Over on my tech blog recently, I mentioned dumping Sky TV and getting an Ariva 120 box. This is a combination satellite and digital terrestrial receiver. It costs an amazing €99 and you never have to pay another thing. You disconnect your Sky box, plug the satellite lead and aerial lead into the Ariva and you’re done.
Until yesterday I had only used the satellite bit which gives you BBC etc. It works very well except for the lack of a programme guide. I recorded Doctor Who onto a portable hard-disk using it yesterday! But I really wanted to try out the terrestrial bit. The other night we watched Masterchef Ireland using the RTE Player on a 37″ TV in a browser, full-screen. Not recommended if you value your eyesight or sanity. Sidenote: Dylan surprisingly non-infuriating but I had a big belly laugh when I heard a guy who serves steaks on paving slabs calling someone’s food “contrived”.
Our old roof aerial hasn’t been working right for years and I wasn’t sure where the problem was. So yesterday I cut the cable in the attic near the ingress hole and wired it straight into a old TV I hoisted into the attic. It confirmed that the aerial itself was banjaxed but there was no way I was doing a Rod Hull on it. I grabbed a pair of rabbit ears and then tried them to discover that I could get traditional analogue RTE1 and RTE2 reasonably ok with a bit of noise but not TG4 or TV3.
I wondered if that signal was enough to get the new Saorview Digital Terrestrial working on the Ariva box so I brought the box up into the attic and amazingly it worked instantly! Perfect digital picture on RTE1, RTE2, TV3, TG4 with full on-screen programme guide too. I had some interactions with people on Twitter last night who confirmed that even if your old analogue signal is poor, you may still be able to get Saorview.
Unfortunately the rabbit ears don’t have enough welly to feed a splitter box so today I’m popping into Dwyers Electrical to get this aerial and I’ll fit it in the attic. This type of aerial may be necessary for a lot of people in West Cork due to all the hills. But check using your old aerial first. Hopefully this will work with the splitter so we can have old analogue TV in most rooms and then Saorview in the room with the Ariva box. If they drop in price even more, we may buy another one.
So if you are tired of buzzy noisy old-school analogue TV in West Cork or if you are tired of paying the Rupert tax and can live without Sky Sports, you can save yourself a fortune by going down this route.
I have been very bitchy about Saorview since it was announced. It has taken Ireland 13 years to catch-up with the UK’s OnDigital/Freeview. I worked in a company that talked to RTE about building a Digital TV box in 1998! Celtic Tiger my arse, more like Celtic fat tabby sitting in front of the fire for a decade, scratching its hole. But now that it is here, I have to say it’s very well executed. And €99 for that box is a complete steal.
September 11, 2011 at 11:35 am
Conor, for the money that Ariva box looks very good.
However, does the following exist?
A box that does the following….
1) Allows you to see the next weeks TV and set stuff to record?
2) Allows you to record one sat channel while watching another?
3) Allows you to series link certain TV shows?
Basically, something closer to what Sky+ allows you to do?
The idea of getting rid of Sky really appeals to me BUT those 3 requirements would stop me from changing for now.
Thanks
October 12, 2011 at 8:14 am
Unfortunately what you’re looking for just does not exist. Even a two box solution won’t meet all your criteria as even with the humax and a saorview box, it will fall down on series link (not available on saorview yet). You can use the timers function though to get around it. Also saorview receivers are single tuners at the moment broadcasting from one mux. Once the extra muxes kick in, your ability to watch one and record another saorvieew channel will be gone unless you have twin tuner saorview box. The is no word or whispers in the industry on when that might be available. The main players are frantically trying to get a saorview approved combo to market before xmas and a twin tuner model with built in HDD is not even on the drawing board at present to the best of our knowledge.
October 12, 2011 at 9:28 am
Thanks for that info.
As someone who worked on both Sky and OnDigital software in the 90s, I find it shocking that in 2011, Soarview doesn’t have a basic feature like series link. We’ve already run into this as a problem with TV shows moving around so that basic timer functionality fails.
September 11, 2011 at 11:50 am
It only has Now/Next for satellite but seems to be full EPG for Saorview. Will report back on series link etc on Saorview when I get better aerial.
It can record DTT whilst you watch Sat and vice versa. Can also record one Sat programme whilst viewing another as long as they are on the same multiplex.
But it sounds like you need something more like this box which was recommended to me by multiple people (wayyyyyy more expensive tho): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humax-500GB-Satellite-Receiver-Recorder/dp/B0039J42LM
September 21, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Just replaced our old FTA box with one of these Furguson ariva combo boxes, and have to say it’s a brilliant piece of kit for the money. Watching the Rugby World Cup in HD is brilliant… and setting it to record so I don’t have to get out of bed at daft-o-clock is a bonus.
Our old terrestrial aerial has rubbish reception on analogue… which has as much to do with why we never watch RTE as the quality of the programming. Unfortunately it’s not quite enough to pick up a consistent Saorview signal (perfect sporadically, but garbles and jumps).
May need to invest in a better terrestrial aerial… or perhaps just get someone to go up on the roof and redirect the existing one to point at the digital transmitter. Won’t do series link, I don’t think, but you can set a record timer directly from the EPG (only now and next for sat channels though, so not that useful. Should work OK for DTT though).
Anyone recommend someone for roof-top terrestrial aerial work in West Cork?
September 21, 2011 at 1:27 pm
Glad it’s working well Calvin. You are right about series link but you can do a fixed time repeat daily/weekly on DTT which should cover most regular series.
Re aerials, we’ve had mixed success. The rabbits ears in the attic worked with one TV but were not suitable as a feed for our distribution amp in the hotpress. I then went to Dwyer’s on Forge Hill. He tried to save me money by giving me a standard Class-B analogue aerial for €10 but I could get nothing out of it in the attic. We’re surrounded by trees and hills which means the signal is always going to be poor.
In the end I went the other extreme and got this big-assed Televes piece of kit for 36 quid (plus delivery) in the UK: http://www.qvsdirect.com/Televes-UHF-DAT-HD-Active-Intelligent-Aerial-Antenna-pr-24359.html It works perfectly in the attic and feeds into the distribution amp too.
I’ve also just received this el-cheapo €7 (!) http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120752210769&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:IE:1123 USB stick which, on initial testing anyway, works really well when plugged into the aerial wall socket. I’ll be hooking that up to the media PC running MythTV so we’ll have full PVR again for DTT.
October 4, 2011 at 7:18 pm
Conor,
I Wrestled with these DVB-T antennas for years until I got an active antennae that is powered by 5v going up the coax cable. Most DVB-t boxes puts out the 5v via a software switch setting.
Elegant solution.
October 4, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Yeah, the Televes has an amp built-in. Seemed to be the thing that did the trick for working on the multi-way splitter.
Still seeing inconsistent behaviour (sometimes perfect, other times picture glitches like hell) which makes me suspect some of the wiring at the wall sockets etc. Cleaning up all the connections one by one around the house.