Best option for Irish and British channels?

Essien

I moved into a house a few months ago and I'm hoping someone can offer a little guidance on how best to get the Irish and British channels set up. I'm not interested in Sky.

There is a dish on the gable end of the house which is connected to satellite points in several rooms via a media cabinet in the kitchen. I don't know what this dish was used for by the previous owners.

There are also tv points in several rooms, but the cables for those go from the cabinet to the attic where they are not connected to anything.

From reading around I gather I could use a loft aerial to get the Irish channels, and possibly the dish for the British ones.

I have a couple of questions....

What kind of receiver do I need to get british channels on the dish? (Freesat, Freeview etc)
Is there a way to check if the dish is even getting the right signal for these services?
Are loft aerials any good for the Irish channels?
Can I have both on the same tv?

Thanks in advance for and help.

Harry Palmr

Simple solution, antenna for soarview channels, freesat PVR for UK channels. The dish is almost certainly pointing at Astra satellite already, so run two cables to the box and the ariel cable to the TV. That said if you want to record soarview channels you'll need to buy soarview connect box and a USB stick for it.

https://www.saorview.ie/connect

People will suggest an unofficial combi box set up but that's for hobby types in my opinion.

Johnboy1951

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Simple solution, antenna for soarview channels, freesat PVR for UK channels. The dish is almost certainly pointing at Astra satellite already, so run two cables to the box and the ariel cable to the TV. That said if you want to record soarview channels you'll need to buy soarview connect box and a USB stick for it.

https://www.saorview.ie/connect

People will suggest an unofficial combi box set up but that's for hobby types in my opinion.

Does the Saorview Connect box not have a Satellite receiver?
Is that not one of its big improvements?
If so then it seems your suggestion for a Freesat box is duplication.

@Essien

Freesat is proprietary firmware/software that produces an EPG for a large number of channels, all of which are Free to Air.

There are more FTA channels available than on a 'Freesat' box.

The main benefit of a Freesat box is also one of its largest drawbacks, depending on your wishes.

It does provide a 7 day EPG for all the channels it covers.
You can, as a hobbyist, add extra channels that it is missing, but you will not get 7 day EPG for them.

I suggest you do a lot of reading before you decide what kind of set up you require ........ just something that sets it up as the vendor wishes, or something you might wish to change to suit your needs - FTA 'hobbyist' box.

There sure are a heck of a lot of hobbyists around the country it seems.

Essien

Thanks for the replies.

I'll do a bit more reading on the freesat stuff.

Re the aerial for the irish channels: Is a loft aerial a good option here or would one of those one for alls do the same thing. Bear in mind, the media cabinet isn't very near any windows, and it already has cables going to the attic.

Johnboy1951

Essien wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

I'll do a bit more reading on the freesat stuff.

Re the aerial for the irish channels: Is a loft aerial a good option here or would one of those one for alls do the same thing. Bear in mind, the media cabinet isn't very near any windows, and it already has cables going to the attic.

You could try a suitable 'outdoor' aerial in the attic.
How well it works will depend on several factors, one of which is if there is foil between the aerial and the transmitter.

Unless you are very close to a transmitter an indoor aerial will not work, or work well enough for reliable use in all weathers.

I should have mentioned that there are FTA receivers that can be set to provide a 7 day EPG similar to a Freesat box.

sligojoek

Essien wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

I'll do a bit more reading on the freesat stuff.

Re the aerial for the irish channels: Is a loft aerial a good option here or would one of those one for alls do the same thing. Bear in mind, the media cabinet isn't very near any windows, and it already has cables going to the attic.

Put your address or postcode into the saorview website and you can find out how far you are from your transmitter. An attic aerial would need to be in a strong signal area.

Essien

sligojoek wrote: »

Put your address or postcode into the saorview website and you can find out how far you are from your transmitter. An attic aerial would need to be in a strong signal area.

I'm 20km from Mt Leinster.