Freeview HD box

tiny temper

I'm looking for a Freeview HD receiver that can have the channels rearranged as I can get Saorview and Freeview. So the Irish channels would be 1,2,3 etc. and the UK channels would be 8,9,10 and so on.

I don't need one with recording abilities just a plain old receiver.

Any recommendations?

John Dough

What area are you in ?

lawhec

To get the UK channels, you'll need to be in an area which can potentially receive them. This will only become fully clear on the 24th October unless you live in the south-east, where Welsh broadcasts are already on full power. If you already have four or five UK channels via analogue through an aerial there is a good chance you'll receive at least the PSB channels but it will depend on location.

If you are not fussed about watching BBC, UTV & Channel 4 in HD, a Saorview set-top-box converter which allows channel reordering or failing that let you compile a favourites list should do the trick - others here who have the experience with them should know which ones are capable.

If you're insistent on a Freeview HD set-top-box converter be wary that different receivers handle Saorview signals differently. Some will allow you to move channels to another one other than that assigned by the broadcaster but you may miss some features e.g. problems with the EPG, subtitles etc. some Technika (Tesco) models ignore Saorview channels altogether even when there's a signal available. I can vouch that the Metronic T2-Zapbox allows you to reorder channels but this is now out of production and has problems with populating the 7 day EPG and MHEG text is very slow.

tiny temper

I'm in Arklow, I can get both already. I have a Phillips tv (not saorview certified but has mpeg4 I guess), when I set it up initially I set UK as the country and it set the freeview channels first and saorview in the 800's. I was able to able to move RTE1 into channel 1, RTE2 into channel 2 and so on. The freeview channels were shunted up a place each time IIRC.

I have an older hd ready tv that can't get saorview, so I thought I might get a freeview hd receiver for it so it could get both on it.

HD would be nice, but channel reordering is more of a priority. I tend to just press the up or down button until I find something, so I'd like to keep the channels I'm more likely to watch close to each other.

John mac

one of these ? they are not saorview approved but according to someone who has one (posted on there somewhere) they work fine..

zg3409

I would not recommend someone buying a PVR for Freeview and or Saorview for at least a few weeks until series link information is being sent regularly. There may be all sorts of quirks especially in areas that can get Saorview and Freeview from Wales or NI.

Issues I would test for/expect. The time being out by an hour possibly and may change if powered up on a freeview or Saroview channel. The inability to record properly on Saorview if watching Freeview and vice versa. The UK and ROI systems are different and there may never be a terrestrial box that works perfectly with Saorview and Freeview at the same time. Indeed I recommended to someone before for 100% sure recording it may be better to have one Saorview approved PVR for the Irish channels and another (possibly the same make and model) set up in UK mode for the UK Freeview channels.

OP for basic non recording I would expect some non approved DVB-T2 Mpeg4 boxes may do the trick of the correct/manual channel numbering. I think there is something in some of the specifications that moves channels listed as being a different country ID, so possibly approved boxes may not do what you want.

You would also need to specify if a 7 day guide is important and teletext (or the new version) and whether you would prefer a 7 day guide on the Irish or UK channels or both. If you go for a non approved model, or even an approved model in both countries you may lose the 7 day guide depending on which country you set the menu to on installation.

tiny temper

I wasn't intending to get a pvr, it would be wasted on me as I would never watch any of the recordings, though live pause is always nice.

7 day guide isn't important but it is nice to be able to look a little further than now and next. I'm not too interested in teletex. The red button services for the Olympics on Freeview were fairly poor in comparison to Freesats offering, so MHEG5 isn't as important, but again would be nice to have.

I suppose I'll keep an eye out for a non approved DVB-T2 Mpeg4 box or I'll buy a new tv.