Freesat via TV with built-in tuner

YouThere

Yet another thinly-disguised "please think of the elderly" thread.

To set the scene, elderly relative recently living with us.
Only remote buttons she understands are power on/off, channel up/down, and of course the volume up button.
Used to live in border area and got overspill analog from NI. After the move to DTT, she had a Walker combi decoder which would handle DTT from both NI and Soarview.
Could just about cope with the 2nd remote. One to switch on the TV, other to adjust the Walker channels. Lots of instructions written on the back of the remotes, and lots of instruction over the phone.

Now lives in Connemara and we have Sky+ and Saorview.
Current strategy is to set Sky on Channel4 and then hide the Sky remote!
On the Saorview TV, delete all the test channels and radio channels, and leave only the Saorview TV channels, and the analog sky feed visible in the channel listings.
Finally, give her one remote and with her limited "channel up/down" skills, she can happily navigate through the Saorview channels and Sky C4.

So far so good.
But I want to rock the boat - yes I'm mad.
I want to get a new large-screen TV (subtitles) and this prompts possibility of TV with integrated freesat.
Perhaps something like LG "V" models, but open to suggestion.

Question time:
1/ Do all the usual freesat channels work as far west as Connemara?

2/ Are the freesat channels and the saorview channels all available via a simple "channel up/down" button on the LG TV?
Or are there complex button combinations or menu options needed to toggle between separate freesat and saorview channel listings?

3/ Can I run another cable from the existing Sky dish quad-LNB to the new TV with saorview and built-in freesat?
Or do I need a new dish pointing in a slightly different direction for freesat?

4/ What else am I missing with my future strategy?
Reminder - the absolute requirement is six button operation - channel up/down, power on/off, volume up, and hopefully volume down too.

Thank you.

kyeev

I have a samsung TV (needs to be either high 6 series or 7 series TV to have integrated freesat tuner).
I have the terrestrial aerial and satellite feed plugged into it.
Unfortunately there is a 5 button sequence to switch between saorview and freesat.

Don't know if the LG TV is any more friendly.

The Cush

kyeev wrote: »

Unfortunately there is a 5 button sequence to switch between saorview and freesat.

Don't know if the LG TV is any more friendly.

I think all TVs with satellite tuners have a similar level of difficulty when switching between terrestrial and satellite. Sony was the easiest with a single button press but they don't do Freesat just FTA satellite.

The Cush

YouThere wrote: »

Question time:
1/ Do all the usual freesat channels work as far west as Connemara?

2/ Are the freesat channels and the saorview channels all available via a simple "channel up/down" button on the LG TV?
Or are there complex button combinations or menu options needed to toggle between separate freesat and saorview channel listings?

3/ Can I run another cable from the existing Sky dish quad-LNB to the new TV with saorview and built-in freesat?
Or do I need a new dish pointing in a slightly different direction for freesat?

Freesat and Sky transmit from the same satellite position, therefore existing Sky dishes can feed any Freesat or FTA satellite receiver also by running a cable from a spare output the LNB at the dish. Satellite coverage for the channels will be same for Sky/Freesat.

Gerry Wicklow

What I did for an elderly relative using a combo box was to get a cheapo (€7 Lidl) programmable remote. The power and volume buttons controlled the TV and channel up/down and numbers controlled the combo box. All other buttons did nothing.
By using a combo box you can compile your own favourites list mixing Saorview and satellite together in any order.

YouThere

kyeev, Cush - thank you both.

Wonder if there any saorview and freesat combi set-top boxes - which would have simple channel up/down through a combined channel listing?

(I need to look into the differences between of freesat vs FTA satellite, and take a look at the Sony stuff).

thanks.

YouThere

Gerry - that sounds like a really sweet recipe.

Would you be able to name/shame the combo box you used? (PM is fine too).

and I'll do some research into the programmable remote - in case Lidl don't carry them all the time.

The Cush

YouThere wrote: »

Wonder if there any saorview and freesat combi set-top boxes - which would have simple channel up/down through a combined channel listing?

There is no official Saorview/Freesat receiver.

There is a planned Saorview Connected box, developed by Freesat, which according to reports will include a combi satellite receiver. No further details on this yet. There is a thread on it in the terrestrial forum under Saorview Connect.

Gerry Wicklow

There are many combo boxes out there. In my case it was an old Ferguson Ariva model. Assuming you don't want/need recording or fancy 7day EPG, pretty much any basic box will do.
BTW FreeSat is branded software that runs on certain boxes/TVs that organises the tuning and 7day EPG automatically along with other fancy add-ons. There is no such thing as a FreeSat/Saorview combo yet (the holy grail) although RTÉ are working on something. See here for more on this.
EDIT: The Cush types faster than me

YouThere

Gerry, Cush, (Kyeev),
Thank you all for your advice.
Various things bought last night to replicate Gerry's setup and looking forward to installing at the weekend (weather permitting).
I will post a final summary once done, in case of help to other novices like me.
Many thanks.