Freeview HD receiver for £70

holidaysong

I just purchased this Metronic Zapbox Freeview HD receiver from Amazon for my parents in Dundalk. It's only £70 (inc. free P&P to Ireland) and could be a good bargain for someone else, especially those in a Freeview overspill area.

My parents only have one MPEG-2 STB at present so I was looking to get them something Saorview compatible. Also, I wanted a DVB-T2 box so they'd get the Freeview HD channels post 2012 (for those in overspill areas a Freeview HD box is actually probably a better long term buy than a T1 Saorview box).

Apogee

holidaysong wrote: »

I just purchased this Metronic Zapbox Freeview HD receiver from Amazon for my parents in Dundalk. It's only £70 (inc. free P&P to Ireland) and could be a good bargain for someone else, especially those in a Freeview overspill area.

My parents only have one MPEG-2 STB at present so I was looking to get them something Saorview compatible. Also, I wanted a DVB-T2 box so they'd get the Freeview HD channels post 2012 (for those in overspill areas a Freeview HD box is actually probably a better long term buy than a T1 Saorview box).

When you get a chance, could you post a few photos of the box in operation? In particular, the layout of the Irish and UK channels on the EPG - either via favourites or otherwise.

holidaysong

Yeah no problem. I'll report back (with photos) next week when it arrives.

galtee boy

Has anybody got a Freeview + HD receiver up and running with Saorview ? If so, does it record, pause, rewind ok ? Does it show 7 day epg for Saorview and what sort of epg does it display ( any chance of pictures ! ), in other words, does the box come with a particular epg display/format in it's software and that in turn is populated with info from the Saorview signal ? What about over the air updates to software etc ? The box can't get any updates, that the manufacturer will send using Freeview ( assume here, we're not in a part of Ireland that can get Freeview ). Does MHEG5 work on it here ? as in Saorview epg and digital aertel. Thanks for any replies.

slicedpanman

to hijack galtee boys list of questions I'd also like to know; does series-link work on any of the FreeViewHD PVRs on SaorView?

Possibly the broadcasters aren't sending the relevant data just yet to allow it to work...

No series link on my sagemcom freeview hd with saorview anyhow.
In contrast when you click record on a uk channels programme on this machine,it asks you do you want to record the whole series and you either click ok to yes or no

I'm wondering do they do series link at all?

Live pause and one touch recording works fine as does setting programmes to record in the planner up to a week in advance by clicking record in the epg.

slicedpanman

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm wondering do they do series link at all?

me too BB - I've not seen any mention of it anywhere...

watty

The answer is they can, if the Broadcassters submit the relevant XML

yop

Ok, can I be blonde (wait I am ) , but I have a Samsung LCD with in build tuner, its MPEG2, so I only have sound.

Will the above box work then for me to get the Ireland freeview?

Thanks v much

how long ago did you buy the tv?
If it's less than 2 years ago,popular wisdom round here is,with the sale of goods act, you can return it and the shop must give you your money back or a replacement that has mpeg 4 as the tv is not fit for purpose in that it soon will not be able to receive irish terrestrial tv.

yop

Black Briar, no I bought it near 5 years ago.

I have a 22" Samsung with build in MPEG4 decoder and it works a treat.

There is I think, a cam slot in the Samsung 40" LCD that I have (the 5 yr old one).

watty

cam slot is no use

The Neotion "CAMs" such as Pocket Duo or NP4 will not convert TVs or Set-boxes
Warnings

* The NP4 or any other Neotion CAM will never meet NorDig 2.0, Soarview Specification or do HD TV. Do not Purchase. It will Fail

http://www.neotion-processor.com/processors/processors.pdf

The CAM slot is only good for UK topup TV and French SD payTV TNT (not TNT HD).

Cams can't do HD on MPEG2 sets.

byte

Deleted User wrote: »

how long ago did you buy the tv?
If it's less than 2 years ago,popular wisdom round here is,with the sale of goods act, you can return it and the shop must give you your money back or a replacement that has mpeg 4 as the tv is not fit for purpose in that it soon will not be able to receive irish terrestrial tv.

The only argument I can see, is if the TV was promoted as a digital TV (eg. it had MPEG2), then there might be a case there.

If the TV was sold not promoting a digital tuner, then I'd doubt there's a case.

(I'm basing this on a TV sale around 2 years ago).

holidaysong

yop wrote: »

Will the above box work then for me to get the Ireland freeview?

Yes, it'll work for Saorview.

Dman001

Quick question. If you are in an area that can receive Freeview, will a Freeview HD box pick up both Freeview (HD and non-HD) channels and Saorview? Apologies for going slightly off topic.

holidaysong

Dman001 wrote: »

Quick question. If you are in an area that can receive Freeview, will a Freeview HD box pick up both Freeview (HD and non-HD) channels and Saorview? Apologies for going slightly off topic.

Yes it will. All the channels will show up on the one EPG which makes it very handy. The Saorview channels usually show up in the 800s but you can rearrange them yourself on most models.

watty

yes

Dman001

holidaysong wrote: »

Yes it will. All the channels will show up on the one EPG which makes it very handy. The Saorview channels usually show up in the 800s but you can rearrange them yourself on most models.

Cool was wondering how the box would handle both Freeview and Saorview. Hmm might shell out for a Freeview HD box so, and get the best of both worlds. Cheers.

lawhec

A Freeview HD receiver should be fine for Saorview transmissions, but unless you also have access to UK DTT transmissions, it's almost certain that you won't be able to perform over-the-air software upgrades on the equiptment if it is not certified as Saorview compatible. The receiver might be able to get a software update another way e.g. Ethernet, serial port etc. but it's certainly not as convienent. I'd expect any Saorview certified equiptment to be able to receive possible OTA updates in the future on the RTÉNL multiplex(es), but that's no certaintity that updates will take place for a certain product.

The Cush

Dman001 wrote: »

Quick question. If you are in an area that can receive Freeview, will a Freeview HD box pick up both Freeview (HD and non-HD) channels and Saorview?

Yes, Black Briar above has a Sony freeview-HD TV picking up Saorview and freeview and freeview-HD. I think he really likes the TV.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=68362389&postcount=18
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=68362788#post68362788
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=68393454#post68393454
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=68560989#post68560989

Avns1s

holidaysong wrote: »

Yes, it'll work for Saorview.

You know that for definite? Because I don't see anything in your link that suggests that it will.

Dman001

Avns1s wrote: »

You know that for definite? Because I don't see anything in your link that suggests that it will.

I believe the Freeview HD channels broadcast in MPeg 4, the same as Saorview, so it should work.

Avns1s

Dman001 wrote: »

I believe the Freeview HD channels broadcast in MPeg 4, the same as Saorview, so it should work.

Cheers mate.

holidaysong

Apogee wrote: »

When you get a chance, could you post a few photos of the box in operation? In particular, the layout of the Irish and UK channels on the EPG - either via favourites or otherwise.

Received the Freeview HD box yesterday. The Irish and UK channels work seamlessly together in the EPG. The Irish channels originally show up in the 800s in the EPG. However, you can edit the channel numbers yourself and I resorted them to match how they appear on analogue in the house. Here are some photos:

Apogee

Excellent stuff - thanks holidaysong!

doney84

This looks great

2 questions ...

Does it have a 7 day epg ?
Does it do mheg-5 (Saorview epg) ?

watty

Freeview and Saorview use same MHEG5,
Though what happens if both can be received I don't know.

carveone

Thanks for the pictures. Looks like a reasonable competitor to the other cheap HD box mentioned on boards, the Sigmatek DVBR-520. One concern I had with these boxes is the startup time though. One review of the Metronic mentioned something like 15 seconds.

Just seems a bit extreme considering the cheap Freesat boxes Lidl were selling (Comag SL50s and the like) had a startup time of around 3 seconds.

Otherwise looks good and I think I'll pick one up myself

The Cush

doney84 wrote: »

This looks great

2 questions ...

Does it have a 7 day epg ?
Does it do mheg-5 (Saorview epg) ?

watty wrote: »

Freeview and Saorview use same MHEG5,
Though what happens if both can be received I don't know.

There is no MHEG-5 Saorview epg ... yet or MHEG-5 freeview epg, only Digital Text. Programme schedule data is carried in the DVB-SI stream and displayed in the receivers native programme guide as you can see in the first picture above with the Irish and UK channels included.

If two mheg-5 applications are available i.e. Saorview & Freeview, only the one related to the channel being viewed will be launched.

doney84

The Cush wrote: »

There is no MHEG-5 Saorview epg ... yet or MHEG-5 freeview epg, only Digital Text. Programme schedule data is carried in the DVB-SI stream and displayed in the receivers native programme guide as you can see in the first picture above with the Irish and UK channels included.

If two mheg-5 applications are available i.e. Saorview & Freeview, only the one related to the channel being viewed will be launched.

Thanks for clearing that up Cush. Thinking of getting one of these as i was looking for a box that could combine Saorview & Freeview. DVB-T2 box seems the only way to go if i want the UK free to air HD channels and my understanding is it will also do the Irish HD channels(when they become available!) ... Getting closer to getting rid of that $ky sub

holidaysong

doney84 wrote: »

DVB-T2 box seems the only way to go if i want the UK free to air HD channels...

Just to clarify that if you're getting your Freeview overspill from NI (rather than Wales) that there will be no HD channels until 2012.

You can also get these UK HD channels on a Freesat box by the way, which could be an option for you as state you currently have Sky.

doney84 wrote: »

...and my understanding is it will also do the Irish HD channels(when they become available!)

Check my fourth picture. It's RTÉ's HD test channel.

Your channel list is the same as mine on 6,7 and 8 with the irish channels.
I've put BBC1 hd on one now though instead of bbc1 wales and itv1hd on 3 instead of itv1 wales.

Theres no ch4hd on welsh tx's yet unfortunately , just s4c hd which has very very few viewers and is hopefully going to be replaced soon with ch4hd as the bbc is taking over s4c's out of control budget.

The sony and the sagemcom have a mini screen in their epg which is nice.
I'll post pics later to this thread

Rick_

Can you re-name channels on any of these STB's by any chance?

holidaysong

Paddy C wrote: »

Can you re-name channels on any of these STB's by any chance?

Yes you can. I renamed the BBC red button channel from '301' to 'BBC Red Button' for example.

gtg60

Got one of these today, bit cheap looking but works well, can't wait to get up to my folks to see how the HD channels look on it.

FREETV

gtg60 wrote: »

Got one of these today, bit cheap looking but works well, can't wait to get up to my folks to see how the HD channels look on it.

Hi gtg60, I was trying to buy one of those boxes earlier today and I couldn't as it said that the item cannot be shipped to my address here in Swords. As you are in Wicklow how did you get it to work and be shipped to you please? I was trying amazon.co.uk and maybe it cannot be shipped to Ireland.

gtg60

FREETV wrote: »

Hi gtg60, I was trying to buy one of those boxes earlier today and I couldn't as it said that the item cannot be shipped to my address here in Swords. As you are in Wicklow how did you get it to work and be shipped to you please?

Bought mine on eBay as I had some Paypal Sterling burning a hole in my pocket! :rolleyes:;)

FREETV

gtg60 wrote: »

Bought mine on eBay as I had some Paypal Sterling burning a hole in my pocket! :rolleyes:;)

Thanks, was it the one on sale for 59.99 sterling you bought? How much did it cost you to ship here in euros? Just bought mine from Amazon themselves as the other seller doesn't ship to here.Amazon offer free super saver delivery so the box cost78.03 in total. Due for delivery around December 7 or 8. It will be used for Saorview viewing mostly and will use my Iomega 500GB usb harddrive for recordings. I also have the old Sagem Picnic box which I will use for the SD channels in another room after RTE2 begins to broadcast in HD.

OldRio

FREETV wrote: »

Hi gtg60, I was trying to buy one of those boxes earlier today and I couldn't as it said that the item cannot be shipped to my address here in Swords. As you are in Wicklow how did you get it to work and be shipped to you please? I was trying amazon.co.uk and maybe it cannot be shipped to Ireland.

Hi, I was looking to buy one of these today. I checked Amazon and lo and behold they would not ship to the Irish Republic. Checked the website and found I was on the uk site. Googled Amazon Ireland. Went on that site,no bother.

FREETV

OldRio wrote: »

Hi, I was looking to buy one of these today. I checked Amazon and lo and behold they would not ship to the Irish Republic. Checked the website and found I was on the uk site. Googled Amazon Ireland. Went on that site,no bother.

I went directly to Amazon who were selling a little dearer than another seller with a shop on ebay who doesn't ship to here but Amazon themselves do. I don't think that it has a usb pvr function according to the manual online.

dowtchaboy

FREETV wrote: »

It will be used for Saorview viewing mostly and will use my Iomega 500GB usb harddrive for recordings.

This box doesn't seem to have a USB port for recording or playback - or am I looking at the wrong spec??

FREETV

dowtchaboy wrote: »

This box doesn't seem to have a USB port for recording or playback - or am I looking at the wrong spec??

It probably doesn't unless there has been a firmware update to allow those functions. See my earlier post, thought that it would be included as the box was very expensive when first released/launched to the public.

Tom Slick

FREETV wrote: »

It will be used for Saorview viewing mostly and will use my Iomega 500GB usb harddrive for recordings. . .

How are you going to connect this to a box with no usb ports?

FREETV

Tom Slick wrote: »

How are you going to connect this to a box with no usb ports?

True, just saw that earlier and I can't understand why these boxes don't as they were very expensive initially when first launched. It will be replaced whenever Technisat or Humax twin tuner Freeview HD+ boxes drop significantly in price in a year or two. I will just connect the scart out to my Sony dvd recorder for a lower fidelity result for recordings.

OldRio

Thanks OP ordered one of these from Amazon. Should arrive in about 5 days.:D

FREETV

Hi all, well my Metronic T2 HD Zapbox arrived just after noon today and I must say for a free delivery from Amazon was very fast indeed. The RF lead however was missing from the included accessories in the box so I sent Amazon an email anyway as according to the guide it is supposed to be in the box. So far I am happy with my purchase and the RTENL HD test channel picture earlier looked glorious through the hdmi lead included. I just have to edit the channel numbers to single digits for the tv channels. I just read their return email and they have sent out a new box again and after the new one comes and I check that everything is enclosed, I have to send the old box back by recorded delivery but will be refunded for the postage cost incurred. Great customer service from Amazon, although an RF lead missing isn't much of an inconvenience. It will be used in the mean time until the new one arrives. I expect that they won't be able to sell it as a new item but a refurbished item instead. Did anyone else buy the Metronic box and receive it with any accessories missing? They cannot send out any item missing so if that happens to anyone else who buys it you will have to send the whole package back after you get a replacement one.

Joe7

An RF lead, are you sure it was supposed to be included?

Don't think I'd bother sending it back unless the box had been tampered with or looked like it had already been sold & returned.

watty

Such a lead is €2 to €5

Usually rubbish quality. I'd not bother sending back.

FREETV

watty wrote: »

Such a lead is €2 to €5

Usually rubbish quality. I'd not bother sending back.

I didn't want to but they cannot just send out the missing item. More hassle for me to queue in the post office. My God, I can only imagine how many people will be waiting it being the busiest month of the year all because of an RF lead. He has made out an order for a new one already and it will be dispatched tomorrow I think. According to available actions this portion of the order cannot be changed or cancelled it says. He sent the email at around 4.05PM and I didn't check my email afor a few hours afterwards. Still I did pay for it and yes it is supposed to be included according to the manual.

lawhec

Got this STB about two weeks ago, main idea being that as well as HD material & some future-proofing for both Saorview and Freeview HD, also attached an external modulator to pipe around the house so anyone wanting to watch RTÉ in another room (if Sky's not available) can do so via this STB, and plan to take down the large VHF aerial which is giving a considerable wind load on the pole.

When the RTÉNL HD test programme was running, have to say the quality was excellent, even just on a 1366x768 display. Upscaled SD through HDMI looks good as well though MPEG artifacting looks more noticable, when watched via SCART socket the softer picture does a better job hiding this.

The remote control is a bit of a disappointment, but other than that the receiver works, not many frills but a good job on the reception department.

Joe7

FREETV wrote: »

. . . all because of an RF lead.

I have a drawer full of crappy leads that came with various items. I think I could live without another one.