Getting Satelite tv connected in the country

siucra33

Hi
New girl here and desperatley need help.
I've moved down to a nice little cottage in Kildare lovely but can't get any channels expect the usual RTE1,2, TG4, TV3 etc. Obviously being the silly city female that I am! I have taken those terrible NTL people for granted, and cable tv doesn't seem so bad after all.
So what to do -- I have gone to a couple of local suppliers they all push SKYdigital at you but I don't really want 150 channels and a big bill. Also tried satelite Ireland but they don't cover Kildare anymore!
All I want is BBC1,Channel 4, E4,UTV, Discovery,MTV, anything else a bonus don't really mind.
My boyfriend seems to think you can buy a box or something where you just pay one fee and then you don't any bills after that -- is that true!! seem to good to be true.
Anyway would appreciate any advice beginning to go stir crazy with just the irish channels missing forensic detectives on discovery, plus the essential hangover TV from E4 and MTV.

Thx

S xx

doh.ie

Your boyfriend is probably thinking of the Freeview system in the UK which has many of the channels you mentioned, but that's not something that can be easily (or well) received in the Republic.

You basically have three choices, as far as I can see:

1) Your NTL equivalent (probably Chorus) in Kildare. But they have a very bad rep, poor picture quality on MMDS (a little aerial on your roof) and a poor channel choice. You can check their packages on www.chorus.ie, but they'll be about €28 a month. I'd recommend you avoid.

2) "FreeSat" - this is a Sky Digital box and dish, along with a free-to-view card (that's needed for ITV, Channel 4 and Five). Total cost: €150-200 once-off payment, depending on where you get it from (second hand boxes are cheap, the dish is about €60, card is €30 etc.) You'll get tons of free crap channels like shopping and dating, but the key ones are BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, BBC News 24, CBBC, CBeebies, ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, Channel 4, Five. No E4, Discovery or MTV on this card. You'd have to install this yourself, or get a friend who knows how to to do it for you. Not impossible, but might be a head-wreck if you've never done it before. If you get a local satellite installer to install it, it'd cost upwards of €50.

3) Sky Digital Ireland - free installation (depending on offer), free box, free dish. Packages start from about €20 a month (but the lowest tier is very poor.) For the Family Pack, including the channels you want (and a lot you've never seen on NTL), it's €28.50 a month. For movies and sports (Sky World), it's €62.50ish. For just movies, it's €53. This will obviously be upwards of €300 a year, compared to the less than €200 cost of the freesat kit, but obviously you get a lot of extra channels for it. Also, if your RTE reception is not the best, you'll find RTE ONE, RTE TWO, TV3 and TG4 on the Irish Sky system in perfect clarity.

Going to cost a bit either way, it seems, but those are your options.

Ulsterman 1690

Option 4 Free to View satellite -Like "Freesat" but without Channels 4, 5 and (for now) UTV (although you do get ITV 2 and 3)

Option 5 In parts of Co Kildare it is possible to recieve the four main (analouge) UK channels for free via an aerial on your roof. The size/price of such an aerial would depend on where exactly you are although as Analouge TV is not going to be around forever it may not be a good long term option

djpaul

siucra33 wrote:

Hi
New girl here and desperatley need help.
I've moved down to a nice little cottage in Kildare lovely but can't get any channels expect the usual RTE1,2, TG4, TV3 etc. Obviously being the silly city female that I am! I have taken those terrible NTL people for granted, and cable tv doesn't seem so bad after all.
So what to do -- I have gone to a couple of local suppliers they all push SKYdigital at you but I don't really want 150 channels and a big bill. Also tried satelite Ireland but they don't cover Kildare anymore!
All I want is BBC1,Channel 4, E4,UTV, Discovery,MTV, anything else a bonus don't really mind.
My boyfriend seems to think you can buy a box or something where you just pay one fee and then you don't any bills after that -- is that true!! seem to good to be true.
Anyway would appreciate any advice beginning to go stir crazy with just the irish channels missing forensic detectives on discovery, plus the essential hangover TV from E4 and MTV.

Thx

S xx

Everything that doh and ulsterman said is spot on. welcome to the boards

Ozzie

You won't get MTV or E4, but BBC1,2,3,4, ITV1,2,3, Ch4, Sky News, some music and sports channels. You should have RTE, TV3, TG4 crystal clear via ariel on roof.

If you have a friend in the UK they could get the card needed for £20stg. Get a basic satellite system. It costs nothing after that except for the licence fee of course! You will have no prob living without sky one, E4, etc...

Gadgie

Ozzie wrote:

You won't get MTV or E4

Solution: Just buy some Osbournes, Jackass, Dirty Sanchez, Friends, OC and One Tree Hill DVDs and watch ad nauseum to simulate the effect of having these channels.

jimbob

Don't mind Doh.ie

Chorus is what you want. Their digital mmds is fine.
You will get all the channels you want.
check this link out for the channels.

http://www.chorus.ie/tv_digital.html
Their number is on the link aswell.

All the extra BBC channels are already on their guide, unlike Sky where you have to put them in other channels, which is very annoying.

Chorus is better than normal cable and you will have utv and channel 4 unlike any other option.

Fair enough Sky is a better system if you are willing to lose channel 4 and utv.

If you want E4 no point in gettin freesat.

Not sure if they are in Kildare though. If they are not, NTL probably are with mmds. They also have a good mmds service with all the channels you will need.

I have chorus didital and its fine. There is nothing wrong with it.

Tony

so all the complaints about chorus are unfounded?

You are either joking or misinformed

jimbob wrote:

Don't mind Doh.ie

Chorus is what you want. Their digital mmds is fine.
You will get all the channels you want.
check this link out for the channels.

http://www.chorus.ie/tv_digital.html
Their number is on the link aswell.

All the extra BBC channels are already on their guide, unlike Sky where you have to put them in other channels, which is very annoying.

Chorus is better than normal cable and you will have utv and channel 4 unlike any other option.

Fair enough Sky is a better system if you are willing to lose channel 4 and utv.

If you want E4 no point in gettin freesat.

Not sure if they are in Kildare though. If they are not, NTL probably are with mmds. They also have a good mmds service with all the channels you will need.

I have chorus didital and its fine. There is nothing wrong with it.

duridian

Tony wrote:

so all the complaints about chorus are unfounded?

You are either joking or misinformed

...or else he's got shares in the company

Tony

jimbob wrote:

D

Chorus is better than normal cable and you will have utv and channel 4 unlike any other option.

.

getting a FTV card is an option that gives you channel 4 and ITV

Colm80

jimbob wrote:

All the extra BBC channels are already on their guide, unlike Sky where you have to put them in other channels, which is very annoying.

I have to Disagree its not that annoying going into other channels. You have to select 3 numbers on most digi boxs to get the channel you want. So going into services than other channels and select the channel you want only takes 3 moves.

Aquos76

Colm80 wrote:

I have to Disagree its not that annoying going into other channels. You have to select 3 numbers on most digi boxs to get the channel you want. So going into services than other channels and select the channel you want only takes 3 moves.

So what do you use for a tv guide for your other channels so. I personally think its a pain having to go in there also, but only for this reason. I accept what you are saying about 3 moves though.

Colm80

As the extra BBC channels are not on the epg in ireland i think its good to be able to access them this way. If the other channels feature was not there i would totaly agree with both of you. As that feature is there its no big deal selecting a channel this way. Also dont forget these channels are FTA on sky there not on cable. You do need a sub to get them. As for the lack of tv guide on these channels you do get now and next. Its better that nothing at all. Its only a matter of time before these channels end up on the epg.

byte

And of course, if she opts for the "Freesat" option with UK Free-to-view card, the other channels will be listed on teh EPG, not via Other Channels.

Am I to assume Digital MMDS is available in Kildare then?

doh.ie

jimbob wrote:

Don't mind Doh.ie

Chorus is what you want. Their digital mmds is fine.

I have chorus didital and its fine. There is nothing wrong with it.

I must be much fussier when it comes to picture/sound quality, reliability and Customer Service.

I've seen Chorus working (admittedly not in Kildare, but it demonstrated the service), and it was atrocious compared to Sky.

Siucra should see it working before she makes a decision.

With Sky or Freesat, though, rest assured it will be picture perfect.

DMC

If you save like I do, BBC News 24, to the top of the Other Channels list... it is also is 3 buttons.... so extra keystrokes I don't think is a valid excuse.

(Key presses are: Services, 6 (or 8 on Sky+) and Select.

recipio

Hi all,
I'm begging for some technical help from all the boffins on here. I'm in Nenagh Co. Tipperary. I have chorus on my main t.v with a sagem box and a second t.v on a jerrold box. I recently bought a Sony rdr gxd500 dvd recorder to replace a completely unreliable Yamaha recorder.
The problem is on connecting up with the input/output leads and a scart lead I get absolutely nothing on the t.v. The autotune detects no stations at all. nothing will record.The Yamaha at least recorded with these connections before giving up.
Now , contact chorus I hear you say but they can't offer any explanation and my local t.v. shop has disappeared.
Ive also treated myself to a Sony lcd t.v. ( bought off e-bay , yet to arrive )

Ive no problem keeping the main chorus box although it's a little pricey with main and sports channels . Ideally I'd like a once off setop box like freeview just for the second t.v.The bbc's and itv+ c4 are a must.
Can anybody help sort out this mess !!

thanks

recipio

watty

You can buy a FTA only Satellite system and add or delete whichever channels you want. All the BBC, ITV3 and some other good channels.

Unlike Chorus/ NTL, if you sub to Sky you actually own all the gear from day one.

If you cancel at the end of the minimum period you still get all the free channels (22 BBC, 70 Radio, ITV3, Sky News, CNN, Euronews etc). Reconnection even just for Christmas is a phone call and 5minutes later the Pay channels are reactivated.

With NTL/Chorus you have NOTHING if you cancel.

If you go the www.satellite.ie or similar route with a 90 Euro motor,, then you get the Free channels on "Sky" and also various European MTVsw and pop video channels (About 600 free TV and 600 free Radio).

Various installers are available throuout the country.

Digital MMDS can be good but often is so poorly engineered as to give blocky pictures, freezing or loss of picture.

Forget Analog MMDS. It is dreadful.


BBC on Satellite is DVD Quality. ITV3 uses aproximately SVCD quality. My VHS is better than Analog MMDS and much better than ANY analog cable I have seen .....

recipio

Thanks Watty
looks like I may replace chorus entirely with a FTA system.
I'll mull over all the options .