Nordmende Saorview STBs €45 (Cork)

Apogee

Just as an FYI, apparently 100 units at this price. No idea how many still available.



edit: It's not clear from above, but in some other ad they listed it as a Normende.

Found last week's paper:

Compton

Thats a great price - pity cork is a bit far!!

winston_1

Are they actually Saorview approved? I can't see the logo on the boxes.

Digital Satellite TV

winston_1 wrote: »

I can't see the logo on the boxes.

+1

The Cush

winston_1 wrote: »

Are they actually Saorview approved? I can't see the logo on the boxes.

Saorview approved Nordmende NM8010M4 also on sale in Powercity and DID

54kroc

Just to save anyone a spin, all the boxes are sold out but they will be back Monday, you can still pop in and pay now if you want and collect Monday.

Kristopherus

The Cush wrote: »

Saorview approved Nordmende NM8010M4 also on sale in Powercity and DID

With their prices €20 & €30 dearer, it would still be cheaper to order from Cork and have it delivered anywhere with money to spare.:)

John mac

I'm sure they would have sold 100 already though.

TheDriver

poped in this morning and the poster has changed to a TVstar box which they say its "saorview" but it will be approved along with the extra channels etc. The avoidance of the "approved" part was funny. Needless to say, i left it.

Digital Satellite TV

TheDriver wrote: »

poped in this morning and the poster has changed to a TVstar box which they say its "saorview" but it will be approved along with the extra channels etc. The avoidance of the "approved" part was funny. Needless to say, i left it.

Doubt it unless they have an mheg5 box. If they do, they didn't mention it when they sent us samples a while ago. I'd say it is just the mpeg4 HD digital terrestrial receiver they have on the go elsewhere. Open to correction if they do indeed have an mheg5 box on the go but would seem strange that they didn't mention it to us.

TheDriver

think they are just chancing their arm and they were trying to be very persuasive, offering a walker box for 89 if I wanted to spend more and get the approved symbol however the years warranty is fine if I wanted to bring it back etc. Alas I decided I was being sold a dummy and left it at that.

Tony

Tv star will be briniging out both a stand alone Saorview box as well as a combo with MHEG 5 but there are no plans to pay 20K for saorview certification.

TheDriver

Still don't like the way they were trying to inform me that saorview approved doesn't matter. At least Tony states on his website about the MHEG5 etc, whereas they had a load of these kept for people.

Tony

TheDriver wrote: »

Still don't like the way they were trying to inform me that saorview approved doesn't matter.

Indeed its not a good way to go . Every retailer should tell prospective customers what features that product has or has not so an informed decision can be made . Saorview approval is important for many people. As for Tv Star the decision not to apply for cerification is based purely on cost grounds as the market is understandably very price sensitive at the moment.

watty

So where else does "TV star" cut costs? Less than 6 months cost of one employee. Or do they think they won't sell many (what will support be like) or do they think their box would fail certification. An MHEG5 box without any certification is suspicious unless it's for UK or South African market.

Tony

Watty if you have 20K handy I'd be happy to put in into certification.

Saying its suspicious is frankly alarmist and without foundation. You should really think about the size of the market here and ask yourself why the triax combo is 189 euro retail. My personal opinion is that the whole certification process was a nonsense from the start to finish , the Uk did very well without it and they have a population of circa 56 million.

I'll leave it up to consumers to decide whether they wish to buy a certified box or not.

watty wrote: »

So where else does "TV star" cut costs? Less than 6 months cost of one employee. Or do they think they won't sell many (what will support be like) or do they think their box would fail certification. An MHEG5 box without any certification is suspicious unless it's for UK or South African market.

The Cush

Tony wrote: »

the Uk did very well without it and they have a population of circa 56 million.

They didn't, DTG Testing in the UK carry out the Freeview and Freesat product testing and certification, I believe they also do it for Freeview Australia and New Zealand.

Tony

The Cush wrote: »

They didn't, DTG Testing in the UK carry out the Freeview and Freesat product testing and certification, I believe they also do it for Freeview Australia and New Zealand.

I stand corrected, my main point though is that the regime employed here is totally unsuited (cost wise) to the population base . (water meters anyone)

TheDriver

but what if a tvstar or equivalent box stops working like the panasonic where they claim to be compatible but not approved, customers then can go f**k off!

I am glad I didn't buy one, mainly because of the shop trying to convince me that "approved" means nothing.

Tony

I'm not familiar with the pansonic box you mentioned or the reasons why it stopped working but its kinda like saying a free to air box will stop receiving freesat channels. I understand your reasons for not buying given the shops assertion (which of course is totally untrue)

TheDriver wrote: »

but what if a tvstar or equivalent box stops working like the panasonic where they claim to be compatible but not approved, customers then can go f**k off!

I am glad I didn't buy one, mainly because of the shop trying to convince me that "approved" means nothing.

TheDriver

I was referring the the panasonic z81 which would have worked fine with saorview except for a small firmware problem so now we can't rescan or else loose the channels.

watty

Tony wrote: »

I stand corrected, my main point though is that the regime employed here is totally unsuited (cost wise) to the population base . (water meters anyone)

They chose Teracom because of the Boxer connection. RTENL was convinced Boxer would happen. There is no doubt that a Scandinavian test house is unlikely to be cheapest. But there is no Transparency with RTE/RTENL. We don't know for how long Teracom have the contract. Certainly RTE ought to have put it to tender.

Given their attitude to the Installer Associations the exclusive & expensive contract with Teracom seems strange.

Tony

watty wrote: »

Certainly RTE ought to have put it to tender.

Given their attitude to the Installer Associations the exclusive & expensive contract with Teracom seems strange.

Indeed, it seems a contradiction not to go to tender.

The Cush

watty wrote: »

We don't know for how long Teracom have the contract. Certainly RTE ought to have put it to tender.

How may labs are authorised to carry Nordig conformance testing?

For Freeview and Freesat the only lab authorised is the DTG Testing Lab.

Tony

Its begs the question as to why they went with the nordig spec ?

The Cush wrote: »

How may labs are authorised to carry Nordig conformance testing?

The Cush

Tony wrote: »

Its begs the question as to why they went with the nordig spec ?

Back to Jul 2008 when the Boxer consortium won the BCI contract to operate the 3 commercial multiplexes. The Boxer consortium included Sweden's Teracom - one of the developers of the Nordig spec and whose labs carries out the Saorview conformance testing.

Under the original irish DTT plan the commercial multiplex operator was to the "DTT champion" who would develop and promote the service to the public with the free PSB channels bolted on.

The Boxer consortium withdrew in Apr 2009 and by that time the Irish Free and Pay DTT receiver spec had been developed and published (late 2008) and (I speculate) to start over again with a new receiver specification may have delayed the project further.

Of course if either of the other 2 consortia had subsequently won the contract to operate the commercial muxes they may have opted for a different receiver specification, maybe Arqiva in the OneVision group would have pushed for the D-Book spec, RTÉ's EasyTV may have stuck with Nordig.

After the commercial DTT project ended in May 2010 only RTÉ and their PSB Mux were left standing together with their already published Nordig FTA receiver specification.

watty

The Nordig spec unlike the D-Book is open and published. RTE could have vetted any suitable test lab. It's actually a reasonable clarification of DVB-T and CI+ now has mandatory inclusion of MHEG5 which at the time wasn't part of Nordig but is part of Saorview.

A test lab doesn't need to be "Nordig" approved. Only RTENL approved.

What's really baffling is why BAI or RTE NL thought ANY commercial DTT would ever happen. The licence was sitting on the table since 2000 roughly and "It's TV" failed in 2001. Neither UK nor Spain in the Early 2000s could make pay DTT work. It was always much less likely here.

The Cush

watty wrote: »

A test lab doesn't need to be "Nordig" approved. Only RTENL approved.

And in this case Teracom is the Saorview appointed test centre, it's also the appointed test centre for the Scandinavian DTT operators Boxer (Sweden, Denmark and Finland) and RiksTV AS (Norway).

evilivor

Full page ad on the front of Cork Independent today for Toss Bryan, Fermoy includes Nordmende Saorview boxes boxes for €49. Part of the Expert chain.

Rippy

Great though it is to see low cost boxes on the market , it's a pity the tv aerial trade cannot buy certified boxes for anywhere near that price. Reaching a situation where it is better to tell customers to buy their own box, then call us to install an aerial. The problem then though is if a fault develops with the box , the aerial install is blamed and the installer either ends up doing a FOC call-out and loses money, or the customer is charged and is reluctant to pay. Ill feeling all round.
Far better for continuity of service if the equipment is supplied by the installer, but at nearly twice the price ?
Wholesale price has to come down. We are being ripped off and expected to pass it on .:mad:
Rant over....

St Senan

Rippy wrote: »

Great though it is to see low cost boxes on the market , it's a pith the tv aerial trade cannot buy certified boxes for anywhere near that price. Reaching a situation where it is better to tell customers to buy their own box, then call us to install an aerial. The problem then though is if a fault develops with the box , the aerial install is blamed and the installer either ends up doing a FOC call-out and loses money, or the customer is charged and is reluctant to pay. Ill feeling all round.
Far better for continuity of service if the equipment is supplied by the installer, but at nearly twice the price ?
Wholesale price had to come down. We are being ripped off and expected to pass it on .:mad:
Rant over....

Very Very True.