a few images showing an 11 year old 13 ins portable converted to saorview

swoofer

After reading so much confusion about saorview and seeing questions like, should I buy a new tv? I thought I would show what I have done to prolong a very good and reliable portable that would otherwise be dumped.

all that is needed is

1. new box, small and neat and it has a feature to SQUEEZE the pic to fit 4:3 screen

2. cheap scart lead.

3. And if you previously had sky piped round the house a second very short coax lead as box has rf in and rf out.

total outlay 50 euro.

NB this will work with any old crt tv.

enjoy

watty

If you have a 1936 9" 405 line set you need an Aurora converter* too. Quite small and cheaper than a decent new HDTV.

It depends on TV and the use of it as to if you buy a new TV, buy a Saorview certified box (best for large modern 1st TV) or risk a small generic receiver (usually the PSU is an RFI, Fire and Electrocution risk and needs replaced and many with Europlugs don't actually even meet Mainland Europe specs and have faked CE marks)


(*Freeview has been demonstrated on a 22 line neon lamp illuminated mechanical TV via setbox + Aurora!)

Most of the confusion is caused by

• Retailers
• Government Going Digital Campaign
• Sky and to lesser extent UPC
• People posting nonsense on Boards.

Sites with less confusion

• http://www.saorview.ie
• http://www.saortv.info
• http://www.mpeg4ireland.com/

PogMoThoin

You're lucky it has scart. Saorview set top boxes don't have rf out, scart only.

watty

A modulator is small, low power and cheap as OEM item. I have a drawer of them removed from scrap VHS machines that are mechanically tuned so no PIC cpu needed to set channel via I2C as on new models.

It's possible on a portable/isolated TV to bypass tuner/IF and easily fit a composite in socket. RGB is a bit more work on a colour set.

marclt

Is that an ican box ?

Any pics of the EPG etc?

STB

Yes I'd say so. The design is a give away (looks like a i-Can Easy HD 2851T Freeview HD box). One of the 4 life boxes currently being sold by Harvey Norman is definitely a I-can clone.

swoofer

yes its the i-Can Easy HD 2851T Freeview HD box from maplins and I think its very good. I saw nothing in Harvey Normans, in Limeirck ie " none in stock, we are expecting them" So went to maplins.

Which 4 life one is the same? And does it do the digital text?

Where are a few pics of epg, writing is small. Its quite nifty, while watching RTE1 you can scroll down the progs and press info. Or you can watch say RTE 1 go to tv3 and again scroll down the programmes. Only had it a few days and its for the kitchen.

gbc

Capt'n Midnight

PogMoThoin wrote: »

You're lucky it has scart. Saorview set top boxes don't have rf out, scart only.

If you have an old video recorder with two SCART sockets you may be able to use it to modulate the signal form the set top box.

Check if you can choose AV using the videos remote control

byrnefm

My parents gave me a 14" Beko TV for Christmas back in 1994 and it has travelled with me to college for use with my then Commodore 64, the UK for work, to Dublin for several years (used on CableLink) and now has a Freeview box that I bought several years ago, which I use to watch TV in the kitchen. The analog picture isn't always coming in these days (not for a few minutes anyway) but works very nicely with the Freeview box (Wharfedale DV832B box).

At the time I got the TV, I had no idea what a SCART socket was for .. but am very glad it has one now!

(Incidentally, it's the only TV we have in the house that will work with a Pong console I have! The newer TVs can't lock in on the console frequency properly).

marclt

Thanks GBC for the screen grabs... thinking of this box for FreeviewHD/Saorview Combi! LOL. The USB isn't for recording I guess is it?

ByrneFM - Pong ... wow! Worth keeping that TV for!

Antenna

byrnefm wrote: »

(Incidentally, it's the only TV we have in the house that will work with a Pong console I have! The newer TVs can't lock in on the console frequency properly).

If its American origin the modulator is likely outputting in low-VHF/ VHF Band 1 (as do American VCRs etc).
It may be split between the Band 1 channels the other TVs tunes to. It may be possible to tune it in on other TVs by manually entering Band 1 channels in the tuning menu (might be numbered 2,3,4 or 1,2,3) and then using FINE TUNING in one direction or the other from the second or third Band 1 channel? If it was actually American standard, no TV sold here (including the Beko) would receive the sound (unless the modulator had been altered for 6MHz sound). UK purchased TVs most likely would not have Band 1 at all.

According to wikipedia the picture from these was black-and-white only, so different colour systems was not an issue.


"It came with a RF modulator and has a switch for Channel 3 or 4"

US VHF CHANNEL 3 = 55.25 MHz
US VHF CHANNEL 4 = 61.25 MHz