DTT/FTA combo box

vectra

Mother has Sky at the moment.
She wants to go with FTA as I have it and am dead pleased with it.

She has a LCD tv in her bedroom with built in Mpeg4 and receives DTT channels perfectly so i am happy with her ariel setup ( I hope )

Now for her main TV which is a CRT she needs a combo box.
She is not certain as to if she should go with SD or HD ( she MAY buy an LCD tv in the near future.)

Whee do I buy one and what do I buy??
cheesr

Trevord

Looking at similar issue at the moment for parents.

Having digested a lot of posts here over the weekend it seems like you have two main choices -

the Edision Argus 2 in 1 from people like tvtrade.ie or
the Ferguson HD Ariva Combo from the likes of satellite.ie

Both are around the €170 mark and maybe slightly cheaper from interational websites

Both of these are HD and I think its worth future proofing. You never know when the tube in a tv is going to pack it in.

Positive
All your DTT and Sat channels in one EPG


Negatives (AFAIK) are that they

need retuning when channels change transponder
won't do the freesat 7 day programmes guide or freesat red button
won't do the new saorview teletext and possibility other more fancy red button style stuff that saorview will introduce


You might want to check what type of connections are available on the back of the CRT.

Mr McBoatface

vectra wrote: »

Mother has Sky at the moment.
She wants to go with freesat as I have it and am dead pleased with it.

She has a LCD tv in her bedroom with built in Mpeg4 and receives DTT channels perfectly so i am happy with her ariel setup ( I hope )

Now for her main TV which is a CRT she needs a combo box.
She is not certain as to if she should go with SD or HD ( she MAY buy an LCD tv in the near future.)

Whee do I buy one and what do I buy??
cheesr

No Freesat/DTT combo box available at all. You can get Free-TO-Air Sat and DTT combo's all lack 7 day freesat EPG(unless you get a Linux based combo with unofficial support) and no MHEG5 for the new digital tele-text.

However if your mother was thinking of replacing her TV I'd suggest the Sony KDL32V5810 http://powercity.ie/?par=10-12-32V581. It has a built In Freesat Tuner and a DTT tuner that also works with Saorview so there in no need for a separate box.

watty

vectra wrote: »

She is not certain as to if she should go with SD or HD ( she MAY buy an LCD tv in the near future.)

Whee do I buy one and what do I buy??
cheesr

HD. All HD downsample to SD for SCART. BBC1 HD on SCART is better than BBC1 on SCART, even though both SD.

DTT is of course HD minimum

Trevord

jobyrne30 wrote: »

No Freesat/DTT combo box available at all.

True. My post above should have made clear that these are boxes that do DTT/FTA and not DTT/Freesat.
(wishful thinking on my part)

vectra

Thanks for the replies lads.
Sorry for the confusion as i was looking at my own Freesat box while typing the post..
should be FTA/DTT :
Edited original post

That Sony looks good a Bit pricey though.

vectra

OK
Now I am as a confused as a dog that has been told to "Come in" & "Get out" at the same time

On reading other posts, I notice the subject of Teletext coming up..also
Official launch of certified boxes in May..
I have no problem getting her to wait until then..

Some expert advice on what to do please

STB

Get the Ferguson.

There will be no official combo products.

It is parent friendly. One channel list of HD Sat Sat and DTT. Forget Sky functionality recording.

Trevord

STB - could you expand on why you prefer the Ferguson?

Have you experience of other combo boxes such as the Edision ?

Pangea

Is there any Saorview/DTT combo pvr boxes around?
If not , could someone recomened a good saorview pvr?
Would I need two saorview signals coming into the saorview pvr if I wanted to watch and record at the same time?

Sam Russell

Pangea wrote: »

Would I need two saorview signals coming into the saorview pvr if I wanted to watch and record at the same time?

No, only the sat signal cannot be split.

watty

Pangea wrote: »

Is there any Saorview/DTT combo pvr boxes around?
If not , could someone recomened a good saorview pvr?
Would I need two saorview signals coming into the saorview pvr if I wanted to watch and record at the same time?

No proper Combos at all. They are all generic.

No Approved PVRs yet.

The Humax Fox T2 HDR is a good "Freeview HD" PVR that is mostly compatible with Saorview (far more so than any Combo). It may not show TG4 and TV3 teletext which ends likely after 2012. Hopefully TG4 and TV3 will add MHEG5 text pages before then (which do work on RTE right now).

Not sure if it will work with RTE's PVR series link which isn't available yet, but will be Nordig 2.2 spec. I don't understand the the Nordig 2.2 PVR series link spec yet, so can't say if it's compatible.

Otherwise it's the best non-Media PC choice currently.

Only Satellite needs separate cables. Saorview is an Aerial based signal.

There will be more actual Saorview certified products over next 3 to 6 months.

I'd wait and see how easy it is to rig up a Freesat HD PVR for UK Satellite + Saorsat. We will know the answer to that maybe in June. See http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056197117

12 element

Pangea wrote: »

Is there any Saorview/DTT combo pvr boxes around?
If not , could someone recomened a good saorview pvr?
Would I need two saorview signals coming into the saorview pvr if I wanted to watch and record at the same time?

Tower Electronics have a combo receiver that has PVR functionality over USB. Not certified of course!

rpm1966

I need a combo box to act as a PVR and supply an RF signal to another room. It should also work with a magic eye.

My TV has Red Button capability so I don't really need that in the box. I am reasonably adept technically so I don't mind having a box that I need to re-propgram periodically to pick up the new channels (as opposed to it happening automatically) but I would like it to be as user-friendly as possible.

I would like to have both a 7-Day EPG on both Freesat and for Irish DTT but I guess that is unlikely from what I've read on this board?

I know there has been a mention of waiting for a few months to see what certified - but is it likely that there will be a combo box out any time soon with most of the following features: 7-Day EPG on both Freesat & Saorview; Series Link as well as magic eye and RF-out?

I notice that the TechTir site mentions "EPG and Series link for PVRs coming when infrastructure complete. Uses Nordig PVR specification." How soon will it be until we see the 'infrastructure complete'?

I am aware of the Ferguson Ariva Combo, the Edision 2 in 1 and the Spider boxes - is that as good as it gets or should I wait for the Saorview launch to see what other combo boxes are in the offing?

watty

Wait till June, or at least after Saorsat starts then review how to do PVR.


RTE didn't know or want to say, "when infrastructure complete". Basically as soon as they are able, they will transmit the series link info.