Saorview Aerial

bluebird1

Living in Blanchardstown area and as Virgin about to end analogue service I did a bit of research and ended up buying this brilliant indoor aerial on Amazon.
No need for outdoor or loft aerial and receiving all Saorview channels perfectly. Just Google "RGTech Monarch 40 White" as not permitted to post url. They have them in black or transparent.

winston_1

That is not a brilliant aerial. It is a simple vertical unipole (it is probably best if horizontal anyway). You just happen to live in a strong signal area. A €2 aerial from a €2 shop would be better and a lot cheaper.

Digifriendly

winston_1 wrote: »

That is not a brilliant aerial. It is a simple vertical unipole (it is probably best if horizontal anyway). You just happen to live in a strong signal area. A €2 aerial from a €2 shop would be better and a lot cheaper.

While I have not tried this particular aerial out I am inclined to agree with this. If signal is very strong in first place a piece of wire or coat hanger will probably pull in a lot of channels.
I once got an aerial from Argos for a friend of mine that was similar to this though not the same. and my friend's house was actually less that 20 miles from the main transmitter (in his case Divis) and his house was not in a dip but on reasonably good position to receive Freeview stations yet the aerial (which IIRC cost c£40) was not able to bring in all the multiplexes. In fact its results were very disappointing and it even had a built in amplifier. i had to return it and get my money back. I realise I cannot generalise from my experience to others but for what it's worth lesson for me was 2 Fold:
(a) Aerial needs clear line of sight to transmitter if possible so generally better to have an external rooftop aerial.
(b) No amount of internal amplification (as distinct from masthead amplification) can make a poor signal good.

bluebird1

winston_1 wrote: »

That is not a brilliant aerial. It is a simple vertical unipole (it is probably best if horizontal anyway). You just happen to live in a strong signal area. A €2 aerial from a €2 shop would be better and a lot cheaper.

Hi ... Had tried a "One for All" type with gain adjustment and it was useless so this must be better than that. The online TV equipment providers usually state you need an outside aerial to receive Saorview. Thought it useful to suggest it as it's worked for me.

winston_1

If it had a gain adjustment it had an amplifier. Amplifiers on indoor aerials are a waste of time, money, and electricity. They just amplify the noise.
You just happen to live in a strong signal area.

Muahahaha

sorry to hijack but Im getting the message on the tv screen too saying the analogue service will be switched off on 7th May. Its just a 10 year old bedroom tv but I dont want to lose signal as its handy for football. Whats the cheapest way to make it receive a digital signal, there is already a standard tv socket in the wall which I presume is connected to the tv aeriel. Would an old Sky box receive a digital signal? Dont need any bells and whistles like series recording, just the tv signal.

Thurston?

Muahahaha wrote: »

... Im getting the message on the tv screen too saying the analogue service will be switched off on 7th May. Its just a 10 year old bedroom tv but I dont want to lose signal as its handy for football. Whats the cheapest way to make it receive a digital signal, there is already a standard tv socket in the wall which I presume is connected to the tv aeriel.

The analogue signal is from a Virgin cable connection, not a TV aerial.

You'll need to subscribe to get digital cable TV. If you want free broadcast TV, a UHF aerial for Irish channels (Saorview), & a satellite dish for UK TV, & of course something with the necessary tuners. (A Sky box is no use for Irish TV unless you subscribe.)

The Cush

Muahahaha wrote: »

Im getting the message on the tv screen too saying the analogue service will be switched off on 7th May. Its just a 10 year old bedroom tv but I dont want to lose signal as its handy for football.

Dublin 15 Virgin Media analogue cable switchoff May 7th - https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=106674306#post106674306
https://www.virginmedia.ie/switchoff

As Thurston mentioned above the cheapest would be to install an aerial, an internal aerial (attic) might work in Dublin. Check coverage here - https://www.saorview.ie/en/get/coverage

Also is your TV capable of receiving the Saorview signal? If not a separate box will be required. Post the model no. if unsure.

Saorview only carries the Irish channels, if you want the UK channels also - BBC, UTV, CH4 etc., a satellite receiver connected to a satellite dish will be required.

Muahahaha

Thurston? wrote: »

The analogue signal is from a Virgin cable connection, not a TV aerial.

You'll need to subscribe to get digital cable TV. If you want free broadcast TV, a UHF aerial for Irish channels (Saorview), & a satellite dish for UK TV, & of course something with the necessary tuners. (A Sky box is no use for Irish TV unless you subscribe.)

Ah right you are correct it is from a Virgin connection. However we dont have Virgin BB or TV, we switched over to Sky BB & TV about 6 months ago. Im guessing it is just an old NTL connection that never got switched off after the unsubscription.

What would be my options with Sky- get their multi-room add on? Does that involve an engineer calling out or is it self install?

Im kinda in a bind as to what to do as Im moving out of here in another 3 months so dont want to waste money. On the other hand I want my bedroom TV !

Finally I have an IPTV box lying somewhere- can these pick up Irish channels or only RTE Player?

The Cush

Muahahaha wrote: »

What would be my options with Sky- get their multi-room add on? Does that involve an engineer calling out or is it self install?

Do you currently have SkyQ or the older Sky box?

For multiroom no additional wiring is required for SkyQ, for the older Sky box a new cable is required from the dish to the multiroom box.

teileann

Would there be any problem putting an aerial in the attic as regards lightening? Would there be an added risk or not? I'd say the people installing the satellite dishes will be very busy in Dublin from 7th May. We are just going to keep the UPC broadband, get rid of phone which we really don't need and get a satellite dish when things settle down.

The Cush

teileann wrote: »

Would there be any problem putting an aerial in the attic as regards lightening? Would there be an added risk or not?.

No risk whatsoever.

Muahahaha

The Cush wrote: »

Do you currently have SkyQ or the older Sky box?

For multiroom no additional wiring is required for SkyQ, for the older Sky box a new cable is required from the dish to the multiroom box.

Thanks Cush. Yeah it is a Sky Q box I have in the living room but have no box at all in the bedroom. How do I go about setting up multi-room from the Sky Q box, do I have to ring Sky themselves? Is it still six or seven quid a month these days?

The Cush

Muahahaha wrote: »

Yeah it is a Sky Q box I have in the living room but have no box at all in the bedroom. How do I go about setting up multi-room from the Sky Q box, do I have to ring Sky themselves? Is it still six or seven quid a month these days?

Yes, contact Sky. They will provide the multiroom box which connects wirelessly to the main box. Don't know about price.

Muahahaha

Nice one Cush, thanks for that

greasepalm

Saorview aerial query as i have had an aerial in attic must be 10 years working on 3 rock but lately have had to use a usb one to use on box for signal.Wolsey powered amp with multiple feeds for other rooms when needed always gave issues when using triax boxes.
I think i need to upgrade my aerial but a bit confused on the different types needed.
Boxes have a power feed to aerial on or off and the aerial will be connected to the wolsey
Hopefully with your guidance i might get saorview working on everything again cheers.

The Cush

This aerial for 3Rock - http://www.freetv.ie/red-group-a-uhf-aerial/

Which transmitter does the coverage checker recommend for your location - https://www.saorview.ie/en/get/coverage

Recent thread here with similar issue - https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057866735

Check all connections and adjust aerial would be my initial steps.

greasepalm

Yes last night i viewed that page and saw red needed which is now confirmed.

Transmitter

SITE
INFORMATION

Site:
THREE ROCK

Site On-Air:
Yes

Channels:
30
, 33


AERIAL
INFORMATION

Polarization:
H

Direction to:
point (degrees)
South (180)

Distance:
7 km
To my memory previous box was dvb/t and used that aerial until format changed and box no longer cleared channels,signal strength changes as a few days very bad pixelation occurs.
Think i will start with new aerial that is for my area and go from there.thanks great info.

crossman47

The Cush wrote: »

Dublin 15 Virgin Media analogue cable switchoff May 7th - https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=106674306#post106674306
https://www.virginmedia.ie/switchoff

As Thurston mentioned above the cheapest would be to install an aerial, an internal aerial (attic) might work in Dublin. Check coverage here - https://www.saorview.ie/en/get/coverage

Also is your TV capable of receiving the Saorview signal? If not a separate box will be required. Post the model no. if unsure.

Saorview only carries the Irish channels, if you want the UK channels also - BBC, UTV, CH4 etc., a satellite receiver connected to a satellite dish will be required.

A similar query. I have Virgin digital connection for my main TV. I have a second TV in kitchen and would be happy to just get the Saorview channels. The TV is saorview ready. I am in Tallaght area but the direct line to Three Rock/Kippure is blocked by other houses. Is there any prospect of picking something up with a basic indoor aerial in the kitchen? If I attach one, what source should I look for? I see TV, Scart, etc and they all say no signal. Advice welcome. Thanks.

coylemj

crossman47 wrote: »

Is there any prospect of picking something up with a basic indoor aerial in the kitchen?

Yes there is but there's no guarantee. You don't have to be able to see the transmitter to get a signal on an indoor aerial. It certainly helps if you can see it and virtually guarantees that an indoor aerial will work but it's worth trying otherwise.

crossman47 wrote: »

If I attach one, what source should I look for? I see TV, Scart, etc and they all say no signal. Advice welcome. Thanks.

The source you'd select off the menu for an aerial is 'TV'. You need a UHF aerial and don't get anything that claims to amplify the signal - nothing with a power lead or batteries. Without an aerial attached, it will always say 'no signal'.

greasepalm

Might also note some tvs might need to be setup for use?

Randyleprechaun

Digifriendly wrote:

(a) Aerial needs clear line of sight to transmitter if possible so generally better to have an external rooftop aerial.



(b) No amount of internal amplification (as distinct from masthead amplification) can make a poor signal good.

(A) Not true in my opinion. A good aerial in an attic can receive perfect signals from transmitters 30, 40 and 50+km away. I haven't put one on a roof in years.

(B) Again, in my opinion, not true. Amplification won't bring in a better signal to your aerial. It will only help keep a good signal through out your distribution system

coylemj

greasepalm wrote: »

Might also note some tvs might need to be setup for use?

There's no 'might', all TVs have to be tuned to pickup the local terrestrial signal because the frequencies (UHF channels) used vary around the country.

greasepalm

i meant some tvs dont have ports like hdmi or scart to be setup before using boxes connected to that port and only/insert when units are powered off.

TAFKAlawhec

Randyleprechaun wrote: »

(A) Not true in my opinion. A good aerial in an attic can receive perfect signals from transmitters 30, 40 and 50+km away. I haven't put one on a roof in years.

(B) Again, in my opinion, not true. Amplification won't bring in a better signal to your aerial. It will only help keep a good signal through out your distribution system

(a) If an aerial is in an attic, then by design it is not line of sight as there is a solid obstacle between the transmission and receiving aerials. That's not to say it can't work, but I've never seen a scenario where an aerial mounted in an attic beats an outdoor, roof mounted one. With the attic the signal will attenuate depending on what material the wanted signal has to go through, the less loss being at right angles through a low-ish loss material at RF. If things like brick walls, aluminium lined insulation, various bit of metalwork get involved then the attenuation is probably worse.


But as I said earlier, it's not to say that aerials in attics can't work - they certainly can if the impediments are not of big significance. I've a group C/D UHF aerial in my attic to pick up Truskmore DVB-T, unamplified, over 70km away with the signal nearly at right angles through clay tiles. In fact, I can pick it up with one of those tiny stick aerials often supplied with USB TV/radio tuners in my bedroom clipped to a curtain facing Truskmore. The main thing here that works is that my home has line of sight of the transmitter aerials - now I can't visibly see the mast over that distance but there are no obstacles in the way of the transmission path, and Truskmore pumps out enough power to cover the distance to reach even a simple receive aerial. (Image assumes RX aerial at 5 metres AGL with the UHF aerial array on the mast at Truskmore being 170 metres AGL).




(b) Digifriendly is correct. Signal quality relies on achieving a good signal to noise ratio. From the point the coax connects to the aerial it starts losing signal strength and if by the time it reaches the tuner the noise floor of the wanted signal is lower than that of the tuner, the signal to noise ratio will be degraded. The best way to maintain the signal to noise ratio received at the aerial is to mount amplification reasonably close to it - the amp boosts the received signal with its noise below it (albeit adding a little noise of its own) so that ideally by the time the coax reaches the tuner the noise level from the coax output is still higher than that of the tuner and the signal to noise ratio is largely maintained. In some cases a distribution amplifier that is only a couple of meters from an aerial could work OK for the job at hand. But if it didn't matter where along the coax cable the amplifier was then set-back amplifiers would have been much easier to have that a masthead one - but an amplifier can't make a ****ty signal at its input be less ****ty at its output. It can't recover what isn't there.

greasepalm

I had reset up boxes after moving them around and notice i get a no signal on dvb/t,i have or my neighbour has a massive tree in full leaf now possibly blocking my signal from attic aerial possibly 30 metres away so presuming line of sight to 3rock is gone.

greasepalm

Do attic aerials need a clear view of mountain as trees to me block my sight or i might move indoor aerial up there as i could do with multiple feeds working.

Thurston?

greasepalm wrote: »

Do attic aerials need a clear view of mountain as trees to me block my sight or i might move indoor aerial up there as i could do with multiple feeds working.

If there's effectively no signal getting into your attic, there's not much point having an aerial there. Is the whole attic screened from the transmitter by the trees, or could the aerial be moved to a better location?

greasepalm

Dam trees now block very wide arch so no reposition of aerial would seem feesable but might move my indoor one up there and plumb it in as i was going to buy another outdoor aerial to try but those trees worry me.

crossman47

crossman47 wrote: »

A similar query. I have Virgin digital connection for my main TV. I have a second TV in kitchen and would be happy to just get the Saorview channels. The TV is saorview ready. I am in Tallaght area but the direct line to Three Rock/Kippure is blocked by other houses. Is there any prospect of picking something up with a basic indoor aerial in the kitchen? If I attach one, what source should I look for? I see TV, Scart, etc and they all say no signal. Advice welcome. Thanks.

I posed this initial question. Firstly, I made the mistake of not retuning from analogue to digital so it is no surprise I got no signal. However, having done that, I now get excellent reception using a basic indoor aerial in the kitchen even though line of sight to transmitters is completely blocked.

Mint Sauce

Muahahaha wrote: »

sorry to hijack but Im getting the message on the tv screen too saying the analogue service will be switched off on 7th May. Its just a 10 year old bedroom tv but I dont want to lose signal as its handy for football. Whats the cheapest way to make it receive a digital signal, there is already a standard tv socket in the wall which I presume is connected to the tv aeriel. Would an old Sky box receive a digital signal? Dont need any bells and whistles like series recording, just the tv signal.

An old sky box, or a generic sat Box, will give you the FTA UK Stations if you have a dish. If you are in view of a local transmitter, a coat hanger could nearly give the Irish Stations, assuming the TV has a receiver built in. A socket on the wall does not mean its connected to an ariel.

greasepalm

Wondering if i could use a 5-1000mhz 3 way splitter for a single cable feed to serve tv,saorview box and a combo e2 receiver?

The Cush

greasepalm wrote: »

Wondering if i could use a 5-1000mhz 3 way splitter for a single cable feed to serve tv,saorview box and a combo e2 receiver?

Yes, provided the signal is good enough to split 3 ways, otherwise a 3 output distribution amp will be required.

Thurston?

greasepalm wrote: »

Wondering if i could use a 5-1000mhz 3 way splitter for a single cable feed to serve tv,saorview box and a combo e2 receiver?

So you've sorted the signal issue? Don't you already have a distribution amplifier in place?

greasepalm

Going up there shortly to see if indoor aerial fixes it but the distribution amp was for 1 feed per room and now that more stuff was added as in boxes would need more feeds.

hahah no picture with indoor aerial up there.
attic aerial is triax typ 108390 k/ch gr.w elm14 0906 >transmitter

greasepalm

Getting lazy as not fixed it,Ahh distrubution amp as mine is quite old i wondered what you guys might use.
Funny thing many times i get no signal on rte1 hd but rte2 hd works with rabbits ears,mainly it was the same for aerial in the loft hence now maybe i need a newer advanced one.

Found this.
https://www.freetv.ie/8-way-tv-amplifier-with-bypass/

Thurston?

greasepalm wrote: »

... distrubution amp as mine is quite old i wondered what you guys might use.
Funny thing many times i get no signal on rte1 hd but rte2 hd works with rabbits ears,mainly it was the same for aerial in the loft hence now maybe i need a newer advanced one.

Unless you're using something with vacuum tubes in it, you're not going to find 'newer more advanced', except maybe some filtering for phone signals, but I'd doubt that's your problem.

Did you try re-siting the aerial?

greasepalm

Actually i found more info as my old triax has no filtering and possibly out of date with all this new stuff getting picked up also looking at the latest labgear distribution amp with protection.I have also been told better to have outdoor aerial so that means an installer to fit it up high.Another thing is neighbour has high trees that need topping which can also degrade signals.
What was great 30 years ago like coaxial cable may not be suitable for new installs due to interference and signal loss.
First thing to get will be a newer aerial and try in loft again before i get an installer out or buy the amp.
Many thanks all feedback is good and learning all the time.

Thurston?

greasepalm wrote: »

... First thing to get will be a newer aerial and try in loft again before i get an installer out or buy the amp.

I'd just get the installer straight away, & not waste time or money trying 'newer' aerials or amps yourself.

greasepalm

Everywhere on holidays until the 2nd/3rd jan even my installer,ex member on Boards.

greasepalm

I dropped over to Satworld to have a chat and was told many people are having issues with saorview signal as with rte1 hd been lowered and he advised he has been fitting updated signal booster.

https://antiference.co.uk/product/75-series-masthead-amplifiers/

i bought the mhk8lte model

He also mentioned my triax aerial should be ok as was not the issue but the wolsey amp was.

The Cush

greasepalm wrote: »

I dropped over to Satworld to have a chat and was told many people are having issues with saorview signal as with rte1 hd been lowered

People are told whatever to make a sale, note the lack of posts here on this so called signal reduction.

greasepalm

Strange as its only on my rte1 hd i see it happening but not happening with my indoor aerial on other tvs but if that works ok i will remove all the other plugged in booster aerials.He was only going to sell me a 4 way one but wanted more outlets.

greasepalm

Finally got up there to the loft triax aerial refitted and antiference masthead amp,rte and others now working in the kitchen now to do bedroom and others.