Saturday, August 20, 2011

Installing Saorview

Ireland's new free digital TV service is called Saorview - it provides RTÉ One, RTÉ Two (in HD - handy for sport), TG4, 3e, TV3, plus some news and radio channels. To get these stations you need a Saorview decoder box. We have a TV in the kitchen in our house that received the RTÉ channels via analog signal and a "rabbit's ears" aerial. We also have an old Sky box which we use as a free-to-air decoder for mostly British channels.  So I decided to get Saorview to replace the old analog signal. 

Great ads for Saorview.
Setting up the box (€79 bargain in Harvey-Norman) is a cinch - the Installation menu sets up all the stations for Ireland. The aerial is a bit of a problem. I bought the indoor aerial and while it is not bad, it is not perfect. I changed this for an outdoor aerial which I put in the attic - much better. It is also cheaper (€33) - I really recommend the outdoor aerial for better signal and easier setup.

I do feel that whoever decided that a these channels needed a new decoder got it wrong. Surely the channels could have been made free on existing free-to-air decoders, or they could have been made available through Sky. Currently they are available to Sky subscribers only - even though they are free. I get BBC, ITV, etc on the Sky box - there are also easily available on Freeview decoders. But these decoders don't do the Irish channels, and Saorview does not do the British channels. I now have two digital decoders in my kitchen. A bit of a mess - bit for just over €100 I have free digital channels in good quality. Not bad!

2 comments:

  1. They can't have the Uk channels on saorview. RTE pay pittence for TV shows from the states based on our population size. If you could get it easily in he UK, then the price would up significantly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Here is an another way I found on this blog http://saor-view-satellite-installations-ireland.com/Saorviewfreetoairblog/

    ReplyDelete