Moving to the country - what are my options?

Ardent

Hey all

Just bought a house out in the country. There's a Sky dish in place already and the missus wants to get in Sky for the kids - Cbeebies, Disney Junior, reliable PVR/EPG, etc.

I'm not a fan of Sky and, being a bit of a techie, not afraid to explore viable (and cheaper) alternatives. But I'm a total newbie when it comes to Satellite tech and don't know where to start.

Can you guys recommend a setup I should be looking at?

Ardent

So I'm researching this-
FreeSat seems to be the way to go and the following HDR seems to be a decent alternative to the Sky+ box:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/humax-HDR-1100S-Freesat-Freetime-Recorder/dp/B0104SY71K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470170036&sr=8-1&keywords=Humax+HDR-1100S

But I don't get the Irish channels with this.

However I believe my Samsung TV has Freeview built in. So am I right in saying this means that I can tune in Saorview HD channels through my TV separately? But does that also mean I can't pause/record/rewind them through the HDR?

Gerry Wicklow

The main UK channels are available Free-To-Air (FTA) using an ex-sky dish. This is a list of what is available for free. The Irish channels (Saorview) are NOT free on the Sky satellite so you would need a conventional aerial system for them. If you are willing to tinker a bit, a "combo" box is the most flexible. They are linux based and combine the terrestrial Saorview channels and the satellite channels into one box with one channel list. Most have 3 tuners, 1 terrestrial and 2 sat, and use an external HDD for recording. You must have 2 satellite tuners and cables from the dish to allow recording of one while watching another. After that budget is your main guide in terms of performance etc.

Ronan Raver77

If you can get away with a bigger dish and would like to receive a lot of channels.

Multi lnb set up I would suggest with cheap receivers if more than one Tv. In main living room suggest a linux box. I have a Multi LNB set up in my house in Dublin. I pick up a number of satellites 9e,13e,16e, 19e,23e,28e.

If not just go with saorview and use the satellite for FTA channels from the Uk combined with a set top box
http://www.freesat.co.uk/channels.

Really depends what you are into TV wise wise sports, film etc and also what kind of budget!! The lads with a bit more know how than me will suggest something.

Gerry Wicklow

Ardent wrote: »

So I'm researching this-
FreeSat seems to be the way to go and the following HDR seems to be a decent alternative to the Sky+ box:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/humax-HDR-1100S-Freesat-Freetime-Recorder/dp/B0104SY71K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470170036&sr=8-1&keywords=Humax+HDR-1100S

But I don't get the Irish channels with this.

However I believe my Samsung TV has Freeview built in. So am I right in saying this means that I can tune in Saorview HD channels through my TV separately? But does that also mean I can't pause/record/rewind them through the HDR?

Be careful of the terminology. FreeView is the UK terrestrial system using conventional aerials and is only available near the border or parts of the East coast. FreeSat is the FTA satellite system available anywhere in Ireland. A Saorview compatible TV should get FreeView if in range but not all FreeView tvs are compatible with Saorview.

Digifriendly

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Be careful of the terminology. FreeView is the UK terrestrial system using conventional aerials and is only available near the border or parts of the East coast. FreeSat is the FTA satellite system available anywhere in Ireland. A Saorview compatible TV should get FreeView if in range but not all FreeView tvs are compatible with Saorview.

If set is specifically Freeview HD it will receive Saorview.

Ardent

Thanks for that, that is really helpful information.

I've attached a few images -

It seems there's a Saorview type aerial in place already. I haven't been able to track yet where the cable from that runs to. It looks like it terminates at the Sky dish but not positive on that.

You can also see the Sky dish in question. Two cables run from that - one into the kitchen and one into the living room.

The other two photos show 1) a splitter on the cable coming into the kitchen and and 2) cable ends coming out of that splitter.

That's what I'm working with right now in terms of my knowledge of the setup.

Seems like a combo box is the way to go - it would be nice to pause/record/etc Irish TV also. Any recommendations for a combo box?

Thanks!

STB.

Well you have a satellite and and aerial connection coming in to one room. Those are the two that you have in your hand in one of the pictures.

Connect up that to your TV and you will get the Saorview Channels. If you are on the east coast at an elevated position you may also receive the UK stations from the digital tuner on your TV.

Either way if you connect up the other one to a satellite tuner (check whether your Samsung has a built in satellite tuner - some do) you will get the free UK stations off the satellite dish.

The main aerial connection is probably in your attic and the cable from the aerial is going into a splitter to split it into various rooms.

(the one satellite cable that I see connected to a diplexer is sending that satellite signal off to 2 rooms too possibly). It means that you will not be able to watch the satellite channels in two rooms at the same time, I suspect that there is another satellite signal going to another room that does allow the viewing of different satellite channels as there are two satellite cable connected to the LNB on your dish.

Ardent

Thanks for that STB. I was hoping that what I was looking at was a satellite + aerial feed. Fantastic to get consensus on that! Looks like I'm on my way.

Just need to figure out now the best HDR for the job.

Ardent

As for viewing requirements -

Looking for the main Irish and UK channels. The kids are big into Cbeebies and the Disney channels on Virgin Media - but living without Disney wouldn't be a deal breaker I imagine. Not interested in Movies or Sports - last season I caught games here and there on free internet streams.

STB.

Here are the free channels on 28.2E (no doubt where your dish is pointing). Disney is not one of the free ones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free-to-air_channels_at_28%C2%B0E

The best combo boxes these days are the linux boxes as they are highly configurable, but there is a bit of a learning curve to setting them up. The GUI on them looks like this so you can mix the saorview and satellite channels in one list

If you wish to record one channel whilst watching another you will need to run another satellite cable into the room from the spare port on the dish. You will also need a satellite box that has 2 DVB-S2 (Satellite) tuners and a least one DVB-T (Saorview).

There is a thread called best Enigma boxes in the Foreign satellite forum. Look at the latest posts for the latest bargains to be had.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=622

Atlantic Dawn

The combo boxes are great for price and give you all the Freesat/Saorview channels, what can let them down is the EPG and Series link are not very user friendly to people previously familiar with Sky.

If it was me I would buy that Humax box you posted, in addition I would purchase a Walker PVR for €85 to allow recording with series link of the Irish channels http://www.powercity.ie/?par=10-23-WP6500. This could be your setup for your main TV, then if you have additional TV's a combo box might suit each of these. Your dish currently has 2 feeds used which will be required for the Humax box for full recording capabilities so you have 2 free if you want to connect 2 combo boxes to use these.

Ardent

STB. wrote: »

Here are the free channels on 28.2E (no doubt where your dish is pointing). Disney is not one of the free ones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free-to-air_channels_at_28%C2%B0E

The best combo boxes these days are the linux boxes as they are highly configurable, but there is a bit of a learning curve to setting them up. The GUI on them looks like this so you can mix the saorview and satellite channels in one list

If you wish to record one channel whilst watching another you will need to run another satellite cable into the room from the spare port on the dish. You will also need a satellite box that has 2 DVB-S2 (Satellite) tuners and a least one DVB-T (Saorview).

There is a thread called best Enigma boxes in the Foreign satellite forum. Look at the latest posts for the latest bargains to be had.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=622

Thanks STB, that's great info. That GUI looks just as good as anything Virgin Media currently offers!

I had a look at the Enigma thread and I think the xtrend et10000 might be the way to go with the setup you described there.

Ardent

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

The combo boxes are great for price and give you all the Freesat/Saorview channels, what can let them down is the EPG and Series link are not very user friendly to people previously familiar with Sky.

If it was me I would buy that Humax box you posted, in addition I would purchase a Walker PVR for €85 to allow recording with series link of the Irish channels http://www.powercity.ie/?par=10-23-WP6500. This could be your setup for your main TV, then if you have additional TV's a combo box might suit each of these. Your dish currently has 2 feeds used which will be required for the Humax box for full recording capabilities so you have 2 free if you want to connect 2 combo boxes to use these.

Get what you're saying but that would involve switching between HDMI inputs depending on what I wanted to watch/record, right?

Atlantic Dawn

Ardent wrote: »

Get what you're saying but that would involve switching between HDMI inputs depending on what I wanted to watch/record, right?

Yes it would which is a bit of a pain, that's one advantage the combo box has.