Anyone in the ROI with an OnDigital Box?

LegacyUser

Self explanatory subject!

Does anyone know of anyone having one? What is reception like, and is it only good around border regions?

Regards,

Damien.

LegacyUser

Tried it in Athlone - didn't work. I have heard that people in Wexford can get DTT from Wales with one however.

LegacyUser

Only reason I ask is that I wonder could anyone get a second hand one, like in Buy and Sell. Not too many in the ROI edition, would there be lots of them in the NI edition, Richard?

LegacyUser

I've tried it in Dun Laoghaire - doesn't work

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by DamoDMC:
Only reason I ask is that I wonder could anyone get a second hand one, like in Buy and Sell. Not too many in the ROI edition, would there be lots of them in the NI edition, Richard?</font>

The problem is that you can only sell a second hand OnD box if you own it - and most people don't - they rent it from OnD (for free) but have to give it back if they stop subscribing. You can buy an OnD box sans subscription for about £200-£300 but it it is notoriously difficult to get one. I own mine - but it ain't for sale - sorry. I got mine before the offer was introduced - for £220 as long as I subscribed for a year.

Acording to http://www.wolfbane.com/articles/ukdcmap2.htm you should be able to get DTT in parts of ROI, but it is difficult - you'd need a good aerial.

AS for buy and sell - http://www1.buyandsell.net/classifieds/index-2.php?mfcisapicommand=sear ch&Query=ondigital&Location=0-15 gives two people who want to buy boxes but nobody is selling - one person is in Tandragee - the other is in ROI somewhere!


[This message has been edited by Richard (edited 09-07-2001).]

LegacyUser

[This message has been edited by Richard (edited 09-07-2001).]

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"> Originally posted by Richard:
Acording to http://www.wolfbane.com/articles/ukdcmap2.htm you should be able to get DTT in parts of ROI, but it is difficult - you'd need a good aerial. </font>

From that map, I'm on the fringe, just about in red. And the aerial is decent enough. Looks like I might have better luck if I go to my sisters

What is the NI equivalent of Buy and Sell called?

Thanks Richard.



[This message has been edited by DamoDMC (edited 11-07-2001).]

LegacyUser

From reading various articles a transmitters' coverage area is said to be the same for both analogue terrestial and DTT if the DTT signal is transmitting about 20db lower than the analogue channels i.e. 1/100th of the power. In this case, Divis should have it's multiplexes on 5Kw each, with both Limavady and Brougher on 1Kw each.

Some of the Divis Multiplexes (BBC, ITV/C4, A & are transmitting on a power of 3.7Kw while the other two are at just 1.7Kw and 800W each.

Both Limavady & Brougher transmit less power than the recommended - Limavady transmit all its multiplexes at 800W each while Brougher's is even less at just 500w each. This probably explains why it cannot be received in Athlone, or any of the fringe analogue reception areas in the south. This might change in the future if the UK government allow the transmitters to be higher powered, but it will be the big transmitters like Crystal Palace and Sutton Coldfield that will be boosted first.

Most of the DTT boxes available need a signal strength of around 40dbv to give a picture, with 45dbv recommended to give a clear picture and allow for fluctuations. But this seems to vary from box to box and more sensitive boxes are in the pipeline. The most sensitive box I've heard are Phillips, but I haven't seen one in action and I don't know anyone with one (I'm not involved with the TV trade.)

Also the UK and Irish DTT formats are incompatible as the UK system uses 2K while the Irish system will use 8K, making an OnDigital box useless for the test transmissions from Three Rock. Does anyone know what differences there are between these two formats? I do know that Thompson are to make a receiver with a chipset that will cope with both these formats, so there's hope!

---

*** I could have been you if I wanted to..... but I never got the time! ***

[This message has been edited by Northern Correspondent (edited 12-07-2001).]

LegacyUser

My parents are just across the other side of Lough Foyle where Limavady can be picked up readily, but with ghosts.

I've just bought an OnDigital box on eBay so the box will be brought to Donegal to try it out.

Con may have some news on the RTÉ front in a week or so (but maybe not)

LegacyUser

Just looking at Loot.com, there seems to be quite a lot of them there.....

Hmmmmm.

LegacyUser

Hi Folks

Please don't hold me to this, but i have been told that most of the UK STBs can handle both the 2k and 8k COFDM formats, the exceptions being the Nokias and early versions of the Philips.



[This message has been edited by Roxof (edited 13-07-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Roxof (edited 13-07-2001).]

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Roxof:
Hi Folks

Please don't hold me to this, but i have been told that most of the UK STBs can handle both the 2k and 8k COFDM formats, the exceptions being the Nokias and early versions of the Philips.



</font>

Heard that today myself looking at a newsgroup. It's amazing what you can learn!

Still doesn't hide the fact that it won't help reception issues of UK DTT in the Republic though. My guess is that transmission powers will improve, but not for some years yet

---

*** I could have been you if I wanted to..... but I never got the time! ***

LegacyUser

Hi , a bit late to this topic ,
but I am using a prepaid ondigital box in North Wexford .The analog reception from presely pembrokeshire is excelent most of the time. The box receives up to 57 channels at best ( about 7 days out of ten!) but even on days when signal is lower it will receive up to 30. of course I can only watch the ones I opted for, plus fta.
I have had this for two months now and am happy- had no problems from ondigital when I said i was in ROI !!!

LegacyUser

Now that is good news, a signal like that can travel 50+ miles if there are no hills in the way. My sister's house is looking good

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by madman:
I am using a prepaid ondigital box in North Wexford .The analog reception from presely pembrokeshire is excelent most of the time. The box receives up to 57 channels at best ( about 7 days out of ten!) but even on days when signal is lower it will receive up to 30. of course I can only watch the ones I opted for, plus fta.
I have had this for two months now and am happy- had no problems from ondigital when I said i was in ROI !!!</font>

That is amazing according to my info Multiplex 1 (BBC) and Multiplex 2 (Digital 3&4) are broadcasting at only 0.5 kW ERP and the other 4 at 1kW. I presume you have problems with the lower power muxs when the signal is lower? Imagine what DTT in ireland will be like with powers of 50kW ERP: indoor reception for the majority of people.

Could you please post more details about your setup as I'm moving to south Wicklow in the near future and will try to replicate.

---

Looking for the Digital future

http://www.geocities.com/gerryh123

LegacyUser

Hi cablesceptic ,
I am using a group b aerial on a bungalo,and this is on a 30 feet mast to get above trees at the front of the house.Cutting down the trees was not an option.
Most of County Wexford will get a good signal from Presely with just a grid aerial.
But as you move inland it obviously does depend on any higher ground between you the direction you're pointing.
The north of the county also is sheltered by a lot of hills to its north west- this prevents co channell from Cairn hill in Longford.
there are vilages on higher ground tan me where they joke that they can pick up that presely transmitter with a pliers stuck to the back of the tv!... not quite though but almost.

Now heres the problem as you head into co Wicklow , for some reason Cairn hill gets through causing Waving pictures on Presely and when this happens this quite literally waves goodbye to any digital channels , unfortunately.
There is also a lot of high ground near the coast north of Arklow which will also cause presely to be quite low although if you travel north on the n11 from Arklow , you will see quite a few who have horizontal group b's or grids who are lucky enough to be pointing out to sea and who must be getting good presely.
Around Arklow ( about 5 miles from me) perfect pictures are being got from the very low power Arfon relay which is unfortunately not digital, presely there is cut down badly by two hills right on the coast and heavy co channell from cairn hill.
So all I can say to you is that its a hit and miss affair depending on your location in which you could be lucky.
hope that helps
mm

LegacyUser

Cableskeptic,
Just to let you know , when presely's signal is low, yes I do lose some channells , and important ones at that like english channell four,bbc1+2 and news 24 as well as e4.
Mtv is less affected as is Granada plus and Brittish Eurosport.
I never seem to lose BBC knowledge or S4C which probably means if i watched them enough , I'd probably be able to communicate with the Birds in Welsh...! ( not the human ones)
Location is very important though as preselys signal does vary quite a bit , but luckilly here we are not affected that much.
mm

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by madman:
Cableskeptic,
Just to let you know , when presely's signal is low, yes I do lose some channells , and important ones at that like english channell four,bbc1+2 and news 24 as well as e4.
</font>

Well, the BBC Channels apart from Knowledge are all on the same MUX (i.e. frequency)

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
Mtv is less affected as is Granada plus and Brittish Eurosport.
</font>

I'm not sure what MUX(s) these are on now.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
I never seem to lose BBC knowledge or S4C which probably means if i watched them enough , I'd probably be able to communicate with the Birds in Welsh...! </font>

These are both on the SDN MUX (MUX A)

LegacyUser

Thanks Madman for the very useful info.

Can't wait to get up there and do some testing. From what you say I should move to North Wexford rather than South Wicklow?

LegacyUser

Firstly thanks Richard for the mux info,
I am not a techie when it comes to all this stuff-just very interested.
Today I have a day off as I've had to go to my Brothers house to help the aerial guy there switch him back fro Presely to Arfon-he's in Arklow where presely is Bad enough, but quite good today actually- was testing the on-dig box there.
While we were moving around twin grou b's we got good signals from a lot of Welsh transmitters .
I notice from Richard Logues site ( is that you or another?) what channell numbers Mount Leinster, Kippure, and 3 Rock will be doing digiital
Same ones as Arfon , so bye bye Welsh channels in co Wicklow when theses start at 50kw???
surely , if I can receive mirror like pictures from a 3.5 kw relay in north Wales
then 50 kw signals should have no difficulty going the other way ie interfering with peoples pictures in West and North Wales? are rte mad??
I know for a fact. that they spent thousands of pounds installing a low power relay for themselves in Greystones, North Wicklow and guess what happened , it was a waste of money as its got unbelievable co channel from Wales.
Is there a plot here to eventually make it very difficult to get anything from the UK on an aerial??
Cable skeptic , you will have fun when you move down here , but not for lon if Montrose get their way!
mm

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by madman:
While we were moving around twin grou b's we got good signals from a lot of Welsh transmitters .
Same ones as Arfon , so bye bye Welsh channels in co Wicklow when theses start at 50kw???
surely , if I can receive mirror like pictures from a 3.5 kw relay in north Wales
then 50 kw signals should have no difficulty going the other way ie interfering with peoples pictures in West and North Wales? are rte mad??
Is there a plot here to eventually make it very difficult to get anything from the UK on an aerial??
Cable skeptic , you will have fun when you move down here , but not for lon if Montrose get their way!
mm</font>

The point about the high powers is to ensure 'portable' grade recption for the max number of people and therefore the majority of people will not have to mess around with outdoor antennas (less fun I know).

All these powers have been agreed between Ireland and the UK so there is no conspiracy to make things more difficult (just the opposite actually).

---

Looking for the Digital future

http://www.geocities.com/gerryh123

LegacyUser

I agree with you cableskeptic,I suppose it has to be the case as the plan has always been to switch off analog altogether , and I suppose I could get used to the idea that I only need an indoor aerial...
I wonder if we're all still around when that happens will ITV digital increase power to the same amount ??? so We will by default have a choice, instead of the new Irish platform?
I quite like the digital text on HTV wales , its got more on, than the bbc version.
If we have to wait 2-3 yrs for an irih dtt , how long b4 rte tries out digital text? - oh if I could wave a wand and speed things up a bit!!!
Had a good day by the way playing with the aerials, armed with map,compass,the ondigital box and a print from the bbc engineering site. Tried a very long group A up there aswell , which brought in A watchable carlton westcountry ( caradon hill in Cornwall) but weak. That aerial brought in a strong signal from Blaenplyf (near Cardigan Bay- about 50mls due east of here)This was strong enough bring in most of the ITV digital channels.
Incidently my bro got a sky digibox and bbc card for IrP300 on the qxl.com site which is working great and has channell four and five.
( takes the fun out of this though)
Also For richards Info , Channell 5 is hardly ever lost on the ondig box either.
me too looking foward to the digital future
mm

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by madman:
Cableskeptic,
Just to let you know , when presely's signal is low, yes I do lose some channells , and important ones at that like english channell four,bbc1+2 and news 24 as well as e4.
Mtv is less affected as is Granada plus and Brittish Eurosport.
I never seem to lose BBC knowledge or S4C which probably means if i watched them enough , I'd probably be able to communicate with the Birds in Welsh...! ( not the human ones)
</font>

The channels you are losing are all on the lower powered muxes. No suprise there.

LegacyUser

Cableskeptic,
U might be interested to know, that if you bring your mobile onto a beach in wicklow/Wexford and ask it to search for other operators, it will find most of the UK mobiles( BT,Vodafone, one2one etc)direct from wales ,similar power or lower than ITV digital?
I was able to "roam" on BT cellnet!
mm