Lidl saorview set top box.

County rebel

Hi i see next week in lidl they have a set top box for 54.99euro dont think its saorview approved is it worth buying? .THANKS

Compton

Pretty sure it is Saorview approved!

Johnboy1951

County rebel wrote: »

Hi i see next week in lidl they have a set top box for 54.99euro dont think its saorview approved is it worth buying? .THANKS

It has the Saorview Logo on the front, so is an approved product.

recyclebin

I wonder why it has a CI slot? It was probably designed for a different country with pay DTT but reprogrammed to be saorview compatible. I can't see a need for CI slot in Ireland for a long long time.

Kristopherus

Its an Akura, which has already been Saorview approved.Does this having a usb socket mean that you can record to external hdd?

Hotblack Desiato

This post indicates no. Presence of a USB slot doesn't indicate recording capability, or even playback, it could be for firmware upgrade only.

It's possible that firmware upgrades could since have changed this situation and enabled these features. But Lidl are making NO claim for recording ability or even playback, so it would be rather unwise to assume the box can do something when the retailer isn't claiming it can. It is being sold as a basic Saorview approved box and nothing more.

Interestingly, this box was 49.99 the last time it was around a few months ago, it should be getting cheaper not dearer!

Don't know how it performs e.g. changing channel, calling up teletext etc. some approved boxes and TVs are very poor in this regard.

Ronnie Raygun

ninja900 wrote: »

Interestingly, this box was 49.99 the last time it was around a few months ago, it should be getting cheaper not dearer!

They flew out of the shops the last time, why would they lower the price?

petronius

Does it do MPEG-2 as well as Saorview(MPEG4)?
Assuming it is a rebadged product probably aimed at UK or German market ?
yes i note it is a few euro dearer that the last issue

Peter Rhea

petronius wrote: »

Does it do MPEG-2 as well as Saorview(MPEG4)?

Yes, it does.

tfitzgerald

Worth buying or not?

Mint Sauce

I'm sure its been asked before, but cant get a definate answer on it. We have a Rabbit Ear style arial on the top of the TV. Can get RTE1/2, TV3, and TG4. Will we get the Irish Digital Stations if we connect the Rabbit Ears to the Saorview Box, or are we going to have to get a Roof/Attic arial first?

Cantona's Collars

irish-stew wrote: »

I'm sure its been asked before, but cant get a definate answer on it. We have a Rabbit Ear style arial on the top of the TV. Can get RTE1/2, TV3, and TG4. Will we get the Irish Digital Stations if we connect the Rabbit Ears to the Saorview Box, or are we going to have to get a Roof/Attic arial first?

If your reception is good at the minute then the rule of thumb is that your Saorview reception will be perfect using your existing aerial.

antoobrien

irish-stew wrote: »

I'm sure its been asked before, but cant get a definate answer on it. We have a Rabbit Ear style arial on the top of the TV. Can get RTE1/2, TV3, and TG4. Will we get the Irish Digital Stations if we connect the Rabbit Ears to the Saorview Box, or are we going to have to get a Roof/Attic arial first?

It will depend on the signal in your area but I have gotten standard set of rabbit ears to work with a STB in Killester (Dublin) and just outside Galway city.

A roof/attic aerial will only be needed if the signal is too weak in your area.

Judging by the fact that you can get TV3 & TG4, it'll probably work for you.

check the coverage map on the soarview website. It'll give you a good idea.

Macy0161

tfitzgerald wrote: »

Worth buying or not?

The real advantage of lidl and aldi is the 3 year warranty - their prices aren't as comparatively cheap as they used to be on electrical equipment.

181151

will this box give you satellite stations.Can it work off 12 volt from cig lighter in car

Peter Rhea

181151 wrote: »

will this box give you satellite stations.Can it work off 12 volt from cig lighter in car

No.

Nyquistic

I got one of these last time around, you can record to USB if you plug a USB device in before you turn on the box. It's basic but it works.

The disadvantages are (1) you can only record what you're watching (2) you can only watch it on the box, i.e. the format is unreadable on a computer, at least I couldn't read it with any conversion application and the dude I emailed in service said they don't support that and (3) you can set the timer to record, but if you're watching something on a different channel at the time it will just switch over to the other channel in order to record.

It doesn't replace a bog-standard VHS video recorder in terms of functionality but hey, for small money you get digital (i.e. flawless, including HD) reception and basic recording capabilities.

It doesn't receive satellite, run off 12V or boil eggs or make coffee. The USB device has to be formatted as FAT32 (which most USB sticks are these days) but if using a stick (flash drive) it needs to be fairly fast, and if you want to try a hard disk then it needs to have it's own power supply.

And yes, I'm going down early tomorrow morning to pick up a second one .... :cool:

jkbrackens11

Got one of these today.

When I connect it to the wall socket, the FTA and sky channels go.

Is there any way of getting the sky channels working along with the Saorview without having to get another wall socket or aerial on the roof?

recyclebin

jkbrackens11 wrote: »

Got one of these today.

When I connect it to the wall socket, the FTA and sky channels go.

Is there any way of getting the sky channels working along with the Saorview without having to get another wall socket or aerial on the roof?

That doesn't sound right. Do you have a sky dish? Where is the sky signal coming from?

It sounds like your after connecting your Saorview receiver into the dish.

You need to connect your dish to the aerial on the roof.

zg3409

jkbrackens11 wrote: »

Got one of these today.

When I connect it to the wall socket, the FTA and sky channels go.

Is there any way of getting the sky channels working along with the Saorview without having to get another wall socket or aerial on the roof?

Saorview uses a TV aerial not a dish. If you have no TV aerial on the roof, or rabbits ears, then the box will not work.

Have a look here:
http://www.saorview.ie/make-the-switch/coverage-checker/coverage-map/

If you are within 3 miles of a mast an indoor aerial probably will work, if not then you need an outdoor aerial.

Saorview only broadcasts RTE/TV3/TG4 etc.

To get BBC and RTE for free, and ditch Sky, you need both a Saorview box and TV aerial, and a satellite box and dish. There is such a thing as a combo box, which is easier to use than two boxes.

Johnboy1951

Nyquistic wrote: »

(2) you can only watch it on the box, i.e. the format is unreadable on a computer, at least I couldn't read it with any conversion application and the dude I emailed in service said they don't support that

Is it encrypted or is that your PC just could not play the format?

What is the format of the recorded file?

Thanks

Nyquistic

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Is it encrypted or is that your PC just could not play the format?

Not encrypted, it's a .ts file but most codecs choke on it because it appears to have an errors in the encoding. I've had some success using XMedia Recode but there are all sorts of glitches like missing sound, files cut in pieces that you can't join seamlessly, and the errors are not consistent -- seems to depend on the material and as well as the length of the file. Overall it's a mess and you'd spend more time trying to hack the format that you would watching TV. Playback on the device itself is fine, though, and as I said, when I contacted Akura support the guy just said it was never intended to be played back other than on the device itself.

Johnboy1951

If it is not encrypted then it should be possible to re-encode it for use elsewhere.
I am happy to know it is not encrypted, thank you.

Gerry Wicklow

Nyquistic wrote: »

Not encrypted, it's a .ts file but most codecs choke on it because it appears to have an errors in the encoding. I've had some success using XMedia Recode but there are all sorts of glitches like missing sound, files cut in pieces that you can't join seamlessly, and the errors are not consistent -- seems to depend on the material and as well as the length of the file. Overall it's a mess and you'd spend more time trying to hack the format that you would watching TV. Playback on the device itself is fine, though, and as I said, when I contacted Akura support the guy just said it was never intended to be played back other than on the device itself.

http://cypheros.de/index_e.html
TSDoctor is a great utility for fixing damaged TS files. Not a freebie but 30 day try before you buy

paddy147

Im picking up Saorview and TV3 and 3E in crystal clear picture and sound on this indoor areal.

All for 10 euro too.

Nyquistic

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

http://cypheros.de/index_e.html
TSDoctor is a great utility for fixing damaged TS files. Not a freebie but 30 day try before you buy

Thanks Gerry I'll give it a shot! :cool:

Kristopherus

paddy147 wrote: »

Im picking up Saorview and TV3 and 3E in crystal clear picture and sound on this indoor areal.

All for 10 euro too.

+1. Excellent indoor aerials.

paddy147

Kristopherus wrote: »

+1. Excellent indoor aerials.

Also just got this new complete 80cm satellite system for 50 euro.:D

Kristopherus

paddy147 wrote: »

Also just got this new complete 80cm satellite system for 50 euro.:D

Now to take the bid grin....... The fittings on that dish are shyte. If there is any way you can get your hands on galvanised 1.5in tubular elbow & completely new brackets and u-bolts, you will have a strong storm-proof fixing. If you use the stuff that came with the dish the first force 6 wind that hits the dish will knock it off alignment. There are many posters on these forums who will tell you the same.:D:D

paddy147

Kristopherus wrote: »

Now to take the bid grin....... The fittings on that dish are shyte. If there is any way you can get your hands on galvanised 1.5in tubular elbow & completely new brackets and u-bolts, you will have a strong storm-proof fixing. If you use the stuff that came with the dish the first force 6 wind that hits the dish will knock it off alignment. There are many posters on these forums who will tell you the same.:D:D

Where can I get such a tubular elbow and brackets then??

Thanks.:)

Kristopherus

You can get the brackets in any good hardware shop, builders providers, www.setellite.ie, www.tvtrade.ie.

Nyquistic

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

http://cypheros.de/index_e.html
TSDoctor is a great utility for fixing damaged TS files. Not a freebie but 30 day try before you buy

OK I've tried this now, with limited success, i.e. with short clips TSDoctor analyses the encoding errors OK and is able to fix them and output a file that plays fine in VLC, but with no sound in Windows Media Player, probably because the audio track is tagged as German. With longer files the Akura box splits the recording into 1GB chunks so you then have the fun of trying to find the chunks (the filenames are just numbers), so overall a complete mess and unusable for any practical purpose, but still fun to hack if you have the time. To reiterate, this is not a supported function and these files all play back perfectly on the box itself.

Gerry Wicklow

Nyquistic wrote: »

OK I've tried this now, with limited success, i.e. with short clips TSDoctor analyses the encoding errors OK and is able to fix them and output a file that plays fine in VLC, but with no sound in Windows Media Player, probably because the audio track is tagged as German. With longer files the Akura box splits the recording into 1GB chunks so you then have the fun of trying to find the chunks (the filenames are just numbers), so overall a complete mess and unusable for any practical purpose, but still fun to hack if you have the time. To reiterate, this is not a supported function and these files all play back perfectly on the box itself.

TSDoctor will automatically find and join the extra file bits that are numbered 001, 002 etc. You can also edit the individual audio streams to say 'English' rather than German. In general Media Centre / Player are temperamental beasties at the best of times

stanley1

I totally agree on media players, best I have found is my pioneer blu ray player, it plays whatever I throw at it, divx. mkv etc.

Stan 10

Ive got perfect reception on TV3, TG4 on my Analogue tv at the moment. I went and got a Lidl Saorview Box last week. But it is very patchy at the moment going from Signal Quality 100% and Very Good to 0% and poor. I think it is the Aerial but I thought if I could get TV3 and TG4 very good I would be ok. Any ideas

Peter Rhea

What part of the country are you in & what kind of aerial do you have? You might have an excessively strong signal.

Stan 10

I live in Leitrim and get signal from Corn Hill in Longford, UHF Aerial something like this.

[IMG]http://www.tvtrade.ie/tv-and-radio-aerials/uhf-aerials.htmlhttp://[/IMG]

Peter Rhea

Post the UHF channel nos. or frequencies of the channels (analogue & Saorview) you're receiving; you might be getting CH & Truskmore (Sligo).

Stan 10

Im pretty sure Im getting it from Longford as about 100yds from my house I can see the mast in the distance,25 mile away by the way. This aerial was put up a good many years now and I remember when the man was putting it up he could get good signal when it was on the ground, but with digitail I guess you have to more exact.

Analogue Nos. TG4 CH50, TV346, RTE1 CH40, RTE2 CH43, I have SAorview plugged out at the moment but I think it was Ch47 and Frequency something like 682000. I hope that helps.

Peter Rhea

Is the aerial just feeding one tv point directly, or are there any splitters?

If it's just 1 tv point with no splitters (passive or amplified), you could try attenuating (weakening) the signal.
If you have a passive splitter lying around, you could try that instead of buying an attenuator.

Stan 10

Just the one TV, I plugged it in again now and it shows Quality 100% and Signal Level 86% and it seems steady at the moment, but I don't know how long that will last, I was thinking maybe my signal was not strong enough?

Peter Rhea

Those channel nos. you gave for the analogues are Cairn Hill alright. Maybe you have some kind of electrical interference issue, heating systems are a common cause.

Would most likely be visible on the analogue picture as white dashes or lines.

Stan 10

Thank's for all your help so far, Since I plugged into the Saorview Box on Sat it has been very good no problem but the weather has been very sunny and no rain at all. What would you think of the Signal Level 86% is that good.

I was thinking of getting the Indoor Aerial that's in Lidl this week just to try it out. By the way I have Satellite dish working on Astra 2 and have no problem with it.

Peter Rhea

I wouldn't bother with the indoor aerial.

If you want a proper assessment of your signal, you'll need to get readings from a proper signal meter, so probably a job for a decent installer.

The weather shouldn't have a direct effect on the terrestrial signal. One problem I have is analogue pictures fading in & out, caused by trees moving in windy weather. This can be quite severe on TG4 analogue from my local transmitter, but with no noticeable effect on Saorview, as the digital transmissions can cope with this kind of disruption.

Stan 10

Signal wentagain with the rain last night, getting really pissed off with Saorview now.

Ronnie Raygun

Were the analogue channels affected too?

Probably water getting into your cable or connections.

Stan 10

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

Were the analogue channels affected too?

Probably water getting into your cable or connections.

No Analogue perfect, weather has no effect.

The Cush

Stan 10 wrote: »

No Analogue perfect, weather has no effect.

I'd start looking at the aerial and its co-ax connections, as you say it's a few years old now. Is the aerial easily accessible? What colour is the co-ax cable from the aerial to the TV point, is it the old brown cable?

Stan 10

The Cush wrote: »

I'd start looking at the aerial and its co-ax connections, as you say it's a few years old now. Is the aerial easily accessible? What colour is the co-ax cable from the aerial to the TV point, is it the old brown cable?

Yes it is the Brown cable and not that easy to get at. I was trying everything else first. I was just listening to all these adds saying plug in your aerial and Saorview Box and Bob's you Uncle, not as simple as that Im afraid.

The Cush

Stan 10 wrote: »

Yes it is the Brown cable and not that easy to get. I was trying ewveyhthing else first. I was just listening to all these adds saying plug in your aerial and Saorview Box and Bob's you Uncle, not as simple as tgat Im afraid

http://www.megalithia.com/elect/cable/index.html

There may be water in the cable, the co-ax connections to the aerial could be corroded due to moisture/water ingress. Might be a good idea to get someone in to have a look at the installation if you can't do it yourself

Stan 10

Thank's Cush. That seeems to be the way to go.