Sat4Free/Freesat in Ireland

The Cush

Kensington wrote: »

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.

The "encrypted simulcast" is the Republic of Ireland version and will not be ending its encryption agreement with Sky. In fact all the ROI versions have been amalgamated onto one transponder recently - Astra 2A (28.2E) - 12480.00 V

byte

Lyngsat suggests that the encrypted C4 versions are ROI versions and C4 London (it was C4 NI last time I looked).

Mossy Monk

ROI versions with programming still blocked. A joke.

cherish

I will be visiting Dublin in a few weeks and would like to pick up a freesat box. I would like to find the ARGUS in Northern Ireland that has the easiest access by rail. I assume it is near Newry but could use some help if anyone knows. German television is about to drive me mad and I could use some BBC. A sky subscription price for us here is outrageous with the additional service charges provided by the unauthorized service providers. I think freesat could be the answer......Any suggestions?

Thanks.....cherish

Tony

I would investigate what dish size you need before buying a freesat box.

cherish wrote: »

I will be visiting Dublin in a few weeks and would like to pick up a freesat box. I would like to find the ARGUS in Northern Ireland that has the easiest access by rail. I assume it is near Newry but could use some help if anyone knows. German television is about to drive me mad and I could use some BBC. A sky subscription price for us here is outrageous with the additional service charges provided by the unauthorized service providers. I think freesat could be the answer......Any suggestions?

Thanks.....cherish

redout

Newry is the first stop in the north for the freesat. Both Argos and Currys in Newry selling the freesat box. It can be bought in Dublin but for a higher price.

cherish

We have friends around our area that pick up the sky subscription service with a 60cm dish. They brought over their SKYHD receiver and it worked perfectly with my 80cm dish. I am not the most technical person so if their is something I am missing please advise.

Thanks for your help....cherish

Tony

Did it work on all channels including BBC ITV?

cherish wrote: »

We have friends around our area that pick up the sky subscription service with a 60cm dish. They brought over their SKYHD receiver and it worked perfectly with my 80cm dish. I am not the most technical person so if their is something I am missing please advise.

Thanks for your help....cherish

bmaxi

cherish wrote: »

I will be visiting Dublin in a few weeks and would like to pick up a freesat box. I would like to find the ARGUS in Northern Ireland that has the easiest access by rail. I assume it is near Newry but could use some help if anyone knows. German television is about to drive me mad and I could use some BBC. A sky subscription price for us here is outrageous with the additional service charges provided by the unauthorized service providers. I think freesat could be the answer......Any suggestions?

Thanks.....cherish

I'm assuming you are living in Germany. My daughter lives close to Frankfurt and she picks up all the BBC, ITV etc on an 80cm dish using an FTA box, so the only benefit you would get from Freesat is the EPG. However, if you want to go to Argos in Newry, there is a free bus service from the rail station to the bus station and Argos is in the shopping centre on Merchants Quay, across the bridge and to the left. Check stock on the net and reserve it if you like. If you are picking up German TV on your dish, it may need realigning.

Bog Butter

Can someone tell me the exact limitations if any of a UK freesat box over a free to air sat reciever. Do they both do the same thing?

Trevord

malman wrote: »

Can someone tell me the exact limitations if any of a UK freesat box over a free to air sat reciever. Do they both do the same thing?

On an FTA box you set up channels in any sequence you want. You control the order in which the channels appear. On a freesat box you cant do that. Channels have fixed positions in the menus. Some people will have an issue with this while other wont.

With an FTA boxes you typically need to rescan the sat now and again, since channels move and you can get a mismatch between channel names and actual channel content. Again some people will find this an inconvenience. A freesat box automatically handles all this in the background.

The freesat group of channels broadcast a stronger signal over IRL/UK which means that you can get away with a smaller dish. Downside is that with a smaller dish you may not get a strong enough signal to pick up some FTA channels broascasting from the same point in the sky but which are not part of the freesat arrangement.

That's about it as far as I can make out.

Bog Butter

After reading all the threads i have a few more questions if someone wouldn't mind answering for me. This would be greatly appreciated.

I'm in a position to drive into Newry.

1. If i buy a freesat box there will I be asked for a postcode either in store or upon set up?

2. Also, Tony mentioned something about dish size. Why would this have a bearing?

3. Are the freesat boxes not just tailored free to air boxes?

4. I already have a FTA reciever so i know what channels are available using it. Are there limitations on channels recieved (e.g uk regional channels) via the freesat box?

Tony

Afraid thats incorrect Freesat uses the same power levels and transponders as those FTA channels not in the freesat group. A properly aligned 60cm dish using good quality cable will work on any FTA channel from astra 2/eurobird.


[QUOTE=Trevord;57477723.

The freesat group of channels broadcast a stronger signal over IRL/UK which means that you can get away with a smaller dish. Downside is that with a smaller dish you may not get a strong enough signal to pick up some FTA channels broascasting from the same point in the sky but which are not part of the freesat arrangement.

[/QUOTE]

Tony

malman wrote: »

2. Also, Tony mentioned something about dish size. Why would this have a bearing?

It has a bearing if you live outside Uk/Ireland as you will be outside the main target footprint of the satellite

scruffy66

Bush , Grundig seem to have copied their own freesat box and called it sat for free , from what ive heard they've patented this SATFORFREE box for the irish market and the official launch will be in the Guinness hops store sometime in october , Tesco will be selling them for 89 euro ,299 euro fitted ,The satforfree name must be away of getting around the fact that freesat is meant to be only for english license fee payers

Trevord

Tony wrote: »

Afraid thats incorrect Freesat uses the same power levels and transponders as those FTA channels not in the freesat group. A properly aligned 60cm dish using good quality cable will work on any FTA channel from astra 2/eurobird.

Tony - I stand corrected.

So if you get pixelation in heavy rain on some channels on 28.2E, that is merely down to misalignment of dish or skew on lnb ? Are there any areas in IRL where the zone 2 sky dish is insufficient ?

byte

scruffy66 wrote: »

Bush , Grundig seem to have copied their own freesat box and called it sat for free , from what ive heard they've patented this SATFORFREE box for the irish market and the official launch will be in the Guinness hops store sometime in october , Tesco will be selling them for 89 euro ,299 euro fitted ,The satforfree name must be away of getting around the fact that freesat is meant to be only for english license fee payers

You could well be right (not sure about patenting a name). I have found that the URL sat4free.ie has been registered to a company called Irish Power Products in Sandyford, though unsure if it's related.

Tony

Trevord wrote: »

Tony - I stand corrected.

So if you get pixelation in heavy rain on some channels on 28.2E, that is merely down to misalignment of dish or skew on lnb ? Are there any areas in IRL where the zone 2 sky dish is insufficient ?

No problem. It can be misalignment, a long run of inferior cable, a faulty lnb or in rare cases a faulty tuner module. Astra say zone two is fine for all of Ireland but the guys who install in the far west would be in a better position than me to comment on this.

Tony

I've heard this too but my thinking is they must have the blessing of Freesat to do this since Freesat own the epg software.

scruffy66 wrote: »

Bush , Grundig seem to have copied their own freesat box and called it sat for free , from what ive heard they've patented this SATFORFREE box for the irish market and the official launch will be in the Guinness hops store sometime in october , Tesco will be selling them for 89 euro ,299 euro fitted ,The satforfree name must be away of getting around the fact that freesat is meant to be only for english license fee payers

byte

Tony wrote: »

I've heard this too but my thinking is theu must have the blessing of Freesat to do this since Freesat own the epg software.

Yeah, I'd expect they have to pay royalties or somesuch to use the EPG data.

Still though, it'd be nice if NI was not the only region available. It'd specifically need ITV1 listed somewhere for interactive ITV-HD (not that I've seen much of any good on it yet).

scruffy66

Yes i was thinking that to ,but if thats the case whats to stop other companies copying the box too and maybe even putting a dtt tuner in it with mpeg 4 ,and calling it freesatTV, anyway i can see every box having there program guide soon enough

mjsmyth

Just to raise a point here...

It clearly says on the Powercity website:

# GRUNDIG HIGH DEFINITION(HD)BOX.

# LOOK AT HD BBC AND HD ITV.

Emm..... yet Kensington is telling us that there is no ITV HD... Anyone spot the problem here??


MJ

Rick_

Can't you do what other people have done with a Grundig Freesat box? Tune in the ITV 1 London feed in the other channels and it will display the Press Red prompt for ITV HD when available. This is what users in Scotland and NI have done to get aroun it and receive ITV HD now.

Tony

If I understand correctly Kensington can only check during the daytime and ITV HD most appears in the evening time sporadicially.

mjsmyth wrote: »

Just to raise a point here...

It clearly says on the Powercity website:

# GRUNDIG HIGH DEFINITION(HD)BOX.

# LOOK AT HD BBC AND HD ITV.

Emm..... yet Kensington is telling us that there is no ITV HD... Anyone spot the problem here??


MJ

mjsmyth

Fair point Paddy... i thought that the Scottish users were setting it up as a London box and adding in the Scots ITV as an extra channel....

Point taken Tony.

I wish I drank coffee.... at least I would feel awake now..

biologikal

Does this Grundig box support DiSEqC, or is it tied to 28E, forever? I'm not completely familiar with the UK Freesat boxes, but understand one (or more) does/do.

coffee to go

Some pics snapped at lunchtime while having a play with one in the Bray store:



















Looks like you'd be able to manually add ITV1 London for ITV HD, but it's not on the EPG out of the box. Didn't have time to see if you could delete channels from the EPG, but you would hope so, as it displays all the BBC regional variations at the end of the list. Also no time to check if you could change postcodes. Definitely the 7 day EPG on it.

Don't really know why anyone would bother when you can get an official Freesat Foxsat for the same price on several Irish websites, and no doubt cheaper in the North.

redout

This thing is identical to the Grundig Freesat box. Only difference I see is that it displays sat4free on the box and epg as opposed to freesat and logo. Also background on this is blue as opposed to black on the official one.

Mayo Exile

Can it do HD? Just in the second picture of the back of the box, I don't see component or HDMI connections. Is that an ethernet port on the right?

TheDriver

Thats prob the SD box on display? Also why are they doing it? So they can sell it here in all the big name stores and possibly know that they (freesat) can inflict some pain on sky in Ireland also. There may also be the possiblity of RTE FTA at some point using these boxes. Will humax follow suit I wonder?
Its a good development as some people wouldn't use online shops etc and can buy it in currys etc without having people coming back in saying their fta box lost channels etc?