Freesat announces new Freetime partnership with Vestel

mackersdublin

http://www.freesat.co.uk/about-freesat/whats-new

Looks like Freesat Freetime boxes and TVs will be a bit cheaper

JonathonS

I wonder will Vestel supply Saorview-approved TVs with Freesat to their Irish brands like Walker?

watty

Freesat and Freeview gear is only supposed to be marketed in UK.

Walker do sell a Vestel TV for Saorview and Satellite. But it deliberately isn't Freesat, only generic FTA. Many of the UK Freeview and Freesat products have already been Vestel made and rebadged.

Walker are only a marketing company. Vestel won't endanger the big, massive UK market they have for the tiny Irish market.

JonathonS

watty wrote: »

Freesat and Freeview gear is only supposed to be marketed in UK.

Walker do sell a Vestel TV for Saorview and Satellite. But it deliberately isn't Freesat, only generic FTA.

Once Freeview HD got up and running Freesat became a lot less intertested in policing their UK-only policy. As a result Panasonic and Samsung started to sell sets in Ireland that were Freesat enabled, which they had been unwilling to do before. If you choose Irl on setup you get FTA, chose UK and you get Freesat.

There is obviously a cost for Freesat which Vestel have not been prepared to pay up to now. But, by the looks of things that cost has decreased considerably, so we may see a Walker Freesat set yet.

watty

Many sets you can select different countries. But you can't select Ireland & UK at same time. So you get depending on country:
Saorview + Generic FTA Sat
Freeview or generic DTT + Freesat
Generic DTT & FTA Sat

Even vestal has models I think that do this.

There is no Saorview + Freesat HD model.

JonathonS

Its not many sets, its most.
There are many that have Saorview + Generic FTA Sat.
And there are some where you can select the UK as your location, and get Freesat HD and Saorview. Like my VT60 Panny.

watty

JonathonS wrote: »

And there are some where you can select the UK as your location, and get Freesat HD and Saorview. Like my VT60 Panny.

No, It's not Saorview. It's Freeview HD which will be 99%* compatible with Saorview.


(* Many / Most / quite compatible).

I think it's likely there is NO set that has genuine Saorview mode and Freesat at the same time. Picking UK on a set with Freeview HD and Freesat HD is the best option, but it's not actually Saorview mode, just Saorview content!