A proper 'Original' Saorview receiver,,, will there ever be such a thing?

liamtech

in taking a break from troubleshooting my poor old Technisat Freeview HD box which i fear will soon be sold, id like to ask the following question.

Will there ever be any original 'non rebranded' saorview approved set top boxes available in ireland? It sems to me (and i assume im not alone in this assumption) that the majority of the boxes available are quite literally all identical, rebranded Vestel units. it hardly gives a perspective saorview user any choice in what product to buy.

As far as i can tell the Laurus, nordmende, finlux, Digihome, Alba, and Akura boxes are quite literally identical T8010 Vestel set top boxes, and although im sure they are fit for purpose, they are all basically the same unit.

I only ask because i feel there is a need for something a bit more substantial for entusiasts and those thay seek extra features - There is obviously a need for a proper Twin Tuner PVR..

I have the Humax Freeview HD box, which i happily video reviewed last year - a gem. obviously its not certified so many users will not be willing to take the chance of buying only to find that it is incompatible with features that may come online in the future. But really, if all thats available is the same rebranded rebadged vestel unit, it doesnt say much for the service as a whole.

A saorview box which allows streaming over lan, recording one station while watching another on the same MUX, internet radio stations, and even youtube compatibility - all of these features and more are possible with several Freeview HD UK boxes - any opinions?

I know that its not up to saorview to grab manufacturers and 'force' them to get into the Irish market - BUt surely they can try to sell the Irish market to brands like Humax, Technisat, Sagem, or Sharp? these companies would more than likely not have to design new products for our modest market place... a mere firmware update to cover all of the Saorview requirements would be necessary for complete compatibility.

Compton

liamtech wrote: »

in taking a break from troubleshooting my poor old Technisat Freeview HD box which i fear will soon be sold, id like to ask the following question.

Will there ever be any original 'non rebranded' saorview approved set top boxes available in ireland? It sems to me (and i assume im not alone in this assumption) that the majority of the boxes available are quite literally all identical, rebranded Vestel units. it hardly gives a perspective saorview user any choice in what product to buy.

As far as i can tell the Laurus, nordmende, finlux, Digihome, Alba, and Akura boxes are quite literally identical T8010 Vestel set top boxes, and although im sure they are fit for purpose, they are all basically the same unit.

I only ask because i feel there is a need for something a bit more substantial for entusiasts and those thay seek extra features - There is obviously a need for a proper Twin Tuner PVR..

I have the Humax Freeview HD box, which i happily video reviewed last year - a gem. obviously its not certified so many users will not be willing to take the chance of buying only to find that it is incompatible with features that may come online in the future. But really, if all thats available is the same rebranded rebadged vestel unit, it doesnt say much for the service as a whole.

A saorview box which allows streaming over lan, recording one station while watching another on the same MUX, internet radio stations, and even youtube compatibility - all of these features and more are possible with several Freeview HD UK boxes - any opinions?

I know that its not up to saorview to grab manufacturers and 'force' them to get into the Irish market - BUt surely they can try to sell the Irish market to brands like Humax, Technisat, Sagem, or Sharp? these companies would more than likely not have to design new products for our modest market place... a mere firmware update to cover all of the Saorview requirements would be necessary for complete compatibility.

I think the boxes at the moment are more than you need to watch the 7 or so channels available.

watty

7 or so?
there are really 3.75 channels. Tv3 and 3E hardly make one decent channel.
The others are just repeats, not needed if you have a PVR.

At a pinch you can claim 5 channels I suppose.

It's up to Humax, Sharp, Sony et al. Nothing RTE or RTENL can do.

The Government could help bay being like French and banning sale of non-compliant Tvs and boxes.

On the TV front there is real choice.

Donegal_TDI

Humax HDR Fox T2 does everything that's currently needed, week after week, 100% reliable in my experience. Quality and speed of operation is 5 *****.
It is so good, I'm currently debating whether to ditch Sky with it's wall to wall synchronised adverts.
Just waiting on series link to see how the Humax will deal with that. Otherwise 100% recommended on my experience to date. If you can afford it, go for the 1TB drive.

watty

But will it still work properly when clock spring forward?

The Cush

Donegal_TDI wrote: »

Humax HDR Fox T2 does everything that's currently needed, week after week, 100% reliable in my experience. Quality and speed of operation is 5 *****.

A question I've asked before in other threads but didn't get an answer - does it record and playback subtitles as used by Saorview?

Donegal_TDI

The Cush wrote: »

A question I've asked before in other threads but didn't get an answer - does it record and playback subtitles as used by Saorview?

@ The Cush - give me a channel, program & time and I'll try it out for you tonight.

recyclebin

Is the Triax box a Vestel rebrand too?

I've heard people had problems with it so maybe its what your looking for OP.

watty

No, it's not. But then Triax know how to make Dishes and Aerials and not so much boxes

The Cush

Donegal_TDI wrote: »

@ The Cush - give me a channel, program & time and I'll try it out for you tonight.

Thanks for your reply.

The Six-One and Nine news on RTÉ1 both carry live subtitles and having a look at the schedule tonight all programming in-between should have subtitles also.

BowWow

watty wrote: »

But will it still work properly when clock spring forward?

Mine does - if you apply the fix recommended in Post 15 in this thread.......
BW

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056294385

Pyro Boy

Also for anyone who has a humax box here in Ireland, have a look at the customised fireware no changes to UI but lots of useful features Look at there wiki for the list of features but the ones I use a lot are Remote Scheduling (RS),FTP and Unencrypt

See the forum here for the download http://hummy.tv/forum/forums/hd-hdr-fox-t2-customised-firmware.28/

It's really easy to install and it is reversible and very stable

I've posted on their forum trying to get them to make a few changes to it for irish box users but i've had no reply from them, probably don't think there are that many people like me


As with any custom firmware INSTALL AT YOUR OWN RISK . (but it's not that scary and wouldn't recommend it unless it was good:) )

liamtech

The Humax box is without doubt the best Freeview HD unit ive ever used - i did have hopes that the technisat would rival it in terms of price and spec but in all honesty i cant compain about the humax -

I did a video review in a previous thread - for what its worth perspective users should take a look:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056294385&page=3

My only complaint, and in a way, the reason i started this thread is that there is no Saorview Certified products with features to rival the Humax - For all the good it is, the humax is NOT CERTIFIED - we have no idea how this box will function if/when saorview start broadcasting additional sports streams, or a news multiscreen - despite how good it is i can see it failing to function properly with these type of functions.

I would imagine (speculation!) that it will be possible to manually tune these streams - and if they are like the BBC sports streams on Freesat, then the Humax will triumph - but there have been instances where MHEG5 gear has difficulty tuning streams as seperate stations(goodmans, grundig, Triax, Bush) - and if they decide to use a single MULTI-Stream channel then the Humax may be less then adiquate .

That being said i still like it and will continue using it - i would also recommend it to users who want a set-top-box with more features and a VERY smooth interface - i just wish there was a saorview box that at least came close to rivaling it! I certainly wouldnt be interested in any of the current Saorview certified gear for the simple reason that i find its mainly rebadged Vestel gear with a VERY modest feature list - and in some cases a fairly slow 'chunky' interface -

Out of curiosity has anyone had any experience with other Freeview HD boxes like Sagem, sharp or Samsung? - might be an idea to get a list of all Freeview HD gear that DOES work with saorview - the way things are looking its unlikely the Technisat will ever be on such a list:( , but the Humax will certainly take the number one spot imho:D

Donegal_TDI

The Cush wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.

The Six-One and Nine news on RTÉ1 both carry live subtitles and having a look at the schedule tonight all programming in-between should have subtitles also.

@ The Cush

Recorded prime Time this evening, activated subtitles, and they display perfectly on playback.
Not exactly at the bottom of the screen but a 1/3 the way up from the bottom.
They don't just dump a sentence on the screen but it builds out with words as the speaker speaks.
And changes colour from time to time, if 2 people are talking to discriminate.
Hope this puts your mind at ease
Unit is running latest firmware from Humax.
My model is the HDR Fox T2 with 500Gb drive,
receiving single mux on ch53 from Truskmore 60 miles away,
using a televes dat 75!

Willby

watty wrote: »

But will it still work properly when clock spring forward?

Hi Watty,
Is this only an issue for the Humax Freeview box? as I have the Humax Foxsat and never have to reset the time.

The Cush

Donegal_TDI wrote: »

Recorded prime Time this evening, activated subtitles, and they display perfectly on playback.
Not exactly at the bottom of the screen but a 1/3 the way up from the bottom.
They don't just dump a sentence on the screen but it builds out with words as the speaker speaks.
And changes colour from time to time, if 2 people are talking to discriminate.
Hope this puts your mind at ease

Thanks for taking the time to test it out.

Live show so live subtitling. I know this will be good information for anyone deaf/hard of hearing who use subtitles on a daily basis. This might be a stop gap for someone who requires a DTT recorder now with no Saorview approved PVR on the horizon yet.

Interesting that the Humax is a Freeview product and can record and playback VBI (teletext) subtitles, Freeview uses DVB subtitling I believe.

I know Sony also have 2 non approved PVRs on their Irish site, I wonder if they can also record and playback Saorview subtitles?

watty

RTENL are just using Teletext Presentation. The actual transmission is DVB subtitles, not a Teletext stream. I have no idea why they are doing this (maybe for Sky?). It's even possible that TV or Box software without Teletext presentation would ignore that and display the subtitles anyway...