Cheapest and easiest TV set-up

Gavin1

Hi,

Myself and the family have moved house recently and hopefully by the end of January UPC will be available.

So in early December, we decided that we could survive without TV. How wrong I was!

I am now looking for the cheapest and readily available way to get some TV.

Any suggestions?

I am based in Dublin.

Thanks

Chuck Stone

Gavin1 wrote: »

I am now looking for the cheapest and readily available way to get some TV.

Do you have a TV?

What channels do you want?

Can your TV receive Saorview?

Are you living in a house or apartment?

Are there TV connectors in the house on the wall?

Is there a sat-dish on the house?

Gavin1

Thanks for the reply.

I have a TV.

There are no connected TV connectors.

This would be an interim solution for about a month.

There is no sat dish. This is a house.

Is there a plug in solution? I saw a Ferguson mini unit but do not know nothing about these.

There is only so much conversation that I can have with the other half!!

Chuck Stone

Gavin1 wrote: »

I have a TV.

Can it receive Saorview do you know? How old is it?

This would be an interim solution for about a month.

You can access Irish TV from the website below...

https://www.aertv.ie/

and British TV from this website:

http://www.filmon.com/#BBC-One

You could probably connect your laptop/PC to the TV and watch Irish & UK TV.

You'd want to have a pretty decent enough internet service and be careful about your data rates though.

There's also a combo box solution that will unite UK & Irish channels on one box but this would require a satellite dish and aerial but would be a one off payment (no recurring bills).

Keithl2156

For a family I would recommend ordering Sky with entertainment extra pack.
It is way better for families instead of UPC.

Capt'n Midnight

Depends on your budget

cheapo Freesat receiver http://www.tvtrade.ie/freesat-receiver-sd-grundig.html is about two months rental from SKY, a receiver that records like SKY+ (which they charge a tenner a month extra for) is a

dish install is the big cost unless you are handy with DIY and patient (alignment can be tricky) - so find the installer first
http://www.satellite.ie/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww.satellite.ie%2f&WD=freesat&PN=Freesat_Dish_Including_Installation.html%23aMinidish_20installed#aMinidish_20installed for €160 as a rough guide to price

machiavellianme

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Depends on your budget

cheapo Freesat receiver http://www.tvtrade.ie/freesat-receiver-sd-grundig.html is about two months rental from SKY, a receiver that records like SKY+ (which they charge a tenner a month extra for) is a

dish install is the big cost unless you are handy with DIY and patient (alignment can be tricky) - so find the installer first
http://www.satellite.ie/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww.satellite.ie%2f&WD=freesat&PN=Freesat_Dish_Including_Installation.html%23aMinidish_20installed#aMinidish_20installed for €160 as a rough guide to price

When did sky start charging 10e extra per month for sky +? Is it not free?

watty

No, recording isn't free as you can't record (or play FTA recordings) without a sub. In UK you could pay a recording sub just to record the FTA programs. It's a blatant rip off as you own the box yet have to pay "rental" even to record FTA channels. Or even to playback previous FTA recordings made before you cancelled.

Consumer Protection?

FREETV

watty wrote: »

No, recording isn't free as you can't record (or play FTA recordings) without a sub. In UK you could pay a recording sub just to record the FTA programs. It's a blatant rip off as you own the box yet have to pay "rental" even to record FTA channels. Or even to playback previous FTA recordings made before you cancelled.

Consumer Protection?

I agree Watty, it is a con and a lot of people use free software to transfer their content before the end of the cancellation period or use a hard drive enclosure in order to copy the material before they are denied access to what they already own and have paid through the nose for.
Something should be done to force Sky to stop this blatant almost Orwellian rip off. They know that if they allow the recording facility to work that more people will cancel Sky and can use the boxes as FTA or similar to Freesat+ and will have a full open EPG also so hence the reason for charging and blocking the Sky Plus functioning. :rolleyes:

Capt'n Midnight

FREETV wrote: »

I agree Watty, it is a con and a lot of people use free software to transfer their content before the end of the cancellation period or use a hard drive enclosure in order to copy the material before they are denied access to what they already own and have paid through the nose for.

Just to be clear, SKY+ is stored in an encrypted format. And you can only decrypt it with a SKY+ card that has a current subscription for that program.

If you cancel extra channels /movies/sports then you can't watch them next month even if you continue to pay the tenner for SKY+ on an a lower subscription.

The copying you are referring to is when you upgrade the hard drive or move your recordings to a different SKY box (ring sky to get the card paired to the new box etc.)

Something should be done to force Sky to stop this blatant almost Orwellian rip off. They know that if they allow the recording facility to work that more people will cancel Sky and can use the boxes as FTA or similar to Freesat+ and will have a full open EPG also so hence the reason for charging and blocking the Sky Plus functioning. :rolleyes:

Look at what happened to tivusat in Italy http://www.telecompaper.com/news/rai-suspends-distribution-of-tivusat-smart-cards--887593 It was similar to the FTV card in the UK, only available to license payers, only decoded terresterial channels. But now you can only buy it with (monopoly priced) hardware.


Their EPGs are jealously guarded by both Freesat and SKY so you have to buy one of their boxes to see more than now/next that are availabe on all boxes.

There are third party solutions usually involving linux boxes with an internet connection and a patch to scrape listings off the web.

Capt'n Midnight

Back to the original question


Saorview plenty of cheap and cheerful receivers for €50-60 not worth saving a tenner getting a non-approved one. You can probably get away with an indoor aerial if you have a clear line of sight to either Kippure or Three Rock.



if you live up the mountains then you might have line of sight to wales and could get UK tv - look for big aerials pointing that way

ask the neighbours what they have !

if you get on really well and they have extra aerial points or satellite feeds and you are close you could use a video sender (really only if you've moved in beside family) - this might tide you over till upc arrive

yes UPC are a disaster for a lot of things like customer support, the basic digital box remote control leaves a lot to be desired, broadband is their killer app and if you want bandwidth then worth considering ( you also get 14 analog channels even if you don't get digital TV)

Cantona's Collars

Freesat/Sky for telly & UPC for broadband.

Order the phone with the broadband to get a bit off the price of UPC even if you never use the phone;)