DTT - near future in the Republic... (query)

lawhec

All right, here's the situation I have here at the moment.

* The home is to shortly (around two weeks) be gutted on the inside - walls are getting replastered, new electric cables and additional power points are to be inserted in each room including the attic (along with it being floored and a light being put in there) and the terrestrial and satellite coax cables are to be piped through the walls rather than being tacked along floorboards as it presently is.

* On the chimney at the moment is a pole with three aerials on it, on the top is a high-gain aerial for Brougher Mountain (we live quite close to the transmitter but as the house lies on a hill facing away from the transmitter this makes reception difficult), below that is a standard Group E aerial and masthead amp for Truskmore (TV3 & TG4) and below that a 10 element VHF Band III aerial for RTÉ 1 & 2. Signals for this feed into two combiners (one UHF A & UHF E and another VHF & UHF). This is causing a considerable wind load and it has meant that the pole has started to tilt backwards causing worsening pictures - the VHF channels have gone completely though I suspect the amp has gone kaput, while TV3 is unwatchable with a weak signal - TG4 is marginal but OK while even the stations from Brougher Mtn have snowy pictures though it doesn't seem to be affecting DTT reception as everything still comes in OK. For now anyway.

* So while the house is being re done up I am looking to get the satellite and terrestrial TV setup fixed and piped around. The main thing that's bugging me is how do deal with RTÉ Terrestrial. At present we can watch RTÉ through satellite but ideally we want it to be available via terrestrial. As I've already said the current setup causes a large wind load and ideally I'd like to get rid of the large VHF Band III aerial - however this would require a UHF only reception system and Carin Hill and Clermont Carn are too weak to receive reliably for analogue here. Watty has already mentioned several times over the past few months that the main transmitters in the Republic are due to be broadcasting some sort of DTT service by the end of the summer. So if Trusky were to do DTT, with RTÉ, TV3 and TG4 FTA it would be ideal as all bar one TV in the house at the moment currently has a STB, a possible replacement aerial (a high gain one but not a massive one, I'm not talking a DAT75 or a Triax 100) UHF Group C/D along with an amp should be fine for reception from Truskmore.

The main problem I have is that I would not be able to supervise or see the possibly happening of DTT from Truskmore for one reason - I'm going backpacking to Australia starting from next month! So I'm having to deal with this as being constructed for a near-future set up so I need to ask a few questions...

1. Specifically for Watty, how confident do you reckon that an official roll-out will take place by the end of August?

2. Is there any possibility for the current four terrestrial channels to be broadcasting in MPEG-2 for their SD services when this roll out takes place and for the next couple of years afterwards at least? My line of thinking is that we already have several (including one with a built in DVD player) STBs for the UK Freeview service which are obviously MPEG-2 only and would be reluctant to throw away perfectly working equipment for the sake of receiving RTÉ. We've no interest in any pay TV offering from RoI DTT (which is almost certain to be MPEG-4) and any other FTA broadcast would be regarded as a bonus, HDTV will come somewhere down the line here but not for at least a couple of years yet.

If it were to be the case that a receivable RTÉ DTT MPEG-2 service could be got by the autumn then putting up with RTÉ 1 & 2 for a few weeks only on satellite would be acceptable.

watty

1) I can't comment

2) Who knows

3) Wire 2 (or 4) CT100/PF100 to everyplace you want TVs. Worry about aerials later. Leave big loops in the attic.

A multiswitch will feed 8 Dual outlets with TV (VHF & UHF) and Satellite. It has TV in and comes in 1, 2 or 4 LNB versions.

4) Don't leave the country while any Irish/British builder is gutting your house. The mind boggles.

lawhec

Just on a point of note - its the parents' house, not mine! I'm still living at home & I'm trying to get things sorted for them...

Currently the terrestrial feeds go down to the living room, fed through a Thomson DTI1000 (DTT) and then a Pace Sky+ box with the RF2 output then taken upstairs into the attic where it goes into a Global 4-way splitter box (powered by the DC power of the RF2 outlet of the Sky Digibox) which is fed into three bedrooms (all of which have Magic Eyes). It was installed around 5 years ago while I was working but when I came back I found the installer used cheap "TV cable" which for the price they gave for installation I was livid for. :mad: I'll be making sure I'll be giving the builders WF100 (foam dielectric) cable to work with.

I'm still putting together final plans for the coax network as I'm planning to put an FM/DAB aerial in the attic space which will definitely be at least going to one bedroom and maybe into the living room as well (as all FM & UHF reception there is very poor).

watty

The multiswitch can distribute Radio and TV on the satellite cables, then you can split to TV, Radio and Satellite on the faceplates.