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Saorview Connect

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  • #872
    Gerry Wicklow
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,574 ✭✭✭Gerry Wicklow


    Tigerandahalf wrote: »
    Folks is there a lot involved in getting these enigma type boxes set up with series link for satellite.
    A link to steps involved would be great.
    PM sent


  • #873
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 95,415 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    galtee boy wrote: »
    By the way, seeing as information about Saorview Connect is up there with the third secret of Fatima,
    Third Secret was revealed a while back ;)
    Tigerandahalf wrote: »
    It says there that Now/Next only on satellite.

    It also says connection to external hard drive not available til mid 2018 (with software update)
    The original Freesat HD box from 2008 uses an internal drive, but you can export recordings to an external drive , (note HD recordings are encrypted by default)
    donegal. wrote: »
    only now and next on freesat is very disappointing
    But not at all unexpected given how jealously the rights holders behave. BBC and ITN are behind Freesat. And there's the whole UK TV licence thing.
    Gerry Wicklow wrote: »
    If it's only now/next then it probably won't have any form of autotuning either making it a glorified combo box with closed firmware. You'd get a better enigma box with more functionality for a lot less.
    The Humax Foxsat HDR with add on software is the opposite. You get full Freesat EPG and series link and if you setup Saorsat you also get RTE's and TG4 on now/next but doesn't always let you use both tuners on Freesat because it's a bodge. You don't get TV3/3e/Be3 but since you can get most of their programming in HD on Freesat there isn't a lot missing.

    The only ways to get a combined Irish and UK EPG are to pay SKY/Virgin/Eir/Vodafone etc a small fortune over the years
    or roll your own using a Linux box


  • #874
    dublinman1990
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,975 ✭✭✭dublinman1990


    I have some questions about Saorview Connect!

    What are the rules for this box from Saorview when it is rolled out for sale in electrical shops?

    Will it be compulsory for current users of Saorview to update or replace their equipment to use the new Connect service?

    Will they rollout firmware updates for their current TV's to include Saorview Connect at a later date?

    Is there any news from Saorview about their current range of boxes being unsupported in the near future because of Saorview Connect being rolled out from their current manufacturers?

    I only bought a new Saorview approved Smart TV last Easter. I also have the Triax combi-box for about 5 years now.

    I don't want the hassle of paying for another box to put onto the TV just to receive Saorview.


  • #875
    tsue921i8wljb3
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,013 ✭✭✭tsue921i8wljb3


    dublinman1990 wrote: »
    I have some questions about Saorview Connect!

    What are the rules for this box from Saorview when it is rolled out for sale in electrical shops?

    Will it be compulsory for current users of Saorview to update or replace their equipment to use the new Connect service?

    Will they rollout firmware updates for their current TV's to include Saorview Connect at a later date?

    Is there any news from Saorview about their current range of boxes being unsupported in the near future because of Saorview Connect being rolled out from their current manufacturers?

    I only bought a new Saorview approved Smart TV last Easter. I also have the Triax combi-box for about 5 years now.

    I don't want the hassle of paying for another box to put onto the TV just to receive Saorview.

    No way will anyone be forced to update to receive Saorview. Your current equipment should work long into the future. I doubt that older boxes and TVs could be firmware updated with the connect functionality. I am basing this on the Freesat service where if you wanted the latest features you had to buy the G2 boxes (HDR-1000s etc).


  • #876
    FRIENDO
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,417 ✭✭✭FRIENDO


    I wonder how it will work with Saorsat?


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  • #877
    corm500
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 870 ✭✭✭corm500


    My optimism was misplaced about this box. It's a disaster. Not only no combined epg but no satellite epg at all. Not only no hard drive, you can't even add an external hard drive until next year. Releasing this box without the ability to record is crazy to say the least.


  • #878
    Johnboy1951
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,924 ✭✭✭✭Johnboy1951


    corm500 wrote: »
    My optimism was misplaced about this box. It's a disaster. Not only no combined epg but no satellite epg at all. Not only no hard drive, you can't even add an external hard drive until next year. Releasing this box without the ability to record is crazy to say the least.

    What is crazy is that they think this is worth manufacturing! :eek:


  • #879
    Tigerandahalf
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,820 ✭✭✭Tigerandahalf


    corm500 wrote: »
    My optimism was misplaced about this box. It's a disaster. Not only no combined epg but no satellite epg at all. Not only no hard drive, you can't even add an external hard drive until next year. Releasing this box without the ability to record is crazy to say the least.

    You also won't be able to timeshift (pause, rewind). How they are releasing it without that functionality will kill any hopes of early sales.

    I can't see sellers looking for big stocks.


  • #880
    JDxtra
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,063 ✭✭✭JDxtra


    Worth waiting for. Lol.


  • #881
    lertsnim
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,946 ✭✭✭lertsnim


    They're off their rockers to not have a HDD included for starters and €199 is an absolute piss take.


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  • #882
    postsnthing
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 313 ✭✭postsnthing


    Gerry Wicklow wrote:
    PM sent


    Could I also get those details please Gerry, thanks


  • #883
    galtee boy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,522 ✭✭✭galtee boy


    Sweet Jesus, it's taken three years to produce a box that can't record, series link, no combined Epg, never mind a 7 day satellite Epg and then charge €199 for it, it could only happen in Ireland. And people wonder why pay TV platforms are so popular.


  • #884
    The Cush
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,131 ✭✭✭✭The Cush


    Just caught up with this, they've moved from one importer, Walker, for the previous disaster to another importer, Shomar, for this disaster.

    These sum it up from the posts so far and we haven't even got hand on yet
    useless for a modern STB
    very disappointing
    a complete wasted opportunity
    dead duck I am afraid
    such a shame
    it is a load of junk
    optimism was misplaced about this box
    It's a disaster
    What is crazy is that they think this is worth manufacturing
    Worth waiting for. Lol.
    absolute piss take
    Sweet Jesus

    Dear God, no internal HDD but we might be able to add an external one next year.

    Humax launched their latest Freeview Play recorder this week, the FVP-5000T, with 3 tuners, enabling viewers to record four channels whilst watching a fifth ‘live’ and 3 HDD options (500GB, 1TB and 2TB).


  • #885
    Sam Russell
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 20,421 Mod ✭✭✭✭Sam Russell


    galtee boy wrote: »
    Sweet Jesus, it's taken three years to produce a box that can't record, series link, no combined Epg, never mind a 7 day satellite Epg and then charge €199 for it, it could only happen in Ireland. And people wonder why pay TV platforms are so popular.

    I recently bought a 43 inch LG tv with Saorview and satellite from Arnotts for €299 that includes USB recording. Why would anyone pay €199 for not even that functionality and without the TV?

    Madness by Saorview.


  • #886
    Atlantic Dawn
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 86,398 ✭✭✭✭Atlantic Dawn
    GDY151


    Sam Russell wrote: »
    I recently bought a 43 inch LG tv with Saorview and satellite from Arnotts for €299 that includes USB recording. Why would anyone pay €199 for not even that functionality and without the TV?

    Madness by Saorview.

    I suppose RTE losing €50k a day would focus their mind in to projects that would make them money :pac:


  • #887
    Harry Palmr
    Closed Accounts Posts: 40,059 ✭✭✭✭Harry Palmr


    You can certainly tell a semi-state body was behind this.


  • #888
    dublinman1990
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,975 ✭✭✭dublinman1990


    This is pathetic from Saorview providing a piece of junk like this box for sale with Saorview Connect. It's an awful waste of money for €199. Now imagine if you had to pay that money along with your renewed TV licence for €160 if that was the only option available for Saorview Connect. There would be serious uproar from consumers who initially had to pay nearly €360 to use that new box for the first time that can't even give you the recording functionality until the middle of next year.

    It is just disgraceful & deceitful marketing from the likes of Saorview not to give the recording functionality to consumers from when it will be first sold in electrical shops. I would be really surprised if there were any early adopter sales for this heap of thrash. I wouldn't pay money for it until the recording options came with it first. But also if there were manufacturers available providing cheaper boxes & has a higher quality spec available; I will buy one of those boxes instead of this one.

    This first Saorview Connect box going to be eventually sold here is a joke & I for one won't be buying it. Don't forget though that is only the first box under the brand to be available to be sold on the Irish market. If other boxes under this brand had suffered the same problem of no recordings provided for consumers until the middle of next year. Well then Saorview Connect will tank from day one from the 1st day of sale in the Republic. You can mark my words on that one.


  • #889
    Gerry Wicklow
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,574 ✭✭✭Gerry Wicklow


    Harry Palmr wrote: »
    You can certainly tell a semi-state body was behind this.
    How many of our millions have RTÉ wasted on this 3 legged horse?


  • #890
    Johnboy1951
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,924 ✭✭✭✭Johnboy1951


    dublinman1990 wrote: »
    This is pathetic from Saorview providing a piece of junk like this box for sale with Saorview Connect. It's an awful waste of money for €199. Now imagine if you had to pay that money along with your renewed TV licence for €160 if that was the only option available for Saorview Connect. There would be serious uproar from consumers who initially had to pay nearly €360 to use that new box for the first time that can't even give you the recording functionality until the middle of next year.

    It is just disgraceful & deceitful marketing from the likes of Saorview not to give the recording functionality to consumers from when it will be first sold in electrical shops. I would be really surprised if there were any early adopter sales for this heap of thrash. I wouldn't pay money for it until the recording options came with it first. But also if there were manufacturers available providing cheaper boxes & has a higher quality spec available; I will buy one of those boxes instead of this one.

    This first Saorview Connect box going to be eventually sold here is a joke & I for one won't be buying it. Don't forget though that is only the first box under the brand to be available to be sold on the Irish market. If other boxes under this brand had suffered the same problem of no recordings provided for consumers until the middle of next year. Well then Saorview Connect will tank from day one from the 1st day of sale in the Republic. You can mark my words on that one.

    With this box the 'brand' is all but ruined and it would take a huge leap in functionality to recover it with future releases.

    Makes you wonder ..... if this is the result of the three year wait, what has been going on ..... and what kind of feedback have they been receiving from their testers during that period?

    Hey folks ..... lets not forget the remote is reported to be good!
    :D


  • #891
    Thurston?
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,278 ✭✭✭Thurston?


    dublinman1990 wrote: »
    It is just disgraceful & deceitful marketing from the likes of Saorview not to give the recording functionality to consumers from when it will be first sold in electrical shops.

    I suggest you look up the meaning of the words 'deceitful' &, er, 'marketing'. Maybe 'disgraceful' too ...

    Where have you seen publicity for this box outside of the 'preview' posted in this thread?
    dublinman1990 wrote: »
    This first Saorview Connect box going to be eventually sold here is a joke & I for one won't be buying it. Don't forget though that is only the first box under the brand to be available to be sold on the Irish market. If other boxes under this brand ...

    Other boxes? Some chance ...


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  • #892
    Johnboy1951
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,924 ✭✭✭✭Johnboy1951


    I sit here and wonder why .......

    why they went down this road
    it seems so stupid

    ***

    Are their new services going to be limited to their own STB?

    If yes, why?
    What advantage would they gain from that?


  • #893
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 95,415 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Gerry Wicklow wrote: »
    How many of our millions have RTÉ wasted on this 3 legged horse?
    Hopefully they outsourced it completely on a % of the profits basis :D

    None of the hardware needs to be new. None of the back end software needs to be new. It should all be off the shelf with a small amount of software localisation.

    https://ukfree.tv/article/1107052206/Satellite_TV_operators_FRANSAT_TIVUSAT_and_our_Fr
    Three leading European free-to-air satellite TV operators - Fransat (France), Freesat (UK), and Tivùsat (Italy) - have come together to form the FreeTV Alliance.
    ... to make it easier and more economical for manufacturers to develop innovative new products and to assist broadcasters and content providers to deploy advanced hybrid TV services combining satellite reception and IP based interactivity.

    Johnboy1951 wrote: »
    Hey folks ..... lets not forget the remote is reported to be good!
    :D
    I've got Humax and Ferguson and Edison and OneForAll remotes that can all control control satellite box and TV. And besides if they and the TV maker implement CEC properly you could use your TV's remote to control the box. Also it's got an App. My ancient Foxsat HDR has web management, which can be handy as given it's age the remote can be slow, and of course the Edision does.


  • #894
    Sam Russell
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 20,421 Mod ✭✭✭✭Sam Russell


    They have history on this.

    Remember the fuss about getting Saorview approval for sets - they had to be sent to a Swedish lab along with a fat cheque.

    Remember the series link that used to work on boxes like the Humax PVR that suddenly stopped working?

    Remember the sudden pollution of the Saorview signal that suddenly acquired 35 blank channel headers that confused non-Saorview approved sets? Or the positioning of an SSU channel at position one on each mux that could not be shifted (on my TV) so position one on the channel list was blocked?

    Remember Saorview has no commercial interest in the exploitation of Saorview?

    Yeah. We all remember. We will not forget Saorview Connect, along with Betamax, Videodiscs, and other technology 'successes'.


  • #895
    Johnboy1951
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,924 ✭✭✭✭Johnboy1951


    There are plenty 'off the shelf' components and pre-built boxes available, and sufficient choices on software also ..... mostly open source ..... to allow an organisation to produce an STB with very good specs at less that this connect box.
    OK they would need to do a bit of work to ensure they got their branding right as well as stability etc. The usual stuff and not difficult.

    Their other services (the connect part) could then be incorporated into it ....... and put the protections of the content where they have control - at the server end and the software that accesses it.

    If I could use an add-on for Kodi that required my name, address and eircode (for example), to access the catch-up service I would have no problem with that requirement.


    Really I would ask why they did not spec the box correctly and use open source software with Kodi or other front end and provide their own add-on for their services.
    Selling such a box with their own branded skin on Kodi (or other) is easily done.

    So the question is ........ what are they attempting to do?
    Are they trying to gain viewers?
    Are they trying to provide their service in as easily accessible way possible?
    Do they think they can make money from this present crap?

    I cannot figure out what might be the thought process that led to this release.


  • #896
    STB.
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,380 ✭✭✭STB.


    The Cush wrote: »
    Just caught up with this, they've moved from one importer, Walker, for the previous disaster to another importer, Shomar, for this disaster. Dear God, no internal HDD but we might be able to add an external one next year.

    Humax launched their latest Freeview Play recorder this week, the FVP-5000T, with 3 tuners, enabling viewers to record four channels whilst watching a fifth ‘live’ and 3 HDD options (500GB, 1TB and 2TB).

    Whilst they have moved away from Vestel, they havent moved away from ALi. The priceline with this cheap as chips, m3733 chipset is way off.

    EKT have their own UI. Its called SolidTV. The middleware according to the pics seems to be something else, probably the Freetime element from the UK.

    They have a 512MB Nand flash in this box which make me wonder what the OS is. Probably Linux.

    USB recording not implemented by default marks problems from the get go.

    The config for the EKT 7025 says that there only 2 single tuners anyway so recording will be limited.

    The description leads me to believe that the DVB-S2 tuner is a FTA plug and play NIMM which will just grab the Now/Next data as you enter each satellite channel. It also means you'll have to retune when the stations move around.

    https://ekt-pim.s3.amazonaws.com/specsheets/specsheet_dxd7025.pdf

    Yet there were so many off the shelf boxes out there with higher spec chips, HDD ready, with H265 codecs for Netflix, and at least 3 tuners etc.

    Another wasted opportunity. There must have been huge dev costs if the box is at that price point. I'll send a copy of Alan Sugars book into 2rn.


  • #897
    Gerry Wicklow
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,574 ✭✭✭Gerry Wicklow


    STB. wrote: »
    ... I'll send a copy of Alan Sugars book into 2rn.

    At those prices they can afford Sugar himself :D


  • #898
    Maysa07
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,285 ✭✭✭Maysa07


    Has the price of the box released yet? Where is everyone getting the €199 from?
    I know the price had to be decided between the manufacture and the retailer. Didn't know they released it yet.


  • #899
    Johnboy1951
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,924 ✭✭✭✭Johnboy1951


    Maysa07 wrote: »
    Has the price of the box released yet? Where is everyone getting the €199 from?
    I know the price had to be decided between the manufacture and the retailer. Didn't know they released it yet.

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=104832731&postcount=845


  • #900
    One_Of_Shanks
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,436 ✭✭✭One_Of_Shanks


    Sorry lads for a quick off topic question but figured someone here might be able to answer. My folks bought a sony bravia tv and it searches for channels via digital, aerial. But not picking up anything at all.
    Yet when they plug the same aerial into a saorview box it DOES find channels, so why cant the TV find them directly using the same aerial?
    Any ideas?


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  • #901
    STB.
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,380 ✭✭✭STB.


    Less sensitive tuner in the Sony. The aerial signal coming into that room must be borderline.

    Is there a manual tune option where you can pick the channel. There should be signalbars then underneath showing the signal quality.


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