i-can easy hd 2851t

swoofer · 04-10-2012 09:22PM

it does pick up digital text but that is only on rte channels, i have 2 of them, and it should pick up freeview hd as well. where are u located

tvman2 · 04-10-2012 11:20PM

Got one of these in Maplins Dundalk did a scan at my location six miles SW of Dundalk. Saorview (CC tx) and available Freeview channels (Divis tx) there OK. SD quality isn't great - a bit of 'feathering' around images. Looks as though SD channels are not upscaled. Saorview HD is fine as is text on both. Not as flexible as for example an Argus Alba Saorview rx with regard to organising channels. The only way to reorganise is to use the favourites list. Saorview channels in the 800s cannot be renumbered and no channels can be deleted. At least when a favourite list is set up it stays as the default list when the box is off/on. The EPG is good with two presses of the i button bringing up first channel details and then programme details on the same screen. That's something the Alba/Bush etc designers could learn from. BTW I have found that analogue tv and DAB from Camlough around this area not great. Looking at some UK DAB coverage maps unlike tv there looks like a null towards the South. but if my memory serves me right DAB was much stronger when the tx started up.
http://www.ukfree.tv/dabtx.php?tx=IJ055246

Chimichangas · 05-10-2012 12:03AM

In Dundalk itself! -so thought i should be getting freeview here. will see if it works at DSO 1 or 2..

How does the digital text work? I am only getting ordinary text so far?

And i find box freezes a bit, wont respond to remote? nothing works except maybe the ch+/-, but nothing to be seen on screen??
then it catches up..eventually, and starts working?? bit weird?

TVman2, how are the channels organised, not seeing the options. its the same in the epg, dont see options for next day either (but i copped red and green work +/- day in epg)

tvman2 · 05-10-2012 01:19AM

Chimichangas wrote: »

In Dundalk itself! -so thought i should be getting freeview here. will see if it works at DSO 1 or 2..
How does the digital text work? I am only getting ordinary text so far?

And i find box freezes a bit, wont respond to remote? nothing works except maybe the ch+/-, but nothing to be seen on screen??
then it catches up..eventually, and starts working?? bit weird?

TVman2, how are the channels organised, not seeing the options. its the same in the epg, dont see options for next day either (but i copped red and green work +/- day in epg)

Providing your aerials are ok and giving good analogue reception now.
Saorview should be perfect in Dundalk Freeview- generally no
NI DSO1 next Wed 10th - BBC2 analogue ends, Freeview BBC Mux starts
from Camlough & Divis gets 43 times increase in power.
NI DSO2 24th Oct rest of Freeview muxs start up and all analogue ends.
(Commercial Muxs UTV, C4 etc from Divis get a 20 times power increase)

Only one text available on DTT and that's digital - press the text button and the coloured, up, down & ok buttons etc to navigate.

Haven't had these problems - check signal condition

Organising the channels is up to you using from the menu - create list option, if you don't use this you have the channels listed as found on the initial scan - Freeview if available first then RTENL channels in the 800's

Maybe go into Maplins and see the one they have set up.

SPAWKER · 05-10-2012 09:11AM

Have 2 of these as well and no issues with text, Digital txt on the Rte's and normal txt on Tv3.
Try updating the firmware which is available on ican easy.tv.

mrdtv2010 · 05-10-2012 09:17AM

I got one of these from Richer Sounds for £32.99 and updated its software using the download from i-CAN's web site and a USB stick. Reviews on Amazon's web site give the link and tell you how to do it. Straightforward. It has very nice signal strength information, the usual signal, quality, real-time C/N ratio, BER, SISO state (DVB-T2) etc. Almost as good as a meter and excellent for alignment. Not bad value for a Freeview HD box and it comes with BBC iPlayer preloaded if you connect it to the Internet in the UK. I think I will buy another one for relative with the coming DSO in Ireland.

mrdtv2010 · 05-10-2012 09:19AM

tvman2 wrote: »

Providing your aerials are ok and giving good analogue reception now.
Saorview should be perfect in Dundalk Freeview- generally no
NI DSO1 next Wed 10th - BBC2 analogue ends, Freeview BBC Mux starts
from Camlough & Divis gets 43 times increase in power.
NI DSO2 24th Oct rest of Freeview muxs start up and all analogue ends.
(Commercial Muxs UTV, C4 etc from Divis get a 20 times power increase)

Only one text available on DTT and that's digital - press the text button and the coloured, up, down & ok buttons etc to navigate.

Haven't had these problems - check signal condition

Organising the channels is up to you using from the menu - create list option, if you don't use this you have the channels listed as found on the initial scan - Freeview if available first then RTENL channels in the 800's

Maybe go into Maplins and see the one they have set up.

UTV is on PSB2 after DSO, same power as BBC A (PSB1): 100kW from Divis. As you say the COM muxes are 50kW from Divis.

Chimichangas · 08-10-2012 08:06PM

thanks all, got the digital text to come through via pressing the green button first..?? but it works now.

will wait until dso 1 and 2 to see what happens with freeview reception but think the aerial likely needs upgrading.

as for the fw upgrade, it only seemed to be for top up tv? cant get that in ireland can you?

The STB for the price is alright...it will do.

watty · 08-10-2012 08:19PM

No, Top Up TV is a Pay TV service needing a viewing card and only transmitted in UK.

Chimichangas · 11-10-2012 12:13AM

ok, this one has gone the way of its predecessor.
The remote no longer works the functions of the box. it will change channel,volume, mute and power on/off.
I cant get the menu, or info buttons,or channel name bar to come up on screen. Its not the remote. Its the box.

I did press the button to right of zero, which has no function yet, and noticed shortly after the functioning was not right.

Surely someone else has experienced this and perhaps knows how to rectify it?

STB · 11-10-2012 12:18AM

mrdtv2010 wrote: »

I got one of these from Richer Sounds for £32.99 and updated its software using the download from i-CAN's web site and a USB stick. Reviews on Amazon's web site give the link and tell you how to do it. Straightforward. It has very nice signal strength information, the usual signal, quality, real-time C/N ratio, BER, SISO state (DVB-T2) etc. Almost as good as a meter and excellent for alignment. Not bad value for a Freeview HD box and it comes with BBC iPlayer preloaded if you connect it to the Internet in the UK. I think I will buy another one for relative with the coming DSO in Ireland.

Now £29.99 at RS.

STB · 11-10-2012 12:32AM

Chimichangas wrote: »

ok, this one has gone the way of its predecessor.
The remote no longer works the functions of the box. it will change channel,volume, mute and power on/off.
I cant get the menu, or info buttons,or channel name bar to come up on screen. Its not the remote. Its the box.

I did press the button to right of zero, which has no function yet, and noticed shortly after the functioning was not right.

Surely someone else has experienced this and perhaps knows how to rectify it?

Firmware You put it on a USB stick. It may detect it when inserted and allow you install it.

Ging Ging · 11-10-2012 12:41AM

STB would you say the Goodmans GDB300HD Freeview HD was a better all round box than the I-can.

The GDB300HD is £39.97 in Asda
http://direct.asda.com/Goodmans-GDB300HD-Freeview-HD-Set-Top-Box/000540050,default,pd.html

I like the sound of being able to reorder the channel lists but is it MHEG 5? It doesn't seem to be.

Chimichangas · 11-10-2012 12:44AM

STB wrote: »

Firmware You put it on a USB stick. It may detect it when inserted and allow you install it.

Thanks for suggestion but i doubt it.
-I had another box, same issue, thought it was a once off. inserted a usb with the firmware on it and it didnt even notice it.

I think the issue is somehow related to the scart?? because i think the other faulty one responded on hdmi lead, then had same issue on scart.

If there are no other suggestions, i will connect it up to friends hdmi lead tv and then try reset and hope it works ok with scart afterwards.
at the moment it cant even be retuned on a scart connection.

FREETV · 11-10-2012 12:49AM

Ging Ging wrote: »

STB would you say the Goodmans GDB300HD Freeview HD was a better all round box than the I-can.

The GDB300HD is £39.97 in Asda
http://direct.asda.com/Goodmans-GDB300HD-Freeview-HD-Set-Top-Box/000540050,default,pd.html

I like the sound of being able to reorder the channel lists but is it MHEG 5? It doesn't seem to be.

These boxes allow one to only select and watch one region at a time so it is impossible to watch both Freeview and Saorview channels at the same time, I have one and two Alba ones, the exact same software, same manufacturer Harvard but a different chassi. If anyone knows of a workaround to enable these boxes to show both regions then please let us know here on Boards, thanks.

Chimichangas · 11-10-2012 12:59AM

FREETV wrote: »

These boxes allow one to only select and watch one region at a time so it is impossible to Watch both Freeview and Saorview channels at the same time, I have one and two Alba ones, the exact same software, same manufacturer Harvard but a different chassi. If anyone knows of a workaround to enable these boxes to show both regions then please let us know here on Boards, thanks.

i didnt know they could do that..
have you checked in the 800s for the saorview? did you manual retune the saorview channel?

can you not NOT choose a region, i.e. none or skip it and see how the channel order goes?

Otherwise try a retune/reset with out aerial connected.
THEN do a manual retune with aerial connected specifically for the channels you need including the saorview channel. should be maybe 5 or 6 channels in total??

I cant believe a tuner can be region specific, thought that was only to give you your preference for transmitter in terms of the local regional news... so disappointed

FREETV · 11-10-2012 02:00AM

Chimichangas wrote: »

i didnt know they could do that..
have you checked in the 800s for the saorview? did you manual retune the saorview channel?

can you not NOT choose a region, i.e. none or skip it and see how the channel order goes?

Otherwise try a retune/reset with out aerial connected.
THEN do a manual retune with aerial connected specifically for the channels you need including the saorview channel. should be maybe 5 or 6 channels in total??

I cant believe a tuner can be region specific, thought that was only to give you your preference for transmitter in terms of the local regional news... so disappointed

Cannot do a manual scan at all, there is no option given in the software and they are locked to choosing just one region which has to be chosen, the picture quality and sound is good and clear with scart upscaling is also very good using HDMI. There must be a secret hidden menu to change this although 8888 still doesn't help for the region selection. The tuners seem to be sensitive also so better for weaker signal areas.

mrdtv2010 · 11-10-2012 07:25AM

Chimichangas wrote: »

ok, this one has gone the way of its predecessor.
The remote no longer works the functions of the box. it will change channel,volume, mute and power on/off.
I cant get the menu, or info buttons,or channel name bar to come up on screen. Its not the remote. Its the box.

I did press the button to right of zero, which has no function yet, and noticed shortly after the functioning was not right.

Surely someone else has experienced this and perhaps knows how to rectify it?

Press the display button on the remote several times. This gets the menu back if you have SCART and HDMI connected. Its mentioned on page 5 of the manual: it needs to reset the resolution to 576i !!

Also the latest software does multiregions and you can do manual tuning. I have it running happily on two regions in the UK

http://www.i-can.tv/en/component/content/article/15/252-how-can-i-upgrade-my-easy-hd-receiver

NB USB stick must be empty or file downloaded to root directory for this to work.

Chimichangas · 11-10-2012 02:36PM

mrdtv2010 wrote: »

Press the display button on the remote several times. This gets the menu back if you have SCART and HDMI connected. Its mentioned on page 5 of the manual: it needs to reset the resolution to 576i !!

Also the latest software does multiregions and you can do manual tuning. I have it running happily on two regions in the UK

http://www.i-can.tv/en/component/content/article/15/252-how-can-i-upgrade-my-easy-hd-receiver

NB USB stick must be empty or file downloaded to root directory for this to work.

Nice one, it was the display option, I must have selected one that wasnt applicable to scart cable. took a while but it eventually went back to working the way its supposed to be.

and regarding multiregions , i think this thread is being hijacked by a goodmans digital stb...?

mrdtv2010 · 11-10-2012 04:58PM

Chimichangas wrote: »

Nice one, it was the display option, I must have selected one that wasnt applicable to scart cable. took a while but it eventually went back to working the way its supposed to be.

and regarding multiregions , i think this thread is being hijacked by a goodmans digital stb...?

Goodmans: TBA

Ging Ging · 11-10-2012 05:01PM

Mine is working now too.:)
Did a factory reset and followed this procedure then with aerial out,did a scan and found nothing.
Enter the setting then plug aerial in and did a manual scan for Irish channels at channel 48 (Cairn Hill), they were added 800, 801 etc.
Next did a scan at channel 28 (Brougher Mountain) and got the BBCs. Selected region as Northern Ireland and left the other sections as "none". Freeview: BBCs etc. populated the EPG 1,2 etc.
The blank channel problem I had yesterday appears to be gone so I will do the same scan after the 24th to get ITV Ch4 and the rest.
I made a channel list with active channels I want so should work well now.

brian_gall85 · 12-10-2012 06:12PM

Anybody looking for a budget Saorview "type" box should definitely pick up one of these little beauties.

For £32/€40 it is a brilliant piece of kit that picks up both the Irish and UK channels easily. Channels can't be reordered but the box has a favourites list option that enables you to reorder your channels to suit your preference.

I bought the box for my Granny and the stand out feature for me it the ability to control the TV and box with just one remote which is very useful for an elderly person.

Personally gutted that I bought one of those Chinese scart decoders for my second TV instead of this box.

Chimichangas · 13-10-2012 01:32PM

brian_gall85 wrote: »

Anybody looking for a budget Saorview "type" box should definitely pick up one of these little beauties.

For £32/€40 it is a brilliant piece of kit that picks up both the Irish and UK channels easily. Channels can't be reordered but the box has a favourites list option that enables you to reorder your channels to suit your preference.

I bought the box for my Granny and the stand out feature for me it the ability to control the TV and box with just one remote which is very useful for an elderly person.

Personally gutted that I bought one of those Chinese scart decoders for my second TV instead of this box.

Is this the Goodmans stb from asda? is it available anywhere else?
Was wonderingn does it have subtitles on saorview? or audio description?
And likewise do they work on the freeview channels yes?

I cant get either the audio description or subtitles to work on the i-can easy hd box for saorview channels, the freeview probably need a different aerial so cant try them yet.

brian_gall85 · 13-10-2012 08:15PM

Nah The I-can, the subtitles work via freeview.

NakedDex · 24-10-2012 01:11PM

I'm having a little bit of trouble with the i-can box I picked up last week. I only got around to installing it today, due to work. A scan picked up 24 tv channels, but none of them are appearing in the EPG or channel list. I can't find any options to bring them onto a channel list, or even manually flick through the channels.

Any ideas on solving this would be welcome.

brian_gall85 · 24-10-2012 01:37PM

Not too sure, but have you installed the latest software? It can be downloaded from their website and the install guide appears there too.

What part of the country are you in, I'm near the border and it tuned all UK and Irish ones in this morning and although the Irish ones are labelled in the 800s they appear on the channel list in the teens and twenties region.

Failing this try reinstalling the channels.

NakedDex · 24-10-2012 01:59PM

Yeah, I've done everything from a channel update to a factory reset, but it's giving the same results. It's finding the channels alright, but it's just not displaying them in any list of channels or programs. Even outside of channel lists, it's showing that nothing has been found, but each channel search is returning 24 TV channels, and 30 radio stations. It's just not showing them for some reason.
I've done the update, but it's made no difference to it unfortunately.

tsue921i8wljb3 · 24-10-2012 03:53PM

NakedDex wrote: »

Yeah, I've done everything from a channel update to a factory reset, but it's giving the same results. It's finding the channels alright, but it's just not displaying them in any list of channels or programs. Even outside of channel lists, it's showing that nothing has been found, but each channel search is returning 24 TV channels, and 30 radio stations. It's just not showing them for some reason.
I've done the update, but it's made no difference to it unfortunately.

To get the Irish channels to appear in the EPG you must remove the aerial from the box then do a factory reset and let it do it's initial scan. Obviously it will find no channels.

When the scan is complete decline the option for a rescan. Reconnect your aerial the go to menu > channel search > manual channel search

Enter the frequency of your local saorview transmitter and scan. It should find the channels and store them starting at 800.

Then go back to menu > channel search > update channel lists and scan. This should find the freeview channels if you are in range of a freeview transmitter.

Let us know how you get on.

watty · 24-10-2012 04:19PM

Sounds junk to be honest. If I had something like that I'd take it back.

tsue921i8wljb3 · 24-10-2012 04:44PM

watty wrote: »

Sounds junk to be honest. If I had something like that I'd take it back.

At around €40 for a DVB-T2 box I thought it was worth it.

i-can easy hd 2851t

Comments