Getting Started with Saorview - Any Ideas???

Fishdoodle

Ive come to the conclusion that Saorview might be a good option for my mum (since she only occasionally watches the Irish channels) -and the Eir bill is going up up!

There's an ariel connection which seems to provide a decent enough signal for terrestrial channels on her TV.

Im hoping she'd be able to

- (pre)record programmes
- possibly link to RTE player .... (Id imagine you'd need a cable to connect to Modem or something / -if so is there an option to transmit the signal wirelessly instead of running a cable around rooms?)

I was looking at these Saorview connect boxes

POWERPOINT SAORVIEW CONNECT COMBI BOX and ...

WALKER SAORVIEW APPROVED COMBI BOX (which as €50 cheaper).

Unfortunately Boards won't allow my to post the links as Im a new user


(Neither seems to come with a SCART / HDMI cable ...but, honestly, I haven't a clue if one was needed.

Im hoping its not too complicated to set up

-Any ideas on what to buy / any snags would be greatly appreciated. :-D

Gerry Wicklow

Have you read the Saorview Connect thread? Even just the last few pages.

Fishdoodle

Thanks a mill Gerry for for the link to the thread :-)

-I had a read of the last 5 pages -here's what I learned:

> Plenty of people annoyed at not being able to record (Might be some consumer rights issue here) despite a software update being promised back in 2018
>and ... 600 Saorview boxes have been sold

I had a look at the website videos and looks easy enough to set up ... however I'm still uncertain about reliability and the ability to record based on what I've read on the forum!

Interestingly on the Power City website it states under product description "You will soon be able to record your favourite TV shows to a connected hard disk. Software upgrade due"

...seems people have been waiting a while for this upgrade

I'll give Saorview a ring tomorrow and see what they have to say!

ShaneOC

If the current TV your mum uses does not receive Saorview it might be easier to just get a new TV that can receive the Saorview channels directly. Most new TVs allow recording of programmes (although you may not be able to watch another channel while recording) and most smart TVs will have the RTE player.

Stay away from Saorview connect. Over priced and under specced.

Fishdoodle

ShaneOC wrote: »

If the current TV your mum uses does not receive Saorview it might be easier to just get a new TV that can receive the Saorview channels directly. Most new TVs allow recording of programmes (although you may not be able to watch another channel while recording) and most smart TVs will have the RTE player.

Stay away from Saorview connect. Over priced and under specced.

Thanks Shane for the heads-up on the new tv's. That seems very straightforward. I rang Saorview to get their perspective on things - & mentioned the complaints on boards.ie

Was told there were bugs in the current sotware - the re-boot problem seems to be the main one. "were still waiting on the software updates and hoping they'll come in the next couple of weeks ... but can't say for sure when".

Also learned that the current (reccomended) box isn't going to be changed ...only software updates, so anyone who has bought a box just has to wait it out indefinitely until the bugs are fixed & recording function enabled. IF/when the record function becomes possible a memory stick (or something) will be needed to store the recordings.

It seems there is a huge amount of €€€ being pumped into the Saorview service.
I'm surprised that
A: RTE are regularly advertising a service where the Saorview box is known to have bugs in it.
B: Saorview Support have no definitive idea idea when the software updates will be released.

They put the cart before the horse.