Recommend TV Services

MFlack2012

Hoping someone more technical can advise. I am due to move into an 'apartment' at the back of my parents garden in the coming weeks. All walls have been plastered, papered, panneled etc so don't want anymore drilling or wires etc.

I have purchased a Smart Tv but the apartment requires TV services (Virgin, sky etc) and Wi-fi installed. I had Virgin media out but they want to drill exterior and interior walls for their services and bring cabling over roof of main house out to the apartment (which won't be happening).

Specifically looking for something like an andriod box that I don't have to go drilling and ruining walls etc.

I might be in 'woman' mode at this stage and not thinking through things, but really don't want anmore work having to be done.

Can anyone advise on best option?

Johnboy1951

Is internet wiring already fitted and/or live?

Are there internet sockets in various places on walls?

Henry Ford III

Can you extend the broadband coverage from the existing house?

MFlack2012

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Is internet wiring already fitted and/or live?

Are there internet sockets in various places on walls?

No there's not. The wi-fi in the main house is in the attic (Modem was driving me crazy in back room), it can be fitted back into the main bedroom (main house, directly overlooking apartment) when I leave as the connections are still there, but none in the apartment.

There is wi-fi reaching the apartment but it's very spotty and only works in one room. My cousin has said this isn't strong enough for the Smart TV either.

I bought a Belkin wi-fi extender but it didn't help the situation.

Henry Ford III

MFlack2012 wrote: »

No there's not. The wi-fi in the main house is in the attic (Modem was driving me crazy in back room), it can be fitted back into the main bedroom (main house, directly overlooking apartment) when I leave as the connections are still there, but none in the apartment.

There is wi-fi reaching the apartment but it's very spotty and only works in one room. My cousin has said this isn't strong enough for the Smart TV either.

I bought a Belkin wi-fi extender but it didn't help the situation.

Your options are somewhat limited.

You could try and survive on mobile data, but it's not great and not cheap either.

Otherwise you are looking at an installation of some sort regardless.

Might be an aerial, or a sat dish, or both, or wired internet, or all of the above.

MFlack2012

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Your options are somewhat limited.

You could try and survive on mobile data, but it's not great and not cheap either.

Otherwise you are looking at an installation of some sort regardless.

Might be an aerial, or a sat dish, or both, or wired internet, or all of the above.

Mobile data won't work on Smart Tv, Tab or Laptop and Phone. So not really an option.

I don't mind an installation of some sort, but looking for the least invasive. Surely there's a service provider that offers the likes of the once off payment boxes. No Provider seems to be able to tell me this without the need for their engineers to come see the apartment (which is pretty self explanatory), which I just don't have time, for working full time.

Sat dish is not applicable really as they have to be on a wall, don't they? There wouldn't be any room for that on this property.

Johnboy1951

MFlack2012 wrote: »

Mobile data won't work on Smart Tv, Tab or Laptop and Phone. So not really an option.

I don't mind an installation of some sort, but looking for the least invasive. Surely there's a service provider that offers the likes of the once off payment boxes. No Provider seems to be able to tell me this without the need for their engineers to come see the apartment (which is pretty self explanatory), which I just don't have time, for working full time.

Sat dish is not applicable really as they have to be on a wall, don't they? There wouldn't be any room for that on this property.

Sat dish can be on the ground if the line of sight to the Satellite is clear.
You would still have to drill holes to bring in a cable.

Henry Ford III

If you wish to have a zero monthly outgoing a Saorview/FTA sat combo might work best?

You'll need an aerial (maybe in the attic?) and a sat dish plus a combi box.

It'll give you RTE etc. from the arial, and BBC etc. from the sat. No internet though.

MFlack2012

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Sat dish can be on the ground if the line of sight to the Satellite is clear.
You would still have to drill holes to bring in a cable.

Not an option, not much ground space.

MFlack2012

Henry Ford III wrote: »

If you wish to have a zero monthly outgoing a Saorview/FTA sat combo might work best?

You'll need an aerial (maybe in the attic?) and a sat dish plus a combi box.

It'll give you RTE etc. from the arial, and BBC etc. from the sat. No internet though.

Internet is most required as I work from home some days also.

Although I watch Streamed TV, would like the option of watching TV every now and again and Soaps don't appeal :eek:

stephend2000

You could get a now tv box and use RTÉ player and all that on your smart tv. Some TV’s have the now tv app in their respective app stores. I can’t think of any solution that doesn’t require some sort of cable entering the house through a hole in the wall. Sky, Virgin, eir, Vodafone etc. are all somewhat similar although sky needs a satellite dish. Now TV can use WiFi so that may be the best solution. It does have the least live channels though

Johnboy1951

You could possibly set up a point to point wireless link between the house and apartment.
That would give you a solid connection between the two.

After that you have a couple of choices for TV .....

you could set up a system to provide TV over the wireless link either from your own gear (for FTA TV) using existing dish and aerial on the house

or you could get TV streamed to the house connection and so to the apartment.

What speed broadband is available in the house?

Wabbit Ears

If the electricity is extended out from the main house fuse board wifi homeplugs ( different then wifi extenders) may work.

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5585575/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%2C+PCs+and+phones%7C14418968/c_2/3%7C50000560%7CNetworking%7C50000563/c_3/4%7Ccat_50000563%7CPowerlines%7C50000588.htm

dam099

MFlack2012 wrote: »

Internet is most required as I work from home some days also.

Although I watch Streamed TV, would like the option of watching TV every now and again and Soaps don't appeal :eek:

If you are going to be working from home I would suck it up and re-consider allowing some drilling, reliability will be better with wired options 99% of the time.

I have had both a new Siro installation and Virgin Media relocation that involved drilling and in both cases the engineers did very tidy jobs. It helps if you can have the modem located on or near an external wall then most the cabling can be run outside and then drilled through with minimal impact to the interior aesthetics. Is the main house middle terrace or would routing cable round side of the house not be an option (over the roof sounds lazy unless no alternative)?

winston_1

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

If the electricity is extended out from the main house fuse board wifi homeplugs ( different then wifi extenders) may work.

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5585575/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%2C+PCs+and+phones%7C14418968/c_2/3%7C50000560%7CNetworking%7C50000563/c_3/4%7Ccat_50000563%7CPowerlines%7C50000588.htm

Bad move. Homeplugs cause serious interference to nearby other users of the RF spectrum. Especially 600Mb ones where the interference extends up to 300MHz affecting FM, DAB, and air traffic control frequencies.

Anyway they probably won't work through a consumer unit to other circuits.

MFlack2012

The apartment is on a seperate fuse board to the main house.

Unfortunately panneling and wallpapering etc has been done and money is stretched to the max so will not be re-doing this again. It's also not an option to bring cabling from the main house (over roof or otherwise). Does anyone know if it's possible to get standalone services to the apartment, so without touching main house/digging up garden etc.

Johnboy1951

As I posted earlier
You could set up a point to point wireless link between the house and apartment if you can use the internet connection from the house for all your use cases.
This can be done with dedicated wireless transmitter/receiver type setup. See posts on boards about Ubiqiti systems for ideas.

Other than that I believe you are looking at drilling holes.

TBH though I do not see any problem with drilling a couple of small holes, and fail to see how doing so would necessitate redecorating.

SnipSnop

MFlack2012 wrote: »

No there's not. The wi-fi in the main house is in the attic (Modem was driving me crazy in back room), it can be fitted back into the main bedroom (main house, directly overlooking apartment) when I leave as the connections are still there, but none in the apartment.

There is wi-fi reaching the apartment but it's very spotty and only works in one room. My cousin has said this isn't strong enough for the Smart TV either.

I bought a Belkin wi-fi extender but it didn't help the situation.

If you have the money get the Netgear Orbi. Amazing piece of kit and no drilling.
Hook the main one up to your router, place the satellite/repeater somewhere closer to your apartment (or even in apartment and sorted).

Go for the RBK50 ( or even better RBK53 which has 2 satellites/repeaters in mesh mode). Each satellite has gigabit ports where you can plug in whatever you want.

I am getting full speeds everywhere in the house and garden now. (And I mean full juicy 350 Mbps everywhere.). Freaking love it.

But price can put some off. Got mine on amazon uk

atilladehun

Virgin Media will put the connection box over the hole in the wall so all you see is the box.

The high horse brigade

Op, I'm not sure what you're expecting. You can't just magic a broadband connection to your apartment.

There's a few solutions that have already been suggested, install a new connection, run a cable or install a point to point link to the main house. All require a hefty investment which you're going to have to do if you wish to run your apartment and work from home.

winston_1

winston_1 wrote: »

Bad move. Homeplugs cause serious interference to nearby other users of the RF spectrum. Especially 600Mb ones where the interference extends up to 300MHz affecting FM, DAB, and air traffic control frequencies.

Anyway they probably won't work through a consumer unit to other circuits.

Home plugs are an excellent option if possible (though it looks like they aren’t in the ops case), I’d be lost without them for distributing wired internet connections to my Ethernet switch which feeds multiple devices with a wired connection. They work very well.