Newbie to Saorview/Freetoair

Kazbah

Hello all,

I got rid of my sky subscription in January. I still have the box and I thought I would just watch the free channels but I miss the opportunity to record stuff more than I miss the extra channels. I'm interested in buying a set top box that will allow me to record the free channels.

Is there any major installation with one of these or is it just a matter of plugging it in?
Can I set up both Saorview and FTA programmes to record without switching what I'm receiving?
Do they work anywhere? ie if I move will it work in an apartment?

Ta!
Kaz

decor58

do you have a saorview tv, if not a combo receiver, 60- 150 euro, will allow you record saorview & watch sat or vice versa, you will need an aerial for saorview.

Technofobe

Kazbah wrote: »

Hello all,

I got rid of my sky subscription in January. I still have the box and I thought I would just watch the free channels but I miss the opportunity to record stuff more than I miss the extra channels. I'm interested in buying a set top box that will allow me to record the free channels.

Is there any major installation with one of these or is it just a matter of plugging it in?
Can I set up both Saorview and FTA programmes to record without switching what I'm receiving?
Do they work anywhere? ie if I move will it work in an apartment?

Ta!
Kaz

You will need a saorview aeriel to receive the RTE stations
these are normally mounted outside on the wall unless you live close enough ( few kilometers) away from a transmitter in which case you may get away with a small rabbits ears type indoor aeriel
some people even put them in the attic
Your sky dish will work fine on a combo box
If you want to record you will need a combo box with 2 sat inputs so you can watch 1 while recording the other

I use an amiko alien 2+ which is a triple tuner
1 terrestial tuner for RTE and 2 sat tuners and I can record 2 sat stations while watching rte or a combination of both say record a sat and rTE and watch another sat station
recording is done via a USB hard drive plugged into the amiko
there is also a network port on the alien and I can stream tv or the recordings from it to my laptop or android device
there is a full 7 day guide when connected to the internet
and best of all only 1 remote control
HDMI and scart output
HD channels include
RTE 1 HD
RTE 2 HD
BBC 1 HD
UTV HD
Chanell 4 HD

Only downside I came across was that with only 1 terrestial tuner it meant I could not record an RTE channell while watching another as theres only 1 terrestial tuner
I got around this by looping the terrestial aeriel through the amiko and back to the tv which is saorview compatible
so when recording rte I can switch to tv and watch a different RTE station

winston_1

Technofobe wrote: »

You will need a saorview aeriel to receive the RTE stations
these are normally mounted outside on the wall unless you live close enough ( few kilometers) away from a transmitter in which case you may get away with a small rabbits ears type indoor aeriel

Except that so called rabbits ears are VHF aerials for DAB and FM radio not Saorview. If you use an indoor aerial get a proper UHF TV one.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Telecam-TCE2000-Indoor-Aerial-Antenna/dp/B00IUC9CZ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413563173&sr=8-1&keywords=telecam+tce2000

Technofobe

winston_1 wrote: »

Except that so called rabbits ears are VHF aerials for DAB and FM radio not Saorview. If you use an indoor aerial get a proper UHF TV one.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Telecam-TCE2000-Indoor-Aerial-Antenna/dp/B00IUC9CZ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413563173&sr=8-1&keywords=telecam+tce2000

Not all rabbits ears are VHF only it was more of a way of describing the old stereotype aeriel on top o the tv job
https://www.google.ie/search?q=uhf+rabbits+ears&client=firefox-a&hs=1gr&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&channel=np&tbm=isch&imgil=xgVpQammBaYCRM%253A%253BEKobsbIuarDShM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.ioffer.com%25252Fi%25252Ftv-television-antenna-rabbit-ears-uhf-and-vhf-new-168162107&source=iu&pf=m&fir=xgVpQammBaYCRM%253A%252CEKobsbIuarDShM%252C_&usg=__DOsf4lkCHFl0RycjVXHbUxIPb8U%3D&biw=1280&bih=699&ved=0CEgQyjc&ei=nkVBVMSiC4fN7QbUkoGwCA#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=xgVpQammBaYCRM%253A%3BEKobsbIuarDShM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.ioffer.com%252Fimg%252Fitem%252F168%252F162%252F107%252F4uBY.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.ioffer.com%252Fi%252Ftv-television-antenna-rabbit-ears-uhf-and-vhf-new-168162107%3B400%3B300

But anyway best bet is probably going to be the external type
unless the op is pretty close to the transmitter

Thurston?

Technofobe wrote: »

Not all rabbits ears are VHF only it was more of a way of describing the old stereotype aeriel on top o the tv

Best to avoid colloquial terms like 'rabbit ears'.

Kazbah

Thanks for the replies. I will investigate indoor aerials. I don't think my TV is saorview compatible. Cheers everyone!

petronius

Normally a aerial in the attic will do for Saorview align it to your nearest mast
and use the satellite dish but feed it into a freesat slot in a freesat reciever
a combo HD Saorview+ and Freesat+ box would be idea where you can record on it

Thurston?

petronius wrote: »

Normally a aerial in the attic will do for Saorview align it to your nearest mast

Not 'normally' at all, you can't make such generalisations. For attics you would specifically have to take into account factors such as roofing &/or wall materials, added to the usual: distance from transmitter, height above ground of receiving aerial, screening etc.

And your nearest mast won't necessarily be the best one either.

Johnboy1951

Kazbah wrote: »

Hello all,

I got rid of my sky subscription in January. I still have the box and I thought I would just watch the free channels but I miss the opportunity to record stuff more than I miss the extra channels. I'm interested in buying a set top box that will allow me to record the free channels.

Is there any major installation with one of these or is it just a matter of plugging it in?
Can I set up both Saorview and FTA programmes to record without switching what I'm receiving?
Do they work anywhere? ie if I move will it work in an apartment?

Ta!
Kaz

In addition to everything else, if you have a wish to record something and then bring it to a different device to view it, be careful what device you choose.
Some record in a format that is not viewable except by the box it is recorded on.
Nor is it possible to transcode the recording to something more common and usable.

This might not matter to you .......

Aspiring

Thinking of getting a combo box, just had one question. What way would it work combining terresterial and sat if you already receive some freeview spillover on the terresterial line. At present we have a saorview TV and pick up the UK channels most of the time, so I'm assuming we'd pick up the UK channels twice if both sat and terresterial were combined. Would this lead to duplicate channels on a combo box?

kooga

if you have duplicates just delete them. With the combo box you can arrange the channels in the order you want for many they would have channels 1-8 irish channels 9 onwards bbc etc.

where are you based?

cheapest option may be to try to improve your terrestrial set up to improve your uk freeview reception and have both saorview and freeview on the tvs tuner thus avoiding buying a combo box and installing a dish.

Aspiring

kooga wrote: »

if you have duplicates just delete them. With the combo box you can arrange the channels in the order you want for many they would have channels 1-8 irish channels 9 onwards bbc etc.

where are you based?

cheapest option may be to try to improve your terrestrial set up to improve your uk freeview reception and have both saorview and freeview on the tvs tuner thus avoiding buying a combo box and installing a dish.

Based in the south east.

We already have a satellite installed, forgot to mention that. Currently using it in a standard free to air sat box. Another reason I was hoping to get a combo box is that neither the TV or the sat box have PVR functions, which would be quite useful.

How would you go about improving the terresterial reception anyway just out of interest?

kooga

ok

based in the south east so intermittent freeview reception from wales. so being realistic there is no more you can do to improve your terrestrial uk reception. you have saorview and a dish.

combo box many threads here on the ferguson and the amiko alien so consult those

for the uk fta channels I have a humax hdr 1010s pvr and it is a great machine. nothing as yet for the irish channels to record but working on it

Thurston?

kooga wrote: »

... based in the south east so intermittent freeview reception from wales. so being realistic there is no more you can do to improve your terrestrial uk reception.

I'd doubt Freeview reception in the southeast is as reliable as satellite but, plenty of people would have better than 'intermittent'.

How can you say Aspiring couldn't do anything to improve reception?

Gerry Wicklow

It is possible to configure duplicate channels into "alternatives" so the box will use the satellite version but can default to the terrestrial version if both sat tuners are busy. This is using Hyperion4 not sure about others.

Aspiring

I was thinking of switching the single LNB we have for sat to a twin LNB then running one line to the existing sat box and one line to the new combo box. Then have saorview on existing TV and saorview on combo box. Seems to be the best option. It is my understanding you can't simply split a coax line like you would with saorview line, which is why a twin LNB is necessary, correct? Something to do with polarity I read.

kooga

correct you can't split the sat cable to feed two boxes.

My advice would be to replace the single with a quad, not much more expensive that a twin. It will future proof and gives you the option of having a pvr with twin cable input

Sam Russell

Aspiring wrote: »

I was thinking of switching the single LNB we have for sat to a twin LNB then running one line to the existing sat box and one line to the new combo box. Then have saorview on existing TV and saorview on combo box. Seems to be the best option. It is my understanding you can't simply split a coax line like you would with saorview line, which is why a twin LNB is necessary, correct? Something to do with polarity I read.

Use one of these, and both Saorview signal and sat signal go down each cable. Neat and works. A splitter is used at the TV end.

http://www.satworld.ie/inverto-pro-quad-terrestrial-lnb.html

Aspiring

Sam Russell wrote: »

Use one of these, and both Saorview signal and sat signal go down each cable. Neat and works. A splitter is used at the TV end.

http://www.satworld.ie/inverto-pro-quad-terrestrial-lnb.html

Interesting. Seems like it could be a good option. I'd definitely go for this if the terrestrial aerial was beside the sat dish. However, at present it's over 50m away from it. Because of this, I think just buying a twin/quad lnb and supplying a second line to the house is the best option.