Freeview HD Irish(saorview) DVB-T TV Tuner Receiver

ralphie

http://www.adverts.ie/576099
Anybody know anything about this, if its worth buying or not.
Think it might be the same as this one here.http://www.dipolnet.com/dvb-t_receiver_signal_hd-507_mpeg-2-4_pvr_ready__A99250.htm

Sam Russell

ralphie wrote: »

http://www.adverts.ie/576099
Anybody know anything about this, if its worth buying or not.
Think it might be the same as this one here.http://www.dipolnet.com/dvb-t_receiver_signal_hd-507_mpeg-2-4_pvr_ready__A99250.htm

Yes, it is excelent and does what it says. It is fully compatible with Saorview transmission with the exception of MHEG5, so it does not do the new Teletext. It also acts as a PVR with an external USB hard disk drive or memeory stick. Picture quality is excellent.

It is not the same firmware as the Polish unit, as the unit has firmware specifically for Ireland. The Polish unit is much more expensive.

Check out the discussion here.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056216337

I must point out that I am the one advertising the unit. Not one complaint has been received from anyone buying one.

Sam Russell

Sponge Bob wrote: »

I doubt it does HD so RTE2 will not work followed fairly soon by RTE1.

Avoid these eastern european SD boxes, this is not "Freeview HD" certified...lacking DVB-T2... and looks like a scam by someone with a stack of these to sell.

@ Sponge Bob
Yes it does do HD on RTE2. It is does not have the problems that FreeviewHD boxes have with summertime, or with channel number. There may be other 'surprises' with FreeviewHD yet to be discovered.

Johnboy1951

http://www.adverts.ie/tv/freeview-hd...eceiver/576099

This works well and receives & decodes both SD & HD from Saorview.

It is set up for Saorview specifically. Separate TV and radio prog guides.

This is mentioned in a few threads on boards.

My only 'complaint' as such is the flimsy scart connector pins which are easy bent if you do not present the connector correctly to the socket.

I am very happy with the resulting picture on my CRT TV.

Scart does not output HD of course as it is not designed to.

Sam Russell

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

http://www.adverts.ie/tv/freeview-hd...eceiver/576099

This works well and receives & decodes both SD & HD from Saorview.

It is set up for Saorview specifically. Separate TV and radio prog guides.

This is mentioned in a few threads on boards.

My only 'complaint' as such is the flimsy scart connector pins which are easy bent if you do not present the connector correctly to the socket.

I am very happy with the resulting picture on my CRT TV.

Scart does not output HD of course as it is not designed to.

The unit comes with a HDMI cable so it gives full HD services through that connection. With the SCART connections, HD content is down-sampled to SD. Both connections are powered at the same time.

The unit will also record one channel while watching another on the same mux. As we currently only have one mux, then any channel can be watched while recording any other.

Sponge Bob

Sam Russell wrote: »

@ Sponge Bob
Yes it does do HD on RTE2. I

Grand so Sam. I am aware of some eastern european boxes ( Polish/Lithuanian/Latvian spec that do not support advanced mpeg4/HD) coming in at present.

We should be all right with Serbian Boxes though

yop

Sam
would you do a boards.ie deal !

Or a buy more than 1 and get a discount! Might get 3 of you if they price is right

Superjaf

yop wrote: »

Sam
would you do a boards.ie deal !

Or a buy more than 1 and get a discount! Might get 3 of you if they price is right

Im sorry Sam, but Im the one who is advertising the unit that ralphie posted.
The box works perfectly, I have sold a few with no complaints to date, and Im using one myself too.

yop, I sent you a PM with the discount I offer when you buy more than one.
http://www.adverts.ie/576099

Trevord

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

http://www.adverts.ie/tv/freeview-hd...eceiver/576099


My only 'complaint' as such is the flimsy scart connector pins which are easy bent if you do not present the connector correctly to the socket.

Yes that would be the only issue I have had so far. Scart connection is a bit fiddly and I need to connect it to scart carefully or else I don't get a proper colour picture.

HDMI connection is the way to go. But I'm using the unit on a TV that has only one HDMI which has already got a freesat box connected, so Im stuck using the scart option.

yop

So 2 of you selling the same item!

V good.

Superjaf

Trevord wrote: »

Yes that would be the only issue I have had so far. Scart connection is a bit fiddly and I need to connect it to scart carefully or else I don't get a proper colour picture.

HDMI connection is the way to go. But I'm using the unit on a TV that has only one HDMI which has already got a freesat box connected, so Im stuck using the scart option.

Hi Trevord,
I had the same problem with the hdmi connection in my tv, this is the cheapest solution I found, I got it for myself and it works fine
http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330545999011&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Superjaf

yop wrote: »

So 2 of you selling the same item!

V good.

yeah, it seems so. Ive been selling these for 7 months with great success. I just started to sell them in adverts.ie now

What uk freeview hd boxes are having problems with saorview and summertime?

Is it ones that are on saorview only?

I've two and all have the time on the epg including saorview and the uk freeview channels.

Sam Russell

Deleted User wrote: »

What uk freeview hd boxes are having problems with saorview and summertime?

Is it ones that are on saorview only?

I've two and all have the time on the epg including saorview and the uk freeview channels.

I have a LG 42LD490 that will not give the EPG correctly when set to summertime. If it is set to summertime, the EPG is one hour out, showing the programmes as if it were an hour in the future. Not very usefull. LG's response is not helpful. The LD450 works fine, but is not FreeviewHD.

It also puts the channels in the 800s, unless a box is checked. There is no country code to set, it assumes UK.

These are two known problems with FreeviewHD, there may be more to come.

Edit: It also does not display EBU teletext, only showing MHEG5 teletext, so no teletext on TV3 or TG4.

There are no such problems on the sony's.
Set to uk,you get digital text on rte.
Set to Ireland,you get the normal text including on tv3.
The channels will appear in the 800's in uk mode but can be changed to 1,2,3,4 or wherever you want them keeping the generic freeview hd epg with it's mini screen..

As I understand it,most if not all the saorview approved sony's are freeview hd tv's when in uk mode too which will be handy for those in NI,near the border or in wexford/Wicklow that can or want to combine uk and irish on an aerial.

tlaavtech

If using a HDMI cable, does the unit still need to be plugged into the SCART socket?

Superjaf

tlaavtech wrote: »

If using a HDMI cable, does the unit still need to be plugged into the SCART socket?

no, its not necessary

Sam Russell

tlaavtech wrote: »

If using a HDMI cable, does the unit still need to be plugged into the SCART socket?

I would think that if you have a DVD recorder or video recorder, you could plug it into the recorder using the scart and into the TV using the HDMI.

It could record what is on the TV that way, while record a different programme onto the USB HDD (providing it is on the same MUX)

tlaavtech

Thinking of it for TV in the kitchen, but I use the SCART to feed the sound from the TV into the the Mini HiFi for better sound (to drown out the sounds of cooking that the TV can't match!!)

Superjaf

tlaavtech wrote: »

Thinking of it for TV in the kitchen, but I use the SCART to feed the sound from the TV into the the Mini HiFi for better sound (to drown out the sounds of cooking that the TV can't match!!)

If your tv in the kitchen has HDMI it will work with no problem. if the tv doesnt have it, you can use a scart splitter.

Superjaf

Badgermonkey wrote:

Superjaf wrote:

Im sorry Sam, but Im the one who is advertising the unit that *ralphie *posted.
The box works perfectly, I have sold a few with no complaints to date, and Im using one myself too.

Wow, that Doran Couriers fella on your ad's a bit of a numpty

---Quote---
DORAN COURIERS says 03/05/2011 12:38 pm (2 days ago):
ITS ALL ABOUT OPINIONS YOU HAVE YOURS AND I HAVE MINE.
---End Quote---

No Doran, it's about facts, unfortunately for you. :rolleyes:

Yeah, well, at least I could use his post to clarify that its possible to watch HD in this receiver...:D

foxirl

Bought 2 of these from Superjaf on Wednesday. Arrived yesterday. Great service.

eamonnq

foxirl wrote: »

Bought 2 of these from Superjaf on Wednesday. Arrived yesterday. Great service.

Tsk Tsk, looks like off-thread dealing??!!

obliviousgrudge

I have an indoor aerial (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00008RT8B/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_title)

which picks up RTE One, RTE Two, TV3 and TG4 fine. (Although picture is a bit fuzzy but still clear and has to be moved slightly to pick up RTE Two)

If I was to use this (http://www.adverts.ie/tv/freeview-hd-irish-saorview-dvb-t-tv-tuner-receiver/576099) would by picture be okay?

I'm just outside Letterkenny, Donegal. According to the Saorview site a signal can be received.

So, would I receive an okay picture with this?

Superjaf

emmetmcl wrote: »

I have an indoor aerial (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00008RT8B/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_title)

which picks up RTE One, RTE Two, TV3 and TG4 fine. (Although picture is a bit fuzzy but still clear and has to be moved slightly to pick up RTE Two)

If I was to use this (http://www.adverts.ie/tv/freeview-hd-irish-saorview-dvb-t-tv-tuner-receiver/576099) would by picture be okay?

I'm just outside Letterkenny, Donegal. According to the Saorview site a signal can be received.

So, would I receive an okay picture with this?

I would say you will receive saorview perfectly. I have a friend who lives in Letterkenny and has an outdoor aerial, and with this receiver, he gets the irish and english channels.

obliviousgrudge

Superjaf wrote: »

I would say you will receive saorview perfectly. I have a friend who lives in Letterkenny and has an outdoor aerial, and with this receiver, he gets the irish and english channels.

Thanks for the help

obliviousgrudge

Is there any way this can be set up to receive to UK Freeview channels?

Superjaf

emmetmcl wrote: »

Is there any way this can be set up to receive to UK Freeview channels?

Hi Emmet, I already answered you in adverts. Anyway, you dont need to set up anything different in the receiver, the automatic search will find the english and irish channels

STB

emmetmcl wrote: »

Is there any way this can be set up to receive to UK Freeview channels?

To answer your question. Freeview use 2 platforms and 2 codec types for broadcasting. They are MPEG2 on DVB-T and MPEG4 on DVB-T2 (Freeview HD). We use MPEG4 on DVB-T.

These "tuners" being sold here are DVB-T only, they will not do the Freeview HD stations if you are in an area that receive UK overspill.

To be honest when these first came out (about 2 years ago) I joked to Slegs from SaorTV that they looked like something that would burn your house down. I am surprised that they are considered a viable option but obviously I was wrong if people are happy with them.

obliviousgrudge

not too bothered about the UK channels, just would be handy to have them. Will only be using it for the bedroom anyway so its not like its for the main tv.

Sam Russell

STB wrote: »

To be honest when these first came out (about 2 years ago) I joked to Slegs from SaorTV that they looked like something that would burn your house down. I am surprised that they are considered a viable option but obviously I was wrong if people are happy with them.

When they first came out, they might well have burnt your house down. But technology moves on. Like the first mobile phones used to weigh a few kilos and need a truck for the batteries that lasted an hour, electronics are much better now. These units weigh about 400 grams and consume 8W in use, and less than 1W in standby. They will wakeup from standby to record to a USB HDD. They are connected to the TV by HDMI or SCART and give excellent PQ. Apart from the lack of MHEG 5, they are a perfect antidote for all those MPEG2 TVs dumped on the Irish market.

They even hide behind the TV.:)

STB

I never posted about Sam because I thought they would be crap!

As I understand it, others thought they might be a viable stop gap for certain elements of society.

Same way I never posted about the gran prix combo box that you can buy off ebay for €70, complete with whip aerial! Theres one for ya to lookup!

ralphie

I got one of these receivers from Sam yesterday and it works perfectly.Tried the record function with a 16GB flash drive and it records and plays back with no loss of picture quality.

Sam Russell

By the way, I'm expecting a new version of the software soon that will sort a few niggles. It changes the file name on recordings so that they appear in chronological order, and gets rid of the stupid screen saver when listening to the radio.

When it arrives and is fully tested, I will post here [and elsewhere].

I still have a few left if anyone is interseted.

dowtchaboy

Had a sudden phoned request from Herself to "tape" Corrie last night - since I don't think the VCR is even connected in the mess of cables under the TV these days and I've forgotten which way round a video tape goes.... I tried the PVR function on Sam's unit using a 1G SD card hastily ripped from my camera with a SD to USB adapter. No problem! Quality is superb - no different from watching live. Setting up the recording is not as intuitive as say Sky, and I just recorded what was showing rather than recording one channel while watching another in the same mux as I assume I can, but hey hey it worked!:D
It seems to record in mp2 (file extension just says .ts) and when I played it on a Mac later VLC had no problem with it. It's a big file though - 450 MB for under 30 minutes. Tried compressing it using VLC but poor result - will try Nero and a few others when I get the time.

Haven't tried the Time Shift function yet - must look out for some cheapo USB or SD cards....

Sam Russell

dowtchaboy wrote: »

Had a sudden phoned request from Herself to "tape" Corrie last night - since I don't think the VCR is even connected in the mess of cables under the TV these days and I've forgotten which way round a video tape goes.... I tried the PVR function on Sam's unit using a 1G SD card hastily ripped from my camera with a SD to USB adapter. No problem! Quality is superb - no different from watching live. Setting up the recording is not as intuitive as say Sky, and I just recorded what was showing rather than recording one channel while watching another in the same mux as I assume I can, but hey hey it worked!:D
It seems to record in mp2 (file extension just says .ts) and when I played it on a Mac later VLC had no problem with it. It's a big file though - 450 MB for under 30 minutes. Tried compressing it using VLC but poor result - will try Nero and a few others when I get the time.

Haven't tried the Time Shift function yet - must look out for some cheapo USB or SD cards....

It is actually remarkably simple to record. Just tune the channel, press EPG button, select your programme, press OK, then navigate down making adjustments to time etc if necessary, then change VIEW to RECORD, and press OK, and EXIT and your sorted.

If you need a suitable HDD, contact me.

Johnboy1951

dowtchaboy wrote: »

Had a sudden phoned request from Herself to "tape" Corrie last night - since I don't think the VCR is even connected in the mess of cables under the TV these days and I've forgotten which way round a video tape goes.... I tried the PVR function on Sam's unit using a 1G SD card hastily ripped from my camera with a SD to USB adapter. No problem! Quality is superb - no different from watching live. Setting up the recording is not as intuitive as say Sky, and I just recorded what was showing rather than recording one channel while watching another in the same mux as I assume I can, but hey hey it worked!:D
It seems to record in mp2 (file extension just says .ts) and when I played it on a Mac later VLC had no problem with it. It's a big file though - 450 MB for under 30 minutes. Tried compressing it using VLC but poor result - will try Nero and a few others when I get the time.

Haven't tried the Time Shift function yet - must look out for some cheapo USB or SD cards....

The full transport stream is recorded, so copying the audio and video while dropping the unwanted content would reduce the size somewhat.

The video recorded is as transmitted, as is the audio.
That is .. the video is MPEG-4 and the audio is MP2 ..... from RTE of course.

This is what VLC says about the stream contents ...
Video: H254 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (h264)
Audio: MPEG Audio layer 1/2/3 (mpga)

regards

EDIT ..... that should of course have read Video: H264 - ........ sorry

dowtchaboy

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

The full transport stream is recorded, so copying the audio and video while dropping the unwanted content would reduce the size somewhat.

The video recorded is as transmitted, as is the audio.
That is .. the video is MPEG-4 and the audio is MP2 ..... from RTE of course.

This is what VLC says about the stream contents ...
Video: H254 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (h264)
Audio: MPEG Audio layer 1/2/3 (mpga)

regards

Thanks for the info. By "somewhat" I presume you mean 10% or 20% reduction? What I was hoping to do was compress it to say 250MB (for 30 mins), which would be typical of the .avi files I play from US & UK sites. It's not a biggie - storage space keeps getting cheaper and my broadband speeds are slowly getting better.
I suppose I'm looking for an easy to use, cheap/free program that will allow me to top& tail the recording, remove ads etc. - any suggestions?

Sam Russell

dowtchaboy wrote: »

Thanks for the info. By "somewhat" I presume you mean 10% or 20% reduction? What I was hoping to do was compress it to say 250MB (for 30 mins), which would be typical of the .avi files I play from US & UK sites. It's not a biggie - storage space keeps getting cheaper and my broadband speeds are slowly getting better.
I suppose I'm looking for an easy to use, cheap/free program that will allow me to top& tail the recording, remove ads etc. - any suggestions?

Buy the boxed sets.:D

Johnboy1951

dowtchaboy wrote: »

Thanks for the info. By "somewhat" I presume you mean 10% or 20% reduction? What I was hoping to do was compress it to say 250MB (for 30 mins), which would be typical of the .avi files I play from US & UK sites. It's not a biggie - storage space keeps getting cheaper and my broadband speeds are slowly getting better.
I suppose I'm looking for an easy to use, cheap/free program that will allow me to top& tail the recording, remove ads etc. - any suggestions?

I have previously dropped some of the stream but cannot say how much of a reduction it gave ..... in truth I suspect very little, as there is little info in the other streams such as NAR, Subtitle etc. Doing so does 'tidy' things up so there is only the required audio and video in the file.

.avi is a 'wrapper' format, and does not determine the quality of the video it contains, so you could have a low quality video or a high quality video in an .avi format.
There are several ways to reduce the video file size - all of them involve dropping video information and thus quality of the end product suffers.
I suspect dropping the video bit rate would be the most effective way of reducing the file size ..... but again some experimentation would be needed to determine what suits you.
For the HD content you could also reduce the resolution to suit your purpose ..... such as DVD use.

I have never tried to cut the adverts from a video automatically, but was reading the other day about several free applications that can do this. Sorry but I have no links .... but they can be found easily I guess - I came across them accidentally.

Apps I use regularly are

WinFF ... this has presets for most uses and is easy use.

Avidemux ... this allows easy trimming of the video, as well as cutting out parts such as ads, in addition to converting the file to some desired format.

regards.

parasite

tssniper is good for trimming ts files

haymur

Has anyone bought the Triax ST-HD 537 and used it with a HDD to record Saorview Can you pre programme to record programmes rather than time setting. I have been looking for a stand alone DTT box with a PVR in it to record Irish TV. I would also consider a combi unit with Sat and terrestrial receiver and a PVR built in. I have a Humax HD Foxsat box and would love to get a similar unit for Irish TV with its easy EPG for single and series recording

The Cush

haymur wrote: »

Has anyone bought the Triax ST-HD 537 and used it with a HDD to record Saorview Can you pre programme to record programmes rather than time setting. I have been looking for a stand alone DTT box with a PVR in it to record Irish TV. I would also consider a combi unit with Sat and terrestrial receiver and a PVR built in. I have a Humax HD Foxsat box and would love to get a similar unit for Irish TV with its easy EPG for single and series recording

Replied to your duplicate post here - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72335836#post72335836

haymur

Sam Russell wrote: »

It is actually remarkably simple to record. Just tune the channel, press EPG button, select your programme, press OK, then navigate down making adjustments to time etc if necessary, then change VIEW to RECORD, and press OK, and EXIT and your sorted.

If you need a suitable HDD, contact me.

Thinking getting one of the boxes I have a Humax Foxsat HD for english channels but need to record Faircity for the the better half. Will the box record programmes rather than time settings as Fair City is often changed on showing times and my current Yamada analog HDD often records wrong prog because of transmission time changes. I was thinking of fitting a large card or HDD drive to your box. Will it auto store on them like a series link system

Sam Russell

haymur wrote: »

Thinking getting one of the boxes I have a Humax Foxsat HD for english channels but need to record Faircity for the the better half. Will the box record programmes rather than time settings as Fair City is often changed on showing times and my current Yamada analog HDD often records wrong prog because of transmission time changes. I was thinking of fitting a large card or HDD drive to your box. Will it auto store on them like a series link system

Currently RTE are not broadcasting series link, so no box will do it for you. The box can be set to record Once, Daily, or Weekly. If you wish to Delete a file or many files, it is very easy. When you record, you can adjust the times very easily so you can account for RTEs flexibilty in start times.

fat-tony

Hi Sam - don't mean to be pedantic, but there are two features/facilities needed to support recording accurately from EPG:

1. Booking the recording from the EPG and having the recording start and finish in sync with the programme start and finish. To work properly, the recorder needs to be watching the programme now and next flags transmitted as part of the EPG data. Most low-end recorders just set the start and end times based on the schedule in the EPG and don't correct for programme under-run or over-run. The Humax boxes certainly handle this for Freesat. I've had two and a half years of ownership of the Foxsat HDR and it's 99% reliable in accurate record (and series link)

2. Series link proper requires the broadcaster to implement meta-data in the EPG stream which uniquely identifies a group of programmes which make up the series and another identifier which is unique by programme. The Freesat/Freeview systems in the UK use what's called a CRID (Content Reference ID) to mark the EPG so that the branded recorders will be able to use accurate record and series link.

RTENL don't appear to have specified exactly how they are going to do this, but the Nordig spec. does have info on it and it's pretty much the same as Freesat/Freeview, but no guarantee that the Humax Freeview HD recorders will work. I'm surprised that there is apparently no Saorview recorder in the works yet or that RTENL haven't been adding metadata to the EPG stream on a test basis.

haymur

fat-tony wrote: »

Hi Sam - don't mean to be pedantic, but there are two features/facilities needed to support recording accurately from EPG:

1. Booking the recording from the EPG and having the recording start and finish in sync with the programme start and finish. To work properly, the recorder needs to be watching the programme now and next flags transmitted as part of the EPG data. Most low-end recorders just set the start and end times based on the schedule in the EPG and don't correct for programme under-run or over-run. The Humax boxes certainly handle this for Freesat. I've had two and a half years of ownership of the Foxsat HDR and it's 99% reliable in accurate record (and series link)

2. Series link proper requires the broadcaster to implement meta-data in the EPG stream which uniquely identifies a group of programmes which make up the series and another identifier which is unique by programme. The Freesat/Freeview systems in the UK use what's called a CRID (Content Reference ID) to mark the EPG so that the branded recorders will be able to use accurate record and series link.

RTENL don't appear to have specified exactly how they are going to do this, but the Nordig spec. does have info on it and it's pretty much the same as Freesat/Freeview, but no guarantee that the Humax Freeview HD recorders will work. I'm surprised that there is apparently no Saorview recorder in the works yet or that RTENL haven't been adding metadata to the EPG stream on a test basis.

I too have a Humax Foxsat HD foe the last 20 months and find it very good at full recordings. My UPC PVR on the other hand often finishes before programme end. I too wish a good brand HD PVR would be approved for Saorview so I could record Irish Digital TV. I have a Yamada analog HDD which I was thinking of putting a Scart DVB-T on the back of as a stop gap remedy till a HD DVB-T PVR comes on the market. I have looked at some European and English units but have been afraid tom get one in case they wont work. I cant afford to have to buy one twice to get it right.

Sam Russell

fat-tony wrote: »

Hi Sam - don't mean to be pedantic, but there are two features/facilities needed to support recording accurately from EPG:

1. Booking the recording from the EPG and having the recording start and finish in sync with the programme start and finish. To work properly, the recorder needs to be watching the programme now and next flags transmitted as part of the EPG data. Most low-end recorders just set the start and end times based on the schedule in the EPG and don't correct for programme under-run or over-run. The Humax boxes certainly handle this for Freesat. I've had two and a half years of ownership of the Foxsat HDR and it's 99% reliable in accurate record (and series link)

2. Series link proper requires the broadcaster to implement meta-data in the EPG stream which uniquely identifies a group of programmes which make up the series and another identifier which is unique by programme. The Freesat/Freeview systems in the UK use what's called a CRID (Content Reference ID) to mark the EPG so that the branded recorders will be able to use accurate record and series link.

RTENL don't appear to have specified exactly how they are going to do this, but the Nordig spec. does have info on it and it's pretty much the same as Freesat/Freeview, but no guarantee that the Humax Freeview HD recorders will work. I'm surprised that there is apparently no Saorview recorder in the works yet or that RTENL haven't been adding metadata to the EPG stream on a test basis.

I think my box would be classed as a low-end recorder. The PVR function is really a bonus, and I do not think that it watches the EPG at all. However, it does work well as a simple, good quality, low priced, solution for all those unfortunate MPEG2, Freeview TVs that were imported/dumped here by large retailers on the unsuspecting public. It will allow us all (those lucky enough to have purchased one of the boxes) to watch Munster play Leinster next Saturday in glorious HD for less than the price of a ticket to see the match.:)

fat-tony

Sam Russell wrote: »

I think my box would be classed as a low-end recorder. The PVR function is really a bonus, and I do not think that it watches the EPG at all. However, it does work well as a simple, good quality, low priced, solution for all those unfortunate MPEG2, Freeview TVs that were imported/dumped here by large retailers on the unsuspecting public. It will allow us all (those lucky enough to have purchased one of the boxes) to watch Munster play Leinster next Saturday in glorious HD for less than the price of a ticket to see the match.:)

I wasn't dissing your box, by the way - I have one myself and find it fantastic value for money, considering all it does:)
I think some people misinterpret what a FTA satellite or terrestrial recorder does when you schedule a recording from the EPG. 90+% of the non-Freesat/non-Freeview recorders just schedule a start and end time from the EPG, thus automating a normally manual process. Then, if a programme starts late, you miss the end or vice versa.
I do wish RTENL would publish some clear messages on what they plan to do with EPG data to facilitate accurate recording and series link - otherwise it's a bit of a (educated) gamble to purchase a Freeview HD recorder in the hope that it will work correctly with Saorview.

Sam Russell

fat-tony wrote: »

I wasn't dissing your box, by the way - I have one myself and find it fantastic value for money, considering all it does:)
I think some people misinterpret what a FTA satellite or terrestrial recorder does when you schedule a recording from the EPG. 90+% of the non-Freesat/non-Freeview recorders just schedule a start and end time from the EPG, thus automating a normally manual process. Then, if a programme starts late, you miss the end or vice versa.
I do wish RTENL would publish some clear messages on what they plan to do with EPG data to facilitate accurate recording and series link - otherwise it's a bit of a (educated) gamble to purchase a Freeview HD recorder in the hope that it will work correctly with Saorview.

I appreciate that, of course. I was just making it clear that the PVR function should be considered a very valuable freebie. The box is low end in cost, but not in performance, but it will not have the features of a HUMAX box that costs many times the price.

All in, considering the price, it is very good value but it is an 'economy' box.

daheff

does this just receive Saorview or does it also receive Freesat?