Pace Digital Tv Adaptor

I am thinking of getting one of these from www.comet.co.uk through my relatives UK address as they won't send them out of the UK mainland!
I wonder will it work on my tv,i can pick up BBC 1&2,UTV and CH4 from my roof aerial as i live within the overflow of the signal from Brougher mountain,i live in Sligo!
Anyone have any opinions!

Mossy Monk

if you can receive DTT signals from the UK it will work

Ok,
this should be in the digital terrestial section and I hope you find my reply when either Damo or ronan move it!

Brougher mountains digital signals are very weak in comparison to some of it's GB counterparts-thats the first problem.
The second is that these signals travel better over the sea than land.
They are also much more sensitive to obstacles like hills and trees than their analog cousins.
My rule of thumb based on getting UK dtt is that your analog signals will have to be coming in at at least 70db before you will get DTT.You do need a masthead amp to bring the signal up to or above that level,but it might not do the job.

Your analog may look ok from Brougher but I am doubtfull if that will suffice.Get a good signal meter from a local aerial installer(preferably from someone that builds masts and has experience in working with fringe reception)
Theres some handy info, deep inside this thread:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29334

mm

icdg

ATTN: Thread moved to the Digital Terrestrial Forum.

watty

Talking to someone in Portadown, they can't get DTT.
The DTT is very low power. If you can get some picture of BBC with a setop aerial and no amplifier, than a DTT box connected to a mast or chimney aerial, possibly with a high quality preamp (booster) might work DTT.

I'd say that in Sligo you have no hope of picking up UK DTT.

MrPudding

In another life I sold this stuff in the North. The coverage was really bad. When we spoke to them about increases in coverage they were always very evasive and said coverage would improve but they could not give any details. I don't know what improvements have been made since then (it's been a while) but they would need to have been massive. I think it is probably unlikely that you would receive a viable signal

If i can receive a perfect terrestrial signal in Sligo,from Brougher mountain,then surely this annalogue to digital tv adaptor should work.My radio reception is perfect from there as well,i can receive Q101.2,the new station,as well.
I will admit that in some areas of Sligo,like the town itself and south of the county,there is no UK terrestrial tv/radio signal,so i guess here in Collooney we are lucky!

ShaneOC

Your best bet is to see if you can get it in Argos. If it doesn't work you can returnit for a full refund within two weeks.

MrPudding

Originally posted by zorro2566
If i can receive a perfect terrestrial signal in Sligo,from Brougher mountain,then surely this annalogue to digital tv adaptor should work.

It has been my experience that the quality of your analogue signal bears absolutly no relation to your ability to receive digital. In the north and in the UK in general you had to get a postcode check done to tell you whether or not you will be able to receive it. Some areas could receive all channels and some could only receive some channels. Your only option is as ShaneOC says... give it a go. But definatly get it from somewhere that will allow you to return it as you most probably will be returning it. When I was selling them we weren't allowed to sell them unless the punters postcode check showed that they could receive a signal. I don't know if this is still the case or if it is even required for the device you are looking at. Good luck anyway.

Originally posted by MrEnvy
It has been my experience that the quality of your analogue signal bears absolutly no relation to your ability to receive digital.

Not strictly correct.
The quality of your analog signal does have a bearing on whether you will get DTT or not, if the transmitter you are using for analog is also transmitting DTT.
Obviously in that case if you are getting very good quality analog from say brougher(70db's or more) then this will indicate that the DTT signal has a good chance of getting through.
The converse is definitely true,ie: if you have UK DTT from the transmitter,analog reception in the area will be perfect

However and obviously, the quality of your analog signal,no matter how good it is, will have no bearing on whether you get DTT or not if you are receiving your analog from a Relay or other non digital tx, as in that case you will have to look for ITV Digital from a tx that you don't normally use for analog, most probably because it's signal is not good in your area.If it's analog signal is no good,theres no hope of getting the low power ITV digital ones from it.

In the north and in the UK in general you had to get a postcode check done to tell you whether or not you will be able to receive it. Some areas could receive all channels and some could only receive some channels.

The postcode coverage was always downplayed in the UK as it was expected that people would have problems at such low powers and problems they did!
However it's not strictly true to say that"some areas could only receive some channels" as if you have the correct aerial and mast head amp you should receive all or none.
What I am saying there is basically, a middle of the road aerial might get you some muxes, but a better one would get them all, if you have any.So ITV digital put it's customers in the position that they would have to spend their own money to get their serviceat the start.
Later on in the game they offered £40 aerial upgrades....Now as someone who Knows the cost of a good aerial and whats needed for to bring in ITV digital on the fringe-they may as well have wasted their time with that one as it only helped in a minority of cases-more bad management!
This is the situation with the low powers and is a mess.
With ITV digital most people either hadn't a hope of getting it at all or those that did needed a good aerial and spend their own money to get a service.

Your only option is as ShaneOC says... give it a go. But definatly get it from somewhere that will allow you to return it as you most probably will be returning it. When I was selling them we weren't allowed to sell them unless the punters postcode check showed that they could receive a signal. I don't know if this is still the case or if it is even required for the device you are looking at.

I think desperation took hold and " A Sale is a Sale" became the motto in the last two years.I was told in Dixons that I could bring the box back if it didn't work.
I was registered and allowed to be a subscriber from the Republic of Ireland.Indeed the nice lady at their Customer care section in pembroke told me they had quite a few subscribers in ROI,Some in County Wicklow and Wexford(which is where I am)

Lastly that pace box might be suitable for the Irish Dtt service, if it supports their system-I don't know the answer to that.
But Shane is Right, if you can get it in Argos in NI with the possibility of money back, then maybe you should do that.
By the way this pace box should be just an over the counter sale as it has been developed as an independent DTT box designed in the main for the UK fta channels.
The box I got was the pre-pay on digital stb.
Good luck!
mm

MrPudding

Originally posted by madman


However and obviously, the quality of your analog signal,no matter how good it is, will have no bearing on whether you get DTT or not if you are receiving your analog from a Relay or other non digital tx, as in that case you will have to look for ITV Digital from a tx that you don't normally use for analog, most probably because it's signal is not good in your area.If it's analog signal is no good,theres no hope of getting the low power ITV digital ones from it.

This was my point exactly at one point only the transmitter in Divis was broadcasting DTT so it was very likely that you could have a fantastic analogue signal and no DTT.

Originally posted by madman


The postcode coverage was always downplayed in the UK as it was expected that people would have problems at such low powers and problems they did!
However it's not strictly true to say that"some areas could only receive some channels" as if you have the correct aerial and mast head amp you should receive all or none.

I'm afraid it is strictly true to say that some areas could only receive some channels. I did dozens of postcode checks for people and channel restriction due to location was a common occurance. At that time you had Menu A through F. A being full availability and F being the worst. I haven't checked for a while but if you know a few NI postcodes go to the website and try them out yourself. Remember this was supposed to be a plug and play solution. People didn't want to hear about Amps and mastheads. The aerial upgrade was offered from the start but even with this if you weren't in a menu A area you wouldn't get all the channels.

But in short I think the answer is, if you won't be out of pocket if it doesn't work, give it a go.

Originally posted by MrEnvy


I'm afraid it is strictly true to say that some areas could only receive some channels. I did dozens of postcode checks for people and channel restriction due to location was a common occurance. At that time you had Menu A through F. A being full availability and F being the worst. I haven't checked for a while but if you know a few NI postcodes go to the website and try them out yourself. Remember this was supposed to be a plug and play solution. People didn't want to hear about Amps and mastheads. The aerial upgrade was offered from the start but even with this if you weren't in a menu A area you wouldn't get all the channels.

But in short I think the answer is, if you won't be out of pocket if it doesn't work, give it a go.

I am just clarifying your points.In my post I said that the postcode coverage was downplayed ie deliberately underestimated,so as not to disappoint.

My point still holds regarding, the fact that if you receive one mux, you should get them all with the correct aerial and amp.
This is the mess that the low power DTT caused for ITV digital, in that it was only plug in and play without an outside aerial/amp in close proximity to the transmitter.
The whole DTT thing was set up in a ridiculously unworkable way in the UK, in that there were so many high power analog uhf tx's that dtt had to be kept low so as not to interfere.
Whole areas did not have channel numbers available for even low erp DTT,thereby compounding the problem.

By the way, the "menu A, B etc" area description was only invented to simplify how difficult it was to bring in the signal.
It indicates which are the easier muxes to get with the least equipment.

Getting back to Zorro's original question, he is receiving his signal from Brougher which albeit on very low power.So I think in his case it is important to point out that the quality of his analog reception from Brougher will have a bearing on whether DTT will be possible from his location or not.
mm

MrPudding

Did you actually have any dealings with them Madman? (I don't mean this as a challenge) They were not fun to talk to. Another of their problems was that their staff were, for the most part, clueless. This did not help with the service. A lot of people refused to sign up when they heard abouit the possibility of having to fork out an additional £40 for the aerial upgrade. They mostly thought it was a conn...there's no talking to some people.

Yeah, Mr Envy,
I dealt with them last year at their Pembroke customer care centre and was surprised that they wanted me as a customer-even in Wexford!
most people would have seen Sky digital as a simple connection Vs the problems and limited availability of ITV digital.
It was a non starter from the begining really as most would not have understood the Reception issues and like you say,took it as a con.
It was their death sentence from the start!
Yeah unfortunately Customer service are never any good with technical problems-Even at Sky( I'm being sent around in rings this last few weeks,with no credible answer from them as to why theres no series links for Sky one programmes on the ROI EPG, and yet they are there on the UK one!)

They are there to switch you on and after that , it's the run around as they know little technical and only say whats in front of them.
I had a fair idea what I was doing when I decided to try for UK DTT from Wales over here and luckily it worked.
I've no doubt that if I brought my aerial system over to GB I'd have no problems with muxes-but thats whats needed to get all muxes in many places.
Those in Carlton/Granada who thought it would work with such low power and with so many analog tx's around eating up the band, must have had several pints short of a barrel:rolleyes: or the whole barrel drank-more like:D
mm

NorthDown

Has anyone seen a PAce free to air box retailing in a shop here in Northern Ireland? Was at two famous national electrical retail chains at weekend who hadn't a clue when it would come, and a local retailer who is tied to exclusivity to SKY who tried telling me I would need to pay a monthly sub.
So are there any of the FTA Pace boxes about?

Well folks,i took the plunge and ordered it and it arrived last Friday.i was a bit worried i would'nt get a reception but i did,i can receive all the Uk terrestial channels on digital formatt,although CH 5 does break up a bit,the signal strength indicator runs from 40-49%,but i am quite happy.
I also bought a DAB radio and a roof aerial and i can pick up the 9 stations that are being broadcasted from Northern Ireland by Score Digital!

Charles Slane

Glad it worked out for you, Zorro.

DMC

What channels to Score Digital broadcast, Zorro?

Thats great news Zorro:)
I kind of knew from the way you were describing the analog reception you were getting from Brougher that digital would work.
Ch 5 by the way is on the strongest Presely mux so it rarely if ever goes down here in Wexford.

I am also curious regarding your DAB as I'm planning getting an FM aerial for my mast here. BBC radio signals are strong from Wales and unlike DTT, the switch on of DAB is progressing well:)
Is Brougher broadcasting DAB or are you getting your signals fromDivis near Belfast??
According to the BBC website only Divis are digital at the moment.
sounds like Brougher is too??(Is Brougher testing DAB?) as if you are getting DAB from Divis, way out in Sligo-that would auger very well for me receiving it from Wales! I'm confident that I will,considering how well DTT travels from there, plus they expect to have a lot more tx's converted by year end.
Must pop them a mail regarding Baenplywf, as this is very strong here.

As Damo asked what channels-especially commercial(non BBC) are you getting and whats the quality like?
Are there any text services??
mm

Yes i bought a Videologic DRX-601E DAB tuner from Curry's in Enniskillen with a 28 day return policy,so it was worth it to see if i could pick up a DAB signal in Sligo.I contacted Score Digital, who are the franchise holders for DAB in Northern Ireland and Scotland,and they assured me that if i could pick up the signal from Brougher then i would get a DAB signal.I had to get a roof aerial from Maplins (4 element ) and now i receive all that Score have to offer in NI.The BBC stations are not broadcast yet from Brougher and i am too far away from Divis to pick up a clear signal although my tuner did pick up the idents.

The stations i can receive are BBC Ulster,Cool FM,Downtown (which i love),Kiss FM,Q102.9FM,Prime Time Radio,CityBeat,
Classic FM, and 3C (country station).

Score told me that BBC will come to Brougher but it could be later this year or next year!

Hope this helps!

Thats interesting:)
am definitely going to get one now!
mm

NorthDown

Geting signals from Divis round Sligo isn't as preposterous as some might think. Holidayed there a couple of summers ago and was down again about 15 months ago. Road to Ceide Fields in Mayo I picked up 90.1MHz Radio2 with RDS. Coming about 4 -5 miles towards Sligo signal was lost but it can travel.

Mind you I've also found 96.0 Radio4 on the main road to Scots Corner in England - and Radio 4 is on lower power off Divis...

Did you mail order the PACE box and how lond did it take to arrive.
Might get one as won't get Sky Digi til RTE appear and that could be some time off...

Mark_irl

Anybody in Dublin using one of these or DAB Radio, just curious as I can pick up bbc utv etc on a small portable, so a roof top ariel might do it???

I ordered mine from www.comet.co.uk and i had it sent to my relatives address in Leicestershire as they would'nt post outside of the UK!From ordering to arriving at my door it took 10 days!

Regarding DAB i had to get a roof aerial and i got it installed so that it pointed towards Brougher and the signal is now 8/16 which is as good as perfect ,the stations are loud and clear and in stereo!

DMC

If I get good reports of DAB in North Meath/ South Cavan, and my other residence in Ashtown in Dublin, I will get a wavefinder!