Saorview Connect

Dave..M

bk wrote: »

Unless it has 7 day EPG for the UK FTA channels integrated with the saorview EPG, then everyone is gong to be disappointed and no one is going to buy it, just like very few Saorview PVR's were bought.

People want the UK channels, no one cares about RTE catchup, etc.

Aye, what i do still watch on linear TV is all via my Freesat boxes, the missus watches the soaps via the Freesat box, every now and again I get asked to switch the TV to RTE for faircity but few and far between now.

Edit: although maybe she just figured out how to change it herself

dubrov

If the rumours are correct, the box will do the following:

Single channel list for UK/ROI channels.
Auto-tuning of channels
7-day EPG for ROI channels
Now/Next for UK channels
Record Functionality
Catch-up TV available for Irish channels bu scrolling back through TV guide.

So all it is missing is the 7-day EPG for UK channels.
As long as the interface is user friendly and bu-free I think it will appeal to a lot of people, especially those who mainly watch the Irish channels and rarely record.

channelsurfer2

dubrov wrote: »

If the rumours are correct, the box will do the following:

Single channel list for UK/ROI channels.
Auto-tuning of channels
7-day EPG for ROI channels
Now/Next for UK channels
Record Functionality
Catch-up TV available for Irish channels bu scrolling back through TV guide.

So all it is missing is the 7-day EPG for UK channels.
As long as the interface is user friendly and bu-free I think it will appeal to a lot of people, especially those who mainly watch the Irish channels and rarely record.

some of the versions may have a triple tuner also?

The Cush

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Does anyone have any sales figures of the Walker PVR over its lifetime?

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

how many soarview pvr's were bought? a few hundred if that??

Only Walker or maybe Saorview can answer that, so we'll never know.

Atlantic Dawn

The Cush wrote: »

Only Walker or maybe Saorview can answer that, so we'll never know.

Yes I'd love to know, the initial pricing was €250 and they are now going for €100, I suppose they are panic selling them so not to be left with any stock before the new box launches.

The Cush

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Yes I'd love to know, the initial pricing was €250 and they are now going for €100, I suppose they are panic selling them so not to be left with any stock before the new box launches.

The pricing started at €230 back in Jan 2013 but is down to €85 now at Powercity. Stock clearing by the looks of it alright.

Tony

It may not be different in your view but I'm prepared to wait and see what is delivered rather than being negative about a product that has yet to be launched. In my view it will be a step forward and better than the (albeit decent) generic combo boxes that we have now.

Sam Russell wrote: »

Experience.

Everything Saorview have done so far has been disappointing - why should this be different?

former total

Tony wrote: »

It may not be different in your view but I'm prepared to wait and see what is delivered rather than being negative about a product that has yet to be launched. In my view it will be a step forward and better than the (albeit decent) generic combo boxes that we have now.

The problem in this thread is that you have techno-enthusiasts expecting Saorview to deliver high-end solutions that can handle all sorts of complex operations, but Saorview is aimed at a a completely different audience with completely different needs.

It's like a load of farmers criticising a Toyota Aygo because it can't pull the baling machine through the mud at the bottom of the field.

Tony

That's an interesting point.I think the 7 day epg on Freesat would be a great addition but that's outside Saorviews control as its owned by a broadcaster from another jurisdiction. We don't pay for Uk free channels so can't exactly complain with any justification.

Johnboy1951

former total wrote: »

The problem in this thread is that you have techno-enthusiasts expecting Saorview to deliver high-end solutions that can handle all sorts of complex operations, but Saorview is aimed at a a completely different audience with completely different needs.

It's like a load of farmers criticising a Toyota Aygo because it can't pull the baling machine through the mud at the bottom of the field.

Then maybe they should produce a 'Toyota Land Cruiser' as well as the 'Aygo'

corm500

dubrov wrote: »

If the rumours are correct, the box will do the following:

Single channel list for UK/ROI channels.
Auto-tuning of channels
7-day EPG for ROI channels
Now/Next for UK channels
Record Functionality
Catch-up TV available for Irish channels bu scrolling back through TV guide.

So all it is missing is the 7-day EPG for UK channels.
As long as the interface is user friendly and bu-free I think it will appeal to a lot of people, especially those who mainly watch the Irish channels and rarely record.

My Ariva 153 does all of this apart from catch up tv and auto tuning for less than €100. Is the new box really going to be worth double that price (at least) for the sake of a catch up service? I think it was a great idea, but without a 7 day epg for uk channels it is a seriously flawed one.
Of course I am just speculating and they may release an integrated Irish and uk 7 day epg. I will be quite happy to eat humble pie in that case, but I think unfortunately we all know what kind of box they will release.

Tony

I don't think it will be double the price of a 153. The auto tuning will also be a step up from the 153 as it will use a database rather than a scan to update channel changes.

corm500 wrote: »

My Ariva 153 does all of this apart from catch up tv and auto tuning for less than €100. Is the new box really going to be worth double that price (at least) for the sake of a catch up service? I think it was a great idea, but without a 7 day epg for uk channels it is a seriously flawed one.
Of course I am just speculating and they may release an integrated Irish and uk 7 day epg. I will be quite happy to eat humble pie in that case, but I think unfortunately we all know what kind of box they will release.

FRIENDO

As it's Has a sat tuner,

I wonder will it be Saorsat approved?

And will the Possible availability of Rte player and roll back function be available for saorsat users?

No problem getting the ITV Hub on line service on the Humax Freesat hdr.

Carawaystick

Tony wrote: »

That's an interesting point.I think the 7 day epg on Freesat would be a great addition but that's outside Saorviews control as its owned by a broadcaster from another jurisdiction. We don't pay for Uk free channels so can't exactly complain with any justification.

amiko alien's can get the 7day epg from th eastra satellite, so what's stopping this saorview thingy?

Not having this ready for the mmds shutdown sums saorview up nicely.

Tony

Carawaystick wrote: »

amiko alien's can get the 7day epg from th eastra satellite, so what's stopping this saorview thingy?

Legal action

_Kaiser_

I live in an apartment with pretty poor wireless signals in general (mobile and TV). As a result I've to pay Sky or go with eir/Vodafone's TV offerings (and I tried eir.. it was rubbish!).

Sticking up an external aerial isn't an option (I asked), but if Saorsat was on Astra and I had a combo DVR box for it and the UK FTA channels I'd be set as I watch very little live TV these days (only sport and news really).

dubrov

I doubt Saorsat will every be on Astra. If it was, RTE would be accessible by everyone living in the UK as well.
That would lead to all sorts of program rights issues. RTE would probably need to buy the UK rights as well when purchasing a program which would be very expensive.

The only way I could see it working is by encrypting the channels on Astra and issuing a decoder card (maybe linked to payment of the TV licence).

icdg

The entire point of Saorsat, such as there is one, is because the Irish channels can't be free to air on Astra. If it was then it would be a lot easier, as RTE wouldn't have to broadcast on two different satellites (and the amount of homes in this country receiving RTE via pay TV on Astra greatly outnumbers those receiving it free to air on Saorsat.

If the FTV option was cheaper they would have went with it, but they'd have to fully fund it - Sky would charge them full commercial rates for access to the CAS.

STB.

The Saorview Connect box will be a mirror image of the Freeview Play box, except it will be confined to Vestel boxes.

They will need to mention that the 7 day epg playback is confined to the particular Saorview stations and WILL require adequate broadband. At the end of the day they are only hyperlinking what already exists via RTE player on an epg grid presented format.

The autotune functionality will no doubt only apply to the dvb-t channels, which is worse than useless.

gsmith-

My Ariva 153 does all of this apart from catch up tv and auto tuning for less than €100. Is the new box really going to be worth double that price (at least) for the sake of a catch up service? I think it was a great idea, but without a 7 day epg for uk channels it is a seriously flawed one.
Of course I am just speculating and they may release an integrated Irish and uk 7 day epg. I will be quite happy to eat humble pie in that case, but I think unfortunately we all know what kind of box they will release.

There is a value in having a very well thought out and graphically very nice looking menu system. I have had a generic satellite box in the past but I love the intelligent design that has gone in to my Freesat Samsung satellite receiver. Sure it has less channels in "Freesat only Mode" but I prefer the more discerning choice of the arguably higher quality content from major broadcasters that I have more chance of finding something relevant and interesting to me.

In short 200 quid for a set top box that does the same but has localised design and a perceived warm fuzzy feeling of a trusted brand name is something a lot of people like. The target audience is not some geeks with a built from scratch linux media server with DTVB cards etc etc.

WheatenBriar

Tony wrote: »

That's an interesting point.I think the 7 day epg on Freesat would be a great addition but that's outside Saorviews control as its owned by a broadcaster from another jurisdiction. We don't pay for Uk free channels so can't exactly complain with any justification.

Actually I would argue we can complain as its a service available in another EU country that is also available to us now by virtue of being unencrypted
But we don't
The price charged for a good or service in the single market should not be gouged by more than legitimate extra costs in another
But of course we have the cars and movie rights cases as examples of the EU lying down and spreading its legs making a mockery of that

gsmith-

The only way I could see it working is by encrypting the channels on Astra and issuing a decoder card (maybe linked to payment of the TV licence).

That would probably work. I think a lot of these rights to broadcast specific content are about providers "being seen" to make a "best effort" to prevent content slipping beyond it's intended geofenced limits - be that UK or Ireland etc. I think the only reason the UK isn't more restrictive is because of serving their empire legacy with channel islands and northern ireland. We're just lucky that the 'beam' of signal from astra down from space towards the earth covers Ireland entirely. If push came to shove, I'd be open to paying UK licence to receive BBC/ITV content, there's a lot of good stuff there and to be fair I probably watch more of that then of local content.

As we're one big happy EU (very much tongue in cheek!) - surely there should be no content restrictions in the EU member countries.
Not exactly comparable but they don't geofence content in USA between states do they? Food for thought anyway.

There's a lot of potential to do something cool and radical with Saorview Connect but sadly Ireland being what it is they'll probably balls it up
and it'll be 20% of what we'd like and stuffed to the brim with restrictions and garish advertising

Tony

UK viewers pay a license fee which goes towards funding Freesat, we don't. Complaining about Saorview is quite legitimate as most of us fund it but there's really no logic at all about feeling entitled to a service feature from another country which free to air viewers in Ireland make zero financial contribution to.

WheatenBriar wrote: »

Actually I would argue we can complain as its a service available in another EU country that is also available to us now by virtue of being unencrypted

Carawaystick

Tony wrote: »

Legal action

So it's fine to implement a platform to show actual tv programmes
and to say what program is on now and what is on next, but its verboten to display the information broadcast in the clear alongside those tv programmes?

Johnboy1951

Carawaystick wrote: »

amiko alien's can get the 7day epg from th eastra satellite, so what's stopping this saorview thingy?

Not having this ready for the mmds shutdown sums saorview up nicely.

I would ask from where on the Astra Satellite the Amiko can get a 7 day EPG?

I understood that only Now & Next were available from the Satellite channel feeds.

Is it from Freesat feed?

Tony

Its a copyright infringement if you use an information system owned by somebody else without their permission.

Carawaystick wrote: »

So it's fine to implement a platform to show actual tv programmes
and to say what program is on now and what is on next, but its verboten to display the information broadcast in the clear alongside those tv programmes?

Yamanoto

former total wrote: »

The problem in this thread is that you have techno-enthusiasts expecting Saorview to deliver high-end solutions that can handle all sorts of complex operations, but Saorview is aimed at a a completely different audience with completely different needs.

Seems to me the point being hammered home time & again on thread is that without a 7-day EPG or the ability to series link on the UK sat side, there's very little to recommend that the audience you describe above fork out for yet another 'nearly, but not quite' type of product. I'd wager too that audience won't have much of a grá for the freetime catch-up functionality, but Saorview need to be seen to be offering something fresh & exciting in the market to remain relevant.

Their pricing would wanna be extremely competitive for it to succeed.

Tony

There are many many people that are using generic combo boxes right now without a 7 day EPG for freesat and for those people there is a definite attraction in upgrading.

Johnboy1951

Originally Posted by former total 
The problem in this thread is that you have techno-enthusiasts expecting Saorview to deliver high-end solutions that can handle all sorts of complex operations, but Saorview is aimed at a a completely different audience with completely different needs.

What is so complex about doing a more feature full STB?

If the functions are not needed then they don't get used.

How many people make use of all the functions on the majority of their tech devices such as smart phones, PCs etc?
Very few most like likely!

gsmith-

Tony wrote: »

There are many many people that are using generic combo boxes right now without a 7 day EPG for freesat and for those people there is a definite attraction in upgrading.

There's plenty of us happy enough with having separate boxes for freesat and saorview also. Best of both worlds really. Small price to pay of having yet another remote control if your using a saorview stb. But if you have a TV with saorview and it can take an external USB to record saorview the job is already done pretty much.