New House Setup

ShiverinEskimo

Hi Folks,

Looking for some advice as to what way to approach my TV services when I move into my new house build in a few weeks.

I have a main living room which will require TV from day 0 and then have the kitchen and 4 bedrooms which I'll want to use maybe down the line.

Every point in each room is serviced with 2xCat6 and 2xCT100 all tracing back to an office acting as a comms room. I've little interest in getting sky but would like a mix of the Saorview and Freesat channels.

I was looking at this option on Satellite.ie - http://www.satellite.ie/acatalog/Ferguson_ariva_150_installed.html

If I get that installed would it be best to get the cables from the satellite brought into the comms room? The advice on some of the splitters and FAQs I could find suggests you should never put a splitter between your dish and your receiver but if I get an quad or octo LNB is there a type of splitter that will take multiple LNB inputs and feed the corresponding outputs to each room? Eg. LNB1 in to Room 1 out, LNB2 in to Room 2 out, and so on?

Can anyone link me or advise if such a unit can be bought in Ireland for relatively cheap?

I think this would be the cleanest option for when I want to put set-top boxes in other rooms down the line.

I'd also like a recommendation for the actual set top box to use. The one I linked to is the Ariva 150 but there's another option (although out of stock apparently) for the Ariva 250 here. I also saw some other options (walker and triax units) on tvtrade.ie but they don't seem to have an installation option. It's a brand new house so while i'd normally try my hand at anything I don't want to start hacking lumps out of my lovely new walls and chimneys only to f**k it up - would rather it was done by an experienced installer.

Any advice/opinions are welcome.

domel

How many cables is going form attic/roof/wall to cooms room(to serve dish and aerial)?

The Cush

I assume you'll have a Saorview TV in the main room from day 0?

The question is do you want a Sky like satellite receiver such a Freesat+ receiver with 7 day guide, built-in HDD, text, twin-tuner recorder, auto channel update, red button access? The Irish channels are not available or recodable with a Freesat+ receiver.

There is a twin-tuner Saorview PVR to record the Irish channels.

A terrestrial/FTA satellite receiver like the one you link to (Ariva150) will give you the FTA sat channels and Irish channels but will require an external HDD to record 1 channel. Also there are 2 Saorview combi receivers available from Triax and Walker.

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

If I get that installed would it be best to get the cables from the satellite brought into the comms room? The advice on some of the splitters and FAQs I could find suggests you should never put a splitter between your dish and your receiver but if I get an quad or octo LNB is there a type of splitter that will take multiple LNB inputs and feed the corresponding outputs to each room? Eg. LNB1 in to Room 1 out, LNB2 in to Room 2 out, and so on?

Can anyone link me or advise if such a unit can be bought in Ireland for relatively cheap?

A multiswitch comes to mind, four feeds from the dish and one from the aerial. The aerial feed is combined with the satellite feeds and output to each TV point and split again before it goes to the TV/STB and sat receiver. A 5/12 (5 inputs/12 outputs) multiswitch would supply 2 satellite feeds combined with the Saorview signal to all of your 6 twin-cable TV points (examples)

Alternatively for main room for now you could simply run the 4 feeds from a quad LNB on the dish and aerial feed to the comms room. Join 1 sat feed directly to 1 of the main room feeds and the aerial to the other using f-connectors and joiners. If you're planning for a twin-tuner Freesat PVR now in the main room which requires 2 sat feeds you can combine the aerial on 1 of the satellite feed to the room with a sat/terrestrial combiner and split it again with the same combiner in reverse.

For the other rooms in future, if you don't require a recording option, combi Saorview/FTA-sat TVs are available.

ShiverinEskimo

I'll want Saorview from Day 0 alright but will need a set-top box as my TV currently doesn't have it in-built so an aerial will be required aswell.

I don't have any cables running outside as yet - just have ducting in place through the wall. The office is the east side of the house so it's straight in really from where I'd be likely to hang a dish and aerial as the same side of the house also faces the RTE mast on Carrickcarnon outside Dundalk.

One of those multiswitches seems to be exactly what I had in mind to place in my comms room. I wasn't aware you could combine a sat and UHF feed into one cable run so it sounds absolutely perfect.

The Cush

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

The office is the east side of the house so it's straight in really from where I'd be likely to hang a dish and aerial as the same side of the house also faces the RTE mast on Carrickcarnon outside Dundalk.

Would you be able to receive the UK Freeview channels from NI with the correct aerial, maybe from Divis or Kilkeel?

ShiverinEskimo

It would be a little patchy. I could get middling signal from where I lived in Dundalk town and this is only 5 minutes out the road and it would often deteriorate into a pixellated mess. Don't think it would be reliable really.

The Satellite would be the reliable option I think.