Is UK Freesat a viable and practical option with 7MC?

[mark1234]

Hi,

Having (as per my other thread) finally caught up and bought a HDTV, I'm re-evaluating my TV requirements. Whilst analogue capture from Virgin in SD was perfectly fine on a SDTV, it sucks big time on a HDTV. I'm considering Freesat as a replacement and wondered if it is a viable and practical option with 7MC, or am I just opening myself to a whole new world of pain? How much guide data is missing? Is 7MC by itself enough, or will I need DVBlink? Anything else I should be aware of?

Cheers.

[dduk]

Hi,

Having (as per my other thread) finally caught up and bought a HDTV, I'm re-evaluating my TV requirements. Whilst analogue capture from Virgin in SD was perfectly fine on a SDTV, it sucks big time on a HDTV. I'm considering Freesat as a replacement and wondered if it is a viable and practical option with 7MC, or am I just opening myself to a whole new world of pain? How much guide data is missing? Is 7MC by itself enough, or will I need DVBlink? Anything else I should be aware of?

Cheers.

I can't comment on Freesat, but with regards to guide data, DVB Logic have just released their plugin for digiguide. I've been using it with freeview channels for a week or so now and it's picked up everything. It's a purchase in itself, and requires a ~£3pa subscription to Digiguide's premium services. Unfortunately it also shows off-air periods as 'no data available'.

[milli260876]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/epgcollector/

try this with it, free and outstanding set up a scheduled task and it brings in the freesat tables and (i think) the ?mheg? freeview one.. i don't use the freeview one as my guide has always been fine... (emley moor)

[holidayboy]

Freesat is definitely viable Mark, I live in a fairly bad area for Freeview reception and ditched $ky years ago.

DVBLink is only really necessary if you want to take advantage of streaming live TV, or getting $ky paid for channels into your guide.

Most mainstream channels have MS guide data (you need to manually assign some and it can sometimes be easier to use guidetool in order to use Freeview data).

Some of the Freesat - only "movie" channels need other sources of data, as do some of the CBS channels and other stuff that I simply remove from the guide anyway.

The EPGCollector option works well for some channels but I think that Digiguide is the only option in order to get guide data for every channel.

If you enable mheg for dvb-s then you even get fairly good red button support on BBC One (and One HD).

[mark1234]

Thanks for the replies guys. Good to know that this will work. If I do go this way I'll probably try using DVB Logic; I have a licence key from Ian Dixon that I'm not using currently, so it wouldn't cost anything.

Not sure what I'm going to do yet. The options are to get Virgin Tivo, switch to Freesat, or stick as I am (even though it's rubbish - just for financial reasons).

Switching to Sky isn't an option as I'd have to switch to cruddy ADSL as well and there ain't no way I'm dropping to that from the 60Mb broadband that Virgin have just promised to upgrade me to!

[dduk]

the 60Mb broadband that Virgin have just promised to upgrade me to!

I'm rather excited about this. They've even confirmed their doubling their throttling limit too - great.

I'd go down the Freesat/DVB Logic route. Especially with the rumours of the new Xbox with live TV stuff in it possibly to be announced at E3.

[StumpyBloke]

Switchin to Sky isn't an option as I'd have to switch to cruddy ADSL as well and there ain't no way I'm dropping to that from the 60Mb broadband that Virgin have just promised to upgrade me to!

Why would you have to ditch Virgin?

[mark1234]

OK, so I wouldn't have to, it's just that it is a lot cheaper to get broadband/tv/phone as a bundle from the same supplier than it is splitting it up. I'm not looking to increase my monthly bill. If I was I'd probably already have the Tivo.

[WarrenH]

Dumped Sky - 1000 channels of repeats, installed BT Vision, costs nothing, dual tuner Freeview DVR, iPlayer, and loads of streaming stuff for free, including complete series from US vendors, and any streaming doesn't count toward your broadband usage. Sky Sports also available at low cost. New movies available for rental.
Ps I don't have any affiliation with BT, it's just that this is the best kept secret out there.

[mark1234]

Thanks Warren. The biggest problem with BT Vision is that it sits on top of Freeview, which I have rubbish reception of. It works fine one day, nothing the next, and repeat.

Is their Vision+ box good for Freeview HD?

[bobbob]

BT Vision, only two sports channels and no HD? no thanks....

[WarrenH]

Bobob, yes but it's zero not £70 a month.
Mark, yes, no HD - but realistically, are the 3 available freesat HD channels worth the money considering what else you get for free? After all it's BBC and ITV in HD, not exactly a deal-breaker.

[mark1234]

Well, ITV in whatever form it comes has no appeal to me whatsoever!

But I'm not looking at Freeview because to fix my reception problems I'd need to get a professionally fitted aerial - at the moment I just have one in the attic with 40yr old wiring. That's about £150, which is about the same price as having a dish fitted. As Freesat has more channels than Freeview, Freesat is actually the better deal even without considering HD.

[cw-kid]

So is it good then BT Vision ? I have a BT phone line and Infinity fibre Internet Connection but I didn't bother getting the TV. I think it would only cost me a few pounds extra per month to get it. Currently just have Freeview OTA.

[milli260876]

Well, ITV in whatever form it comes has no appeal to me whatsoever!

But I'm not looking at Freeview because to fix my reception problems I'd need to get a professionally fitted aerial - at the moment I just have one in the attic with 40yr old wiring. That's about £150, which is about the same price as having a dish fitted. As Freesat has more channels than Freeview, Freesat is actually the better deal even without considering HD.

You could buy a log periodic aerial for £25 ish fit it yourself, has switchover happened in your area? the signal is 25 times stronger post switchover so at a guess pointing in the general direction of the transmitter and fiddling with it will sort you out.
BTW i'd fit my own sky dish too it's easy, get a £10 satellite signal meter and you're sorted... then you have freeview and freesat. jobs a gud en....

[tommo]

Just like to add... Don't pay to have an aerial or dish installed unless you're petrified of heights.

Buy a decent aerial or dish (most ones installers use are crap unless you specify), some decent satellite cable and if you're installing a satellite a £10 sat finder as mentioned above will be fine.

Last time I checked a decent High gain antenna was around £40 and then add a few quid for a longer pole if you need it.

Also if you do it yourself you can route the coax cable exactly where you want it to go.

[mark1234]

Thanks guys.

I've already upgraded the aerial myself; used a compass (a real one, not my phone) to make sure it's pointing the right way; and digital switchover happened last September with a further power boost in October. I even had Freeview working OK for a while, but not anymore. I'm only getting consistent reception on one mux, but it's one of the pointless ones (whichever one has 4Music on). The rest have gone AWOL.

I would stongly consider self installing a dish, except... If I stick it on the front of the house it will have a clear line of sight to the satellite, but it will upset the wife, me and the council - which matters because I live in a conservation area and am supposed to get permission to put a dish up. If I stick it on the side of the house then all three parties should be slightly less upset, but there is a great whacking tree in the way of the signal. So my thought was to have it put on the chimney stack at the back of the house where it will have no obstructions and won't be visible to all but the most determined. But that means roof height and that's beyond my comfort level.

[dduk]

I too am in a conservation area, so no sat dish or aerial. My aerial is located in my loft with an interrupted line of site to the transmitter many miles away. Pre-switch over freeview was bad. Post switchover, it was still bad.

In fact, it was acceptable during the day, but in the evening the signal on any MUX would keep pixelating. I tolerated it for years until a new neighbour moved in and asked if all of the other neighbours had the same issue - up until that point, everyone was suffering in silence. It turns out we were all getting the same problem, at exactly the same time during the day (evening - morning).

Said neighbour was an expert in such things as he works for Arqiva. He looked into the situation and diagnosed one of the street lights on the development as the cause of the trouble. The offending light was deactivated and instantly everyone's signal was restored. Something in the lamp was creating interference. Once it was deactivated and replaced, everything was sweet.

Could a similar problem be affecting you, Mark?

[tony_park]

When we moved house 2 years ago, we installed a new sat dish, but I couldn't for the life of me, get a signal - turned out that the sat finder needed a 9v battery attached, but the finder I bought didn't have a lead to attach one...

We asked a local installer to come and sort it, they offered to install the dish for £40 wherever we needed it - suspect if we'd have specified on the chimney they may have charged slightly more, but would expect to pay around £60 for it.

Its worth asking a few local installers.

The dish I bought was a fair sized one - think 60cm from satcure, along with a nice long 100m wt100 sat cable, and an octo lnb.

Tony

[mark1234]

Just a catch up here. With the death of my 7MC machine, as per my other thread, we were pushed into considering our options here. We've decided to stick with Virgin cable, as we have currently, at the moment. We even considered going with an all streaming solution, but actually the current experience without 7MC at all has put us off that - trying to remember what to watch and within what timeframe is painful compared to the convenience of the Recorded TV view. Freesat was probably second choice in the end, but once we worked everything out, the saving to be had by dropping Virgin wasn't that great, and we would lose a couple of channels that the wife watches a lot - Alibi and Watch.

So, all in all we decisively decided not to change anything!

Thanks for all your inputs guys.