Sat4Free/Freesat in Ireland

byte

fbradyirl wrote: »

Wait a minute! Just remembered that I have an old Sky Digibox I havent used in over a year I might plug that in and see if I get any free channels. Would save me buying a FreeSat box maybe? ::)

Yeah, assuming everything is OK, it'll work too.

IrishHomer

I just noticed Powercity are now selling a HD freesat receiver at a very good price too!

http://www.powercity.ie/?par=10-23-989289

redout

IrishHomer wrote: »

I just noticed Powercity are now selling a HD freesat receiver at a very good price too!

http://www.powercity.ie/?par=10-23-989289

That SD Freesat box at €90 is much cheaper than the satellite stores in Dublin that are knocking them out for €130. Fairplay to Powercity, competition is what we need.

Tony

These are not official Freesat boxes

TheDriver

Some of those shops are taking the p**s indeed and fair play to powercity, hope more follow here.

IrishHomer

Tony wrote: »

These are not official Freesat boxes

On th ead it states www.freesat.co.uk:

GRUNDIG
HD SAT4FREE RECEIVER

Model: GUSAT02HDEX

PRICE:
€ 229.95

GRUNDIG HIGH DEFINITION(HD)BOX.
LOOK AT HD BBC AND HD ITV.
NEW SIMPLE TO USE PROGRAMME GUIDE.
LOTS OF TV AND RADIO CHANNELS .
HIGH DEFINITION SATELLITE TV.
NO MONTHLY BILLS.
FOR MORE INFORMATION LOOK UP.
WWW.FREESAT.CO.UK.
INSTALLATION SERVICE AVAILABLE .
FOR EXTRA €170 (INCLUDING DISH & LNB).

Tony

So what? Its a link to the website. I repeat these are not official freesat boxes they are a free to air box which can receive Free to air channels including freesat channels.

IrishHomer wrote: »

On th ead it states www.freesat.co.uk:

[

TheDriver

Thought it was the proper freesat box? Must have read it wrong, sorry Tony.

Fat_Fingers

Tony is right, they are not official freesat boxes so therefore no 7 day EPG and no auto update when channels move frequencies.. If you go to freesat web page then click on products and you will see what the official boxes are.

Tony

TheDriver wrote: »

Thought it was the proper freesat box? Must have read it wrong, sorry Tony.

No problem, in fairness its a littlle misleading of them to put the link in there without saying what its for IE channel listings. Looks like these units are made by grundig who have a freesat production licience so theres a possibility that it has the seven day epg and this is a "back door" method to sell boxes outside the UK. Not sure channel update will also work. Has anyone bought one that can check this?

Zonda999

Very interested in this since i've seen you can free HD content..The official freesat HD boxes are here , on the official freesat uk website.They really are'nt that dear either, for the actual official ones, that is.Have a look on ebay here.It says here, as well that that particular humax box has an mpeg4 tuner built in so it'll work when rte launch their own digital service.

BeerNut

Zonda999 wrote: »

It says here, as well that that particular humax box has an mpeg4 tuner built in so it'll work when rte launch their own digital service.

It would need a DVB-T tuner for that.

carbsy

What's all the fuss about? Can't any old disconnected Sky receiver get most of these channels FTA anyhow? Complete with EPG. Am I missing something?

freesat

Yes tony is correct, these are not the offical freesat receivers, hence the name 'sat4free' and not 'freesat'.

yes a sky receiver has the 7 day EPG but they are not very practical as a freesat or free to air receiver as their channel list mostly have pay-per-view channels which is annoying to the user.

redout

Another advantage is that freesat also will give you Channel Five very shortly and RTE International before Paddys day. So thats two channels that you will not get on Sky in Ireland.

carbsy

Ah thanks for the response.Nothing for me here then.

mumhaabu

A friend of mine got a FTA system in recently after asking my advice, he got:

The LIDL kit which is a good Comag/Silvercrest receiver €79.99
Raven 60cms Sky dish €38 from eBay
Installation €120 to align the dish and run the cable and hook everything up

Total: €237.99 for the FTA System, I didn't like the Lidl dish as it seems flimsy and not up to the job as the Sky dish are ubiquitous and standard plus if he decides to go for Sky down the road he need only swap out the FTA box for a Sky receiver.

Was what I advised my mate to do a good or a bad idea? be honest! He is happy with it all the same.

Kensington

Tony wrote: »

so theres a possibility that it has the seven day epg and this is a "back door" method to sell boxes outside the UK. Not sure channel update will also work. Has anyone bought one that can check this?

Will have a fiddle around with them in work tomorrow and let you know if it's a 7 day EPG and if it auto updates

Tony

Thanks but you will not be able to check the auto update unless a channel changes transmission parameters like freq etc. The 7 day will be a start though

Kensington wrote: »

Will have a fiddle around with them in work tomorrow and let you know if it's a 7 day EPG and if it auto updates

byte

The box on Powercity site looks near identical to their Freesat variant, though model number is wrong with GUSAT02HD, versus GUFSAT01HD for Freesat (the extra F presumably to indicate Freesat). Seems to be lacking Freesat logo on the Powercity image (seems to say Digital HD as opposed to Freesat HD)

Kensington, I'd be curious to know if Freesat llogo is anywhere on the STB, or on the menu. Pics an added bonus

Kensington

Right had a fiddle around with it today.

Box is basically a Freesat box minus any reference whatsoever to Freesat - all Freesat mentions and logos are replaced by Sat4Free. Has a full 7 day EPG built into it, uses the same channel lineup as Freesat, set with the NI regional variants (BBC 1 NI, UTV etc.). Box "autorolls" with channel/transponder parameter changes in the EPG so no need to retune. Also has red button interactive BBCi feature on the BBCs - exactly like that on a Sky Digibox.

Software wise, menu's are slightly re-arranged compared to the UK system. No access to the ITV HD channel at the moment on the HD version due to problems with UTV (full access to BBC HD though). Ability to manually add additional channels (such as extra regions) is also not fully functional yet. Software update is in the pipeline though to fix these and a few more snags, and bring the box more in line with the Freesat equivalent.

There's two versions of it - a HD and a non HD version. Both with the exact same connections on the back of it (minus the HDMI on the non-HD one obviously) - power, two scarts, ethernet port.

Both boxes are on display, the HD version active and working on demo connected to a HD TV, on a stand in the Tallaght branch if you fancy a fiddle!

byte

Is there no way to change the lineup from NI ones to GB? If it uses most of the Freesat menu system, it should be possible perhaps to change postcode at Initial Setup, to something in GB, so then you'd have access to ITV HD.

The interactive ITVHD service isn't available on UTV (as you've already figured out), and maybe not on STV either. Just "ITV1" regions...

Anyway, thanks for the info.

Kensington

byte wrote: »

Is there no way to change the lineup from NI ones to GB? If it uses most of the Freesat menu system, it should be possible perhaps to change postcode at Initial Setup, to something in GB, so then you'd have access to ITV HD.

Almost certain you can't do this - it defaults to NI. I will double check for you though and let you know!

copacetic

just for ref, ITVHD only becomes available via the red button when a HD show is actually on, which isn't very often.


sounds like a non freesat branded version of the GUFSAT01HD that I have, as byte says.

surprised they disabled the postcode editing in that version, mine defaults to london everytime as thats what was originally entered, but you can change it my going through initial setup again, under settings > first time install.

I guess if you don't have the option there to change the postcode then you are stuck with NI line up.

Trevord

Parents have UPC sub at moment but I think that the Powercity Satforfree solution would appeal to them, particularly if it has the 7 day epg and the auto channel updating, since I know they would not have the patience to be messing with a standard FTA box.

A few additional questions of clarificaiton for Kensington (or anyone else who can chip in) on Satforfree.

1.
If Powercity Grundig box is set to NI does that mean you have no access to C4 (am I not right in thinking that C4 NI region is still scrambled).

2.
What about non-NI ITV regions, are they accessible?

3.Down the line what's involved in doing the software upgrade mentioned by Kensington?

4.
Would 50 or 60 euro cover cost of a reasonably durable (ie. non Lidl) dish and lnb. Is that Raven dish mentioned by mumhaabu OK ?

Thanks in advance.

redout

Trevord wrote: »

Parents have UPC sub at moment but I think that the Powercity Satforfree solution would appeal to them, particularly if it has the 7 day epg and the auto channel updating, since I know they would not have the patience to be messing with a standard FTA box.

A few additional questions of clarificaiton for Kensington (or anyone else who can chip in) on Satforfree.

1.
If Powercity Grundig box is set to NI does that mean you have no access to C4 (am I not right in thinking that C4 NI region is still scrambled).

2.
What about non-NI ITV regions, are they accessible?

3.Down the line what's involved in doing the software upgrade mentioned by Kensington?

4.
Would 50 or 60 euro cover cost of a reasonably durable (ie. non Lidl) dish and lnb. Is that Raven dish mentioned by mumhaabu OK ?

Thanks in advance.

I have the official freesat setup with a Belfast postcode and channel 4 is there although it is on 971 or something similar ! The only itv I get is UTV, itv 2, itv 2+1, itv 3, itv 3+1 and itv 4. I think that you can tune all the others in manually if you wish. All the BBC regions show up, about 20 of them.

givecredit

Trevord wrote: »

1.
If Powercity Grundig box is set to NI does that mean you have no access to C4 (am I not right in thinking that C4 NI region is still scrambled).

2.
What about non-NI ITV regions, are they accessible?

3.Down the line what's involved in doing the software upgrade mentioned by Kensington?

4.
Would 50 or 60 euro cover cost of a reasonably durable (ie. non Lidl) dish and lnb. Is that Raven dish mentioned by mumhaabu OK ?

1. Channel 4 NI is now free to Air, but still not on freesat epg, but will be there soon. The London version is on the 900s somewhere, think 974
2. With the expected software upgrade you will be able to see other itv regions. If it works similar to Freesat Grundig box, you will be able to access these channels by using the channel up/down Buttons. The channels are at the bottom of the channel order, so by using channel up button you get to the bottom of list first, ie the added channels. Much more user friendly then the Humax freesat box.
3.The software upgrade will happen automatically, the upgrade is done over the air.
4. Yes 50 or 60 euro should be fine. Just make sure its 60cm. You get a sky mesh dish on ebay for circa 50euro, including fixings, lnb and delivery.

By the way you can buy a freesat box on the internet for €76 including delivery if you buy two. €87.00 if you buy one . Save yourself €23 , be sure of constant software upgrades and pick whatever region you want on the epg.
I got two from satellitesuperstores grundig sd boxes for €76 each.

Compton

mumhaabu wrote: »

A friend of mine got a FTA system in recently after asking my advice, he got:

The LIDL kit which is a good Comag/Silvercrest receiver €79.99
Raven 60cms Sky dish €38 from eBay
Installation €120 to align the dish and run the cable and hook everything up

Total: €237.99 for the FTA System, I didn't like the Lidl dish as it seems flimsy and not up to the job as the Sky dish are ubiquitous and standard plus if he decides to go for Sky down the road he need only swap out the FTA box for a Sky receiver.

Was what I advised my mate to do a good or a bad idea? be honest! He is happy with it all the same.

only 245 installed in satworld!! why go through the hasstle and use lidl gear

Kensington

Trevord wrote: »

1. If Powercity Grundig box is set to NI does that mean you have no access to C4 (am I not right in thinking that C4 NI region is still scrambled).

AFAIK Channel 4 is there, will confirm tomorrow - the NI version broadcasts in the clear on 10.714GHz on the 2D beam. An encrypted simulcast of it is broadcasted for Sky Digiboxes, until the end of the Sky NDS Videoguard encryption agreement with Channel 4 ends.

Trevord wrote: »

2. What about non-NI ITV regions, are they accessible?

At the moment, no - this is a known issue, will hopefully be resolved in the next update.

Trevord wrote: »

3. Down the line what's involved in doing the software upgrade mentioned by Kensington?

There is an option in the System Menu to check if you have the latest updates - the box will update itself automatically though if a new software version becomes available.

Trevord wrote: »

4. Would 50 or 60 euro cover cost of a reasonably durable (ie. non Lidl) dish and lnb.

Powercity sell the oval shaped Zone 2 Sky Minidish with single output LNB for about €45.

Zaphod

If anyone gets a chance to visit Powercity, could they please post a few pics of the receivers and the on-screen menus?