Moving from Sky to IPTV (Eir) ?

Fr Tod Umptious

Fiber should be available to us in the next few months and as a result I have started looking at IPTV services as an alternative to Sky.

Right now we pay about €90 per month between Sky and our phone/broadband service but I see a Eir TV/phone/broadband package out there that would average about €67 for the duration of that 18 month contract.

The question is is IPTV any good ?

We have had Sky for years and the main reason we still keep it is that it gives up the series link, pause, rewind, record functionality etc. It’s not the channel line up that’s keeping us.

I assume that IPTV for Eir gives us that functionality also?

And as for the actual internet speeds, we current have a max 5MB line right now and that seems fine for Netflix, NFL Gamepass, MLB TV, most of the time, so I assume a fiber line will allow good service.

ECO_Mental

Like yourself I switched from sky to eVision when I got FTTH and all I can say eVision is NOT Sky. If you don't watch too much tv and just want to watch the basic channels then it should be ok. But if you are a power TV watcher (like me )it'll drive you crazy. For example I wanted to series link the big bang theory and what I didn't realise is eVision will record EVERY single episode on e4 everyday day so after a week you could have 40 or 50 episodes recorded and its not an easy task to filter through them. Arhhhh.

You can't even search for program simple thing really but I can't find it.

Capt'n Midnight

ECO_Mental wrote: »

Like yourself I switched from sky to eVision when I got FTTH and all I can say eVision is NOT Sky. If you don't watch too much tv and just want to watch the basic channels then it should be ok.

TBH if you only want the basic channels and have SKY then consider a Freesat box. Stuff like series link just works. But it's only for the UK channels.

At present to get the Irish and UK channels with EPG on one box you'll need to consider a linux box.

There may be a proper saorview anytime box released very soon, but no details on whether it'll have the killer app of merging Soarview and a Freesat EPG.

Look at the channels you really need. If you need sports you are going to have to pay. There's a few kids channels on netflix but YMMV. Yesterday and PBS America have a good few documentaries if you aren't that heavily into them.

Fr Tod Umptious

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

TBH if you only want the basic channels and have SKY then consider a Freesat box. Stuff like series link just works. But it's only for the UK channels.

At present to get the Irish and UK channels with EPG on one box you'll need to consider a linux box.

There may be a proper saorview anytime box released very soon, but no details on whether it'll have the killer app of merging Soarview and a Freesat EPG.

Look at the channels you really need. If you need sports you are going to have to pay. There's a few kids channels on netflix but YMMV. Yesterday and PBS America have a good few documentaries if you aren't that heavily into them.

Thanks for the info.

Sorry now but I have a few more questions.

What’s the difference between a Freesat box and any other sat receiver than can get free UK channels ?

Is there any requirement for ‘registration’ with a UK address etc ?

Do the Linux boxes that you can get Irish and UK channels on have the pause/rewind/record/series link functionality ?

Are they combo boxes that take a sat feed for the UK channels and a digital terrestrial feed for the Irish channels?

If that’s the case I’d have to invest in and install an antenna for the digital terrestrial.

What are the brands of the Linux boxes by the way, I’d like to do some research on them.

I could use something like that and then also have an Android TV box for Netflix, RTE Player, NFL Gamepass, YouTube etc.

Capt'n Midnight

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Thanks for the info.

Sorry now but I have a few more questions.

What’s the difference between a Freesat box and any other sat receiver than can get free UK channels ?

SKY and Freesat encrypt their EPG
so unless you have a linux box that can scrape channel date off the interweb then all you get is now and next and no series link.

Is there any requirement for ‘registration’ with a UK address etc ?

Just type in a valid post and away you go. If you want UTV then BT1 1AA

Do the Linux boxes that you can get Irish and UK channels on have the pause/rewind/record/series link functionality ?

Are they combo boxes that take a sat feed for the UK channels and a digital terrestrial feed for the Irish channels?

If that’s the case I’d have to invest in and install an antenna for the digital terrestrial.

What are the brands of the Linux boxes by the way, I’d like to do some research on them.

I could use something like that and then also have an Android TV box for Netflix, RTE Player, NFL Gamepass, YouTube etc.

Totally different question. The good Linux boxes can do everything check out the satellite and foreign satellite forums.

I use a Humax Foxsat HDR. It's an official Freesat box with linux additions. They don't make them anymore so you have to get secondhand. But you can have some linux apps running in the background to get web managment and other goodies.

amikoalien2

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

SKY and Freesat encrypt their EPG
so unless you have a linux box that can scrape channel date off the interweb then all you get is now and next and no series link

The EPG is not encrypted it is merely a guide
Also it is not required to have an internet connection as the .dat file is downloaded via the sat feed
So you can get a full 7 day guide on a linux box and have a form of series link
Be it more like the old timer record on an old video recorder back in the day
But if there is a change to the broadcast time the box will record at the time you programmed and not the new broadcast time

bk

amikoalien2 wrote: »

The EPG is not encrypted it is merely a guide

Actually it sort of is.

Well it isn't "encrypted", but it is instead "compressed" with proprietary Huffman coding compression tables.

While it isn't particularly difficult to decompress, as many Linux boxes do, it is legally a very grey area and you wouldn't find any official company using it without permission from Freesat.

L1011

bk wrote: »

While it isn't particularly difficult to decompress, as many Linux boxes do, it is legally a very grey area and you wouldn't find any official company using it without permission from Freesat.

Well, not anymore but there was the "Sat4Free" crowd.

Fr Tod Umptious

Thnaks for the info.

To be honest I would not be that wild about going down the Linux box route, even though I enjoy working with Linux.
It's an outlay of €300+ if I include the cost of putting a DTTV antenna on the roof or in the attic.

I'll give IPTV a serious look once I get the fiber and confirm the speeds I am getting.

tricky2beat

Have you looked at Vodafone IPTV?

Fr Tod Umptious

tricky2beat wrote: »

Have you looked at Vodafone IPTV?

Looking at it from a high level it does not seem as good value as Eir.

Both come around E67 pm for the duration of the 18 month contract.

But Eir has 84 channels compared to Vodafone's 56

And Eir has Disney Junior which is a big deal in our house.

I know there is a Vodafone TV thread on this form but i have niot got around to reading it yet.

Does anyone know if there is a big difference in the quality of what you get from Vodafone compared to Eir, in terms of the functionality of the box i.e. record/playback/series link/ on demand etc ?

bk

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Does anyone know if there is a big difference in the quality of what you get from Vodafone compared to Eir, in terms of the functionality of the box i.e. record/playback/series link/ on demand etc ?

In terms of functionality, Vodafones system seems to be more modern and superior, with a lot of extra functionality, not surprising as it has launched almost 2 years after Eir TV. The extra features are:

- Wireless multi-room, the ability to record from any multi-room box and watch any recording from any box. Also the ability to pause a recording in one room and pick it up in another room *
- Ability to record/pause, etc. on tablets/smartphones/pc on the Go, etc.
- 7 day catchup - The ability to watch anything shown in the last 7 days.


* Eir TV does have multiroom boxes, but they can watch live TV only, they can't pause/record/rewind or transfer between rooms, so a lot more limited. Same with Eir's tablet/pc apps. Watch live only, not catchup, recordings, etc.

Vodafone TV is more like Sky's new Sky Q platform.

Having said all that, I'm not sure these extra features make up for the limited TV channel lineup and expensive price.

Also it is possible that Eir TV will gain this functionality too in future. It is a bit of a no brainer, but the issue might be the processing power of the main Eir TV box.

Fr Tod Umptious

bk wrote: »

In terms of functionality, Vodafones system seems to be more modern and superior, with a lot of extra functionality, not surprising as it has launched almost 2 years after Eir TV. The extra features are:

- Wireless multi-room, the ability to record from any multi-room box and watch any recording from any box. Also the ability to pause a recording in one room and pick it up in another room *
- Ability to record/pause, etc. on tablets/smartphones/pc on the Go, etc.
- 7 day catchup - The ability to watch anything shown in the last 7 days.


* Eir TV does have multiroom boxes, but they can watch live TV only, they can't pause/record/rewind or transfer between rooms, so a lot more limited. Same with Eir's tablet/pc apps. Watch live only, not catchup, recordings, etc.

Vodafone TV is more like Sky's new Sky Q platform.

Having said all that, I'm not sure these extra features make up for the limited TV channel lineup and expensive price.

Also it is possible that Eir TV will gain this functionality too in future. It is a bit of a no brainer, but the issue might be the processing power of the main Eir TV box.

Thanks for that

One of the reasons for sticking with Sky for so long has been the functionality of the box, i.e. the record/playback/series link etc.
Added to that the special offers that come every so often about half price sports or movies.

Doing the sums on it if you include multiroom the price per month with Vodafone is not much off our current broadband and sky TV price.
I’ll wait till the fiber is available and then make a decision, Eir may be able to tell us when they are enhancing their service feature wise.

One other question

Do these TV boxes have RCA (Red/Yellow/White) or SCART out ports ?
We currently use 2.4 Ghz video senders to transmit the Sky signal to a second TV. They are connected to the Sky box using the RCA ports on the Sky box (they can user SCART also)

If we can use them on an Eir or Vodafone TV box we would not necessarily have to get multiroom.