Free to Air - advice wanted

Levitate

Hi

I am moving into a new house soon and want to avoid a subscription tv service. Basically, I'm looking for some advice on getting Free to Air services set up. You'll have to excuse me as I'm not an expert on this area and am not hugely technical!

My requirements are relatively basic:

- Saorview (Irish) and Freesat (UK) channels in one or maybe two rooms
- Ability to record something a few days in advance
- A user friendly menu

The house does not have an existing satellite dish or any ariels as far as I know.

My understanding is that I need a Satellite dish and a Combo box and the required cabling to get his all set up.

Main question:
- Overall, what is the easiest way to go about this. I would need somebody to put up the satellite dish and probably to install the combo box. I know there are a number of companies who could help me with this, any recommendations or feedback welcome. I don't mind spending a few hundred up front if it meant that a decent system was installed.

Other questions would be:
- Would i definitely need to get satellite dish put on house.
- Would there be any benefit (such as cost) in having Sky installed for 12 months and using their dish after this period has elapsed. Would be happier not to take out any tv service with sky or virgin and not even sure if they require a dish too be put up anyway.
- Would the satellite dish erected do the job for a number of years or would it have to be replaced regularly

- Would I need a combo box to receive UK and Irish channels.
- My current tv is around 4 years old and is saorview enabled according to saorview website. Would it be compatible for Freesat also?
- Does combo box need to be connected to satellite dish?
- There is a range of combo boxes out there with different capabilities. I assume a relatively basic box would do me given my requirements
- Would the Free to Air company usually provide the combo box. If I wanted to change to a different box in the future, I assume this would be easy enough?
- Would I be better to select my own combo box or go along with whatever is used by the Free to Air company. Ideally, I'd like to put something in place which would last for 5+ years at least
- Are there technical issues which would meant that services would be disrupted on a regular basis and require me to update systems, upgrades etc or is it usually the case that the system installed would not require much upkeep.

Thanks

Johnboy1951

You need both a Sat Dish and a Terrestrial aerial to cover your needs.

If your TV has both a Satellite tuner AND a Saorview terrestrial tuner you do not need any set top box for that TV, but you need to bring the two aerial cables to the TV.
You would have no recording function other than what might be available directly from the TV.
What you can and cannot do entirely depends on the functions provided by your TV model.

To distribute the signals to other rooms requires some decisions on your part.
The traditional way was to bring in more co-axial cable from dish and aerial to either a STB (set top box) or another TV with both tuners on board.

Running co-ax cable can be problematic in some situations.

If the house is wired with ethernet cable, or it can be run easily, then a STB with the capability of providing a suitable output on the ethernet cable might be an answer. You would place the STB at a place you can bring in several cables from dish/aerial, (sufficient to watch different channels and to record), and wire the other TV with ethernet cable from the STB. The second TV (if not a smart TV) would also require a small STB to display the signal required.
You might well be able to use the mains wiring to distribute the signal in place of ethernet cable. (it works here for HD TV).

The SAT dish does not have to go on the house - it can sit on the ground if properly secured. The requirement is that it can be pointed at the satellite without anything blocking the signal path from the Satellite to the Dish (other building or Trees etc).

The is no 'Free to Air Company' as such.
You can buy and fit all the individual pieces yourself, or you can contract a local independent service to install all or part of what you decide you want.
There is no benefit IMO of paying any subscription company for any period

The best advice I can give you is to read as many relevant threads on Boards as you can, even if you do not understand a lot initially, you will gain sufficient knowledge to make sensible decisions to suit yourself.

What suits one person is not what might suit another.

For instance I built my own STB from a basic PC using old discarded parts, adding a couple of tuner cards, a couple of HDDs and an operating system, and now have a machine sitting out of the way and out of sight, which is connected to my router and all my devices (TVs, PCs, Tablets, Phones etc) can watch all TV channels and any stored media too.
You would need some competence in putting the system together, and be prepared to spend a little time every now and again to update things as required.
The benefit for me is that I have complete control and a system that does everything I want and exactly as I want it. I could not find anything commercially available to fulfill my needs. BUT YOUR NEEDS ARE DIFFERENT, no doubt.

Try to be explicit in your requirements ... and to do so brings us back to doing a lot of reading and learning so you can make the right decision in the first place. Good luck

winston_1

You need a dish and aerial with feeds to both rooms. If you don't need to record the Irish channels don't get a combo box get Freesat and just have recording facility on the UK channels. The advantage of Freesat is that it auto updates whereas on a combo you will be for ever updating it as channels move frequencies.

It is normally possible to get coax to the rooms required so I see no point in sending TV from one room to another via Ethernet, and don't even think about doing it over the mains wiring (PLT or Homeplugs). That is bad technology that causes interference to the neighbours.

The Cush

Levitate wrote: »

I am moving into a new house soon and want to avoid a subscription tv service. Basically, I'm looking for some advice on getting Free to Air services set up. You'll have to excuse me as I'm not an expert on this area and am not hugely technical!

My requirements are relatively basic:

- Saorview (Irish) and Freesat (UK) channels in one or maybe two rooms
- Ability to record something a few days in advance
- A user friendly menu

The house does not have an existing satellite dish or any ariels as far as I know.

There is no one easy off the shelf solution that combines both Saorview and Freesat in one box that provides 7 day guide, recording, auto updates, user friendly interface etc. There are Linux based receivers that can do this but require a level of technical knowledge, lots of threads here discussing these receivers.

The easiest solution would be separate Saorview and Freesat recorders which offer all the above. Another possible solution around the corner is the planned Saorview Connect[ range of receivers which will include a hybrid combi Saorview and FTA satellite receiver combined with internet connectivity, no actual details yet, thread here.

Have a look at the ISAA website to see a list of registered installers in your area. A professional installer would be recommended to install aerial/dish if your knowledge in this area isn't great. I would recommend you choose/research what receivers you want instead of them giving you something unsuitable.

In your new house what cabling is available to each TV point?

Gerry Wicklow

If the OP was near the border or some parts of the east coast within range of a UK terrestrial signal, FreeView may be an option. Otherwise satellite is the only reliable way to get UK channels.

Levitate

sorry for dredging up an oldish thread and thanks to everyone who responded a few weeks back.

it all sounds quite complicated to be honest, I wonder if I'd be better just to go with a subscription sky/virgin service as I am moving in in a couple of weeks and haven't really had enough time to read up.

however, from what I'm reading above, it might be more straightforward if I didn't bother with a combo box and just got a decent freesat box instead for getting access to and recording the uk free to air channels. I wouldn't really need to record irish channels and would be happy as long as I could view them. I assume my tv (saorview enabled) would be then able to view the saorview channels and uk free to air channels (i.e. when freesat box is turned on).

Not a clue on the cabling in the new place, as I said a bit of a rookie in this area but just trying to cut down on bills. there doesn't seem to be a satellite dish anyway.

any other comments appreciated.

STB.

If you have a Saorview TV (most new LCDs can receive it anyway) and you dont want to record then fine you can switch between the HDMI and TV function with your TV remote.

Is this house being rented ? If so then you might want get permission to drill holes and install the dish.

Satellite dishes do not need to be installed on chimneys. They can be installed anywhere that has an unobstructed view to the sky at a south east facing point.

To put it in perspective, a Sky like dish will cost you €25. There are now aerials that you can install above then that cost €15 that may work depending on your location and distance from the local saorview transmitter. If you are handy with a drill and can run cables you could do it yourself.

A matter of picking your box after that.

http://www.freesat.co.uk/get-freesat/all-boxes