Slightly confused - Saorview/Freeview box & aerial

- bo -

Hi folks..

I live at home with my parents. We have UPC Digital TV in two rooms downstairs. Upstairs (3 bedrooms) we receive cable channels - BBC, RTE, UTV etc.

I saw a Saorview/Freeview box in Curry's today priced at €100. This can receive around 100 Irish and UK digital channels, which is what we want in the upstairs rooms. When I asked if this was a simple matter of just connecting to the upstairs TVs using a SCART/HDMI cable, the salesman said yes, but you may need an aerial on the side of the house. He said we probably have an aerial from the downstairs UPC, but we don't.

I was wondering, will we actually need an aerial, or how else can the box receive a signal? When I asked where we could get an aerial (if needed), he didn't know.

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks..

paultf

Was it a combo box that you saw - a Saorview/Satellite box?

For that type of box: To get Saorview you need an aerial. To get the FTA (Free To Air) UK channels you will need a satellite dish.

www.tvtrade.ie has a good selection + videos explaining how the different boxes work, what aerial, dish, etc you might need.

EDIT: just to confuse the situation, if you can receive the UK channels through an exisitng TV aerial then there might be a chance after the switchover that you could receive the UK channels either through a Freeview or Saorview box. NI are switching over at the same time. (Freeview being the UK version of Saorview.)

- bo -

That's it yep, there were Saorview-only ones for €50 and Combo for €100.

Thanks a million for the quick reply and the link, gonna go look it up - cheers!

ardmacha

He said we probably have an aerial from the downstairs UPC, but we don't.

Salesmen, you gotta love them.

excollier

Yep, they sure know their stuff....