Options for pensioner

Hodors Appletart

Hello, I hope this is the correct forum for this question

My mother has a sizable bill with VM and wants to cancel her account, but still wishes to have a TV service, I'm aware of scenarios where people have the Irish and UK FTA channels (my father in law has this) - however my mother mentioned that she'd like the ability to record the soaps as she isn't always around at 7.30pm

Does such an option exist? Would it be pricey?

phildin

Yes, lot's of options exist. There'll be a one time fee to cover installation of a satellite dish + aerial and a box to replace your current VM box. I'd guess in the €300 - €400 range. The recording is totally fine, just make sure the installer knows that this is what you want. They might recommend a box with a built in hard drive (HDD) which will add a little on to the cost. Just search for saorview installers and you should find plenty of them. You should get RTE, Virgin Media, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and various other channels. It's probably worth letting the installer know which channels you want and in what order otherwise you'll end up with hundreds of junk channels.

One thing to watch out for is that over time the channels can hop around so you will occasionally need to re-tune the box; that's something you don't have to worry about with paid subscriptions but overall I find it worth the small hassle.

Electric Nitwit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120435672#Comment_120435672

I was actually reading this looking for advice myself but... if they're on VM are they on the VM Player? If so, something simple like a NowTV stick would give her catch up on the soaps without needing to record, and she'd have the hang of it really quickly.

ETA: just had a quick look for a link and see the Now TV sticks have been discontinued 🙈

I actually have a spare gathering dust that I picked up when they had a good sports offer. If you're interested, PM me, I'll post it to you

galtee boy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120434662#Comment_120434662

I would suspect that his mother wants/needs a box that can record with series link etc, other than complicated boxes that need software plugins etc installed for 7 day epg and series link and nobody is selling these boxes ready to plug and play, what are her options ?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058290898/options-for-pensioner

Freesat (from the Astra satellite at 28.2E) boxes are available at Argos UK (available in Northern Ireland), starting at £199. Since it's the soaps she wants and they are on BBC & ITV, you wouldn't need recording ability for the Irish channels as a consequence. Freesat only allows recording of UK channels. For the Irish channels (from the Saorview platform) you would need an aerial installed.

https://www.freesat.co.uk/get-freesat/set-top-boxes/recordable-4k-tv-box

Hodors Appletart

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120435431#Comment_120435431

yeah, this. It needs to be as simple as possible (the soaps she watches are the ITV ones, which are also on VM1) - just something that someone will install, and it's ready to go

phildin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120435431#Comment_120435431

@galtee boy I assume most boxes would have the ability to add a timer with a repeat function which is what I was thinking of for the recording. If you're talking about something that's smart enough to inspect the EPG and use that to figure out recordings then that's something outside of my knowledge.

Hodors Appletart

Thanks for your generous offer, but I'm looking for a "feee" option, something with no ongoing fee.