saorsat + integrated HD freesat tuner?

mrblack

My LG LH327700 has a built in freesat tuner with which I can watch BBC one HD and C4 HD which I think means its a DVB-S2 tuner. The tv can also technically show saorview but despite the installer trying for over two hours last year the saorview picture quality was v poor here in Meath, just like our analogue tv, and so its saorsat or no irish tv for us, as I stopped paying Sky a few months ago due to them not extending a reduced price offer I was on for a year. To see reasonable RTE/TV3 we currently use appletv fed from my iphone-but its a pain at times and picture quality is subject to the limitations of our internet connection (which is usually v good)

Just want to confirm before I shell out for a Ka dish and Lnb that all I need is to join the new feed from the saorsat Ka dish to the existing feed from the freesat dish via a suitable joiner and then the LG's DVB-S2 tuner should be able to see all the freesat and saorsat channels in time for the euros from June 9th or so in lovely HD.

Thanks for the assistance in advance!

MrBlack

Peter Rhea

Can you vouch for the competence of this installer? Don't discount the possibility that they didn't know what they were doing.

What does the Saorview coverage checker have to say about your location?

zg3409

mrblack wrote: »

Just want to confirm before I shell out for a Ka dish and Lnb that all I need is to join the new feed from the saorsat Ka dish to the existing feed from the freesat dish via a suitable joiner and then the LG's DVB-S2 tuner should be able to see all the freesat and saorsat channels

The TV needs to have a non freesat mode and DiSEqC option in the menu. You need to confirm this before installing a KA LNB. Can you manually scan for extra sat channels and does the TV under LNB settings have a mention DiSEqC?

If you can find the user manual check the specifications page for these details. This is normally the last page.

If you can find the manual online send a link. I could not find the model on LG's site. Is there a different model number in the user manual?

mrblack

Lads, thanks for the replies, , xg3409 my bad! actually the TV is an LG 32LF7700 model. I believe it has diseqc support although to get to this option on its non-freesat tuning menu is an exercise in itself involving pushing all the 4 colour buttons in a special sequence completely unprompted. The TV then had a menu asking for transponder number, and whether fixed satellite or motorised. I thinks this means its suppports diseqc although "diseqc" didn't show up anywhere in the menus.

Peter, the installer was recommended to me and I think he was competent when he did the work this time last year. He was quite disappointed at the poor Saorview signal and used a filter to clean up the signal (interference from some digital systems used by guards/hse I think he mentioned back then) and a small amp to boost it at the aerial on the roof. Unfortunately we are a few miles east of Navan and Clermont Carn is our nearest mast, but it is a long way from us as we seem to be equidistant between Kippure and Clermont Carn. Net result is v bad analogue and soarview is unviewable (sometimes we get the guide up and v occassionally we can see TV3 or the 2nd Tv3 channel on SV for a few mins. I am hoping that when the Clermont carn transmitter is powered up fully after aso that we can then get decent SV signal-but am not optimistic. Anyway I want to see the euros and olympics in HD on RTE2 if possible hence why the saorsat interest.

Mrblack

zg3409

According to the manual here:
http://www.lg.com/uk/support/product/support-product-profile.jsp?customerModelCode=32LF7700&initialTab=documents&targetPage=support-product-profile#

the button labelled FREESAT on the top left of the remote change from freesat mode to non freesat mode

On page 34 in the setup menu it has non freesat tuning options

It says "Satellite was preset to Astra 2 satellites at 28.2° East." so I don't know if you can change this value.

I couldn't see in the manual anywhere

pushing all the 4 colour buttons in a special sequence completely unprompted. The TV then had a menu asking for transponder number, and whether fixed satellite or motorised. I thinks this means its suppports diseqc although "diseqc" didn't show up anywhere in the menus.

If you can select Antenna 1/ Antenna 2 or dish 1 dish 2, not motorised. it might be possible. If the feature is not in the user manual then where did you find it? Can you send a link or a photo of the page in your manual.

mrblack

zg3409,

I got the tip about the pushing the 4 colour buttons from this website

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1266317

This procedure is not mentioned at all in the brochure which I still have.

after presssing the 4 colours in sequence the satellite becomes changeable. However on my set only the 28.2e freesat is in the list or selectable-which I hope is because the tv cannot detect any other satellite except 28.2e. Hopefully when I add the ka feed it will then have a second option to select in non freesat mode.fingers crossed otherwise I will need a receiver which I'd like to avoid if possible.

mrblack

zg3409

If you have 2 dishes pointing at different satellites or a dish with multifeed LNB's you can switch between the satellites via a diseqc switch and diseqc commands from the receiver.

>Setup
>Non-Freesat Tuning
>Yes/No = Yes
(tuning screen)
Then
red green yellow blue green yellow blue
at the remote.

Above seems to suggest it is possible.

mrblack wrote: »

However on my set only the 28.2e freesat is in the list or selectable-which I hope is because the tv cannot detect any other satellite except 28.2e. Hopefully when I add the ka feed it will then have a second option to select in non freesat mode.fingers crossed otherwise I will need a receiver which I'd like to avoid if possible.
mrblack

If the menu does not have 9e but has ANY other satellite (like 13 east) they it will work. That link mentions DiSEqc so it should be there somewhere.

Can you press the colour buttons, then try every single option on every screen. Ideally take photos on your phone or whatever and attach them.

Ideally you want to find DiSEqc or dish1/dish2. You may not be able to change the 28.2 until you set dish type to motorised or similar. Then you may suddenly be able to change the 28.2 value.

So try every option and see what options are released or extra menu's appear.

zg3409

You could indeed be right about the extra items appearing when you connect a DiSEqC switch

There is a very very similar setup here:
http://foxsat.wikispaces.com/diseqc-setup

other mentions here:
http://www.astra2d.com/diseqc.html

What I would say from what that says IT IS POSSIBLE

Afterwards it looks as if then the channels can be added to your normal channels menu.

If you want to set up a totally seperate dish for Saorsat then you need an 80cm solid dish, a special KA LNB, and a DiSEqC 2.0 switch

I would suggest using a switch like this:
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/GT-DiSEqC-2-0-2-x-1-way-Satellite-Switch-/150726284606?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Other&hash=item2317fc953e

to switch from one dish to another. This could be fitted outside so no need to run new cables inside.

You can combine both LNBs on one 90cm/1M dish. You would either need to do it yourself or get a real installer who has setup Saorsat before 99% of installer have not.

I would suggest ordering this switch today, waiting for it to arrive and confirm 100% you have the menu options needed and understand what to expect. No installer will be as familiar with your TV and the procedure as you.

Let us know how you get on

pelisor2000

mrblack wrote: »

My LG LH327700 has a built in freesat tuner with which I can watch BBC one HD and C4 HD which I think means its a DVB-S2 tuner. The tv can also technically show saorview but despite the installer trying for over two hours last year the saorview picture quality was v poor here in Meath, just like our analogue tv, and so its saorsat or no irish tv for us, as I stopped paying Sky a few months ago due to them not extending a reduced price offer I was on for a year. To see reasonable RTE/TV3 we currently use appletv fed from my iphone-but its a pain at times and picture quality is subject to the limitations of our internet connection (which is usually v good)

Just want to confirm before I shell out for a Ka dish and Lnb that all I need is to join the new feed from the saorsat Ka dish to the existing feed from the freesat dish via a suitable joiner and then the LG's DVB-S2 tuner should be able to see all the freesat and saorsat channels in time for the euros from June 9th or so in lovely HD.

Thanks for the assistance in advance!

MrBlack

Your aerial it on Vertical or Horizontal ?

zg3409

From my reading of it you need to fit the DiSEqC switch first. and only connect it to the 28.2 dish. They you need to setup freesat as if for the very first time. It seems, during initial setup, if it detects the switch in-line it then adds the DiSEqC menu option in the hidden menu.

zg3409

From here:
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=792037

I did find that in the manual search option I had to select Astra 28.2 rather than freesat 28.2. If you select freesat 28.2 then you cannot select the satellite in non freesat mode when pressing list-satellite(yellow).

This might help later

zg3409

More info here:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CF8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.avforums.com%2Fforums%2Fattachments%2Fsatellite-tv%2F170839d1269554276-how-do-i-run-two-diseqcs-into-humax-foxsat-hdr-advanced-menu-guide.pdf&ei=fwinT7erPMeWhQeh15nhAg&usg=AFQjCNH5yEqWjRdn-Xi4XXWx3Wp5xJg2tw

mrblack

Its Vertical as per the attached photo -But just not high enough I think. There are tall mature trees in the way. Maybe a chainsaw is the quick and dirty solution

MrBlack

pelisor2000 wrote: »

Your aerial it on Vertical or Horizontal ?

Peter Rhea

So the installer spent 2 hours messing around with that & didn't think to try a higher gain aerial or a higher/better mounting position?

I wonder did he even try Kippure?

mrblack

There is a hill a few hundred yards from us that unfortunately blocks Kippure from all of us on this road. So all the tv aerials on nearby houses are pointed at CC. Hence I am not surprised at all about the unavailability of saorview. I also agreed with the installer that he wouldn't bother with an older type analogue aerial that would be redundant after aso this October. Looking at the trees and nearest neighbours house which is directly in the way the aerial would have to be at double its current height of approx 6 metres to be get a clear LOS towards CC. At the time having sky the need wasn't there.

Peter Rhea wrote: »

So the installer spent 2 hours messing around with that & didn't think to try a higher gain aerial or a higher/better mounting position?

I wonder did he even try Kippure?

Peter Rhea

There's no difference in the aerials used for analogue or digital reception. Maybe the installer was referring to a VHF aerial, but that would be for Kippure.

Saorsat may well be your best bet before switchover, but that installer seems a bit lazy or lacking in knowledge.

Ronnie Raygun

Yeah, sounds like the kind of guy who's only too glad to have excuses (trees, buildings etc.) to not try too hard, while still taking your money for useless amplifiers & filters.

Ken bryan

I had same probablems as you with poor signal due to distance from transmitter.
Trees houses don’t affect signal. Mountains yes, that why the transmitters are place on top of them /hills.
My advice is to place a long antenna mine is 6 ft long in attic.
I installed the dish. Ran into attic. Took the feed from aerial.
Got a combiner and fed the cables into living room. Then got a splitter/ combiner. To split signal in two. fed both into TV / triax box . Now i have both saor view and freesat.

STB

I would wonder why you cant pick up Saorview in Meath.

Anyhow to answer your question on the Diseq on The LG LF7700 range.

The hack sequence is the very same as for enabling on the Humax Foxsat range (obviously quite similar software loaded in the background for non freesat satellites). Obviously you would only have to do this once.

Humax foxsat hd box
To access the Advanced menu (hidden):
- Go to Menu> SETUP
- Press RED, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE
- 2 options appear:
Antenna Setting
Manual Tune
- In Antenna Setting select your Antenna Type (Fixed*, SCD, Motor*, SMATV)
- Setup as required and then use Manual Tune to search for the channels.

There is another hidden menu,only accessed whilst in the first hidden menu.
To access the second hidden menu:

Press RED, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE
You may have to try it several times before it appears.
A menu named Hidden Menu appears.

source

zg3409

STB wrote: »

The hack sequence is the very same as for enabling on the Humax Foxsat range (obviously quite similar software loaded in the background for non freesat satellites). Obviously you would only have to do this once.

source

My reading of that is there are TWO hidden menu. The first sequence gets you to stage one, and then a second sequence gets you into another deeper menu. Interesting.

It's a pity these are no longer for sale, they could be a handy bedroom TV set for rooms without the need for a true PVR.

STB

zg3409 wrote: »

It's a pity these are no longer for sale, they could be a handy bedroom TV set for rooms without the need for a true PVR.

Yeah the manufacturers take it in turns to release the Freesat Combo TVs. They are normally limited edition on sale for about a year (the sequence has been Panasonic/LG/Panasonic/Sony/Panasonic/Samsung).

There have been issues in the UK with them over the BBC Player software not working on the various Freesat ranges, especially the early ranges. The good people at LG actually sent out free STBs as a goodwill gesture (even to people in Ireland as they couldnt sort out the BBC Player issue on the LF7700's. Guess what the boxes were. The Humax Foxsat HD..............

emaherx

mrblack wrote: »

I also agreed with the installer that he wouldn't bother with an older type analogue aerial that would be redundant after aso this October.

If the installer told you there is a "Digital" Aerial and an "Analogue" aerial, then you need a new installer and as mentioned a higher gain aerial, possibly the same type as your neighbours are using. If your neighbours have good reception of TG4/TV3 in analouge or reliable Saorview, then you probably need an Aerial similar to theirs.

Peter Rhea

Ken bryan wrote: »

Trees houses don’t affect signal. Mountains yes, that why the transmitters are place on top of them /hills.
My advice is to place a long antenna mine is 6 ft long in attic.

Trees & buildings in the signal path will have an effect on the frequencies used for tv broadcasting. Also, don't mention attics in a thread dealing with poor signal.

emaherx wrote: »

If the installer told you there is a "Digital" Aerial and an "Analogue" aerial, then you need a new installer

You could probably forgive him if he was referring to a VHF aerial as 'analogue'; he could have been trying to keep things simple, as he would hardly know what level of knowledge his customers have.

Ronnie Raygun

Ken bryan wrote: »

I had same probablems as you with poor signal due to distance from transmitter.
Trees houses don’t affect signal. Mountains yes, that why the transmitters are place on top of them /hills.
My advice is to place a long antenna mine is 6 ft long in attic.

If an attic aerial works reliably, you're not in a poor signal area. And, as already pointed out, trees & houses do affect signals.

Nowso

STB wrote: »

I would wonder why you cant pick up Saorview in Meath.

Anyhow to answer your question on the Diseq on The LG LF7700 range.

The hack sequence is the very same as for enabling on the Humax Foxsat range (obviously quite similar software loaded in the background for non freesat satellites). Obviously you would only have to do this once.



source

has anybody got into the second hidden menu?

STB

Nowso wrote: »

has anybody got into the second hidden menu?

You must turn on Non Freesat Mode menu first (I guess - I dont have an LF7700).

• Setup
• Non-Freesat Tuning
• Yes/No = Yes

(tuning screen) then

• red green yellow blue green yellow blue

Nowso

Humax foxsat hd box
To access the Advanced menu (hidden):
- Go to Menu> SETUP
- Press RED, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE
- 2 options appear:
Antenna Setting
Manual Tune
- In Antenna Setting select your Antenna Type (Fixed*, SCD, Motor*, SMATV)
- Setup as required and then use Manual Tune to search for the channels.

There is another hidden menu,only accessed whilst in the first hidden menu.
To access the second hidden menu:

Press RED, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE
You may have to try it several times before it appears.
A menu named Hidden Menu appears.

---

on the humax foxsat hd i get into the 1st hidden menu , but not the 2nd

STB

Nowso wrote: »

Humax foxsat hd box
To access the Advanced menu (hidden):
- Go to Menu> SETUP
- Press RED, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE
- 2 options appear:
Antenna Setting
Manual Tune
- In Antenna Setting select your Antenna Type (Fixed*, SCD, Motor*, SMATV)
- Setup as required and then use Manual Tune to search for the channels.

There is another hidden menu,only accessed whilst in the first hidden menu.
To access the second hidden menu:

Press RED, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE
You may have to try it several times before it appears.
A menu named Hidden Menu appears.

---

on the humax foxsat hd i get into the 1st hidden menu , but not the 2nd

Here is the full instructions with pictures of the menus (half way down after picture 6).

http://www.astra2d.com/diseqc.html

mrblack

STB,

Thanks -That guide is going to be very handy!

I think I get a second opinion about the saorview and get a quote for a tall aerial (8/12 metres minimum) first before stumping up for the saorsat gear as I must admit to liking TV3 and E3. Vincent B and the hot one on Midweek are worth investing a few quid at least.

MrBlack

STB wrote: »

Here is the full instructions with pictures of the menus (half way down after picture 6).

http://www.astra2d.com/diseqc.html

zg3409

mrblack wrote: »

I think I get a second opinion about the saorview and get a quote for a tall aerial (8/12 metres minimum)

Check that your neighbours have Saorview OK, before paying a second person to check coverage. Many people have aerials up but no longer use them. Also let the installer know before hand you had problems in the past. That way they can be sure to have the parts needed.

Also check the Saorview coverage map.
http://www.saorview.ie/make-the-switch/coverage-map/

pmac086

Mrblack, did you get sorted.?

Currently I have smart LG TV with Freesat and just use RTE Player which is available in the menu.

Is it worth the extra effort and expense in getting Saorsat ( no saorview signal available , have checked )

icdg

He’s probably sorted at this stage, it’s only been eleven years.