Sagem IDT81-SD on Ebay

gooner99 · 15-12-2009 11:29AM #1

Hi,

Anyone buy a "sagem IDT81" box on ebay uk to pick up Irish DTV?
If so could you pm me the details of the shop you used and your experience with them and the box you received.

I found this one that ships to Ireland.Is it the correct receiver for the job?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SAGEM-PICNIC-FREEVIEW-DIGITAL-TV-SET-TOP-BOX-ITD81-SD_W0QQitemZ170420289388QQcategoryZ96964QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BIEW%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D11%26ps%3D63

Thanks,

Gooner

glineli · 15-12-2009 04:46PM

gooner99 wrote: »

Hi,

Anyone buy a "sagem IDT81" box on ebay uk to pick up Irish DTV?
If so could you pm me the details of the shop you used and your experience with them and the box you received.

I found this one that ships to Ireland.Is it the correct receiver for the job?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SAGEM-PICNIC-FREEVIEW-DIGITAL-TV-SET-TOP-BOX-ITD81-SD_W0QQitemZ170420289388QQcategoryZ96964QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BIEW%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D11%26ps%3D63

Thanks,

Gooner

These look like mpeg4 so i imagine they would. Anyone else know?

Sam Russell · 15-12-2009 06:06PM

It is the picnic box, but they have been returned to Ctrrys and so probably faulty. The box suffers from overheating. Beware. But they are cheap and do work, if clunky.

16-12-2009 12:20AM

I ordered one of these to see how it works. Since I'm just experimenting I can't really argue about the price.

John1000 · 21-12-2009 08:17PM

I got one these boxes. It picks up all the channels , has the 7 day epg
and digital teletext.

The problem with the receiver is that the picture randomly starts freezing and pixalating and the only way the fix it is to plug the receiver out and back in again. The picture may be ok for 5 mins or an hour, but it always turns out the same eventually.

21-12-2009 08:23PM

I got my box today too. It did do that pixelating/freezing bit on one occasion, just powered it off and back on with the remote to sort it - it only happened when I tried to exit the MHEG-5 Aertel. I also have the reverse order bug, where News Now is on 800 and RTÉ 1 is on 805.

Still, for about €25 I can't really complain. I'm happy enough with it for a test box.

John1000 · 21-12-2009 08:39PM

You can use the favourites menu to order the channels and have them
numbered as 1,2,3,4 etc... Then just change the default favourites list to B

glineli · 22-12-2009 02:27PM

Got mine today, works fine. Good tip on the favourites.

pa990 · 22-12-2009 02:43PM

have had no problem with my box,
I think the issues occur in areas without an excellent signal

Sam Russell · 22-12-2009 03:01PM

pa990 wrote: »

have had no problem with my box,
I think the issues occur in areas without an excellent signal

No, I have a very good signal, and I get the problems after the unit has been on for some time. It is like a heat problem. If it is not well ventilated, it fails. I have had no ptoblems since I put it away from the other boxes.

gooner99 · 23-12-2009 07:14PM

got my box Today from this seller on ebay.pictures great.dont have it long enough to comment on whether it freezes or not.will post my thoughts here when i've tested it a bit longer.

glineli · 27-12-2009 04:41PM

Sam Russell wrote: »

No, I have a very good signal, and I get the problems after the unit has been on for some time. It is like a heat problem. If it is not well ventilated, it fails. I have had no ptoblems since I put it away from the other boxes.

i had my one on for 12 hours on christmas day, no problem. i did notice a problem after the epg was left on, but for 25 quid, its a great bit of kit

TVDX · 28-12-2009 04:24PM

Indeed, have two of them and they are great for the price.
The only time I ever saw any kind of judder pictures was when the signal threshold was going below 42% with some BER.
When I changed the indoor aerial I used, this stopped happening as the signal stayed firmly at 43%.
The boxes have run for hours at a times since with no worries about that whatsoever.

gooner99 · 04-01-2010 04:34PM

have had the box on for over a week now.only problem i had with freezing was when i had my dvd player on and the box was on top of it.the heat from the dvd player caused the box to overheat.other than that i can say it does what it says on the tin for the money.can also give the thumbs up for the ebay seller,no problems there at all.will suffice until all formats are sorted and the price of hd combo boxes come down.

spongerobinson · 05-01-2010 04:01PM

anybody know anywhere else i can pick up one of these for cheap? the ebay seller above doesn't seem to have any listed anymore, and a search on ebay doesn't give me any results. thanks!

declans · 08-01-2010 03:47PM

spongerobinson wrote: »

anybody know anywhere else i can pick up one of these for cheap? the ebay seller above doesn't seem to have any listed anymore, and a search on ebay doesn't give me any results. thanks!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sagem-freeview-Receiver-Picnic-idt81-Digital-TV_W0QQitemZ290389287569QQcategoryZ96964QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BIEW%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D11%26ps%3D63

But he only ships to UK ! I got 4 sent to a relative and they forwarded on , They have not arrived yet so can comment on condition as they are used

JRH · 12-01-2010 07:41PM

They're back ....
http://cgi.ebay.ie/SAGEM-PICNIC-FREEVIEW-DIGITAL-TV-SET-TOP-BOX-ITD81-SD_W0QQitemZ380196554066QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_ConEle_SatCableFreeview_RL?hash=item58857b0552

CrowdedHouse · 18-01-2010 07:11PM

I got one this morning from that eBay seller.

I using it in the kitchen on a cheapo 'Playsonic(!)' 4:3 CRT

For 29 quid it seems fine,haven't noticed any freezing or spitting on the picture/audio.

As a test I left it on all day and was OK when I came home.

Couple of things I did notice compared to the mvision 200 - It seems to store the first transmitter it comes across whereas the mvision stores them all ( I can receive 4 different DTT tx where I am) even though the signal might be stronger on subsequent ones.

Signal strength meter shows Mahera at 45% - the mvision gives 78%

glineli · 19-01-2010 11:28AM

I had very bad reception from Maghera last night, 45% too, that was on my sagem box and also my 2 samsungs with inbuilt tuner

CrowdedHouse · 19-01-2010 07:07PM

glineli wrote: »

I had very bad reception from Maghera last night, 45% too, that was on my sagem box and also my 2 samsungs with inbuilt tuner

OT - and I notice picture is freezing from Mahera this evening

Dublindigi · 19-01-2010 10:59PM

[FONT=&quot]
Re: Sagem Picnic ITD 81 Freezing

I have found that when I changed a setup option i.e. disabling Network monitoring, the problem of freezing seems to have dissappeared

MENU > User Settings > User Preferences > Network Monitoring > select "NO"

[/FONT]

Martin_F · 19-01-2010 11:12PM

I got mine today from that seller on ebay.

First impressions are good for a cheap box to supplement my Freesat PVR.

I've seen brief pixelation/stutter on the odd occaision - but the picture is a massive improvement over the analogue picture I've had since new year.

glineli · 20-01-2010 10:13AM

I also get the message new channels found, on a regular basis. can this be turned off?

Otherwise all working fine, great for 20 quid

elsie1b · 23-01-2010 01:23PM

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

I got one this morning from that eBay seller.

I using it in the kitchen on a cheapo 'Playsonic(!)' 4:3 CRT

For 29 quid it seems fine,haven't noticed any freezing or spitting on the picture/audio.

As a test I left it on all day and was OK when I came home.

Couple of things I did notice compared to the mvision 200 - It seems to store the first transmitter it comes across whereas the mvision stores them all ( I can receive 4 different DTT tx where I am) even though the signal might be stronger on subsequent ones.

Signal strength meter shows Mahera at 45% - the mvision gives 78%

I live near Enniscorthy and receive Mount Leinster dtt.
In the past week I can receive RTENL on channel 52 and on one occasion channel 60.
What transmitter is this ?

MACHEAD · 23-01-2010 08:18PM

Got one yesterday, (£15.50 GBP) including postage from an Ebay seller.
Certainly looks clunky and retro looking, but seems to be working ok. Less pixelation and break up than I'd expect here (on UK channels). Unfortunately no irish DTT though, not even a flicker on Ch. 53. Ah well it was worth a try though.

spongerobinson · 01-02-2010 12:42PM

anyone having any trouble with their box no longer starting up? bought two....one is still working perfectly, but the second one won't load at all...lcd screen gets as far as 'init' and then goes blank and starts again, with the process repeating. No menu on screen or anything.

Anybody know a way of resetting the box? The only thing i can think of is it somehow thought it was receiving an update, and is after getting stuck on that.

Thanks.

slegs · 01-02-2010 01:00PM

MACHEAD wrote: »

Got one yesterday, (£15.50 GBP) including postage from an Ebay seller.
Certainly looks clunky and retro looking, but seems to be working ok. Less pixelation and break up than I'd expect here (on UK channels). Unfortunately no irish DTT though, not even a flicker on Ch. 53. Ah well it was worth a try though.

Have you a separate UHF aerial pointing towards an enabled transmitter in ROI? If your Freeview aerial is pointing towards Belfast you wont receive.

glineli · 05-02-2010 12:34PM

Is the only option to watch the channels on this via scart?

I was hoping they could be viewed via the coax to back of tv.

ah well

CrowdedHouse · 05-02-2010 03:42PM

ginoglineli wrote: »

Is the only option to watch the channels on this via scart?

I was hoping they could be viewed via the coax to back of tv.

ah well

Yes scart only,in fairness it would want to be a real antique tv not to have a scart socket

Zardoz · 05-02-2010 03:54PM

TVDX wrote: »

Indeed, have two of them and they are great for the price.
The only time I ever saw any kind of judder pictures was when the signal threshold was going below 42% with some BER.
When I changed the indoor aerial I used, this stopped happening as the signal stayed firmly at 43%.

So 43% signal strength is the threshold for a decent signal.
I presume Signal strength is more important than Signal quality ?

I connected mine up to my old vhf aerial in the attic and surprisingly I got a signal for all the DTT channels.(My analogue reception for TV3 and TG4 is rubbish,RTE1 and 2 are good reception)
The signal strength is only 14% but the signal quality is ~85% @474Mhz.Is that strong enough ?
It breaks up a small bit but its not too bad.
I'll switch the aerial for a uhf one and I should be flying.

lawhec · 05-02-2010 07:51PM

Zardoz wrote: »

So 43% signal strength is the threshold for a decent signal.
I presume Signal strength is more important than Signal quality ?

I connected mine up to my old vhf aerial in the attic and surprisingly I got a signal for all the DTT channels.(My analogue reception for TV3 and TG4 is rubbish)
The signal strength is only 8% but the signal quality is ~70% .
It breaks up a good bit but its not too bad.
I'll switch the aerial for a uhf one and I should be flying.

Signal quality is more important than signal strength; of course you have to have some signal in the first place. Once you cross a threshold in signal strength, having a stronger signal is only helpful in (a) having better resilience against electrical noise like unsupressed car engines or light switches, and (b) better elbow protect against varying incoming signal strengths that may be caused by the transmitter running on reduced power and atmospheric conditions.

My experience using the Sagem ITD81-SD is that it will comfortably work with a signal strength as low as 15% on its meter, provided that the quality is good (80% plus). The BER should be reasonably steady (1E-07 is ideal, though this can occasionally fluctuate) and the SNR should be as high as possible, again ideally >24db but the RTÉNL test multiplex from Truskmore can work happily down as low as 17db.

Sagem IDT81-SD on Ebay

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