What gear do I need?

Paul007

Hi,

I'm based in Dublin and looking to install a rooftop/attic aerial to pickup the Irish terrestrial channels and need some help regarding what equipment to buy.

As I understand it, I'll need a decent quality wideband aerial plus a multi-output masthead amp to distribute the feed around the house.

Has anyone any recommendations on where to buy such equipment?

Cheers

Mr McBoatface

Paul007 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm based in Dublin and looking to install a rooftop/attic aerial to pickup the Irish terrestrial channels and need some help regarding what equipment to buy.

As I understand it, I'll need a decent quality wideband aerial plus a multi-output masthead amp to distribute the feed around the house.

Has anyone any recommendations on where to buy such equipment?

Cheers

Hi Paul007,

What is your location in Dublin, it could have a bearing on the signal strength you'll receive and any recommended shops.

Also just to let you know I compared the signal from a number of Aerials used inside my attic space and I've managed to get as good a signal from a stick antenna supply with 20 euro USB DVB-T tuner as I did with a 70 euro Televes DAT75 - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055902513. I later tested a set of 15 euro One For All rabbits ears and after a bit of playing around I got an identical signal strength to the Televes DAT75. If you're in an area with a decent signal you could have the same results.

Not recommending any where but personally I've bought the Televes DAT75 from ebay along with the amp I've also bought another multi amp from tradetv.ie. There may be shops near where you live which might suit better.

Sam Russell

Paul007 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm based in Dublin and looking to install a rooftop/attic aerial to pickup the Irish terrestrial channels and need some help regarding what equipment to buy.

As I understand it, I'll need a decent quality wideband aerial plus a multi-output masthead amp to distribute the feed around the house.

Has anyone any recommendations on where to buy such equipment?

Cheers

Chances are, anything will do the job. Try a bent coathanger first. It is surprising just how strong the signal is.

Prisoner6409

jobyrne30 wrote: »

Hi Paul007,

What is your location in Dublin, it could have a bearing on the signal strength you'll receive and any recommended shops.

Also just to let you know I compared the signal from a number of Aerials used inside my attic space and I've managed to get as good a signal from a stick antenna supply with 20 euro USB DVB-T tuner as I did with a 70 euro Televes DAT75 - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055902513. I later tested a set of 15 euro One For All rabbits ears and after a bit of playing around I got an identical signal strength to the Televes DAT75. If you're in an area with a decent signal you could have the same results.

Not recommending any where but personally I've bought the Televes DAT75 from ebay along with the amp I've also bought another multi amp from tradetv.ie. There may be shops near where you live which might suit better.

I have a Hauppauge HVR-900 usb stick and a DVB-T aerial bought in Lidl for €9.99. Now the aerial because on my main TV I gan pick up the digital channels and test cards ect. My problem is using the USB tuner(hdr-900) on my PC I can pick up the channels but just audio(no picture), I can get the analog rte's just fine but although it picks up the digital siginals I only get the audio, any idea what is going wrong. I'm using the hauppauge with XP SP3.

The Cush

Prisoner6409 wrote: »

I have a Hauppauge HVR-900 usb stick and a DVB-T aerial bought in Lidl for €9.99. Now the aerial because on my main TV I gan pick up the digital channels and test cards ect. My problem is using the USB tuner(hdr-900) on my PC I can pick up the channels but just audio(no picture), I can get the analog rte's just fine but although it picks up the digital siginals I only get the audio, any idea what is going wrong. I'm using the hauppauge with XP SP3.

Irish DTT's video compression standard is MPEG-4, sound and no vision would indicate your unit is not MPEG-4 compatible but MPEG-2, the standard used for DTT video compression in the UK and Germany for example. The unit probably isn't software upgradeable.

Check the specs of any DTT product you intend buying for the following colour/video standard - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC or MPEG-4 or H.264 AVC. Otherwise wait for Saorview approved products

This problem is posted here regularly do a search.

Prisoner6409

Yes I did see a lot of ppl were having similar issues but not the same. My problem is I can get the digital channels with the HVR-900 using Win 7 and windows media cntr although Hauppauge have released a kind of patch for this(SetupMCECIPlugin.exe - http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/support/support_all.html?prod=1) but try as I might I cannot get it working(pic that is) with XP SP3.

The Cush

Prisoner6409 wrote: »

Yes I did see a lot of ppl were having similar issues but not the same. My problem is I can get the digital channels with the HVR-900 using Win 7 and windows media cntr although Hauppauge have released a kind of patch for this(SetupMCECIPlugin.exe - http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/support/support_all.html?prod=1) but try as I might I cannot get it working(pic that is) with XP SP3.

Still sound like an MPEG-4 decoding problem. Hardware based I believe. That software update states "Note: Does not include H.264/HE-AAC/AC3 decoders"

STB

Prisoner

It can be solved quite easily (with free software).

MPEG4 H264 drivers are native to Windows 7. They are not on XP nor Vista.

On XP you will need to buy the software codec (Core Avc) if you want to use with other applications OR for free just use VLC (which has X264) with this command line (set up a shortcut on your desktop that points to this).

"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" dvb-t:// :dvb-frequency=738000000

(738000000 being the frequency for Three Rock DTT - if you are in a different part of the country you will have to change the TX frequency)

You will need to download VLC first videolan.org

Bob_Harris

STB wrote: »

On XP you will need to buy the software codec (Core Avc) if you want to use with other applications OR for free just use VLC (which has X264) with this command line (set up a shortcut on your desktop that points to this).

Or use a free H.264 codec if you want to use with other applications, e.g.

ffdshow tryouts
DivX Plus Codec Pack

Paul007

jobyrne30 wrote: »

Hi Paul007,

What is your location in Dublin, it could have a bearing on the signal strength you'll receive and any recommended shops.

Also just to let you know I compared the signal from a number of Aerials used inside my attic space and I've managed to get as good a signal from a stick antenna supply with 20 euro USB DVB-T tuner as I did with a 70 euro Televes DAT75 - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055902513. I later tested a set of 15 euro One For All rabbits ears and after a bit of playing around I got an identical signal strength to the Televes DAT75. If you're in an area with a decent signal you could have the same results.

Not recommending any where but personally I've bought the Televes DAT75 from ebay along with the amp I've also bought another multi amp from tradetv.ie. There may be shops near where you live which might suit better.

Hi Jo,

I'm in the D9 area.
I have an in door aerial I've been playing around with and the signal strength seems to be fine for the dtt trials but the analogue channels are a bit ropey.
As I still have a couple of old portable tv's in the bedrooms I'd like to pickup the analogue feed for a while yet.

The Televes you mentioned looks good but could possibly be overkill for my needs. I've just spotted this one in another thread which might do the job and isn't too expensive.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&ModuleNo=36354&doy=3m7
Ideally, I just want something that's CAI approved and will give decent results from the attic.

In regards to amplifiers, are there any recommended makes or would I get away with a bog standard one? Presumably, I need something with variable gain.

Paul007

Sam Russell wrote: »

Chances are, anything will do the job. Try a bent coathanger first. It is surprising just how strong the signal is.

Tried this before for the analogue channels but the reception was fairly poor plus I nearly broke the socket on the back of my tv. lol

I'd say there's a fair chance I'd pick up the dtt tests though

Your DTT will be fine,it's digital with error correcting technology unlike analogue so If your tv reception analogue is a little like this or even a bit worse,you should have irish dtt from the same transmitter no problem-see image :

Prisoner6409

Paul007 wrote: »

Tried this before for the analogue channels but the reception was fairly poor plus I nearly broke the socket on the back of my tv. lol

I'd say there's a fair chance I'd pick up the dtt tests though

I got a silvercrest dvb-t aerial for 9.99 euro just last week in Lidl and it works quite well.



STB I have the core codec, a mainconcept H264 codec, ffdshow ect already installed. I only last week installed vlc to use with a Java PS3 media streamer so I will deffo give that command line a tryout, thanks.

Bob I already have the divx plus codecs installed. I'm wondering if there could be some conflicts between all these codecs.

Prisoner6409

STB wrote: »

Prisoner

It can be solved quite easily (with free software).

MPEG4 H264 drivers are native to Windows 7. They are not on XP nor Vista.

On XP you will need to buy the software codec (Core Avc) if you want to use with other applications OR for free just use VLC (which has X264) with this command line (set up a shortcut on your desktop that points to this).

"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" dvb-t:// :dvb-frequency=738000000

(738000000 being the frequency for Three Rock DTT - if you are in a different part of the country you will have to change the TX frequency)

You will need to download VLC first videolan.org

Excellent, works a treat, who would have thought considering the software developed for the hauppauge hvr-900 does not work even though it is tuned into the same frequency(738000000) it only outputs audio. Thanks guys.

STB

Prisoner6409 wrote: »

STB I have the core codec, a mainconcept H264 codec, ffdshow ect already installed. I only last week installed vlc to use with a Java PS3 media streamer so I will deffo give that command line a tryout, thanks.

Bob I already have the divx plus codecs installed. I'm wondering if there could be some conflicts between all these codecs.

Thats exactly what the problem is. Go into ffdshow and there should be a facility to turn it off as the codec. It overrides everything afaik.

The reason that VLC works of course is that it doesnt depend on codecs as it is self reliant and for H264 uses its own X264 to decode.