Triax MPEG-4 DTT Receiver & HD Satellite and SD DTT MPEG 4 Combi Receiver

mightybashful

STB wrote: »

The V part form the VHF. The circular piece the UHF. Some dont have the circular part! Not that I have one!

Kilkenny
Okay go to the dvb-t tuner and manual scan channel 52. There is probably a meter on screen that will give you signal quality and strength.

If the ears dont work, try a folded hanger. You should see the meter reading of strength. If the aerial is not by the window it will have a low chance of reception. Ultimately you need a decent outdoor aerial. They are cheap - UHF Group aerial C/D like this for example. http://www.tvtrade.ie/green-group-cd-uhf-aerial.html.

Thanks for this advice. Feel a bit wiser now. It'll be a few days til I'm home. I'll give it a try then and let youse know.

kelsca

Any further news on Triax St-HD537...availability,price,etc.Thanks

watty

Not expected till Feb/March 2011 I think.

kelsca

watty wrote: »

Not expected till Feb/March 2011 I think.

Thank You

KELTICKNIGHTT

Model : STHD537
Specifications
Triax Hd Satellite & Dtt Combi Box
No Subscription Or Monthly Bills
Rte - Bbc & Itv Stations
Hd Bbc And Itv Via Satellite
Rte Via Mpeg4 Digital Tuner
Mheg5 Teletext
Digital Hdmi Connection
Optical Audio Output
Usb Record Function
Installation Service Available

http://www.powercity.ie/?brands=TRIAX&pages=1&par=10-23

STB

Excellent news. Not certified yet though. And the pic they have used is of the 527.

The 537 look like this according to Triax. And it doesnt have any CI slots from the pics I've seen.

KELTICKNIGHTT

what you think of the price

STB

If it has no CI slots and the addition is just MHEG5, then it is too dear, especially if it isnt certified. Infact are people sure this is with Terracom for testing? ......

They need to get it down to €199. People love that price.

If what has been rumoured is true, ie that they will do a Fortec Passion on with unofficial firmware pulling the 7 day epg down for satellite) , then it will sell at €200, no problem.

Its apparently built on the same chassis of the triax T2-HD 217 which is the Freeview HD box they sell in the UK obviously with tuners changed. If other hardware is present I see it has a 12v DC power supply, 2 scart sockets, SPDIF, Ethernet, HDMI 1.4 and does 1080p.

KELTICKNIGHTT

would have bought this box only i have qbox hd mini which i have too say so far im impressed with

watty

STB wrote: »

If it has no CI slots and the addition is just MHEG5, then it is too dear, especially if it isnt certified. Infact are people sure this is with Terracom for testing? ......

They need to get it down to €199. People love that price.

It's not Just MHEG5. MHEG5 isn't just a Teletext replacement. It's needed or it's not Irish Digital TV compatible. Today MHEG5 happens to be only used for Text.


I totally agree it's too expensive. €150 would be reasonable.

No CI because it's for FTA. A CI slot isn't going to work for Sky, Irish Digital Pay TV may never happen and people wanting mysterious mainland European Pay TV are better with VU+ Duo, though that has no MHEG5 either which is shabby as there is a free Linux MHEG5 engine and there is no Royalty on MHEG5.

The price Premium on Freeview and Freesat is not due to inclusion of MHEG5, but the Freeview/Freesat licensing, No doubt Triax think they ought to charge extra to recover their €20K spent on Saorview certification.

KELTICKNIGHTT

not a big difference between the 527 and 537 model outside of cert

watty

KELTICKNIGHTT wrote: »

not a big difference between the 527 and 537 model outside of cert

ST-HD527 CI : Designed for Europe Mainland. No Freeview, Freesat or MHEG5 or Saorview, slot for mainland Europe PayTV CAM (Terrestrial or Satellite subscription services). CI is no use to most in Ireland. No Good for Topup TV SkySports in UK as it's not CI+ and no Freeview. Only basic Audio /Video compatibility in Ireland. Not 100% compatible in Ireland.

ST-HD537: Specifically for Irish Market. MHEG5 included. No facility for PayTV as that is wasted cost as there is virtually no payTV market outside of Sky/UPC who only allow their own boxes. It might be able to provide a UK FTA EPG via Internet, which would not break the Freesat rules. 100% Irish Digital Compatible even if not certified. In theory should be 100% compatible for Saorsat alone if MHEG5 is not disabled in Satellite mode. Not sure if any Diseqc, so may not do UK FTA + Saorsat.

From http://www.rte.ie/saorview/receiving.html

Key elements of the receiver specification include the following:

1. The receiver needs to be capable of decoding both Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD) MPEG 4 signals. This is important as RTÉ is planning to replace its current SD RTÉ Two service with an RTÉ Two HD service on SAORVIEW. More HD services are likely to follow in the future.

2. The receiver needs to have MHEG5 middleware to decode RTÉ’s proposed new Digital Aertel Service and other possible interactive services.

See also http://www.saortv.info/about/mheg5/

BIG Difference. The ST-HD537 is particularly intended for Irish Market, not just a question of Certification and in reality the ST-HD527 was developed for Mainland European Market, including Terrestrial and Satellite PayTV.

scruffy66

STB wrote: »

Dont buy one.

There is a combo box about to come on the market that will do 7 day epg for both and LESS than 200.

Any sign of this box coming on the market stb , it would be great to have this on the market for the SAORVIEW launch in the summer .

It would also be great if humax would do some adjustments to their humax + box so we could record the SAORSAT channels and maybe other manufacturers of freesat hd and freesat hd+ boxes would follow suit, after all the market for freesat in england is quite small and to make these boxes with diseqc switches in them would be cheap and im sure there is a market for this in England as well, ie [access to epg and ability to watch and record channels from hotbird and astra 19 etc.

My wish list keeps getting BIGGER and BIGGER

watty

Humax does do Diseqc.
Diseqc is no extra HW and small amount of SW. The SW turns the 22kHz on/off anyway for band select. Diseqc is just pulse coded 22kHz.

The alleged Saorsat numbers are 2% of Irish Population, which is about 5% of UK Population. So not much extra market sadly.

scruffy66

watty wrote: »

Humax does do Diseqc.
Diseqc is no extra HW and small amount of SW. The SW turns the 22kHz on/off anyway for band select. Diseqc is just pulse coded 22kHz.

The alleged Saorsat numbers are 2% of Irish Population, which is about 5% of UK Population. So not much extra market sadly.

But thats what i was saying there is a market in england for this other wise why would Humax and Technisat have the diseqc switch installed, as i say
there is a huge population in England that english is not their first language.
Just a bit of tweaking would make these boxes more accessible to non Freesat channels and of course recording should be an option.

we would be just benefiting from something, that is being improved upon for
the english market.

You dont really believe that 2% figure do you, its going to be about choice and price [ 28/ 9 degrees or 28/ DTT.

watty

No, the 2% is official figure. I think maybe closer to 10% or more will use Saorsat, if a "Freesat HD" PVR works on it sensibly.

I have no idea why the "other channel" feature is gratuitously sort of broken on "Freesat HD" Humax (which has Diseqc) and why it's better on Sagecom (which inexplicably has no Diseqc control).

All Sat receivers should have Diseqc.
It should be possible to add non-EPG channels to Favourites and record by manual Schedule at least.

There is non reason I think of that they should emulate Sky, and EU legislation should be expanded to make non-PayTV platform channels equally Accessible. Premiere in Germany lost in Court and that establish principle that FTA non-EPG channels have to work. But there is no legislation to define how easy that should be.

Light touch regulation is favoured because the theory it helps competition and that more competition helps consumer. Both these views are fallacies. Light touch regulation most just favours the largest company.

Winters

Picked up the ST-HD537 today, was looking at the MVision box but ended up going for the Triax. Smaller than I expected but nothing quite like a good typo on the back panel.

stanley1

any pros or cons to report on this box.

Winters

Very happy with it so far anyway, need to start playing with it only just got everything back together.

What was odd is the HDMI cable that came with it didn't seem to work, got a warning with no message. Changed it to a better HDMI cable I had lying about and have not had a problem with it at all since. I'll report back with more once I get used to it and figure more out.

STB

I agree it is specifically designed for Ireland, but on the back of an existing chipset and box family. If it is dvb-t tuner that is on board then it will be of no attraction to the UK market who use dvb-t2. The addition of MHEG5 whilst making it compatible with Saorview doesnt necessarily make it a good box.

• They should have included CI slots. Lots of people use third party subs and this will be an x for that group.
• Does the PVR facility work ?
• 7 day epg for sat. If there is an unofficial firmware that does the epggrab OTA like the Fortec Passions did then its a sellable box.

Whilst the 2% is the figure used for bad terrestrial reception fill in's a high percentage of the country may well choose to add it an existing setup if -

• Existing setups such as Freesat boxes allow free integration.
• A decent supply chain exist for sat solutions for reception at affordable prices.

watty

Hardly anyone uses 3rd party subs. A CI adds significant expense.

80 % sub UPC or Sky. This is a box for pay TV refusniks. Not subscribers to Al Jazeera or Tring etc, a very small percentage of the rest have other Mainland Europe sub.

The Satellite part is a pain without Freesat. Since Freesat is 40+ watchable TV and decent BBC interactive, I'd rather have a Freesat supporting box with bad support for Irish Digital than vice versa. But maybe it works with BBC interactive even though it might need to rely on internet for EPG info.

For people used to a lidl/B&Q/Aldi style sat Box, it will be fine for satellite and do Irish TV fine. but far too expensive. Nearly the price of a cheapest Irish Compatible TV. Nearly 1/2 price of a 42" HDTV for Saorview.

Anyway, I've just finished making my 8m Cat5e HDMI adaptor (just soldering and a €7 HDMI cable cut in half with 2x shielded Cat5e cables) to have PC with 2x Sat DVB-S2 PCI cards and Dual USB stick to have PC quad tuner recording in my radio shack. USB extension cable with RF cordless keyboard / Mouse for Living room. GT210 €40 card to do the 1080p50 properly.

It's too little of a product for too much money.

Winters

I already had Samsung tv so this was more a good way to get more/better reception on the existing Irish channels I had and boost that with feeding off the current Sky dish to get the UK ones. I was previously just running analog terrestrial which was a waste with a decent tv.

Just need to poke around the EPG more and try and clean up all the channels and find any that I don't have already tuned in. I have not tried the PVR yet, need to get one of my hard drives cleared and plug it in, going to do that this week. I really wasn't interested in any of the CI slots, this was more or less purely to gain access to the Saorview channels and the UK FTA.

Cost didn't bother me, think it was close enough to the value of a lot of the other combo prices, was also the easiest to pick up in time for bbcHD coverage of the 6 Nations next weekend

STB

scruffy66 wrote: »

Any sign of this box coming on the market stb , it would be great to have this on the market for the SAORVIEW launch in the summer .

It would also be great if humax would do some adjustments to their humax + box so we could record the SAORSAT channels and maybe other manufacturers of freesat hd and freesat hd+ boxes would follow suit, after all the market for freesat in england is quite small and to make these boxes with diseqc switches in them would be cheap and im sure there is a market for this in England as well, ie [access to epg and ability to watch and record channels from hotbird and astra 19 etc.

My wish list keeps getting BIGGER and BIGGER

QBOX HD Mini COMBO LINUX BOX - 199 EURO (except its more €250 now)

bbeeforsalmon

I hope to buy this box in the next day or 2, rather than wait for the saorview certification.

Can I use the RF out and LNB Out to carry the signals to the next room without the need for a Tri link kit?

If this is possible can I use a TV Aerial & Satellite Combiner to run one cable direct to the 2nd TV or to the current distribution amp used for terrestrial tv?

The 2nd TV is about 10 yrs old - will it work at all?

STB

bbeeforsalmon wrote: »

I hope to buy this box in the next day or 2, rather than wait for the saorview certification.

Can I use the RF out and LNB Out to carry the signals to the next room without the need for a Tri link kit?

If this is possible can I use a TV Aerial & Satellite Combiner to run one cable direct to the 2nd TV or to the current distribution amp used for terrestrial tv?

The 2nd TV is about 10 yrs old - will it work at all?

The LNB can be used to daisy chain to another satellite box and only then would you be able to watch the same transponder. You need to run another cable direct from a Quad LNB to another satellite box in order to watch other stations in the next room.

The RF loopthrough will carry the RF so that you can connect it to another mpeg4 digital set top box OR to carry the analogue RF to your TV. In other words it depends on the capabilities of your TV. No digital tuner - no digital terrestrial. Most TVs that old will only have analogue tuners.

Are you asking about an RF modulator ? ie watch the same station in the next room ? Then you will need to junction the combo box off the VCR Scart output to an RF modulator/old video recorder.

bbeeforsalmon

Thanks for the reply STB.
Yes I am talking about a modulator, in particular the one below and would hope to use a sky eye with it when I replace the old TV with a digital one.

http://www.tvtrade.ie/triax-trilink-kit.html

For the moment I think I will buy a new UHF aerial for saorview channels for use with the sthd537 for the main tv only and leave the current aerials and amps in place to feed the old analogue telly (in fact I have 2). When I get rid of these I can get the modulator to connect the 537 to 2 tv's.

Would it be ok to have the 2 uhf aerials on the one pole?

Hope this makes sense.

The Cush

bbeeforsalmon wrote: »

For the moment I think I will buy a new UHF aerial for saorview channels for use with the sthd537 for the main tv only and leave the current aerials and amps in place to feed the old analogue telly (in fact I have 2). When I get rid of these I can get the modulator to connect the 537 to 2 tv's.

Would it be ok to have the 2 uhf aerials on the one pole?

The existing "analogue" aerial should also do for Saorview just run a cable from a distribution amp to the main TV.

bbeeforsalmon

Thanks to The Cush for that - good thinking.

I didn't say that I also have an analogue BBC etc ariel which I hope to retain for the moment for my old tv's. The distribution amp is distributing both ariels in the one coax so this is what i will be connecting to the 537 as suggested by yourself - I hope this is ok???

The sat dish will supply the BBC etc digital channels for the new tv (no built in receiver) via the 537.

scruffy66

There is no doubt that Freetoair / saorview or freesat / saorview[saorsat] is and will be an alternative to pay TV.

But it is never going to be truly successful as an alternative to pay tv until both systems can be integrated in the one box with proper epg , red button ,automatic down loads , with choices of sd, hd and Hd + boxes.

Hopefully If this can happen it could end up being as big a success as Freeview is across the water and a real alternative to sky/ upc

watty

In UK they only need Freeview. Or Freesat if there is no signal.
Here we are wanting a local Terrestrial Service and Foreign Satellite Service that has proprietary data content. The likelihood of a true Freesat HD + Irish Digital Terrestrial (even if not Saorview Certified) PVR is slim to zero.

FreesatHD + (Saorsat via Diseqc and Other Channels in Favorites) is best hope for a future single box fully compatible with "Freesat HD" solution. That only needs small software change to existing "Freesat HD" PVRs.