Eir TV

You can’t record the Irish channels, with the exception of TG4, they instead make you use the catch up services. Tbs this is grand with rte as there are no ads on the rte player on Apple TV

I noticed the players for Irish to have improved recently as now you can watch live to on both the rate player and now the virgin player on atv. In the past it was very restricted but not now.

Thanks all for the responses, I think we’ll give it a go, it will reduce our monthly spend by about €50

An Apple TV itself will work fine on Wi-Fi. Unless the EirTV app has some way of enforcing that its wired that's likely just the recommended way to avoid issues with spotty Wi-Fi.

Have you tried it using WiFi? They may say it but not be able to enforce it.

I have the Apple TV box. Mine is connected to the Wi-Fi I don’t even remember getting instructions about doing it any other way.

This is from the email I received after ordering FTTH and the Apple TV service last week:

“Your eir TV operates over eir fibre broadband so your modem and TV need to be connected with a cable. The technician will discuss cable routing with you and will let you know if drilling is needed.”

Maybe they just haven’t updated their automatic emails, but as far as I remember the Apple TV replaced the old Eir Vision box we used to have years ago.

I use the AppleTV wirelessly, with no issue. When I had eir Fibre I could watch 4K services with no issues. I'm now in rural Ireland with ADSL and 4K can sometimes be a bit of a struggle, but still using WiFi.

AFAIK you need to be on the eir network to use your AppleTV with eir TV. Other apps for watching TV will work.

Why not use eir's Smart WiFi hub to extend WiFi to the room where the Apple TV box is? https://www.eir.ie/smartwifi/ - This is a mesh WiFi box that will work in tandem with the F3000 router. You can add more of them if you need to. If your issue is WiFi range, replacing the router with another router is unlikely to solve your problems. You need to consider a mesh system with either wireless or wired access points.

You can use any mesh devices (eg TP-Link Deco). You will need to colocate the first one beside your eir router and switch off the WiFi on the eir router. You will need N+1 devices vs N if you use the eir mesh devices. If your walls are that much of an obstruction, you should try to wire at least one of the mesh nodes back to your router. Changing to a different make of router is unlikely to solve your coverage without adding additional APs.

There is generally either a record or catch-up option for all channels - but you need to use different procedures depending on the channel. BBC do not licence iPlayer for use in Ireland, but they do allow recording - so you can do a series record to catch BBC programmes. The Irish channels do not allow recording, but quite a lot of their programmes are available on the Eir Catch-up service, which means you can start them from the programme guide if you missed them. Since the RTE Player, VM & TG4 players are also available on the Eir box, you can also use those for catch-up. The Channel 4 suite of channels tend to both allow recording and they also have an excellent player All4. The players are very convenient, and I only tend to use record for BBC because their player is not available. W appears to allow recording, but is not available on catch-up - so it is similar to BBC. (I don't know if they have a player?).

Most of these restrictions are not technical in nature, but result from the copyright rules for different content. They seem to become an issue when TV service providers move to next-gen cloud-based platforms such as Apple TV or Sky Glass. The other providers who are still using legacy boxes are likely to face the same restrictions when they upgrade to cloud-based platforms.

I think you will find Eir TV works very well for your requirements. The cloud recording has a number of advantages such as playback is possible on multi-room TV boxes or via the app on a phone/tablet. The cloud player always remembers when you stopped watching a recording and picks up where you left off. You can also do multi-room without paying any additional monthly fee if you "buy" additional Apple TV boxes. Eir don't advertise this feature as they probably make more revenue if you add them to your bundle. However, Eir sell as-new refurbed Apple TV boxes for €79.99 on the eir store website. These are very good value if you want to add extra rooms without increasing your bundle cost.

Just give yourself a little time to adjust to the user interface on the Apple TV. If your household is used to legacy TV boxes and remotes, Apple TV is more like a computer desktop experience.

I have the same query, as eirTV suits my needs well. My information, which is generally accurate, is that the IT systems need to be modified, to allow this.

I"ll post here if I get any further info.