Multiroom????

t c

Hi All,
Do not use this forum as much as I should but that could change now.

Am changing from UPC, and have installed 2 freeview receivers which work great and waiting on another with a recorder to arrive. Obviously 3 tv's to run.

Now to Irish TV and saorview.

Have erected an aerial for 3 Rock, (I am in South County Dublin), and have a splitter/amp in attic. One tv has MPEG4 so I believe that all I need to do is connect aerial directly to rf socket on the tv.

The other 2 tv's are not compatable, so what I want to know is can I run 2 tv's off the ONE Saorview box? One would be scart or hdmi, the other, a small portable, is rf only.

As cabling is run to where I want, would it be possible to run a cable from the amp in the attic into Saorview box and then to the tv's, via a magic eye or something, so that I could change channels in any room?

I know I am looking for a lot, but I think it is a bit of a rip off if I need a Saorview box for each tv as they claim it is free............:mad:

I am sure I am not the only one who wants to do this.

Thanks in advance and hope I have made myself clear.

Cheers.

Tony.

Gerry Wicklow

The SaorView box acts similar to the tuner inside the TV. If you try to hook several TVs to the one box you will only be able to watch one channel at a time. To watch / record different channels in different rooms needs individual boxes.

homelink

t c wrote: »

Hi All,
Do not use this forum as much as I should but that could change now.

Am changing from UPC, and have installed 2 freeview receivers which work great and waiting on another with a recorder to arrive. Obviously 3 tv's to run.

Now to Irish TV and saorview.

Have erected an aerial for 3 Rock, (I am in South County Dublin), and have a splitter/amp in attic. One tv has MPEG4 so I believe that all I need to do is connect aerial directly to rf socket on the tv.

The other 2 tv's are not compatable, so what I want to know is can I run 2 tv's off the ONE Saorview box? One would be scart or hdmi, the other, a small portable, is rf only.

As cabling is run to where I want, would it be possible to run a cable from the amp in the attic into Saorview box and then to the tv's, via a magic eye or something, so that I could change channels in any room?

I know I am looking for a lot, but I think it is a bit of a rip off if I need a Saorview box for each tv as they claim it is free............:mad:

I am sure I am not the only one who wants to do this.

Thanks in advance and hope I have made myself clear.

Cheers.

Tony.

You got 2 freeview receivers & are getting another one for freeview & don't seem to think that is a rip off. So why do you think Saorview is different?

t c

I think it is a rip off because RTE is the national television and it should be free on freesat, like BBC, UTV etc etc, and not a satellite subscription channel.

Gerry Wicklow

BBC is NOT free. it is paid for by the UK tv licence. It is merely a quirk of geography that we can pick up the overspill from the satellite or terrestrial signals. Likewise FreeView/FreeSat receivers are not free, you bought them. So why do you think SaorVew boxes should be free.

Widescreen

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

BBC is NOT free. it is paid for by the UK tv licence. It is merely a quirk of geography that we can pick up the overspill from the satellite or terrestrial signals. Likewise FreeView/FreeSat receivers are not free, you bought them. So why do you think SaorVew boxes should be free.

Sky acknowledge in their advertisements that BBC Channels on the Irish EPG are available without subscription, so they really are free to us, aren't they?

Gerry Wicklow

Widescreen wrote: »

Sky acknowledge in their advertisements that BBC Channels on the Irish EPG are available without subscription, so they really are free to us, aren't they?

But you still have to BUY a box.

homelink

t c wrote: »

I think it is a rip off because RTE is the national television and it should be free on freesat, like BBC, UTV etc etc, and not a satellite subscription channel.

Saorview is broadcast free to air just like Freeview & Freesat & just like Freeview&Freesat you need to buy extra equipment if your TV is older.RTE/TV3 & TG4 don't have the rights to go FTA on Freesat. You'll be saying next you should get a free TV:rolleyes:

t c

Thats my whole point. I am already paying a tv licence and have rte. Come 2012
if I want to keep rte, on top of my licence fee, I have to invest in either a new tv, a set top box or pay a provider for the privilege. This I think is wrong as I already have the equipment capable of receiving the stations.

BBc does not have a box unique to its service, neither does utv, itv etc etc, the one unit does all, only RTE make us spend more than we should have to.

They already screw us by having both a TV licence AND advertising. It should be one or the other.

I have no objection to buying a box, (or boxes), but I do object being forced to duplicate my equipment to get something I already have, RTE.

TC

Vince Cable

t c wrote: »

. . . I already have the equipment capable of receiving the stations.

No you don't.

Vince Cable

t c wrote: »

BBc does not have a box unique to its service, neither does utv, itv etc etc

It's called Freeview, the spec is more restricted (indeed secret) than RTE's.

They already screw us . . .

RTE aren't selling equipment & their part of the digital upgrade cost quite a bit too, you know . . .

Widescreen

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

But you still have to BUY a box.

And buy a box to view Saorview as well...

to do anything ,you need the equipment, so maybe nothing is free really!

Gerry Wicklow

t c wrote: »

Thats my whole point. I am already paying a tv licence and have rte. Come 2012
if I want to keep rte, on top of my licence fee, I have to invest in either a new tv, a set top box or pay a provider for the privilege. This I think is wrong as I already have the equipment capable of receiving the stations.

BBc does not have a box unique to its service, neither does utv, itv etc etc, the one unit does all, only RTE make us spend more than we should have to.

They already screw us by having both a TV licence AND advertising. It should be one or the other.

I have no objection to buying a box, (or boxes), but I do object being forced to duplicate my equipment to get something I already have, RTE.

TC

But UK viewers had to invest in an IDTv or box to continue watching BBC etc. Sadly this is the price of progress

t c

I do have the equipment to view RTE if they were broadcast from Astra.

Also, the Freeview box receives both BBC and UTV, you do not need a receiver for BBC and a seperate one for UTV.

Anyway, it appears that there are a lot of people either working for, involved with or making money from RTE/Saorview.....................

The only one that came anywhere near answering my original question was Gerry Wicklow, thanks for that.

TC

Vince Cable

Get a modulator & run 2 of your tvs off 1 box then, there's no point in buying a seperate box for a tv that doesn't even have an AV connection.
Even connecting the box to an old VCR will enable its RF out to be used to route the box's output to the portable tv.

homelink

t c wrote: »

I do have the equipment to view RTE if they were broadcast from Astra.

Also, the Freeview box receives both BBC and UTV, you do not need a receiver for BBC and a seperate one for UTV.

Anyway, it appears that there are a lot of people either working for, involved with or making money from RTE/Saorview.....................

The only one that came anywhere near answering my original question was Gerry Wicklow, thanks for that.

TC

First of all, As Gerry Wicklow has already pointed out, the only reason you can receive the UK free to air channels from Astra is due to our geographical location next to the UK & the large foot print of the Astra satellite. That being said, you still need a dish & receiver to view them.As for RTE going FTA on astra, this is never going to happen because of the cost of programme rights. RTE will buy the rights to show a series like CSI for example.Because they are buying for Ireland only they will pay a much smaller fee (say €100,00). The cost of programme rights are determined by the viewing population, therefore any Astra channel that is broadcasting FTA or for the UK & Ireland will have to pay 10 times that amount. Now as regard the switch from analogue to digital. There is a pan European analogue switch -off planned for 2012 when all European TV channels will be digital only. RTE must switch over to digital by then. This has been legislated by the Dail & is outside the control of RTE. So the bottom line is if you want to watch different channels on you TV's at the same time you will need 3 set top boxes.

emaherx

Saorview boxes don't have an RF out, You will probably pay nearly as much for a decent modulator as you would for a non certified compatible receiver (for channel reception not MHEG). Or even a Certified receiver before ASO.

STB

Something very wrong here in this thread. And I think its all down to a lack of understanding.

To the original poster. I notice that you keep using the word "Freeview". What are you using to view "freeview". I am guessing that you are talking about a satellite dish. In which case its not Freeview you are watching its free to air satellite signals.

Freeview is via Aerial.

Freesat/FTA 28.2 is via satellite dish.

As has already been said to you, you seem to have no problem investing in numerous boxes for satellite, but dont seem to be interested in doing the same for Saorview because you think buying a television licence entitle you to a range of equipment to fill your house!

Had you not invested in the sat boxes in the first instance you could have bought HD Combo boxes that do Saorview/British Satellite in one box at €80 a pop.

But you didnt. A little knowledge......

There are actual set top boxes (not certified) out there for €50 that have RF modulators which I have posted in the past.

thetwangman

t c wrote: »

Also, the Freeview box receives both BBC and UTV, you do not need a receiver for BBC and a seperate one for UTV.

Saorview boxes receive both RTE and TV3, you do not need a receiver for RTE and a seperate one for TV3.

Saorview is no more or less a rip off than the UK's Freeview.

Vince Cable

t c wrote: »

One would be scart or hdmi, the other, a small portable, is rf only.

Does this tv have no AV connections, how is the sat. box connected?

Also, any references I made to Freeview as opposed to Freesat (or generic FTA sat.) were only for the sake of a like-for-like comparison of the UK & Irish terrestrial systems.

lawhec

It should be worth pointing out also that Freesat is a British TV and Radio platform designed for UK residents. As already pointed out by several people above this post, all of the Irish Republic can "import" receivers to view it as footprint coverage is very difficult to cut out to force southern viewers to require larger dishes without significantly affecting coverage in Northern Ireland as well. For all intents and purposes, Freesat is a foreign television platform in ROI and to the best of my knowledge the Freesat consortium has never formally advertised their services in the state - awareness of the Freesat platform has been built up from installers, enthusiasts, friends & family etc. who either cross the border or cross the water to buy receivers, or get them batch ordered from the UK by courier among other methods.

Therefore because people have brought and used receivers for a foreign platform that is unofficially available in the Irish Republic, why should RTÉ (or TV3 or TG4 for that matter) be expected to be available on it? Aside from the fact that the Irish terrestrial broadcasters are not paying for the capacity they have on Astra 2D, Saorview itself is a replacement for analogue terrestrial, nothing else, with Saorsat being implemented in a similar vein that Freesat was designed for (it just happens to be that the likes of the BBC and ITV have more money available to broadcast FTA at 28 East to cover capacity, programme rights and EPG costs. RTÉ don't.)