A basic, cheap-ish, easy to use freesat package?

brophs

Hi,

I'm home for Christmas and after buying her a tv, happened to notice that my aunt is paying 25 quid a month for what seems to be an old legacy Chorus contract, whereby she gets around 16 channels through a co-ax cable which comes from the roof (there's no box on the wall). The picture quality is poor enough and from what little I know she's paying quite a lot for not very much.

So I decided to have a look at the freesat side of things for her. There is no dish attached to the house so, from what I can tell, we'd need to get a dish installed and then connect a freesat box. I don't think she'd be overly bothered about having a recording feature so unless that's available for not much extra, it's not that big an issue.

Having searched this forum it seems people like the Humax boxes. I guess my questions are, in no particular order:

1. As we're reasonably handy, I presume the only issue with installing the dish ourselves is getting the orientation/direction right? Is there any easy way around that/tips people can share? Are Sky dishes fine for the purpose, as those are very readily available on Adverts, or do we need something else?

2. As we're just looking for the most basic box (within reason) can anyone recommend one in particular that we should be looking at?

3. In terms of cost, how much roughly should we be spending given she's not much of a tv watcher? For example, if we were able to install it all ourselves, freesat.ie have the Humax HB-1000S for €140 ish. With a €20 Sky dish from Adverts we could do the whole thing for €160 ish. Is that an okay price? Given that she's just looking for a basic system, is there anything even cheaper that's decent quality? Likewise, what sort of price should we be looking at if we get someone in to supply and fit?

Apologies for the lengthy post. I'm new to the freesat world and I'm hoping for a bit of guidance from people who know their way around this stuff. Being the time of year it's hard to ring around local places and I'm trying to get a feel for what's needed before I do anything.

Thanks

tippguy2

brophs wrote: »

Hi,

I'm home for Christmas and after buying her a tv, happened to notice that my aunt is paying 25 quid a month for what seems to be an old legacy Chorus contract, whereby she gets around 16 channels through a co-ax cable which comes from the roof (there's no box on the wall). The picture quality is poor enough and from what little I know she's paying quite a lot for not very much.

So I decided to have a look at the freesat side of things for her. There is no dish attached to the house so, from what I can tell, we'd need to get a dish installed and then connect a freesat box. I don't think she'd be overly bothered about having a recording feature so unless that's available for not much extra, it's not that big an issue.

Having searched this forum it seems people like the Humax boxes. I guess my questions are, in no particular order:

1. As we're reasonably handy, I presume the only issue with installing the dish ourselves is getting the orientation/direction right? Is there any easy way around that/tips people can share? Are Sky dishes fine for the purpose, as those are very readily available on Adverts, or do we need something else?

2. As we're just looking for the most basic box (within reason) can anyone recommend one in particular that we should be looking at?

3. In terms of cost, how much roughly should we be spending given she's not much of a tv watcher? For example, if we were able to install it all ourselves, freesat.ie have the Humax HB-1000S for €140 ish. With a €20 Sky dish from Adverts we could do the whole thing for €160 ish. Is that an okay price? Given that she's just looking for a basic system, is there anything even cheaper that's decent quality? Likewise, what sort of price should we be looking at if we get someone in to supply and fit?

Apologies for the lengthy post. I'm new to the freesat world and I'm hoping for a bit of guidance from people who know their way around this stuff. Being the time of year it's hard to ring around local places and I'm trying to get a feel for what's needed before I do anything.

Thanks

Does she have saorview ?, presume new TV has a decoder, use the chorus cable to connect a saorview Ariel, and run a new cable to box from dish, she probably won't need a combined with new tv

brophs

tippguy2 wrote: »

Does she have saorview ?, presume new TV has a decoder, use the chorus cable to connect a saorview Ariel, and run a new cable to box from dish, she probably won't need a combined with new tv

Cheers for the response.

No. Chorus has the Irish stations so she has had no need for Saorview so far, though her tv has a decoder/is Saorview ready. When you say

use the chorus cable to connect a saorview Ariel, and run a new cable to box from dish, she probably won't need a combined with new tv

I'm not absolutely sure I follow you. I had thought a Saorview aerial was as simple as plugging one into the back of the tv without it having anything to do with the chorus/co-ax cable that comes through the roof?

On the last sentence, the chorus cable presumably goes out through the attic and connects to the chorus cabling out on the street? Unfortunately there's no dish in place at present, which is one of the main issues, tbh. If it was there I'd just buy a freesat box and connect it and hope for the best.

Thanks again.

Thurston?

brophs wrote: »

... I'm home for Christmas and after buying her a tv, happened to notice that my aunt is paying 25 quid a month for what seems to be an old legacy Chorus contract

I assume you'd have noticed if the TV you bought has an integrated satellite tuner, not uncommon at present.

Post the make & model if you're unsure.

brophs

Thurston? wrote: »

I assume you'd have noticed if the TV you bought has an integrated satellite tuner, not uncommon at present.

Post the make & model if you're unsure.

My dad tells me it's this one:
http://electrocity.ie/cello-32-hd-ready-led-tv-c32227t2/

I'm probably using the wrong terminology etc. but it has a tuner for the likes of Saorview, but not, I would imagine, a satellite tuner?

Cheers.

amikoalien2

brophs wrote: »

My dad tells me it's this one:
http://electrocity.ie/cello-32-hd-ready-led-tv-c32227t2/

I'm probably using the wrong terminology etc. but it has a tuner for the likes of Saorview, but not, I would imagine, a satellite tuner?

Cheers.

Bear in mind that if you change over to a humax free sat box it does not do saorview and when you connect a aerial to the tv you will be using 2 remotes 1 for the dsaorview and the other for satellite

May be worth considering a combo box
sat and saorview in 1 box with 1 remote
just my 2p worth

brophs

amikoalien2 wrote: »

Bear in mind that if you change over to a humax free sat box it does not do saorview and when you connect a aerial to the tv you will be using 2 remotes 1 for the dsaorview and the other for satellite

May be worth considering a combo box
sat and saorview in 1 box with 1 remote
just my 2p worth

Cheers. I hadn't really thought about that. What sort of difference in price would there be between a combo box and a standard freesat? With one of those, you'd obviously have to fit the dish, but how do you get the saorview signal? Can that be done through the same dish, or is it by means of another aerial?

Thurston?

brophs wrote: »

My dad tells me it's this one:
http://electrocity.ie/cello-32-hd-ready-led-tv-c32227t2/

Yeah, the specs. on the Cello site would seem to indicate terrestrial-only, although the likes of Cello & Walker have been available as cheap 'n' cheerful combo satellite/terrestrial for a while now.

tippguy2

brophs wrote: »

Cheers. I hadn't really thought about that. What sort of difference in price would there be between a combo box and a standard freesat? With one of those, you'd obviously have to fit the dish, but how do you get the saorview signal? Can that be done through the same dish, or is it by means of another aerial?

You need a saorview Ariel in attic or roof, what I meant earlier was to snip the coax at the chorus Ariel and use this for saorview Ariel so no need to run new cable to TV, the dish will have to be cabled to TV also, you will probably have to give chorus 30 days notice of cancellation

Thurston?

tippguy2 wrote: »

... what I meant earlier was to snip the coax at the chorus Ariel and use this for saorview Ariel

How about not advocating tampering with the cable TV company's setup?

Highly unlikely that the lady in question is getting analogue cable from an MMDS aerial now, anyway.

obezyana

OP you can get the Mahattan Plaza HD Freesat box for 85 euro on freetv.ie and it is a very good box. It is a basic box without pause rewind etc but it is a very good box. I'd always suggest to go Freesat if ya can as it saves the hassle or re tuning etc.

You could easily install the dish and cables yourself and when it comes to using the current cables in place well that is up to you. Plenty of installers do this......right or wrong if it was my house I'd re use the cable I most certainly wouldn't be worried about UPC or whoever installed it.

amikoalien2

brophs wrote: »

Cheers. I hadn't really thought about that. What sort of difference in price would there be between a combo box and a standard freesat? With one of those, you'd obviously have to fit the dish, but how do you get the saorview signal? Can that be done through the same dish, or is it by means of another aerial?

You can buy a kit or mix and mash
the saorview is through a seperate aerial which can be mounted on the same pole as the sky type dish for around €20 extra
there are a good range of combo boxes available
But if you require recording you need a good quality box
Have a look here
http://www.freetv.ie/satellite/receivers/combo.html
No connection to free tv
Just that their site has some good videos on the different boxes
do your homework first though

Take your time and look at several options

The Cush

brophs wrote: »

I'm home for Christmas and after buying her a tv, happened to notice that my aunt is paying 25 quid a month for what seems to be an old legacy Chorus contract, whereby she gets around 16 channels through a co-ax cable which comes from the roof (there's no box on the wall). The picture quality is poor enough and from what little I know she's paying quite a lot for not very much

Where approx. is your aunt located, only Dublin that I know of that still carries 16 or so low quality analogue channels without the requirement of a set-top decoder and Cork city the 4 traditional Irish channels.

There may be another option in the months ahead, the rumoured Saorview/Freesat combi receiver, details may be announced next month. Might be a more user friendly combi receiver. Aerial and dish required.

obezyana

The Cush wrote: »

Where approx. is your aunt located, only Dublin that I know of that still carries 16 or so low quality analogue channels without the requirement of a set-top decoder and Cork city the 4 traditional Irish channels.

There may be another option in the months ahead, the rumoured Saorview/Freesat combi receiver, details may be announced next month. Might be a more user friendly combi receiver. Aerial and dish required.

Waterford still have the analogue channels aswell and nobody seems to realise they are there :-D