TV Box Guide For Dummies

gaillimh

Hi.

I must confess straight away that I don't really understand how the whole business of picking up channels etc works at all. I have a UPC box myself which works for me and that is about the extent of my knowledge on it so apologies if any of what follows in this post seems ridiculous. Bear with me

So, a friend of mine has just moved into a rented apartment & bought a saorview enabled LED tv.
She is even more clueless than me if that is possible so I am attempting to help her out.
There is a white cable coming out of the wall in her sitting room & I am assuming that is hooked up in some way to an outside aerial?
So basically, I plugged the cable into her tv & attempted to tune in some channels for her and managed to tune in eleven channels (rte 1, rte 2, tv3, tg4, setanta ireland, sky news, channel 4, bbc 1, 3e and two more I can't remember off the top of my head).

Now the reception on most of these channels is poor and the choice of channels is limited enough anyway so I am wondering if there is some set top box that she can buy that would allow her to pick up more channels and have a better reception than the ones I tuned in have?
Obviously she could get UPC or Sky in for a monthly fee but if there was a box she could buy for a once-off payment that would give her more channels with a good reception then she would go for that option instead.
This is in Galway city by the way if this makes any difference.

Is this possible?
Thanks in advance for any help and apologies if this kind of basic question has been answered elsewhere.

The Cush

gaillimh wrote: »

There is a white cable coming out of the wall in her sitting room & I am assuming that is hooked up in some way to an outside aerial?
So basically, I plugged the cable into her tv & attempted to tune in some channels for her and managed to tune in eleven channels (rte 1, rte 2, tv3, tg4, setanta ireland, sky news, channel 4, bbc 1, 3e and two more I can't remember off the top of my head).

Now the reception on most of these channels is poor and the choice of channels is limited enough anyway so I am wondering if there is some set top box that she can buy that would allow her to pick up more channels and have a better reception than the ones I tuned in have?.

The channels you're receiving there look like UPC analogue cable channels. Saorview doesn't carry BBC, Setanta etc.

An aerial attached to her Saorview TV give give her the 8 Saorview channels - http://www.saorview.ie/make-the-switch/.

A satellite receiver would give more channels but requires a satellite dish to be installed on the property.

Capt'n Midnight

gaillimh wrote: »

There is a white cable coming out of the wall in her sitting room & I am assuming that is hooked up in some way to an outside aerial?
So basically, I plugged the cable into her tv & attempted to tune in some channels for her and managed to tune in eleven channels (rte 1, rte 2, tv3, tg4, setanta ireland, sky news, channel 4, bbc 1, 3e and two more I can't remember off the top of my head).

Now the reception on most of these channels is poor and the choice of channels is limited enough

Short version , stick a UHF antenna into the TV and see what happens


cats ears / rabbits ears are for the old VHF system so won't work,
[edit]OK , this is just weird - pound shop cats ears horizontal and am getting 70% signal ! [/edit]

go to http://www.saorview.ie/make-the-switch/coverage-map/ to see how far the nearest transmitter is MAGHERA 48 Horizontal. or ( Tonabrocky is channel 26 V - so have the ears pointing up - or put on side with one up and the other down)




Poor reception means you are getting an analog signal. Digital is pretty much all or nothing, if you are at the threshold you get freezing / rectangles on the screen with perfect images inside them. So if you get a good install then saorview or satellite will be very good reception.

RTE2 HD show the BBC nature documentaries and you won't want the cable again

A saorview box will get you RTE's TG4 TV3/3e only
depending on location you may get away with a GOOD indoor aerial (with aerials size matters, and the clue is in the name aerial means up in the air ie. outdoors and high)

To get UK channels you need a satellite dish.
If renting Or apartment then the usually not allowed.
If none of the neighbours have it then usually not allowed
If you aren't south facing then probably not possible, - check where the dishes on sourounding buildings / streets face

if you have a south facing balcony then it may be possible to fit a satellite dish out of site below the wall, or even have the dish horizontal nearly horizontal. You can mount dishes on paving slabs to get around drilling walls and such , but residents commitee may be a problem

www.dishpointer.com / www.satpointer.com to see if possible.

gaillimh

Thanks for the replies so far guys.
I did an auto scan both on cable and digital tv but only the analogue channels seem to be getting tuned in.
The saorview channels don't seem to be getting picked up.
It is an lg 32s3500 led tv and says it has a saorview tuner.
I am obviously doing something wrong.
Any ideas?
Thanks again.

ardmacha

I am obviously doing something wrong.

If you are plugged into UPC then you'll get the UPC analogue stations.
As it said two posts back, you need to be connected to an aerial to get Saorview.

The Cush

gaillimh wrote: »

I am obviously doing something wrong.
Any ideas?

Where is the aerial?