Digital TV "Specials" in SuperValu

baalthor

Just noticed in local SuperValus here in Cavan, promos for the Digital Switch Over:

A Digital Tuner Box for €50, TVStar is the brand, don't remember the specs.

All for One indoor aerial for €20.

There are no leaflets or posters explaining why people would need to buy these items nor are there any SaorView stickers visible.
I doubt the average SuperValu employee is qualified to advise on Digital Terrestrial equipment and I wonder how many people will end up buying things they don't need ?

byte

Just to note, those TVStar boxes are not Saorview approved, and do not have MHEG5 middleware.

Fine if you are not interested in digital Aertel, future "red button" interactive services, and possibly other stuff in the future...

The UI is very basic too.

Grand as a basic box maybe for a lesser used TV. I wonder would it support AAC, not that it's in use at present unfortunately?

Is there a link to the One For All aerial? I think with these, you pay more for the fancy packaging and it looking a bit nicer than a basic indoor aerial.

STB

A little knowledge is.....

Well I really do hope for their sake that they are not the T910 boxes as they are standard definition only MPEG4 boxes! No RTE2HD.

TV Star do have a MPEG4 HD profile box called the 1010.

Whats the chances that they are selling the 910 ? Maybe the OP can find out.

910 looks like this (NO GOOD)


1010 (Okay for displaying stations, but no middleware for Text/interactive services)


Again on the aerials if they are the SV9021 One for all's they are fairly basic and are only for places of high power transmission i.e. beside the broadcast mast. They are available for about a €10 on the net. They look like this. Perhaps the OP might check.

byte

Pretty sure it's the 1010 they have, with the red circle around the Standby button.

STB

byte wrote: »

Pretty sure it's the 1010 they have, with the red circle around the Standby button.

The ones Soundstore and others are selling then. They will work fine with the shortcomings you have listed.

byte wrote: »

Grand as a basic box maybe for a lesser used TV. I wonder would it support AAC, not that it's in use at present unfortunately?

AAC according to the spec. However it is HE-AAC (AAC+) which is in the Saorview spec....

watty

It's a disgrace that a major Irish Retailer would foist this stuff on unsuspecting public.

Sponge Bob

DID are peddling some yoke of an STB which is not approved, not advertised with Saorview logo, but which claims to have MHEG5.

Really RTE should broadcast some radio channel in AAC so that customers can easily bring grossly dysfunctional boxes back to the retailer.

Parakeets

I've been reading the manual for TV STAR T910 and it does not mention Saorview compatible but says MPEG-4. If this is saorview compliant then where's the problem. Remember that the saorview box is there to avoid buying a new TV and keeping your old bog standard non-HD TV. So why get an expensive saorview box when all new TV from now on will be saorview compliant anyway.

Peter Rhea

You can buy a Saorview box for the same price as these things.

Gerry Wicklow

Not all TVs being sold are SaorView compliant. Many are dumped UK stock which may or may not work with SaorView.

According to the manual http://www.tvstar.eu/assets/Uploads/T910date.pdf that box is SD only so forget about RTÉ2.

Why do people insist on searching for dodgy boxes when proper, approved boxes are freely available for similar money?

byte

STB had already mentioned that the T910 was useless here - have SuperValu been trying to pawn off the T910 in some stores? The ones I saw were the T1010, but again, your point is valid regarding Saorview approved hardware.

I do really doubt that many retailers would have non-compliant stock now. Pretty much all the distributed brands have SV-approved sets.

The only brand I would think you're on about may be Panasonic? Do they have any Saorview approved TV's yet?