Sat4Free/Freesat in Ireland

The_Conductor · 31-10-2008 12:39pm

benifa wrote: »

I beg to differ, smccarrick..

Argos sell the installation for £80, and the Bush SD Freesat boxes for £50. So that's a total of £130, = €165 (according to xe.com).

So what they get in the UK for €165, we have to pay €299.

Well- if you nip down to Powercity, the Grundig SD box is EUR79.95 and the Grundig HD box is EUR229.95

These equate with Argos prices of Sterling £49.99 and £149.99 respectively (link here)

Installations do cost a lot more here in IE, than they do in the UK- its even pricier up North than in Britain, if you buy the Freesat box in Argos Belfast they advertise installation "from £80". If you contact them with an out of the way address- believe you me its far higher.

The equipment is not markedly pricier down here than in the UK, but the installation does cost an arm and a leg more than it costs over there........

Ps- Its the Grundig boxes which are sold seperately in Powercity, not the Bush boxes. The Bush boxes, even though they are identical to the Grundig ones for all intensive purposes, are £30/£40 less than the Grundig ones........ Seems a lot of money for a simple label.......

Pps- just checked- the Tesco and Woodies ad is for the Grundig box, not the Bush box.

Ppps- I bought the Bush HD box in Argos Belfast myself, and post the s/w upgrade which allows the manual addition of channels (which you could not do with the original firmware) I'd highly recommend it.......

muincav · 31-10-2008 12:45pm

smccarrick wrote: »

Well- if you nip down to Powercity, the Grundig SD box is EUR79.95 and the Grundig HD box is EUR229.95

These equate with Argos prices of Sterling £49.99 and £149.99 respectively (link here)

Installations do cost a lot more here in IE, than they do in the UK- its even pricier up North than in Britain, if you buy the Freesat box in Argos Belfast they advertise installation "from £80". If you contact them with an out of the way address- believe you me its far higher.

The equipment is not markedly pricier down here than in the UK, but the installation does cost an arm and a leg more than it costs over there........

Ps- Its the Grundig boxes which are sold seperately in Powercity, not the Bush boxes. The Bush boxes, even though they are identical to the Grundig ones for all intensive purposes, are £30/£40 less than the Grundig ones........ Seems a lot of money for a simple label.......

£49=64EURO AND £149=192EURO So they are still a fair bit more expensive, but then again this is Rip Off Ireland!

The_Conductor · 31-10-2008 12:51pm

muincav wrote: »

£49=64EURO AND £149=192EURO So they are still a fair bit more expensive, but then again this is Rip Off Ireland!

Its actually EUR 66, and EUR 198.50 at this mornings rates from BOI- which is EUR13 and EUR30 more than in the UK. If you factor in our higher VAT rates and markedly higher retail overheads- it really isn't much of a difference at all. I never thought I'd find myself defending the retail industry here....... As electronics go- its a very modest price differential- and not the rip-off that you think it is.

If you want to save money- buy the box and organise the installation yourself- its not rocket science, and any old Sky dish of above 60cm properly aligned will do a grand job......... Then again- if you fall off the ladder, don't blame me........

Zonda999 · 31-10-2008 5:49pm

Ok lads, lets be homest, sat4free is going to have limited appeal as long the irish channels are'nt available. But what about if they managed to put mpeg4 tuners into their boxes.??

Then, as of next august(Or even right now on the east coast), we would be able to get all the freesat channels, as well as all the irish channels which would be a real match for sky would'nt it??Is this really too much to ask??

azzeretti · 31-10-2008 5:53pm

Zonda999 wrote: »

Then, as of next august(Or even right now on the east coast),

How far down the East coast is this receivable?

Zonda999 · 31-10-2008 5:56pm

Dont have a clue. I'm from cork(:D:D)

You'll find out over in the terrestrial forum i'd say

deanh · 31-10-2008 6:25pm

How difficult would it be to self install? Can freesat be recieved all parts of Ireland eg west cork?

Kotek Besar · 31-10-2008 6:29pm

deanh wrote: »

How difficult would it be to self install? Can freesat be recieved all parts of Ireland eg west cork?

Yes.

daphilp · 31-10-2008 10:53pm

Lads,
how do the boxes advertised in the Sat4free outlets, compare with the one on the satelite.ie site,
http://www.satellite.ie/acatalog/Freesat_HD_Box.html
In Cork, the box can not be bought without installation, so the satelite.ie
offer is not much dearer than the Sat4free one. Assumimg the satelite.ie one can take any postcode, would I be better off with that one?
Has anybody any experience of satelite.ie ? Is it a good company?
Thanks
dave

Kotek Besar · 31-10-2008 10:56pm

daphilp wrote: »

Lads,
how do the boxes advertised in the Sat4free outlets, compare with the one on the satelite.ie site,
http://www.satellite.ie/acatalog/Freesat_HD_Box.html
In Cork, the box can not be bought without installation, so the satelite.ie
offer is not much dearer than the Sat4free one. Assumimg the satelite.ie one can take any postcode, would I be better off with that one?

Yup, any post code, that one. It's a UK Freesat box, not a Sat4free box (which is pre-set to NI post code and cannot be changed).

daphilp wrote: »

Has anybody any experience of satelite.ie ? Is it a good company?

I think Tony might know.

copacetic · 31-10-2008 11:08pm

they are good guys, helpful and deliver quickly. no worries ordering from them. The actual freesat box is a better buy also imo.

Martin_F · 31-10-2008 11:12pm

I self installed a quad Freesat system in June. Not very difficult - dish alignment was the trickiest - until I got the elevation right - as soon as you get the smallest signal you're home and dry as you just left/right up/down a bit at a time looking for strength improvement - the Bush SD signal meter was just fine (even if you're up and down the ladder a bit). The rest of it is just bolting the the dish to the house and cabling. For most rooms I was able to run with the existing cabling put in originally by the builders - used some signal combiners/splitters to run analogue aerial & sat down the single cable runs. Very satisfying when done - and I have 95-100% strength & quality - even in bad weather. I got the 60cm dish & quad LNB etc from satellite.ie and visited Argos Newry for 2 bush SD & got a Humax HD online from UK.

Martin_F · 31-10-2008 11:18pm

I'd concur about the prompt delivery from satellite.ie - think the stuff arrived the day after ordered - all good quality - and as well priced as anywhere else I could find. Wasn't stocking the boxes then - hence the drive north - on the way to Ikea

daphilp · 31-10-2008 11:25pm

Thanks lads,

can't understand all the excitement about sat4free so if the satelite.ie box is better, (can be postcoded), and people seem to have a high regard for satelite.ie
Thanks,
dave
Cork

Amigaman · 01-11-2008 2:07am

just got hooked up today
Bush HD box from argos £119 with £10 gift voucher and €140 for the installation from Satworld Total €278 and the HD is Great...
Point to note Called Sat4free and they quoted me €150 for installation

murphaph · 01-11-2008 9:12am

Martin_F wrote: »

I self installed a quad Freesat system in June. Not very difficult - dish alignment was the trickiest - until I got the elevation right - as soon as you get the smallest signal you're home and dry as you just left/right up/down a bit at a time looking for strength improvement - the Bush SD signal meter was just fine (even if you're up and down the ladder a bit). The rest of it is just bolting the the dish to the house and cabling. For most rooms I was able to run with the existing cabling put in originally by the builders - used some signal combiners/splitters to run analogue aerial & sat down the single cable runs. Very satisfying when done - and I have 95-100% strength & quality - even in bad weather. I got the 60cm dish & quad LNB etc from satellite.ie and visited Argos Newry for 2 bush SD & got a Humax HD online from UK.

Could someone point me to more info on signal combination/splitting as I have analogue cable with sky sports and suchlike that you don't get on the sat and I have a single cable run whih I would like to combine the signal on.

Martin_F · 01-11-2008 2:50pm

I got mine from B&Q Lucan - but I think the independant sat companies carry them too - satellite.ie etc price about 8-10 euro each - and you need 2 per cable run (1 at each end combine then split)

Zaphod · 01-11-2008 6:09pm

They appear to be still in the process of rewriting the sat4free homepage with the external links removed and the channel line-up by genre more closely matching their brochures.

Brochure centre

Brochure page 1

Brochure T&C

So they'll use an existing Quad LNBF port but I bet the overall installation cost will remain the same - nice little earner that. And €85 for a realignment? I think I'll go installing dishes!

Looking at the display in Tesco, the marketing effort is a little underwhelming - a few empty Goodman boxes and the leaflets above. Would it kill them to hook a 42" plasma up to a HD box and tune in BBCHD?

Have any of the independent retailers been approached to stock these boxes yet?

Mossy Monk · 01-11-2008 8:52pm

How can they advertise ITV HD if it is not available on a NI postcode?

muincav · 01-11-2008 10:12pm

Mossy Monk wrote: »

How can they advertise ITV HD if it is not available on a NI postcode?

but it can be tuned in manually and therefore as a selling point, should be advertised and connected up for all to see....should it not?

Mossy Monk · 01-11-2008 11:30pm

muincav wrote: »

but it can be tuned in manually and therefore as a selling point, should be advertised and connected up for all to see....should it not?

It can? I thought it was a red button only thing and was a bastard to tune in.

mjsmyth · 02-11-2008 12:37am

I may be wrong here, but I think you have to tune in ITV 1 (one of the regions), and that channel will display the red dot, you then hit the red button..

Not 100% on that, just what I have read.

astra2d · 02-11-2008 9:52am

The ITV HD Red button, like BBCi services can only be accessed in Freesat mode. The easiest way to get ITV HD is to use an English or Welsh postcode.
Here is a list of regional postcodes:
RegionPostcode

Anglia
NR1 3JG
Border
CA1 3NT
Central
B1 2JT
Channel
JE1 3ZD
Granada
M60 9EA
HTV Wales
CF5 6XJ
London
WC1X 8XZ
Meridian
ME14 5NZ
HTV West
BS4 3HG
Westcountry
PL7 5BQ
Tyne Tees
NE11 9SZ

copacetic · 02-11-2008 11:31am

Mossy Monk wrote: »

It can? I thought it was a red button only thing and was a bastard to tune in.

As mentioned you can manually add ITV1 to the epg, even move it around the line up.

Once you have done that you will get ITV HD when available.

Now, maybe they are including this service during the install, as otherwise I'd assume most people would never find ITV HD.

mjsmyth · 02-11-2008 12:26pm

@astra2d

The sat4free boxes are locked to a Northern Ireland postcode and this can't be changed.

Tony · 02-11-2008 3:35pm

Thanks for the kind words guys. You can enter any UK postcode on these boxes. Biggest problem is short supply , only 12 in stock and the wholsaler does not have a date for re supply at present. There is a discount code for boards.ie users but I'll need to check with the mods here if its ok to post it.

Tony · 02-11-2008 3:38pm

benifa wrote: »

I think Tony might know.

I'm hardly objective on the subject though

lafors · 02-11-2008 4:05pm

Lads, is my dish an old sky dish? Would it do for freesat?
And is it pointing in the right direction? (See attached)
Previous owner had this dish up but had NTL so I think it was either that they had a lidl setup or the owner before them had sky.

Am going to get myself the Freesat HD PVR, hopefully after christmas, and get an octo LNB, then get standard or HD box for the other rooms.

copacetic · 02-11-2008 4:15pm

looks to be about right for both.
mad need to adjust it to actually get a signal if it has been up a while.

HPMan · 02-11-2008 5:09pm

Can you change the postcode from say Granada's to Channel's or Ulster's if you either move house or want the default itv channel to be a different one? Are you stuck with the change after a set / fixed number of changes - like dvd decoders?

byte · 02-11-2008 5:13pm

HPMan wrote: »

Can you change the postcode from say Granada's to Channel's or Ulster's if you either move house or want the default itv channel to be a different one? Are you stuck with the change after a set / fixed number of changes - like dvd decoders?

Yes, it's possible to change it.

channelsurfer · 02-11-2008 6:42pm

sorry to sound silly or ask the question again but to clarify is it possible to change the sat4free box to another uk regioni? some of the posts says its locked on the northern ireland epg?

copacetic · 02-11-2008 6:48pm

channelsurfer wrote: »

sorry to sound silly or ask the question again but to clarify is it possible to change the sat4free box to another uk regioni? some of the posts says its locked on the northern ireland epg?

no, it doesn't appear to be possible on the sat4free boxes.

It appears a lot of questions about the sat4free boxes are being cross posted above with replies on freesat boxes.

The Cush · 02-11-2008 7:28pm

HPMan wrote: »

Can you change the postcode from say Granada's to Channel's or Ulster's if you either move house or want the default itv channel to be a different one? Are you stuck with the change after a set / fixed number of changes - like dvd decoders?

Yes, with the UK freesat receiver the region can be changed by carrying out a fresh reinstall on the box and entering the new postcode but you lose the manually added channels.

channelsurfer wrote: »

sorry to sound silly or ask the question again but to clarify is it possible to change the sat4free box to another uk regioni? some of the posts says its locked on the northern ireland epg?

It appears that the sat4free receiver's postcode is locked in to N Ireland region change not possible.

Tony · 02-11-2008 8:06pm

With Bytes kind permission the discount code for my site is "Boards.ie"

Tony wrote: »

There is a discount code for boards.ie users but I'll need to check with the mods here if its ok to post it.

channelsurfer · 02-11-2008 8:37pm

how much is the discount Tony? its a pity there is no installers for offaly.

Tony · 02-11-2008 9:09pm

channelsurfer wrote: »

how much is the discount Tony? its a pity there is no installers for offaly.

Hi, Its 10% off the order value. Yes it is a pity but I will only use someone reliable in any area as a bad installer can do a lot of damage to a companies reputation very quickly.Maybe some guys here know of good independents in Offaly that can help you?

MisterAnarchy · 03-11-2008 5:01pm

The launch of RTÉ International has been postponed because of the economic crisis.

According to The Times, Ireland's national broadcaster has written to communications minister Eamon Ryan to say that it would be "unwise" for the channel to launch by St. Patrick's Day next year because of the changed financial climate.

In June, RTÉ started recruiting for key positions at the channel, costs for which are estimated at €3m per year. Earlier in the year it was announced that RTÉ International would be available free-to-air on digital satellite to serve the estimated 850,000 Irish born people living in the UK.

It is understood that RTÉ now aims to launch the service by the end of 2009

Kotek Besar · 03-11-2008 5:13pm

http://www.sat4free.ie/
http://www.sat4free.ie/index.html
http://www.sat4free.ie/index.php?page=home

All not working at all now (no maintenance page even).

The_Conductor · 03-11-2008 9:28pm

All up and running again......
Home page has slight modifications

They now have a helpline up and running (1800 992 296)- and are also advertising "Free installation and Satellite Dish if required (rep Ire)"- I take it this is the "voucher" in the box......... Like to see a few people buy the vanilla box and try to take them up for false advertising........

benifa wrote: »

http://www.sat4free.ie/
http://www.sat4free.ie/index.html
http://www.sat4free.ie/index.php?page=home

All not working at all now (no maintenance page even).

Tony · 03-11-2008 9:35pm

smccarrick wrote: »

Like to see a few people buy the vanilla box and try to take them up for false advertising........

You do not need to buy an item to make a complaint about advertising you just contact the advertising standards authority for Ireland.

The_Conductor · 03-11-2008 9:38pm

Tony wrote: »

You do not need to buy an item to make a complaint about advertising you just contact the advertising standards authority for Ireland.

I've made several comments about false advertising and in one case intimidatory/discriminatory advertising to the ASAI over the past year- and have totally given up on them.......

copacetic · 03-11-2008 10:08pm

smccarrick wrote: »

All up and running again......
Home page has slight modifications

not for me, I'm still getting the old offline message on the mainpage

Kotek Besar · 03-11-2008 10:11pm

smccarrick wrote: »

Like to see a few people buy the vanilla box and try to take them up for false advertising........

Don't get you? What vanilla box?

Kotek Besar · 03-11-2008 10:13pm

smccarrick wrote: »

false advertising...

Speaking of false advertising..

It has many stunning features with over 100 great channels to choose from

http://www.sat4free.ie/index.php?page=whatissat4free

Tony · 03-11-2008 11:38pm

smccarrick wrote: »

I've made several comments about false advertising and in one case intimidatory/discriminatory advertising to the ASAI over the past year- and have totally given up on them.......

I'm sorry to hear that. I took a complaint against UPC who were then cablelink may years ago and they did pursue it, having said that all that happens is a rap on the knuckles.

Tony · 03-11-2008 11:40pm

benifa wrote: »

Speaking of false advertising..

http://www.sat4free.ie/index.php?page=whatissat4free

Fair point I guess "great" is subjective, I'm re doing my own site and use that term too so perhaps i should take it out.

Puteq · 04-11-2008 1:10pm

Oh man i am overwhelmed by all this, i only recently heard of this free to air TV recently and started looking into it. Everyone here seem to be conversing from the level of having a decent amount of prior understanding about all this.

I saw a box, plus dish and installation in Atlantic Homecare (Galway) for 400 notes recently (though they were not able to answer for me who does the installation etc when i asked!). but i think i read in the brochure that came with it that it cannot be used in a house that already has sky - i would like to keep my sky, but also have my free to air TV in another room, would this be possible? (I dont mind having 2 dishes outside my house if necessary).

Thanks!

Tony · 04-11-2008 1:15pm

Puteq wrote: »

it that it cannot be used in a house that already has sky - i would like to keep my sky, but also have my free to air TV in another room, would this be possible? (I dont mind having 2 dishes outside my house if necessary).

Thanks!

They are talking nonsense, it can be used in a house that already has sky. If you have one standard sky box you need a quad lnb for sky minidish and you run a good quality cable from the dish to the sat box location. If you have sky + or HD then you should already have the quad lnb and you just need to run the cable. Save yourself some money and install it yourself

TheDriver · 04-11-2008 2:34pm

my neighbour got sky+ in converting from sky and they only put a dual lnb onto the bracket

Sat4Free/Freesat in Ireland

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