Will a saorview approved tv pick up freeview?

kenskool

I am looking to buy a new TV and I was wondering if i buy a Saorview approved TV will it be able to pick up the Freeview channels from Britain. If not what can I do to do receive both signals on the one TV. I live on the hills outside Tallaght so I m hoping to pick up signals from the Welsh transmitter and the 3 rock transmitter.

Any help appreciated.

Jpmarn

I'm pretty sure it would pick up UK Freeview if you are in an reception area. Were you ever able to get analogue reception from across the Irish Sea up to acouple of years ago? Not every TV set can pick up freeview HD.

kenskool

I have never picked it up from Wales but i have picked the analogue signal up from Divis near Belfast. Would I be better to point my aerial towards Divis or would Llanddona in Wales be a better option.

Gerry Wicklow

From the Tallaght side of the hills, I would think that NI would be the better option. However given the "black art" involved with TV signals it is hard to say for certain. A professional installer could test for the best signal at your location but you should remember that the NI transmitters will not be at full power until DSO in Oct.
I know from a house near 'Lamb Doyle's' we used to get better results from NI but that was analogue many years ago.

kenskool

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

From the Tallaght side of the hills, I would think that NI would be the better option. However given the "black art" involved with TV signals it is hard to say for certain. A professional installer could test for the best signal at your location but you should remember that the NI transmitters will not be at full power until DSO in Oct.
I know from a house near 'Lamb Doyle's' we used to get better results from NI but that was analogue many years ago.

Thanks. I didn't know that they weren't at full power at the moment. Do you know whether the Llanddona transmitter in Wales would be at full power? I should pick up the NI transmitter when it goes to full power as I picked up the analogue signal up to a few years ago.

Gerry Wicklow

Wales already underwent DSO so I'm fairly sure they are at full power now but open to correction on that.
BTW a Saorview tv will get Freeview but might not show Freeview HD whereas a Freeview HD set should show Saorview but might not be fully compatible either.

kenskool

Yesterday I hooked up an external aerial that was lying around to a Saorview TV upstairs in my house and pointed it towards the Divis transmitter up the north. When I scanned I didn't pick up any digital Freeview channels but I did pick up 4 British analogue channels BBC 1 and 2, UTV and CHANNEL4. What I might do now is try pointing my external aerial (with masthead amplifier) that i have on a mast outside towards Divis and see will it pick up any Freeview digital channels. If I don't pick up any channels with that I guess I will have to wait until October for ASO day and try again.

Souriau

Do you know what are the frequency or channel number for the analogue NI TV channels?
Can you get teletext from the analogue channels, page 284?
If you can get all the white squares inline and none missing then is a good chance you can received Freeview after 24th October.

mrdtv2010

kenskool wrote: »

Yesterday I hooked up an external aerial that was lying around to a Saorview TV upstairs in my house and pointed it towards the Divis transmitter up the north. When I scanned I didn't pick up any digital Freeview channels but I did pick up 4 British analogue channels BBC 1 and 2, UTV and CHANNEL4. What I might do now is try pointing my external aerial (with masthead amplifier) that i have on a mast outside towards Divis and see will it pick up any Freeview digital channels. If I don't pick up any channels with that I guess I will have to wait until October for ASO day and try again.

That sounds like Kilkeel, rather than Divis because Ch 5 is still being broadcast from Black Mountain. Is the aerial vertically polarised?

Ronnie Raygun

Channel 5 analogue from Black Mtn. is only 1/10 the power of Divis analogue.

Peter Rhea

I can attenuate my signal until C5 has all but disappeared & still have the other 4 watchable. If the OP tuned manually to ch. 37, there'd probably be a faint signal.

kenskool

mrdtv2010 wrote: »

kenskool wrote: »

Yesterday I hooked up an external aerial that was lying around to a Saorview TV upstairs in my house and pointed it towards the Divis transmitter up the north. When I scanned I didn't pick up any digital Freeview channels but I did pick up 4 British analogue channels BBC 1 and 2, UTV and CHANNEL4. What I might do now is try pointing my external aerial (with masthead amplifier) that i have on a mast outside towards Divis and see will it pick up any Freeview digital channels. If I don't pick up any channels with that I guess I will have to wait until October for ASO day and try again.

That sounds like Kilkeel, rather than Divis because Ch 5 is still being broadcast from Black Mountain. Is the aerial vertically polarised?

Sorry I never saw the messages on the thread as the email did not come through.

I doubt that it Kilkeel as the signal seems strong enough. Yes it is vertically polarised.
I have yet to try turning my aerial which is on a mast outside the house toward Divis but as the digital signal isn't on full blast I mightn't receive any freeview channels.

Has anyone in the Dublin area received any digital freeview channels?

It could save me some money as the freest boxes are expensive.

Peter Rhea

The transmissions from Divis are horizontally polarised. As you no doubt know, switchover in NI starts 2 months from now, the power at Divis will increase significantly & Kilkeel will broadcast Freeview for the 1st time.

kenskool

Peter Rhea wrote: »

The transmissions from Divis are horizontally polarised. As you no doubt know, switchover in NI starts 2 months from now, the power at Divis will increase significantly & Kilkeel will broadcast Freeview for the 1st time.

Ah i c. It does look closer on the map. That would explain why I didn't pick up any digital channels.
I hope it's powerful enough to get the digital channels across to me come October.
Fingers crossed.