Will RTE be on freeview lite?

johnsmi

Hi folks,

Furtther to an earlier thread of mine I forgot to ask if there is any certainty yet that both rte 1 and 2 and tg4 will be on freeview lite in the north?

I have read conflicting reports that it will be, reason that I am asking is that it would save on buying a few saorview boxes for tv's around the house.

Not too bothered about tv3 but having rte on freview lite would be a good bonus.

I'm in the derry/londonderry area.

Thanks for any info.

John

steveymp

I have just this weekend set up my freeview HD box in the house (Stroke City/ Waterside) and get perfect Saorview, all 14 channels (RTE1, Net 2 HD, TV3, 3e, News and a few radio channels). The Network 2 HD is particularly stunning in 1080p :T

Any TV that has freeview HD inbuilt will pick up Saorview as it is broadcast in MPEG4 as opposed to MPEG2 by ordinary Freeview. Most if not all Samsungs, Sharps and LG TV's have this in built even if they aren't freeview HD but just normal Freeview TV's.

If your TV hasn't this inbuilt just buy a UK Freeview HD box with HDMI connection and your flying. You will get UK Freeview HD when it starts in October from Sheriffs Mountain and Saorview with the same big aerial.

EDIT: mine even works from the attic as I have line of sight to both transmitters.

johnsmi

Thanks Steve, I do have a plasma with as you say built in freeview HD and it gets perfect saorview, upstairs in house, not enough room for it downstairs and its another family members so can't move it.

Now the old probably 6 /7 year crt philips downstairs has a built in freeview but only a few radio stations on it.

Thats why I am asking if and when freeview starts in the city here will rte be on it as well, though I take it from your response if it was I wouldn't be able to get rte 2 HD.

3 tv's in all, 2 downstairs with sky box and magic eyes, just wondering if I invested in a freeview HD box, is there a way to connect it all up through the sky magic eye cable, leaves main tv downstairs goes upstairs though loft and then down to 2 second tv downstairs?

That way I would only have to buy one freeview HD box to get saorview and uk channels.

Thanks for info.

john

steveymp

RTE will I think have a restricted broadcast on Freeview for NI similar to what Sky carries at present due to Good Friday Agreement etc.... We are in the lucky position of having an RTE transmitter right next to us and so will get full Saorview providing we have an MPEG 4 TV or box:T

For old analogue TV I had 2 Aerials, one for BBC and one for RTE, the signal is now so good from the RTE transmitter that my BBC high gain aerial will pick up Saorview brilliantly:T

You can buy a freeview HD box that has an RF output, I'm guessing that you send an RF output from your existing skybox throughout the house to get it on all 3 TV's. The freeview box should work exactly the same if it has an RF output as well as an input from the aerial. Tesco's own brand Technika have 2 freeview HD box's one for £40 and one for £50. Have a look at either in the store and make sure either has an RF output and your sorted.

Remember come October the RTE and BBC transmitter will only broadcast Saorview / Freeview and the signal strength on both will be boosted. A cheap indoor set top aerial should pick up both perfectly:T I have picked up Saorview perfectly in Altnagelvin Hospital with a coat hanger:)

esson1

Has anyone managed to pick up saorview in Belfast ?

damianmcr

John your older tv wont be able to pick it up as it doesnt have Freeview HD just normal Freeview. All Saorview channels are transmitted is it in MPEG4, anyway the point is that on Freeview HD can display this. The old Freeview boxs can only decode MPEG2.

damianmcr

Also my parents pick up great signal on their Saorview in Dungiven.

yorkie98

To answer the OPs question which appears to be unanswered with any clarity, RTE channels will NOT be part of Freeview Lite. It is however expected that a large proportion of NI will be able to receive RTE either directly via overspill reception from the ROI or from the Freeview "RTE mini-mux" which will be available in some areas (these details are still not yet finalised).

I think there are unlikely to be many people receiving Saorview directly in Belfast at the moment as the transmissions from Claremont Carn are nulled in the northerly direction to prevent interference to existing transmitters. On Oct 24th, this null will be removed, the power increased and the frequency will be changed. This should give good Soarview reception to most where adequate analogue reception is currently possible.
As mentioned previously, a Freeview HD or Mpeg4 compatible TV will be required to decode the Soarview signal.

Whynot

Hiya John all I can say is I am in Derry and have been picking up all the RTE stations perfectly well since before Christmas including TV3 and 3E with perfect pictures and at no time is anything scrambled. I hope this helps.

scenicavalon

So, just to help me get my head round this. I have a 3 year old Panasonic with built in Freeview decoder, plain Vanilla, not HD. I therefore will be unable to get RTE because it is not a Freeview HD decoder. Am I right?....:(

D.A.

Yes, you're right. You'll need a Freeview HD box to receive RTE1, RTE2 and TG4 on Freeview.

If you have a Saorview box (and a signal obviously!), you'll be able to receive all the Saorview channels.