Saorview antenna - big thing?

dantastic

I live in an apartment building so I'm very limited in what I can do in terms of mounting antennas on exterior walls, on the roof etc.

I currently have sky - we have a communal dish on the roof and I have 2 areal leads come in - that's it.

With the introduction of netflix and the fact that we don't really watch any of the premium channels on sky the plan is to drop sky.

I want to get a box that does the UK freeview channels and saorview all in one. There seems to be products out there that can deliver the uk freeview channels over the existing leads I have but It seems like I have to mount a pretty big antenna on the roof for the saorview to work.

Is this the case? Any way around it? these channels aren't also aired via satellite by any chance? Or do I really need anything extra?

STB

No.

The communal dish. If it is one installed for the apartment block (and not by Sky) then it will work by removing your Sky box and connecting that cable to a FTA sat/combo sat and Saorview receiver to it (eg Ferguson Ariva Combo).

You will probably find that sat and terretrial has been combined on the one cable coming into your apartment and need a simple splitter device to split the signals back out to 2 outputs, one sat and one terrestrial.

You following ?

Can you post a picture of the 2 aerial points you talk about ? Do you have Sky+ at the moment ?

dantastic

I actually have 3 cables!
The place is still pretty new and we never had the proper plugs installed so I've just 3 cables coming out of the wall. One brown not in use - Imagine this is a regular aerial and I have 2 black cables plugged in to the sky+ HD box.

I didn't check that before so it looks like I have all the cables in place so?

I don't know who installed the dish - could have been sky could have been some other company. Theres is just one dosh feeding a pretty big splitter box that feed all the apartments though.

So a combo box will do the job?

Antenna

dantastic wrote: »

I actually have 3 cables!
The place is still pretty new and we never had the proper plugs installed so I've just 3 cables coming out of the wall. One brown not in use - Imagine this is a regular aerial

Connect that cable directly to your TV and try if you can tune in analogue channels?

STB

What model Tv do you have ? It may have the integrated digital tuner for Saorview. You will know by doing as Antenna has suggested (the brown cable). But also scanning the digital terrestrial (DTV) channels. In Dublin (?) this will be channel 54 on the inbuilt digital tuner on your TV if it is an LCD. Same aerial cable gives signal to both analogue and digital saorview.

Of course when you stop subscribing to Sky the Sky box will still pick up the Free to air channels - BBCs/ITVs/Ch 4s/Sky News etc but will be a little cluttered.

The convenience of the combo box is that it combines both the terrestrial and the satellite channels in one box, with one remote control without the need for switching between sources connected.

I am also presuming that it is not a Sky for homes install whereby only those paying Sky have access to the commenual dish. By that I mean that the dish was independently installed by an instaler and that it is then up to people whether they want skyservices or FTA services.

You should ask the management agent/company what system is in place.

Mearings

dantastic wrote: »

I actually have 3 cables!
The place is still pretty new and we never had the proper plugs installed so I've just 3 cables coming out of the wall. One brown not in use - Imagine this is a regular aerial and I have 2 black cables plugged in to the sky+ HD box.

You are lucky, my place is wired for UPC and that's it. Leave it or lump it.
No Saorview, no RTE HD and no fixtures allowed on external walls.

Sponge Bob

Rabbits ears or powered rabbits ears will often do the trick if you live in an apartment in a city.

Mearings

The transmitter is 35 miles to the north, my windows face south.

Sponge Bob

at 35 miles it is complicated.

1. You could install aerial and headend in attic ...that could even deliver analogue until everyone gets the digital telly installed.

2. Depends on internal wiring in apartments, you could go for sat + terrestrial on same cable. Digital only or Digital + Some Analogue for legacy TVs.

Best thing to do is get the management company to ask a few REPUTABLE installers what they would do for the whole block and at what cost...informally and taking internal wiring quality into consideration. You often find the lads who install the foreign sat systems are competent as well as external aerial installers.

Don't go near a .....

Ronnie Raygun

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Don't go near a local who specialises in Sky mainly. They are cowboys.

And you're an idiot, making statements like the above.

Sponge Bob

Let me rephrase.

If they say they do Sky and will not (for example) install a single dish to do Astra 2 and Hotbird together then they are cowboys Ted. ....( carefully note the use of Astra 2 instead of Sky).

The country is full of cowboy Sky installers.

Mearings

Sponge Bob wrote: »

at 35 miles it is complicated.

1. You could install aerial and headend in attic ...that could even deliver analogue until everyone gets the digital telly installed.

2. Depends on internal wiring in apartments, you could go for sat + terrestrial on same cable. Digital only or Digital + Some Analogue for legacy TVs.


Thank you, a dish + aerial would give proper choice & should have been in place since day 1 (15 years ago). I'll enquire from estate manager.
Fingers X'd.