FreeSAT and Saorview

vwpolo

Hi,

Am looking for some advice on being able to record Irish tv - specifically:

What we want: to be able to watch and record BOTH FreeSat and Saorview/sat.

What we have: at present we have a Humax Foxsat for watching & recording the Freesat channels, works fine though a bit clunky, sound goes etc. We have an aerial for the Irish channels but cannot record them. We tend to watch mostly Irish TV and want to be able to record programs.

Would be grateful for any recommendations on the best way of being able to record the Irish channels without sacrificing recording the UK ones. Am open to buying a new combo box if that's the best solution, or is it to buy some kind of pvr for the Irish channels...

Many Thanks.

ftakeith

vwpolo wrote: »

Hi,

Am looking for some advice on being able to record Irish tv - specifically:

What we want: to be able to watch and record BOTH FreeSat and Saorview/sat.

What we have: at present we have a Humax Foxsat for watching & recording the Freesat channels, works fine though a bit clunky, sound goes etc. We have an aerial for the Irish channels but cannot record them. We tend to watch mostly Irish TV and want to be able to record programs.

Would be grateful for any recommendations on the best way of being able to record the Irish channels without sacrificing recording the UK ones. Am open to buying a new combo box if that's the best solution, or is it to buy some kind of pvr for the Irish channels...

Many Thanks.

Irish TV is not worth recording

I have Freesat and saorview

most of the TV that I record is from freesat, from the humax freesat freetime
all of the ITV soaps are on the itv player which works for some reason in the republic of Ireland
BBC I-player, 4od and demand5 does not work

where do you live, if you live in a UK freeview spillover area, you should be a able to record Irish TV through your aerial with a UK Freeview+ box

if you have a smart TV, the TV3 player, RTE player and the TG4 player is available through smart TVs

vwpolo

Not interested in recording or watching soaps but thanks for the response.

Smart tv may be a bit of a workaround though movies don't show up on player.

Still looking for a response to my question.

Thanks.

Gerry Wicklow

AFAIK the only 'official' combo box is the Walker which offers Saorview and FTA satellite. By all accounts it is fairly basic and has it's issues. Linux based combo boxes, such as the Amiko Alien 2 or Edision OS3, are far more powerful but need a bit of techie know-how and are fiddly to set up. That said there is plenty of support and guidance here on Boards and are well worth the effort.
The easier/messier way is to buy a separate Saorview recorder and keep your FreeSat box but that would mean switching between TV inputs each time you want to channel surf.

vwpolo

Thanks Gerry Wicklow. We've been switching TV inputs for a good while now so not too bothered about continuing to do that, though having one combo-box would be better, especially if the interface was nicer and it performed better than the Humax, which I don't find intuitive at all, even after a few years. The Linux o/s is slightly off putting, I don't mind investing time setting it up, but I don't want to have to maintain it afterwards - maybe that wouldn't be necessary... i once heard that it's not that Linux isn't user-friendly,it's just choosy about it's friends...groan. I suppose the mobile phone equivalent of where I want to be with the TV set up is that I prefer the iphone look and feel and have no interest in being able to go under the hood as you can do with the Samsung/HTC..
Thanks.

Gerry Wicklow

What many people do when starting with Linux boxes is to use someone else's backup of their system. This will get you started and give you a chance to explore things. You can always re-flash the setup again if you mess things up, it only takes a few minutes. There are several peoples backups available on the terrestrial forum. Apart from that the only thing you might need is to scan the terrestrials to suit your locality.

dubrov

Some TVs can record with the addition of a USB stick so I'd check that first.

There are no boxes available that do Freesat and Saorview.
A lot of the linux boxes perform similar functions (UK and Irish channels plus full EPG) but it would not be pure Freesat.
If you don't like tweaking them then I would avoid them as something will cause a problem eventually. Some of them are very good though and generally the more you spend the better the box.

If you already have a Freesat box, it is probably easiest to just buy a dedicated Saorview box with recording functionality. You would hook it up to another HDMI port on your TV and then switch AV input to move between Freesat and Saorview. The Saorview box would use a separate remote so you would then have 3 remotes for the TV, Freesat and Saorview. It might be worth looking at getting a Logitech Harmony remote to reduce clutter.

vwpolo

Thanks very much for the responses. I'm leaning towards getting the Saorview box. I didn't know about the Logitech Harmony remote so will check that out also.
In time surely a decent combo box will come out?

thanks again.

dubrov

There are decent combo boxes which do UK satellite and Saorview channels.

Freesat is a service aimed at the UK only. In reality the UK channels we receive by satellite are satellite overspill and are not really intended. As such I can't ever see a Freesat/Saorview combo box ever being created.

The closest you will get is a decent Linux box which can perform the same functions (and a good bit more). You'd will need to tweak them though and there may be some initial bugs to overcome. A dedicated Saorview box would be much cheaper.
Openvix is a linux image that is aimed at the UK/Irish market so less likely to have bugs that affect you. The forum http://www.world-of-satellite.com/forum.php gives loads of info on Openvix and receivers that will run it so worth a look if you go down that route.

vwpolo

Thanks for all the responses, it's really helped me figure out what will suit us best which is the saorview box (recommendations on a good one welcome - thinking of the Walker) & the harmony remote :)