac wrote: »

Details:

12.304 H
1429______Showing Sky Poker
Five T2 Reg 2_______Showing Channel 5 (FTA Version)
Retail Info __________Showing Sky Digital Retail
Retail Info___________ Showing Sky Plus Digital Retail
9355 ______ Showing Jetix

Five T2 Reg 2 shows as Encoded in NDS on my sat, as do the two Retail Info channels and 9355, so not really FTA, unless one has a UK Sky Digital card (I do not, just a Technomate 1500CI+ which unscrambles almost anything except NDS :mad:)

What about RTE on DTT? Anyone got a frequency for me? CAnnot see it at all using my MSI Digivox mini II USB on my laptop.

waster81

hi living outside ardee too, thinkin of buying box in argos and trying it, what channels are yee getting on yours?

watty

marrm wrote: »

Five T2 Reg 2 shows as Encoded in NDS on my sat, as do the two Retail Info channels and 9355, so not really FTA, unless one has a UK Sky Digital card (I do not, just a Technomate 1500CI+ which unscrambles almost anything except NDS :mad:)

Please note that in Ireland and most of EU, to receive ANY scrambled / encrypted service without the valid official viewing card/subscription for those channels is not a just a copyright violation (civil offence) but a criminal act, theft of service. Even assisting someone to steal a Pay TV service or obstructing investigation into such theft can carry jail term and heavy fine. Someone who thinks they are affected could get a court order for your IP address, then go to ISP with IP address & time and court order and track down your name & address (or at least that of whoever pays the bills).

Investigators of "Nigerian Scams" in Netherlands, UK and Ireland have done this and staked out the Internet Cafés found and successfully arrested the scammer.

The Technomate does work with Generic NDS cam sold to operators other than Sky. As Sky & NDS are part of Murdoch empire NDS ensure such a CAM does not work with a Sky card.

People HAVE managed to get real Sky cards working with "customised" CAMs and PC soft CAMs, but since the EPG, Interactive and Sky Digital Text don't work, it's a fairly pointless operation. "Real" Sky boxes work far better on Sky.

IMO they should be not allowed to be so proprietary. The only reason they even have "other channels" for limited manual tuning is that German Première lost an EU case. They had made their pay TV box block manual FTA!