Freesat + Saorview to replace Virgin Analogue signal

Neworld17

We are about to loose our Virgin analogue feed. Roughly speaking, what should I expect to pay to have a satellite dish, aerial and four receiver boxes (looking at amiko mini combo extra) supplied and installed to receive freesat + saorview in 4 rooms for UK and irish channels. I have a two story detached house with attic in Dublin and I want to connect two upstairs and two downstairs rooms. The upstairs rooms can be accessed via the attic and the downstairs rooms through side walls. I plan to keep my Horizon box in the main room for sport, etc.

Many thanks. Just looking to get a handle on likely cost but any pointers would be very welcome.

greasepalm

Not got those boxes as i went for enigma2 from wos.

https://www.world-of-satellite.co.uk/satellite-and-terrestrial/digital-receivers/multi-tuners-and-combo-receivers
Good boxes can have 7 day epg and if you want/like to record then multi tuner boxes are needed.
One point think of how many cable inputs per room as if upgrading to multi tuner boxes more feeds are needed.

If you had the boxes i have used this person and i will be needing him again.Dublin based

https://www.adverts.ie/satellite-tv-services/installation-services-for-satellite-dishes-and-aerials-simple-and-transparent-pricing/5868492

DublinDilbert

What cabling is in place already?

There’s two options:

The straight forward approach is to use shotgun cable to each room, standard sky dish with quad lnb, saorview aerial in attic with small amp.


Or use a sat multi switch that takes in the saorview and feeds a single cable to each room, will require a special lnb on the dish. You’ll then need wall plates which will split the single feed back into two.


The first approach is what I use, although there’s slightly more cable it works fine. I would be careful which Combi boxes you choose, maybe try one out before ordering 3 more. I’d get the place cabled and order the boxes yourself. I’d guess your looking at €400-500 excluding the boxes.

Johnboy1951

For four rooms as you describe it might be worthwhile considering having the whole system centralised and distributed via Ethernet cable, with the added advantage of having the signals available over wifi for irregular use.

That would mean the cost goes on one set of tuner boxes, and if the TVs are not smart then some cheap small box at the TV for menus, channel selection, EPG and recording etc.

It would be advisable to be comfortable doing the system set up yourself as this is not fully available in a commercial box. Sky Q is a somewhat similar concept.

There are some receivers also which can provide the signals from their tuners on the network for TVs to use without any coax.

Just maybe something to consider for multiple TVs or laptops, tablets, phones etc. to be able to access all the channels and stored media.

The high horse brigade

The Amiko combi boxes do not have the open software Enigma 2 therefore do not have 7 day epg or a plugin to rescan for channel frequency changes. You should look into getting an Enigma 2 box with good support like the Tiviar Alpha (getting scarce)
https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057827739/1/#post105770302
https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057827739/11/#post106783394

decor58

Neworld17 wrote:

We are about to loose our Virgin analogue feed. Roughly speaking, what should I expect to pay to have a satellite dish, aerial and four receiver boxes (looking at amiko mini combo extra) supplied and installed to receive freesat + saorview in 4 rooms for UK and irish channels. I have a two story detached house with attic in Dublin and I want to connect two upstairs and two downstairs rooms. The upstairs rooms can be accessed via the attic and the downstairs rooms through side walls. I plan to keep my Horizon box in the main room for sport, etc.

Do the existing tv's have Saorview tuners built in, in which case combo tuners may not be needed.

Neworld17

TV's don't have Saorview tuners built in

greasepalm

Forgot to ask if all rooms wired for lan

mackersdublin

Neworld17 wrote: »

TV's don't have Saorview tuners built in

Well any TV bought in the last 10 years or so does have Saorview built in. You just need an aerial to view it

Neworld17

greasepalm wrote: »

Forgot to ask if all rooms wired for lan

No, new wiring will be needed. Picking up bits of information as I go along. A neighbour with similar house has a satellite dish attached to their back wall just under the eaves. As I understand it a cable will have to run from the satellite dish and saorview aerial to each TV. TV's are Toshiba 22AV615DB in good condition that are digital ready but don't have saorview. I may change them in the future but for the moment I don't plan on changing them as they are in good condition.

The high horse brigade

Neworld17 wrote: »

No, new wiring will be needed. Picking up bits of information as I go along. A neighbour with similar house has a satellite dish attached to their back wall just under the eaves. As I understand it a cable will have to run from the satellite dish and saorview aerial to each TV. TV's are Toshiba 22AV615DB in good condition that are digital ready but don't have saorview. I may change them in the future but for the moment I don't plan on changing them as they are in good condition.

Use this opportunity if you're running cables to run at least one cat6 cable to each TV point from a central location

dubrov

The high horse brigade wrote:

Use this opportunity if you're running cables to run at least one cat6 cable to each TV point from a central location

What sort of hardware would you suggest for running in a tv signal over cat6?

My understanding is that most satellite boxes and TVs expect the signal over coaxial

The high horse brigade

dubrov wrote: »

What sort of hardware would you suggest for running in a tv signal over cat6?

My understanding is that most satellite boxes and TVs expect the signal over coaxial

I said if your running coax to also run cat6 for media player boxes and smart TVs.

utyh2ikcq9z76b

Neworld17 wrote: »

TV's don't have Saorview tuners built in

Might be worth replacing the TV's with some LGs that have Soarview&Freesat inbulit

dubrov

The high horse brigade wrote:

I said if your running coax to also run cat6 for media player boxes and smart TVs.

Ah ok. I'd misread it

greasepalm

An old post that gives the idea.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2011/sep/08/cabling-house-broadband-tv-radio

Johnboy1951

greasepalm wrote: »

An old post that gives the idea.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2011/sep/08/cabling-house-broadband-tv-radio

Yeah, things have moved on a lot since 2011

I have been using Cat5e distribution of TV and Radio as well as stored media for some years now .... as have others.
It can be done quite cheaply when the LAN is in place.

The only coax I use is from Sat Dish and Aerial to centralised tuners.
From there all available channels and media are distributed over LAN.

All the coax required is two cables ..... one from the aerial and the other from the Unicable LNB.
Two tuners for Saorview provides all users up to the limit of the LAN with any and all Saorview channels.

The Unicable II LNB will provide signal to 32 tuners which can use 32 different muxes, providing close to 300 channels of choice (not that any individual or household would want the majority of those).

greasepalm

Yes still old skool here multi feeds of coaxial cables everywhere sat and aerial.