Virgin Media - analogue TV service reduction and switch off

Thargor

I remember years ago living in Galway, I had a weak analogue cable from UPC or someone with RTE and BBC and a couple of others badly tuned in in my bedroom until my flatmate asked me why I wasn't using a box, so I bought some cheap 20 EUR box from eBay and plugged the cable into that, then I had all the living room channels with perfect reception, don't suppose that would work nowadays with the analogue cables in our house would it? Is there any free option? We have full digital channels in the living room...

coylemj

Thargor wrote: »

I remember years ago living in Galway, I had a weak analogue cable from UPC or someone with RTE and BBC and a couple of others badly tuned in in my bedroom until my flatmate asked me why I wasn't using a box, so I bought some cheap 20 EUR box from eBay and plugged the cable into that, then I had all the living room channels with perfect reception, don't suppose that would work nowadays with the analogue cables in our house would it? Is there any free option? We have full digital channels in the living room...

It sounds like you were living in a flat in a house where someone (not the supplier) had split the cable TV signal into multiple feeds and that box you bought boosted the signal.

There is no such thing as an 'analog' cable. The analog signal has been switched off so your options to get the mix of RTE, BBC etc, is either to take a multiroom box from VM or get an aerial for Saorview and a dish for Freeesat.

odyssey06

In dublin city and losing analogue soon. Has anyone had positive experience with indoor Saorview aerial that they could recommend, I think Argos have a few?
Second room TV has a Saorview tuner built in so might be a long shot, but was hoping an indoor one might be enough?

NuMarvel

odyssey06 wrote: »

In dublin city and losing analogue soon. Has anyone had positive experience with indoor Saorview aerial that they could recommend, I think Argos have a few?
Second room TV has a Saorview tuner built in so might be a long shot, but was hoping an indoor one might be enough?

I'm 5 miles from the nearest transmitter and an indoor aerial works perfectly for me. It's a One for All aerial that I picked up in Argos. I'm in the suburbs though, so there are fewer tall buildings that could interfere with my signal. It might be a different experience if you're in the city centre.

odyssey06

NuMarvel wrote: »

I'm 5 miles from the nearest transmitter and an indoor aerial works perfectly for me. It's a One for All aerial that I picked up in Argos. I'm in the suburbs though, so there are fewer tall buildings that could interfere with my signal. It might be a different experience if you're in the city centre.

It looks like my signal would be coming from three rock distance 14kms and i am just north of liffey so there might be some obstacles. Will see what argos have.

decor58

odyssey06 wrote:

It looks like my signal would be coming from three rock distance 14kms and i am just north of liffey so there might be some obstacles. Will see what argos have.

Powercity have a compact aerial, about 15 euro, if you could mount it in the attic or outside.

odyssey06

decor58 wrote: »

Powercity have a compact aerial, about 15 euro, if you could mount it in the attic or outside.

Considering one of them also, but if this one did the trick - says it has range of 15 miles - would be handier:
http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/8264116/Trail/searchtext%3EAERIAL.htm

winston_1

One of the most crappy aerials you can buy. Let's see what they say:

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][*]Amplified.                                           Absolutely pointless for an indoor aerial. It will just amplify the noise.
[*]Up to 48dB signal gain.                     A lie. The gain is in the amplifier. Pointless as I said. Aerial gain is zero or less.
[*]Reception range up to 15 miles.       Another lie, as it depends on the power of the transmitter amongst other things.
[*]Signal type: UHF/VHF.                      TV uses UHF so why would you want an aerial that does both.
[*]Adjustable.                                        Hm?
[*]Digital aerial.                                     Another lie. There is no such thing as a digital aerial.
[*]Suitable for indoor use.                     Defiantly would not put it outside except in the dustbin.
[*]For indoor use only.                          As above.
[*]Fixtures and fittings included.           What fixtures and fittings?
[*]Size H20.5, W12.3, D10.6cm.          Possibly this is true!
[*]0.21kg.                                              OK
[*]Mains.                                               That's the unnecessary amplifier then.
[*]1.5m lead length.                              For an indoor aerial longer is better to get the optional position.
[*]EAN: 8716184067976.                     Don't know what this is.
[/font]


[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]An aerial from a Euro shop will work as well or an old coat hanger cut to size.[/font]

marno21

odyssey06 wrote: »

Considering one of them also, but if this one did the trick - says it has range of 15 miles - would be handier:
http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/8264116/Trail/searchtext%3EAERIAL.htm

You might use this within 15 miles of Mullaganish but you certainly won't within 15 miles of Gorey or Clonakilty.

Obscene waste of money that aerial

Quackster

winston_1 wrote: »

An aerial from a Euro shop will work as well or an old coat hanger cut to size.

Exactly this. A few years ago and based on the quays, I needed a temporary Saorview setup. I chanced using a wire hanger and it worked perfectly.

decor58

I wouldn't consider an amplied aerial, you will spend your time adjusting it and still not get it right. I use the one I suggested in work in the city centre pointed at Three rock, never a problem with the signal, although it is outside.
Remember it says on the Argos site, 60 channels, that is on freeview not Saorview.

odyssey06

Thanks folks.

As this indoor one is only €1.50 I might chance it, but it sounds like if it won't work need to get an outdoor one rather than an expensive indoors one:
http://www.dealz.ie/signalex-digital-indoor-tv-aerial-30-cm

coylemj

Quoting 'up to' distances on aerials is complete BS. It all depends on your elevation, the lack of obstructions and the power of the transmitter. There is a 160 kW transmitter in Co. Longford called Cairn Hill and people in elevated spots in the town of Athlone who are 45 kms from the transmitter can pick up the signal using an indoor aerial.

silverharp

i picked one up an arial in DID and it works great, the cable was too short but i had a longer one, its near the window facing the dublin mountains and the reception is perfect, whe it was away from the window it didnt work so well

winston_1

odyssey06 wrote: »

Thanks folks.

As this indoor one is only €1.50 I might chance it, but it sounds like if it won't work need to get an outdoor one rather than an expensive indoors one:
http://www.dealz.ie/signalex-digital-indoor-tv-aerial-30-cm

Another VHF aerial. That is for FM or DAB radio, not TV which needs a UHF aerial.

winston_1

odyssey06 wrote: »

Thanks folks.

As this indoor one is only €1.50 I might chance it, but it sounds like if it won't work need to get an outdoor one rather than an expensive indoors one:
http://www.dealz.ie/signalex-digital-indoor-tv-aerial-30-cm

Another VHF aerial. That is for FM or DAB radio, not TV which needs a UHF aerial.

winston_1

winston_1 wrote: »

odyssey06 wrote: »

Thanks folks.

As this indoor one is only €1.50 I might chance it, but it sounds like if it won't work need to get an outdoor one rather than an expensive indoors one:
http://www.dealz.ie/signalex-digital-indoor-tv-aerial-30-cm

Another VHF aerial. That is for FM or DAB radio, not TV which needs a UHF aerial.

And it is NOT digital either. I repeat again there is no such thing as a digital aerial.

Quackster

winston_1 wrote: »

Another VHF aerial. That is for FM or DAB radio, not TV which needs a UHF aerial.

If the Saorview signal is strong, a VHF ariel will work just as well as a coat hanger and be tidier too.

EdgeCase

It would have made a *lot* more sense to time the analogue switch off with a replacement for Horizon 1.0

marno21

Anyone else think that the switching off of analogue TV by Virgin is a bad move that may cost them in the long run? I personally don't see the practicality of turning off a service that is likely widely used (even if not reflected by analogue subscription figures) to provide extra bandwidth which is of no use to most people.

I have 100Mbit broadband and I have never thought it to be slower. If I was offered 17 analogue channels or 200Mbit channels I would pick the first, it has significantly more utility.

TAFKAlawhec

coylemj wrote: »

Quoting 'up to' distances on aerials is complete BS. It all depends on your elevation, the lack of obstructions and the power of the transmitter. There is a 160 kW transmitter in Co. Longford called Cairn Hill and people in elevated spots in the town of Athlone who are 45 kms from the transmitter can pick up the signal using an indoor aerial.

Truskmore on the Sligo/Leitrim border is another 160kW blaster, lying 70km line of sight from my home here in Co. Tyrone. Indeed I'm not sure is the full 160 is blasting in my direction. Anyway, I can pick the Saorview transmissions from it with a half-decent indoor aerial in my living room. In the bedroom on the floor directly above the living room, the same signals can be picked up and viewed without trouble using an aerial very similar to one in the picture below that are often supplied with DVB-T(2) USB tuners. The aerial is "clipped" to a curtain by using a small metal object that the bottom of the aerial is attracted to as it's magnetised with the element parallel to the floor to account for the horizontal polarisation of the signals from Truskmore (your local TX might differ).



Now as far as aerials for receiving go it's quite pathetic, but it works. What matters is that I have an almost clear 70km line of sight path between the transmitting aerial on the mast at Truskmore and the receiving aerial hanging off a curtain in the bedroom, and that the transmission power is of a significant enough strength that the signal received by my aerial is enough to be useful. In most cases however there are several variables that come into play.

The amplified aerials for TV reception sold in the likes of Argos are gimmicks - such aerials will only be beneficial over an unamplified indoor aerial in a very small number of cases, even less so in built up areas with man-made electrical interference. And in the cases when they do help, it's best that it amplifies just a little above the receiving threshold. "Up to 48db gain" is just nuts, but it will impress a lot of people who just look at that sentence and think that'll be a whole lot better than a massive outdoor aerial. I don't blame those people, we all have large blind spots outside what interests us, it's the likes of One4All who should be shot with their own ****e after putting that on the box.

For €45 you could put that towards the cost of a competent aerial installer, or even a small outdoor aerial plus a few metres of coax cable and a TV aerial plug (known in the trade as "Belling-Lee" plugs) for a bit less than that. A small low-profile log-periodic aerial can be placed somewhere out of sight like the top of a cupboard if it receives a signal OK there. You can then put the few Euro you then saved towards something like a drink or two or anything else to treat yourself with.

TAFKAlawhec

winston_1 wrote: »

Another VHF aerial. That is for FM or DAB radio, not TV which needs a UHF aerial.

Actually that aerial linked to will be perfectly fine for receiving UHF DVB-T broadcasts indoors presuming there is an adequate strength & quality of signal that it can pick up. On a simple level you'd just retract the elements as pictured and push them down so that they're parallel with the floor and that the tips face away from each other so you get a dipole. With a little bit of knowledge you could extend the elements and adjust them to form a half-rhombic shape that can give a little bit more directivity and/or signal gain, not much but can be useful in a few cases.

In any case, that rabbit ears aerial can't do VHF properly anyway as the two elements only extend out to 30cm so adding that along with the interior gap between them it might be able to be resonant at the very HF end of VHF Band III, so OK for some DAB transmissions in the 11x & 12x channels. It'll be nowhere near resonant for FM radio in VHF Band II.

As a €1.50 deal, it's as good as a suck it & see shot to see if indoor Saorview reception is possible. If it works fine, then great! If not then the amplified gimmick aerials are highly unlikely to work any better - you might get lucky with a better indoor aerial that looks like a mini outdoor version instead of the one bought in Dealz, and you'd be more likely to get a usable signal over the amplified gimmicks, but I would still not fancy the chances too much.

(Funnily enough I have that €1.50 aerial myself lying in a spare drawer, as it's the same one sold for £1 in Poundland, who happens to own Dealz.)

TAFKAlawhec

marno21 wrote: »

Anyone else think that the switching off of analogue TV by Virgin is a bad move that may cost them in the long run? I personally don't see the practicality of turning off a service that is likely widely used (even if not reflected by analogue subscription figures) to provide extra bandwidth which is of no use to most people.

I have 100Mbit broadband and I have never thought it to be slower. If I was offered 17 analogue channels or 200Mbit channels I would pick the first, it has significantly more utility.

The only issue I see is the length of notice given for the end of the service. A minimum of three months (six ideally) would have been enough time IMO for those affected to make adequate alternative arrangements before a local switch-off.

Other than that then it was always going to be a matter of when this service would eventually shut down. I'm actually a little surprised it lasted as long as it had done as I thought it would have lasted no more than a couple of years after terrestrial ASO in 2012.

There's also the question of service security - there was no real way of stopping people from watching the service that hadn't paid for it and received it incidentally e.g. as a broadband subscriber. In the cold light of day such "moochers" are of no concern to Virgin as they aren't paying for the service. However I would have suggested to VM about the possibility of sending a DVB-T multiplex or two down their network free-to-air containing most of the channels that are now being switched off from analogue in SD MPEG4 form. That way you at least keep such viewers who are losing the analogue service in the "ecosystem" whereby you release most of the bandwidth made available from analogue TV being switched off while for viewers a retune with their TV from analogue to digital instead will still allow them to view the likes of RTÉ, TG4, VM1/2/3 and maybe BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc. along with a couple of their sister stations that are otherwise FTA on satellite. That way you at least keep them on-net. If the tellys otherwise get hooked up to say a combo of Saorview & FTA satellite then for many the fuss of getting it changed again to go back to Virgin Media could put them off doing so. It's been practised for years by Sky to help keep otherwise lost subscribers by offering the base Irish terrestrial channels for €5 a month.

L1011

Reduction date finally on-screen in Maynooth - of Monday the 10th.

If weighing up SIRO/OpenEIR FTTH for 55 quid vs Virgin for 56 quid, the analogue channels definitely made the decision for many people.

Delta2113

EdgeCase wrote: »

It would have made a *lot* more sense to time the analogue switch off with a replacement for Horizon 1.0

If you have Horizon you are probably already gone all Digital with extra boxes etc.

Your not staying with Analogue waiting for a new Horizon.

Hotblack Desiato

On-screen message appears Friday about the service being slashed on Monday! How can they get away with giving paying customers so little notice? Not everyone will have read the letter; not everyone will have even received it.

Hotblack Desiato

EdgeCase wrote: »

It would have made a *lot* more sense to time the analogue switch off with a replacement for Horizon 1.0

So they can upgrade their digital customers and palm off the obsolete boxes on the analogue holdouts instead of scrapping them?

coylemj

Just spotted this new thread in the Talk To: Virgin Media Ireland forum. Note that it refers to 'cables' (plural) so there is a neighbourhood feed passing through the poster's garden......

Years ago we agreed for UPC to run cables through our garden in exchange for their basic TV package. This ended when virgin switched to digital. For 3 months and numerous phone calls we were promised a renewed service which never happened and now we would like virgin to remove their cables. How can we organise this as they are very unsightly and we'd like them gone as soon as possible.

https://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2057908914

L1011

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

On-screen message appears Friday about the service being slashed on Monday! How can they get away with giving paying customers so little notice? Not everyone will have read the letter; not everyone will have even received it.

It was up last night and may have been there a day or two before; I didn't check every day. However it was extremely short notice. No letter either.

Only haven't swapped over to my new Freesat+Saorview distribution system on that TV because of my partner watching ****e on Comedy Central. No choice about that from Monday!

Hotblack Desiato

Mother in law (D22) got the message on screen a few days ago, did not receive or does not remember receiving a letter, then panicked, my wife had to ring VM on her behalf as she's nearly deaf, she is getting sorted out with two digital boxes for less than the analogue sub she was paying (?!) but whether she'll be able to work them (she's in her 80s) is another question :mad: couldn't VM have left well enough alone?