Eir have the changed?

jogdish

Hi,

Out of contract with vodafone, have gig fibre and thinking of adding TV - only just found out vodafone TV wont let me record anything other than Virgin, Walked into Eir to look at their offering, still can't record BBC! but much nicer box and for 2 years a nice price (basic TV + gig fibre ).

I was with Eir when I had copper cable internet, awful service hated them. Have they changed since ? I think with Fibre things might newer needing less phoning help lines ? Just asking for opinions on Eir and their TV service. Thanks

babelfish1990

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058334786/eir-have-the-changed

The Eir TV streaming box does allow unrestricted recording of BBC, and other UK channels. BBC is the most important, because i-Player isn't available in Ireland. Recording is restricted on the Irish channels - RTE & VM. However, the catch-up service works on these channels, and the RTE & VM Players also work on the Apple TV 4K Box. The Eir TV product is probably the best of the streaming products available, and the box runs all the other apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, All4 etc. It works well over WiFi, and has good audio output options. At €9.99pm for multi-channel TV, it is excellent value. (This includes the first box). Eir don't advertise this, but you can do multi-room without any additional monthly fee if you buy your own Apple TV 4K boxes, and run the eir app on them. Eir sell reconditioned Apple TV boxes on their Eir Store website for a very reasonable price of €59.99, and they are fully guaranteed. I have not had any issues with Eir - use them for Broadband, TV & Mobile. I only have to call them once a year, to renegotiate the following year's contract - and I have found them very helpful in renewing the discounts if you sign for another year. However, you have to make the call - you can't renegotiate online. They are one of the few service companies that seem to have all their call-centre staff in Ireland, and I find them easy to deal with. You might get a 2-year contract if you are signing up for the first time.

Shoog

It's my experience that there all a much a muchness. If you don't hit problems all can be grand for years but if you do then none of them have decent customer service or tech support.

We are going back onto Eir after a few years away, don't have high expectations but they offer the best two year deal and there not dicks about things like using your own modem like Vodafone. I may change my mind - but the one service I will not go back to is Vodafone. We had major issues with our Eir landline because they effectively abandoned the rural network and left faults hanging for weeks. Cannot see that been the case with their fibre infrastructure.

jogdish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121727313#Comment_121727313

Thank you for the informed write up, really appreciated.

jogdish

@babelfish1990

Sorry to ask more, but do you know if:

1) its possible to use ethernet to hook the TV box to the router or does it need to be wifi ?

2) I use a second personal router in my home and it handles all traffic and various home networking, and it connects to the outside via the service providers box - do you happen to know if Eir have something weird I should be aware of?

Apologies, its just the people in the shops are clueless or not to be trusted (not their fault, training etc )

babelfish1990

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121730216#Comment_121730216

The eir TV boxes have Ethernet ports on them, which you can use instead of WiFi, if you prefer. Regarding the second router - it is not good practice to have more than 1 router in the same network. I am not aware of it causing any specific problem with eir TV - but I haven't tried it, and I wouldn't recommend it. Whatever about TV, you are likely to have double NAT problems, and IP address confusion with services such as VPN, gaming etc. You should try to make the second router into a dumb Access Point, so that both routers are not performing routing functions. I have a network of Unifi Access points off my Router, and the eir TV boxes work fine through these.

icdg

Hardware wise the box is the exact same Apple TV product that you can go into Curry’s and buy. The only difference is that eir have swapped the Apple (Siri) Remote for one of a more conventional design, largely due to complaints from customers when eir TV initially launched that they couldn’t work the Apple Remote. Eir TV runs as an app on it. It runs all the same apps from the normal tvOS App Store which gives it a huge selection over operator specific products (on Sky, you only have access to the apps Sky has specifically agreed deals with the services concerned to support).

jogdish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121730372#Comment_121730372

Sorry my networking inexperience, the provider box is the dumb gateway with wifi turned off and all traffic wifi is handled by my ASUS - so one router and one access point. Sorry just called them both routers.

JDxtra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121730692#Comment_121730692

This is a standard eir installation of fibre broadband...

Physical fibre cable → ONT (Optical Network Terminal) → eir F3000 fibre box → eir Smart WiFi hub (optional mesh point)

The F3000 box acts as the router and the fibre modem. You can of course plug in a secondary wifi router somewhere on the network, but you should turn off the DHCP server on this to avoid issues.

This is also an acceptable solution...

Physical fibre cable → ONT (Optical Network Terminal) → Personal 3rd party router/modem

For me, I do not use the eir equipment and instead use Ubiquiti (Unifi) equipment. This works without any issue at all on the eir network currently.

If your ASUS has an ethernet WAN port, it may be able to act as the primary router/modem. Check online to see if other users in Ireland have experience.

Grey123

There is a little bit I don't understand with eir.

Watching rte I can scroll back and watch something from earlier or from the start.

I can't do this with BBC. Need to have pressed record.

Not sure why or how to tell the difference.

jogdish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121735166#Comment_121735166

Ya would much prefer your solution of using all my own gear, but for vidafone at least I needed their gear since the landline is important and the ASUS box doesnt have the cipher or whatever needed for their VOIP. so I do the first option. @JDxtra

SouthWesterly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121730692#Comment_121730692

I have 2 mesh systems plugged into my eir modem/router. No issues

Found them very easy to renogiate with every year

Have had lines to the house break which they've fixed within days. I'm in a farming area and sometimes a tractor hits the over road line

RetroEncabulator

I've switched over to EirTV and 1 Gibit/s fibre and have found them pretty good. The TV service is at least as good as Virgin, if not better from a technical point of view. The sound options are far better and the Apple hardware is light years ahead of the proprietary stuff providers give out.

The only complaints I'd have are it would be nice if they'd integrate more Sky channels, particularly the lack of Sky News is being noticed in our household, although I never watch it myself. It just means having to go into Now TV or using the Sky News app.

If you've an iPhone you can use it as an additional remote to input text and all of that and it works flawlessly (as long as the iPhone and the Apple TV 4K box are on the same network).

Setup is very easy - enter WiFi password into the Apple TV box or plug it into the router and it just works. You can setup your own Apple ID and all of that if you particularly want to - it's not essential, but it does give you access to the AppStore and all of the features.

You an authorise purchases on your iPhone, AppleWatch or iPad etc too if you've other Apple devices.

Their landline replacement is just a basic emulated phone line. Works exactly the same as any of their landline products. It's not as fancy as the Digweb offering through fritzbox which can host DECT phones and all of that. You just have to plug your cordless phone in as if it's a regular landline.

BIG plus points for our household as we've one person who's hard of hearing, is that you can use bluetooth as easily as you can from an iPhone. It immediately recognises AirPods, but will recognise and setup any other bluetooth headphones very easily too and has excellent Bluetooth reception.

The way it handles subtitling is also pretty smooth and the rendering of the titles is better than on Sky Q or Virgin boxes - for example they automatically get out of the way when you move a menu and remain visible.

Also you can connect up bluetooth speakers, or a pair of Apple HomePods if you want to go that route.

babelfish1990

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121735204#Comment_121735204

RTE & VM don't allow normal recording on eir TV, and they seem to want you to use their players, and watch their adverts. BBC and the other UK channels allow normal recording, including Series recording. Once you have recorded a programme, you can fast-forward through it (including adverts on the commercial channels). In addition to using the player apps, eir TV has an alternative service called "Catch-up", which allows you to restart a programme from the TV Guide, if you missed it. However, to complicate things - catch-up is not available for all programmes - mostly home-produced ones. BBC doesn't let you do catch-up, but some of the other UK channels do. All the streaming services seem to have different rules regarding recordings - but at least eir TV allows recording of BBC - and this is vital because BBC i-Player is not available here. The streaming model has some complications vs the legacy hard-disk boxes - however, on balance, the advantage of being able to run all the Streaming apps on the one Apple TV platform probably outweighs the issues with new rules for recording.

Grey123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121737203#Comment_121737203

Thanks. That explains it. What is confusing is if I want to watch Dancing with the Stars from the weekend I have two options.

Catch Up. I can pause but have to watch all ads as if it were live. No fast forward, ads or not.

RTE Player. I have to watch four ads before but then can fast forward. Ads are cut out? I just did a quick scan.

Going via the player seems better but I guess not everything makes it there and you may have to wait. Catch up makes sense if I walk in 5 min late for the news and want the headlines, I can just watch from start.

Now that I understand that a bit better I think it's a good service. I went with it because I couldn't get a satellite cable to the kitchen but €10 a month for the rental of the apple box and the eir app isn't bad value. I have motd set to series record now.

gmacww

The main annoying think about the catchup service is the restriction on fast forward. Say I want to watch a 6 nations game that I missed live I can't skip past the first hour of talking and jump straight to the match. That's a major pain in the ass. Everything else is great.

jogdish

Walked into to get Eir, ohhhh they don't use SIRO - nothing is ever simple, back to the search.