Terrestrial and freeview

Penn

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum

Basically, just moved into a new apartment. The previous tenant had Chorus, and the thing is still on the wall. There's a wire coming in through the window into the Chorus thing on the wall.

Thing is, I can't connect my tv to it as I don't have one of the aerial connections which screws into it, so I can't even get normal stations (can't find the small aerial for the tv)

So I was wondering about a freeview box. I don't know if the chorus thing was an aerial or dish (haven't checked yet, only moved in over the weekend), but if I bought a freeview box, could I just connect it to the chorus thing on the wall, or does it matter if it's aerial or dish? Also, where can you get just the freeview box without a dish

Sorry if this doesn't make a lot of sense, I have no idea what I'm talking about to be honest

It would help if you said where you were located so we'd know what your local transmitter is etc and give an opinion on how strong the signal would be in your area.

We're not mind readers ,you know...

Chorus connection is either a cable connection for UPC or it is to an mmds dish.
Neither will do for freeview.
You will need some kind of an aerial,perhaps located in your loft and cabled down or on a window terrace or the roof.

Sometimes sockets for a communal aerial are in appartments but this looks unlikely on yours as it says chorus...so thats either mmds or cable ie useless for terrestrial.

Penn

Sorry, located in Slane.

Unfortunately its a ground floor apartment, so no balcony or loft. Dunno what the story is with putting a dish up, I just presumed that since there must have been a dish or aerial for the chorus thing, that the freeview could run through it.

It's like i said though, I can't even get terrestrial stations if I can't connect to that chorus box, as I presume that's where the original aerial socket was

HappyHarry

paddyirishman85 wrote: »

Sorry, located in Slane.

Unfortunately its a ground floor apartment, so no balcony or loft. Dunno what the story is with putting a dish up, I just presumed that since there must have been a dish or aerial for the chorus thing, that the freeview could run through it.

It's like i said though, I can't even get terrestrial stations if I can't connect to that chorus box, as I presume that's where the original aerial socket was

Where does the cable go?
You can get an adapter or cable to convert from the screw type (F Type) connector to the push type coaxial connector for a couple of euro.

It's very likely that it's upc mmds.
I recall an estate in ashbourne that had UPC for just one estate running off one system.

Is there one of these on the appartment block roof or nearby ?



Regardless,upc subs are as follows:

http://www.upc.ie/television/

Do you have a patio? I suspect there are too many buildings around you at ground level for RTE digital terrestrial to work.

There you'd be going for Kippure or Three rock,for which you'd need an uninterupted view to the south,

Clermonth carn ,an uninterupted [by buildings] view to the north.

Can you see the Dublin/Wicklow mtns at all from your door? or the mountains above carlingford lough?

Penn

Dunno where the cable goes, it just goes out the window. Dunno if it goes to a dish or aerial. I called UPC to heck their tv and broadband deals, but can only get basic digital (the €25 per month deal) and no broadband, so that's why I just want the terrestrial stations for now, or the freeview if i could get it. If I got one of those adapters, could I use it with the freeview if the chorus was a dish?

No that socket and dish will not work freeview or RTE digital for you.
Your choices are limited.
Have you any views out your window/patio that isn't blocked by buildings?

Penn

Pretty much surrounded, but I'm not sure what the story is with what is currently there. I mean, the previous tenant had chorus, and surely even before that there must have been some way to get terrestrial stations. So I presume there might be a single aerial or dish which is then split for all the apartments or something. I'll try that F type adapter to see if that'll get me the terrestrial stations anyway.

Sorry I'm not much help. Only moved in on Saturday and didn't even think of tv until today. That's why I rang UPC about getting a tv and broadband deal. I'll have a look around when I get home this evening to see what I can see. Thanks for the help

If it has chorus wrote on it,you can be pretty sure it won't-but let us know anyway,it's an outside chance that the inner length of cable will act as aerial enogh if theres a strong enough RTE dtt signal there.
I doubt it though.

Alternatively a wideband aerial with a masthead amp [powered plugged in] might do the job at ground level on the patio.
You are into spending up to €100 then but not guaranteed digital reception.

Penn

Worst comes to worst, I might just go for the €25 UPC package. Some good stations on it anyway. Like I said, there's a chorus thing on the wall, so can they just hook it up to that?

Penn

Okay, had a look last night. There are two dishes like the image posted earlier on the roof, and the line coming in through my window goes up along the outside wall and onto the roof, so I presume that it's connected to one of the dishes.

I got one of the F type to coaxial adapters and plugged it into my telly, but couldn't get any terrestrial or DVB channels.

So what are my options for tv then? Should I go for the €25 UPC deal (would they just have to turn it on or would they need to install stuff?), or is there any way I can just get the terrestrial stations at least? I'd have to talk to the landlord if there are any holes needed drilling or changes made etc

Can you get permission to put a small grid aerial on the roof beside that mesh aerial pointed to either kippure [towards Dublin] or Clermont carn [towards Dundalk] and cable it down to your appartment with the cable running tight alongside the existing cable?
That should be enough to get you irish digital-no sub.

The grid might with a powered masthead amp if pointed towards Dundalk bring in some analogue NI tv aswell if you are lucky and post 2012 UK freeview.

Penn

What about the UPC deal? You think they'd just have to connect it or whatever without any installation? I think the existing dishees are pointing towards Dundalk if that matters

For UPC,I'd say,the installer would just call and plug in and play.

For an aerial,if you can see towards Dundalk at the roof,then an aerial up there wired to your apartment might get you a lot of TV from NI.
You'd have to ask a local installer.

Management companies may have a sweetheart deal with upc though preventing you putting an aerial up there or a fta satelite dish.

If you got an aerial on the roof and a small sat dish,you could get a combo box that does rte digital and freesat giving you 100's of channels all for free.

lucernarian

The Chorus "dishes" are pointing towards Mt. Oriel to the west of Collon, just up the road from Slane. You should ask the landlord to see if a sky or satellite dish can be put up too, as BB referred to.

It will be a cold day in hell before you get UPC broadband in Slane.

Most likely, Kippure is the transmitter that serves you. Slane village in general is a ****e location for terrestrial reception. If it's in apartment buildings, it's probably within the village itself. If the apartment is near the river, then you can only hope for a weak RTE 1 and 2 from Kippure in the Wicklow mountains if you're using a rabbit's ears or other such indoor aerial. TV3 and TG4 will probably be weaker again. Cairn Hill may work best, but that could vary from one apartment to the next and being honest, using the automatic tuning on the tv will be the best way of finding out what you can pick up with an indoor aerial.

Have you tried some sort of indoor aerial yet?

Penn

No indoor aerial yet. Think I'll just go with the UPC package. Cheap enough, some good stations. Do rightly, and likely no installation or anything required since the setup is already in place.

Thanks for the help guys

marclt

paddyirishman85 wrote: »

No indoor aerial yet. Think I'll just go with the UPC package. Cheap enough, some good stations. Do rightly, and likely no installation or anything required since the setup is already in place.

Thanks for the help guys

Give them a call and see if there are any advantages of doing it online...?

UPC will insist on calling out to your place and installing the modem themselves...Even if that means just plugging it in and ringing the office themselves to get the card authed.
They won't let you do it.
So you are best looking for a saturday appointment with them.

Penn

Yeah, called them there and explained that it was already set up for chorus digital, but she said that someone would still have to come out because the dish may have been disconnected and other such bull****. I think I read on that link that it's free installation If you order online, so not too worried. Going to try an indoor aerial tonight anyway, try to watch the match

Penn

Okay, so I have a bit more information now, just need to clarify a few things

I thought the previous tenant had the chorus installed. He didn't. The apartment block is actually already wired for chorus with the mmds cables or whatever. The previous tenant actually had sky installed, which is where the wire goes out through my window and up to the roof to the dish

This wire goes into the chorus thing on the wall. But when I plugged the f type coaxial adapter into the chorus thing (I meant to take a picture of it, basically theres two connections at the bottom, tv and fm. The sky wire goes into the tv bit) I had been plugging it into the fm bit (because it was free). So if I plugged the aerial into the tv bit by taking out the sky wire, would that give me freeview or even just normal terrestrial?

no-if that cable is connected to a sky dish,it needs a sat receiver.

HOWEVER-you could disconnect it on the roof from the dish and put an aerial up instead and connect the sat cable to that.
Sat cable is just very good aerial cable basically.

Penn

But surely by removing the sky cable from the chorus thing and plugging my telly into it, I'd be removing the sky dish from the equation and connecting the the previous chorus setup. The landlord said the building was wired for chorus years ago for every apartment, and since there isn't a bunch of aerials, does that not mean you just have to plug into it to get terrestrial at least?

Christ this is all very confusing.

Penn

Just spoke to UPC there, understand things a bit better now. They turned off the service for my apartment when the guy got sky, so even to get terrestrial stations I'd need them to come out, and even then it's still 25 a month or so. So I'm just going to get them to turn on the cheapest digital package this weekend.

Thanks for the help guys. Probably had your heads wrecked with not being able to understand half this stuff. Very confusing altogether

watty

If the dish is still there you can buy a Satbox for once off €60 and have all the main UK channels free.

paddyirishman85

paddyirishman85 wrote: »

Just spoke to UPC there, understand things a bit better now. They turned off the service for my apartment when the guy got sky, so even to get terrestrial stations I'd need them to come out, and even then it's still 25 a month or so. So I'm just going to get them to turn on the cheapest digital package this weekend.

Thanks for the help guys. Probably had your heads wrecked with not being able to understand half this stuff. Very confusing altogether

UPC would not explain what I was trying to explain to you.
Up on the roof,you take the cable coming from your appartment and hook it into a good wideband aerial with a masthead amp and point it towards Dundalk somewhere.
Meanwhile down in your appartment you plug in a power supply unit,that came with the mast head amp and connect the upc/chorus cable to that at the point that says aerial in.
You connect another piece of aerial cable that you will have to buy to the aerial out part of the psu and put a plug on that and plug it into the back of the tv.

Then tune the tv for analogue and digital and see what happens.
At the very least you should get the irish channels from clermont carm
Have someone with you with a phone beside the tv and move the aerial for best reception with the person downstairs telling you as it gets good or bad etc-Optimise it as best you can!
You could experiment and point NW towards Brougher in Tyrone and you might get cairn hill RTE and NI stations.

Regardless,you will at least get RTE in digital from somewhere if you do thta.

Alternatively you could just hook up a freesat receiver like watty says [I'd recommend the humax foxsat pvr as you can record,rewind,live pause etc but you will need a 2nd cable to the dish and a quad lnb on it for certain functionality...that said it will work on just one and a boifg standard freesat box will].
Then run a new cable out the window and up to the roof to a new irish uhf wideband aerialk to get the 4 irish channels from clermont carn or Kippure or wherever.
Freesat wont give you rte thats why you'll need the aerial and new run to the roof for it.

Is that clear? No €25 a month then-just one off costs.