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Freely ,terrestrial moves to streaming from next year.

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9 Gardening


    It's a cheaper way for them to broadcast



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9 Gardening


    It's because it's a cheaper way for them to broadcast



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,066 ✭✭✭✭Johnboy1951


    I wonder if Hisense will 'upgrade' the existing TVs to incorporate Freely in place of its already fairly functional grouping of BBC, ITV, Ch5, etc..



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,490 ✭✭✭reboot


    Perhaps a stand alone separate set top / firestick device may be available later,allowing you to keep your existing TV.

    I know of parts of the country still not getting freeview terrestrial service,they rely on Sky,but we're going to pack it in.

    They have Internet and thought Freely could be their salvation,only to find they'd have to buy a new tele!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,490 ✭✭✭reboot


    Maybe more money may be made in the mix,as we suffer 6inch screens as mentioned above,with ear buds.

    As pointed out many more and closer Txs for 5 g,but perhaps car reception might improve?

    I recently drove the very short distance from Newcastle. Co Down to Annalong. Only to hear the radio ulster programme morph into Irish and then Welsh. Isle of Mann Tx 200 Watts,Wales, 50kwatts!

    Comments on the BBC site,perhaps your in a poor reception area! ( But we'll keep taking your licence fee,thanks.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4 Belta_TVwiz


    Ay, beratna, I hear ya loud and clear 'bout da radio dance between Newcastle and Annalong. It's like tryin' to catch a signal from da far reaches of da Belt.

    But hold up, it ain't just about da power of da transmitters. Sometimes, it's all 'bout da angles, da curves of da rock, da way da signals bounce and twist through da void.

    I feel ya frustration, yeah? One moment you're groovin' to Radio Ulster, next thing ya know, it's morphin' into Irish and Welsh like some kinda cosmic remix.

    But check it, we beltalowda, we adapt, we find ways to tune in even when da waves be playin' tricks on us. Maybe one day, da tech'll catch up, da signals'll ride smooth like a skiff on calm waters.

    Till then, keep ya ears peeled, beratna, and keep shoutin' into da void. Maybe someday, da waves'll sing our tune loud and clear.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,795 ✭✭✭✭dulpit




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,490 ✭✭✭reboot


    Sky emailing customers warning switch off of old gear,If you don't contract up? Panic sets in.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4 Belta_TVwiz



    Eh, beratna, I hear ya loud and clear, like a transmission through the void. Sky's always droppin' them messages, makin' us feel like we're driftin' without a tether.

    But take a breath, yeah? Don't let da panic grip ya like da vacuum itself. It's just da churn of da scap, da way da Sky keep their business spinnin'. Ain't nothin' to fret over.

    Sure, they'll send their warnings, their threats, like da roar of a hurricane. But remember, ya hold da power, beratna. Contract or no contract, you're still da captain of ya own ship.

    So don't let da Sky rattle ya cage. Keep ya head high, keep sailin' through da scap. Panic ain't in our beltalowda nature. Oye, we're stronger than da churn, yeah?



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  • Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 12,214 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    Belta_TVwiz, welcome to Boards. Generally, it’s the custom (and rule) to post in English here. Further posts worthy of Hector Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean will be regarded as trolling, and will be actioned as such. Thanks.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 689 ✭✭✭Sonic the Shaghog


    Well there's also another glaring problem, which unfortunately I'm sure they dont give two hoots about.

    Currently and always, if you wanted your local stations be it RTE or BBC, once you had your TV got and your aerial up that was it, you are good. Ya I know you need a TV licence obviously.

    Where as if everything was moved to streaming you now have a once off aerial cost replaced by a monthly broadband charge that's necessary to access your local public content along with no doubt still needing your licence fee.

    For example I have RTE on digital and have a dish with UK channels. Don't bother with any sort of broadband package as I use my phone to stream the odd film or whatever to the TV if I wanted.

    But it would be some pain for me to do that 24/7 as well as data caps or if you had visitors etc. So you'd nearly want a broadband package and your phone package.

    What about people on low incomes or fixed incomes like pensioners, disabled etc? It's just more costs to everything.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 944 ✭✭✭decor58


    I, like many others I'm sure, have been considering the options, using FTA for about 20 years, never had a tv sub but do have broadband or should I say I pay for a service. Our provider says on our plan can get speeds UP to 200 mbps, we regularly get about 5 mbps, sometimes even 6, on old copper cable, imagine trying to stream tv/ Netflix/ YouTube on various screens at the same time. Terrestrial broadcasting will continue for some time to come, in the absence of reliable broadband, what we would miss would be a few of the UK satellite channels. Maybe there will be some some arrangement made for the likes of BBC but wouldn't expect much more than that.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,490 ✭✭✭reboot


    In my area a number of folk have always be unable to receive local tv, dab,or even FM.

    The hope was that now fibre is readily available,but expensive,copper has gone,bringing some problems,but maybe Freely on Broadband would at least bring their local channels to the area.

    Sadly not,unless you purchase a new TV.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,066 ✭✭✭✭Johnboy1951


    I too use aerial and dish for almost all TV.

    I also have a broadband connection so have contemplated going IPTV subscription but not moved as yet.

    I have set up the main TV for SWMBO so she can get access to BBC/ITV/Ch4,5 and so on including films and series, which come in over the broadband connection.

    I expect with the above there is little missed …. I would probably watch sport if available, but it is not worth the cost to me as I do not have a serious interest in it.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 154 ✭✭Rain from the West


    RXTV reporting that the BBC have yet to commit to applying to renew the license for the Freeview HD mux. If it's allowed to lapse, HD channels may disappear from the service by the end of next year.

    https://rxtvinfo.com/2025/freeview-hd-channels-could-be-cut-next-year/



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,438 ✭✭✭✭watty


    Satellite costs little. Freesat is an EPG service. It was never needed. BBC etc could ditch Freesat and still be on Satellite.

    MDR has closed DVB-T2 HD in Germany to be only on Satellite.

    5G national distribution is more costly than DVB-T on UHF.

    ISPs and home routers don't have the required Unicast infrastructure.

    Mobile shouldn't even have got ANY UHF spectrum as it's poor for cellular use. 1GHz to 3 GHz the best cellular spectrum and it's badly misused. There should be a single Physical RAN for all the Mobile allocations above 880 MHz and existing operators retail. That would double to triple capacity. Then add more masts! Big range UHF mobile is poor capacity.

    It's greed to sell spectrum.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,140 ✭✭✭✭dxhound2005


    I hope you don't mind me asking. Is this your first post on Boards for a few years? If it is, Welcome Back.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,438 ✭✭✭✭watty




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,065 ✭✭✭thereiver


    You can get itv c4 bbc 1 2 on virgin media cable tv i presume theres still freeview satellite uk tv channels if you have a freesat reciever



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,490 ✭✭✭reboot


    Yes welcome back sir,sometimes you just have to give them a rest.

    Sorry if off topic and discussed already elsewhere.

    I've had problems with some freeview set top boxes,namely Humax no longer receiving some RTE channels like Gold.

    The Samsung tv plugged into the same aerial will show the channels,but the Humax simply will say unknown, and displays several test cards. I've tried software download but to no avail.

    Don't suppose a Freely stand alone is on the horizon anytime soon.?

    Thanks.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 222 ✭✭BuzzG


    Welcome back @watty always found your posts to be insightful and informed. Great to have you back 👍🏻



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,021 ✭✭✭✭Red Silurian


    Freely standalone box should be coming soon, yes

    How soon is anybodies guess but if the BBC are going ahead with closing down freeview (rumoured) by the end of next year they will have to or else they will lose viewers and with it TV licence funding as not everybody is going to buy a new telly

    Most recently all TVs that use "amazon fire" operating system got access to freely



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 944 ✭✭✭decor58


    BBC won't close Freeview by next year, they are only one of the broadcasters using the service and they are not going to hand over the potential lost audience to the competition. Adequate broadband coverage is not available yet either and they would have to have that before they could announce a closedown. They would also have to give an adequate lead time, how long did the DSO take.

    FREELY tv's, boxes or sticks are of no benefit to us in the RoI as the signal will be geoblocked, so not accessible to us without alternative methods.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,909 ✭✭✭✭The Cush


    I believe it's a reference to the BBC HD mux, which is licenced by Ofcom. They might decide not to renew in favour of Freely.

    The commercial channels have their licences extended to 2034 and the regular BBC channels will continue until then also.

    At one time I thought Freeview might transition over to DVB-T2 with either MPEG-4 or HEVC video encoding but that's becoming less likely now with broadcast HbbTV, DVB-I and IP on the horizon



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,021 ✭✭✭✭Red Silurian


    You're forgetting about freesat which covers 100% of the UK population. If they keep that running alongside freely there's no real need for a DTT solution

    Where there's a will there's a way for all things british streaming



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 944 ✭✭✭decor58


    Freesat or not, BBC won't be coming off Freeview for some time yet, they may reduce the number of regional variations, I think they have 12 at the moment. Regional news and whatever regional programmes could be supplied interactive. I think Freeview has a wider audience than Freesat at the moment and large numbers would have to buy Freely, Freesat tv's or boxes , not popular, and certainly not in 12 to 18 months. The BBC is playing politics with the tv licence, politicians are on already about the cut backs in the world service. Change is coming but not next year.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 623 ✭✭✭TAFKAlawhec


    RXTV are taking something that they've kind of noticed about the PSB3 licence in the UK and are running, at best, a guesstimate that the BBC will surrender the licence for the multiplex at the end of next year - I'd take that with a huge pinch of salt, there's nothing to suggest otherwise that Freeview will be abandoning HD on its platform. I'd suggest it is little more than a tabloid style headline to gather attention.

    You're forgetting about freesat which covers 100% of the UK population.

    Strictly speaking satellite is unable to cover 100% of the population due to localised objects that prevent certain premises from "seeing" the Astra 2E/F/G cluster, especially as it's relatively low in the sky (20 degrees above the horizon at my place, for example) and is subject to blocking from hills in valleys, tall trees, sky-rise buildings in urban areas etc. I've heard estimates of the "true" coverage ranging between 95-98% in the UK, with some properties outside of this possibly being higher with careful dish positioning some distance from the building.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,490 ✭✭✭reboot


    Interesting you mentioned storms,After the recent one I had no fibre coming in for 6 days.

    Living in a "Not Spot " no mobile signal Ever? Means I have no TV mobile phone , or Landline as voice over WiFi doesn't work if no fibre,copper was removed when fibre installed. Cound not make it receive phone calls.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,490 ✭✭✭reboot


    Don't think CNN available on Freesat,and seems to be the first to drop out on Sky if dish slightly off,since they moved the frequency.?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 623 ✭✭✭TAFKAlawhec


    CNN is on the Astra 2G European beam, which tends to be the "weakest" received in Ireland - however a properly aligned dish, provided it's not ridiculously small, should pick these transponders up with plenty of rain-fade margin. I've no problem with them on a Zone 1 dish here in Tyrone (an SNR of 12db in dry weather, using an Octagon SF8008 Linux-based receiver).



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,140 ✭✭✭✭dxhound2005


    Freesat caveat the 100% with a very general dish must be unobscured. The terms and conditions are obviously for the UK.

    2. Great reception: Receive all satellite TV channels available on Freesat with a correctly installed, unobscured satellite dish and a HD TV. Weather conditions may affect your satellite reception temporarily. 

    https://www.freesat.co.uk/get-freesat?srsltid=AfmBOooxC3DdOSha_ZREuKABNvKRjLamQUS9jIbSomJpnJggPIjJU3xT



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,490 ✭✭✭reboot


    Thanks for that I'll have another look.Managing to view it on old Sky HD,no sub box,but maybe not for much longer



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,571 ✭✭✭Gerry Wicklow


    As one of the many thousands still without broadband today and with erratic mobile coverage and data speeds, I'm definitely keeping my antenna and dish for the foreseeable future. With a temporary power supply, I could at least see how the rest of the country survived.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,490 ✭✭✭reboot


    Although my fibre cable has a copper pair,it was never connected and the BT engineer told me they were never used.

    As you know the old copper landline system had 50v dc which meant that if power went,you could still use a dumb phone to make calls.

    BT Voice,a Digital Disadvantage.?

    How many miles of copper wire alongside fibre never used,at what cost.?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,021 ✭✭✭✭Red Silurian


    I don't think RTE have any plans to move saorview online, we're lucky to have DTT in many respects



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,909 ✭✭✭✭The Cush


    The upcoming DVB-I pilot will include an online Saorview service list, a necessary part of the trial to test the switchover between DTT and IP.

    As terrestrial frequencies are guaranteed until the end of 2030 my guess Saorview DTT could be around for the next decade.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,021 ✭✭✭✭Red Silurian


    They might offer it alongside terrestrial but moving purely to DVB-I or IPTV is a pipedream.

    I was at my brothers house on New Years Eve and the countdown on RTE player was almost 2 minutes later than it should have been. It's fine for on demand stuff don't get me wrong but linear has too much of a delay



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,909 ✭✭✭✭The Cush


    True, that's why we're a good way from actual Saorview IP delivery. The pilot and future testing is where these issues have to be resolved.

    OTA delivery probably won't disappear with DTT switch off but transition to 5G native-ip broadcast, as a backup to wired infrastructure and mobile delivery option.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,591 ✭✭✭Glaceon


    There were huge issues with the Katie Taylor fight on Netflix too, they couldn’t handle the traffic and it was buffering a lot.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,795 ✭✭✭✭dulpit


    I wonder what the logic is in having standalone boxes and restricting to fire tv's only? Would it not make sense that if this is over internet that it could be rolled out to the likes of android tvs, android boxes, apple tvs, etc.?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,021 ✭✭✭✭Red Silurian


    Could you imagine the amount of people who tune in to the toy show (which already has problems on the international player) or 6 Nations, can't see the streaming work very well for that

    At a guess, they're still only testing it



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,438 ✭✭✭✭watty


    The exchange relies on batteries if the mains is lost. Our exchange is less than 900m and the fibre failed after 10.5 hours. We have over 8000 Wh of batteries and 12 solar panels, though given the weather and time of year we were getting 1/100th of typical May to August charging. The satellite system, freezers, fridge, lounge, library, fibre modem, wifi, router, switch etc all of the mains from the solar system's batteries. On a minimum usage we have about 20 hours without sunlight, so for the light half of the year we are practically immune to power cuts. That power cut was 11 hours.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,438 ✭✭✭✭watty


    Streaming scales abysmally.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,490 ✭✭✭reboot


    Iteresting,information.I would almost have preferred to keep the fibre coming and doing without power for some of the time as I have small scale solar,and battery so



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,490 ✭✭✭reboot


    Sorry finger trouble.Battery storage,moving away from lead acid to lipo,from an EV breakers yard. A small 3 phase turbine also contributing.

    The UPS would run the fibre box and hub for many hours,battery monitor, firestick and aerial means TV is not a problem,although even the local transponder went down for some time.

    The lack of phone calls in or out is concerning for relatives,who suspect I may have blown myself up , with good reason,based on previous pointless projects.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,021 ✭✭✭✭Red Silurian


    This is why I can't see it removing DVB-S and DVB-T, it doesn't matter how many are watching, the power requirements are the same and everybody gets the same video and sound level



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,308 ✭✭✭Schorpio


    Not thread related, but did a small double-take at the username.

    Great to see you back on the site @watty.



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