Sat4Free/Freesat in Ireland

luckat

STB?

By the way, I see on an earlier Boards thread that the Sony W4000 isn't MPEG4 capable. Is that still so? Should I therefore avoid it?

Still searching for a price, but can find only reviews. Oh, wait, found one on Peats - €1,150. Hmm. Ouch.

copacetic

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Because the tuner may not work? Buy a STB, solved.

agreed, buy a 1080p set with at least 2 HDMIs, the display quality is what is important, cheap set top boxes, sat or cable decoders will always be available to keep up with what happens with available signals.

Read up on some reviews also, Sony aren't 'hands down' the best. They are a fine brand, but they don't even make the panels in most of their LCDs. In fact a lot of brands have the same panels in them.

copacetic

luckat wrote: »

STB?

By the way, I see on an earlier Boards thread that the Sony W4000 isn't MPEG4 capable. Is that still so? Should I therefore avoid it?

Still searching for a price, but can find only reviews.

basically Mossy is saying you can use a set top box (eg sky box, freesat box, ntl box, DTT box with mpeg4) to decde the signal and get it to your TV, they all have the same scart/hdmi/rf outputs. Which will work with almost any TV.

luckat

Thanks for the translation. All these acronyms mean nothing to me. I speak only human. Be patient.

Oh, just realised, an STB may mean a "set-top box", yes? Does it sit on top of the TV?

What about buy a "1080p set with at least 2 HDMIs" - what does this mean?

copacetic

luckat wrote: »

Thanks for the translation. All these acronyms mean nothing to me. I speak only human. Be patient.

Oh, just realised, an STB may mean a "set-top box", yes? Does it sit on top of the TV?

What about buy a "1080p set with at least 2 HDMIs" - what does this mean?

HDMIs are the standard input from a HD capable set top box, eg freesat HD box, sky HD box. You would also need to use one for example if you bought a blu-ray HD DVD player in the future.

So say for example in a year you have a DTT box with HD capability, a freesat box with HD capability and a blu ray player with HD capability, then they will all have HDMI outputs. You want to be able to plug them all directly into the TV with no signal switcher in the middle messing with your HD signal.

1080p is native HD, 1920x1080 pixels. Basically, If your TV has this resolution then you will get the best out of any HD signal you put it. TVs should say 'Tru HD' or HD1080 rather than HD ready which just means they will show HD.

Having said all the above, you can go cheap and still get good results if you aren't trying to future proof. To be honest it may not be worthwhile, TVs change quickly now, eg the Sony W4000 recommended above has already been replaced by Sony, with the W4500 which has a few extra features making it quite a step up. The W4000 had replaced a model that was less than a year old also.

icdg

Guys, talk about DTT in the Terrestrial forum!

To take this back to satellite - I note that www.sat4free.ie is now down. I'm wondering if Freesat's solicitors have been on to Alba about this. Have the recievers been pulled from stores?

copacetic

icdg wrote: »

Guys, talk about DTT in the Terrestrial forum!

To take this back to satellite - I note that www.sat4free.ie is now down. I'm wondering if Freesat's solicitors have been on to Alba about this. Have the recievers been pulled from stores?

Sorry Boss:o

Something is afoot, it went down yesterday afternoon about the same time Freesat were supposed to make an anouncement about their involvement (if any).

Likely they have at least demanded that the site is redesigned to not look exactly like the freesat site.

bk

luckat wrote: »

By the way "if you can afford it" (nope!) - how much are we talking here?

Sony 32W4000 €867 @ http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=348268

Another good one

Samsung LE32A656 €753
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/1394086/art/samsung/le32a656-lcd-television.html

It looks like Sony don't make the W4500 in 32"

luckat wrote: »

But people tell me that now isn't a good time to spend a lot of money on a fancy TV (if you're not going to have it to spend again in a couple of years) because the spec is changing rapidly, and the TV you buy today may be useless five years from now.

It is true, while the lads have talked about different input standards like Freesat, DTT, etc. Another important point is that in 5 years we will likely have TV's with vastly superior TV picture quality using OLED or SED technology.

So of course your TV should continue to work fine after 5 years, you might want to upgrade then anyway.

redout

Not to sure about there being a freesat statement. Just turned out to be some guy off DS saying he called them and they would release a statement but never did. No official word as such of a statement being released.

This must be a real kick in the balls for sat4free. They only launched the website on Wednesday and it was apparently obvious the website was a copy of the freesat one. I was in Power city this morning and the boxes are still on sale. I was in Tesco's yesterday and saw no mention of them.

redout

Ok it seems that freesat are claiming no association at all with sat4free.

Sat4Free, which is based on the Freesat service available in the UK, gives Irish viewers access to all FTA UK channels including BBC One and Two, ITV, Channel 4, Film4, plus many more; in addition to a selection of UK and Irish radio channels.
The service offers both SD and HD receivers, which are re-badged Alba units displaying the Sat4Free name instead of Freesat. The EPG is also an edited Freesat version.
The pre-set region for this platform is Northern Ireland, with a postcode already programmed in. RTÉ One, RTÉ Two and TG4 are not available on this service, but RTÉ International will be, once launched as a Freesat exclusive channel later this year / early next year.
Sat4Free is being sold through Tesco, Powercity, Woddies DIY and Atlantic Homecare. The standard-definition version costs approximately €299, with high-definition available at approximately €399. This price includes installation. For those that don’t need installation, Powercity are selling at €89.95 (SD) and €199.95 (HD) without.
A PVR receiver is planned for the future, but Humax are not willing to comment on their involvement, so it’s likely the PVR will be of Alba Group brand, due in 2009. Panasonic are also said to be planning release of an IDTV version, although the existing Panasonic plasmas with Freesat built-in are available through ROI already.
With a service so closely matched to the Freesat service, we are quite surprised to find that Freesat have no involvement. We asked whether they knew about the service, and were told that it had been reported a number of times by members of the public. In a statement provided to us, Freesat said:

Freesat is a UK only service. It has not launched in any other countries and has no plans to do so.
We really can’t comment any further at this point.

It would be great to have a similar service in Ireland, but have to wonder what will happen next…

http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/index.php/sat4free-launches-in-ireland

vsat

Sorry, But I thought this was a satellite trend ?:D

redout

Mods are any of you paying attention to the thread ? Most of the last two pages has been people going on about televisions and DTT which belong in the terrestrial forum. This thread is going completely off-topic.

murphaph

The Cush wrote: »

Cannot see a combo UK freesat / Irish DTT receiver anytime in the near future.

I thought the Clarke Tech 5000 etc. have sat and MPEG-4 DTT decoding capability?

The Cush

murphaph wrote: »

I thought the Clarke Tech 5000 etc. have sat and MPEG-4 DTT decoding capability?

Can it display the freesat epg and auto update channel changes as with the official freesat boxes?
The reply was specific to a combo freesat or sat4free box question, the Clarke Tech 5000 is not an official freesat receiver or a rebadged sat4free receiver.

Trevord

The Cush wrote: »

First off, your welcome glad to help.

The other FTA satellite channels can be added manually and appear from epg position 3000 onwards with only now and next info.
When freesat was launched only the Humax box had the capability to manually add other FTA channels but a software update in Jun allowed the other boxes to do the same.

Note that some freesat boxes do not currently show now and next for non-freesat services.

Would be interesting to know if that is also the case with the satforfree boxes.

atellyer

The Cush wrote: »

Can it display the freesat epg and auto update channel changes as with the official freesat boxes?
The reply was specific to a combo freesat or sat4free box question, the Clarke Tech 5000 is not an official freesat receiver or a rebadged sat4free receiver.

I have one of the Clarke Tech 5000 HD Combo boxes and it cannot display the freesat epg or auto update channel changes, but you do get the ability to have both the FTA Satellite channels and the RTÉ DTT channels on the same box and can order your channels any way you wish.

There is still a lot of development going on with the EPG on the Clarke Tech box, so who knows what it will be able to do in the future.

byte

MODEDIT: Some 19 posts have been moved from here to Terrestrial forum. Probably are a few more posts that need moving, but, the main terrestrial posts are moved.

For avoidance of doubt, this thread is specific to Freesat/Sat4Free discussion. I can understand that it's possible that discussions can go on a tangent with these things, as people want to get the best to suit their needs, but I'd like to keep this relatively ontopic

Terrestrial televison forum

Home Entertainment forum, for discussion on new television sets, etc.

Ger Roe

Bringing the discussion back to sat4free.

I see that the website is still down. That would be a serious issue for a company just after launch and I would suspect that maintenance may not be the issue - surely some sort of web presence could be maintained no matter what the technical issue might be. I was in Woodies in carrickmines yesterday and noticed that they had none of the sat4free box's on display (they were there last week).

Maybe they sold out... or maybe there is a connection with the website being down and the previously reported statment from Freesat.

It all seems a bit strange and confusing at the moment.

Tony

Strange indeed, perhaps no agreement was in place with Freesat after all

bk

Ger Roe wrote: »

I was in Woodies in carrickmines yesterday and noticed that they had none of the sat4free box's on display (they were there last week).

There were display boxes in Woodies on the Malahide Road yesterday.

The_Conductor

None in Woodies Lucan either.

Leesider

There was a 'flyer' with today's Examiner from Tesco, and a full page advertisement for Sat4Free, stating you could get BBC & ITV HD for a once-off cost. €299 for SD, €399 for HD including installation. It also said 'available at larger stores only'.

The Cush

Tesco promo insert in today's Indo has a one page advert for Sat4free.

Sat4free SD box €299.99 (incl. installation)
Sat4free HD box €399.99 (incl. installation)

"Included in the purchase price of your Sat4free receiver box is full installation, including a satellite dish if required"

I wonder if a dish install is not required is the price reduced? :rolleyes:

The Humax HD PVR @ €387 (£290 + £19 delivery) appears to be much better value if you already have a dish installed + PVR included.

Tony

There is a message up there now





"The Sat4Free.ie website is currently offline for routine maintenance.

We will be back shortly."

Zonda999

Alrite lads, i was in tesco in Wilton in Cork there today and they have sat4free boxes. I had a good look at it.It was a goodmans HD box and it looked to be a proper box because that security thingy was wrapped around it. The pricetag on the shelf below it was a bit odd, though.It said the price was 299.99e(Odd that because the price for the HD box is supposed to be 399.99e no??) and it had "discontinued" written over it. Not scribbled on or anything but properly printed as part of the price tag. Odd tbh...

astra2d

It does seem a bit odd being down for so long, not good for a recently launched service. I had a mail from joinfreesat.co.uk, they said Freesat were not amused by the cloning of their website.

The_Conductor

Tony wrote: »

There is a message up there now





"The Sat4Free.ie website is currently offline for routine maintenance.

We will be back shortly."

Its had message for days......

copacetic

smccarrick wrote: »

Its had message for days......

yep, that message went up soon after the site went down last week.

Tony

smccarrick wrote: »

Its had message for days......

So perhaps more like a site re write than routine maintenance?

astra2d

Yes this seems to be the case, totally rewritten.