Virgin turning off analogue tv early June

Frank

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Hi all

No doubt not the only one that got the letter from virgin that they are turning off the analogue 16 channels next month.

I have digital in the sitting room but the connections to the bedroom and kitchen are just the analogue.

I know I can get 2 more boxes for an extra 11 each a month, more money

What are the feeling on alternatives?

Sky / Saorview etc.
 
What a pain. For one thing, analogue TV needs only one power socket. Now will need one for the TV and one for the digital box. Not efficient.
 
We only have analogue. Three TV's in house. Two used. We also have two old fashioned perfectly functioning TV video recorders. We are happy with our system.

Our TV points are on the opposite side of the room to our phone cables where we have a separate provider for our internet.

I already sussed out satellite TV. Installer said he would have to run cables through our house to connect TV's or throw a cable over the roof to connect with TV on opposite side of our house from dish. He didn't want to run a cable through our attic space.
 
My late mum and I were on Virgin Analogue, and Mum was a terror for keeping bills in credit, LOTS of credit!.

It only ran out in November, Three years and four months after her death!.

Anyway, when looking for alternatives, I was told of Bill Free TV. I had never heard of it!. I had it installed by a Dublin company, and absolutely LOVE it!. An initial outlay for the dish, boxes, and installation, and nothing afterwards. The technician was in and out in less than two and a half hours.

All of my favourite channels, and dozens more!.

Might be worth a look for some of you. I certainly recommend it highly.

Darth.
 
Anyway, when looking for alternatives, I was told of Bill Free TV.

Bill Free TV are just one of a number of companies installing free-to-air equipment. If you're handy, it's an easy enough DIY job, and full self-install packs start a little over [broken link removed].

~€100-150 will buy you a box with two satellite tuners and a Saorview digital tuner so that can tune in and record any of the FreeSat and Saorview channels on the one box, with recording, live pause, etc. available if you add a USB drive.
 
~€100-150 will buy you a box with two satellite tuners and a Saorview digital tuner so that can tune in and record any of the FreeSat and Saorview channels on the one box, with recording, live pause, etc. available if you add a USB drive.
Assuming you have a dish and you can actually put one up. No use to the aportment dwellers.
 
Thank you for that, Leo.

Sorry, I should have checked that I wasn't inadvertently promoting a particular company. I was using 'Bill Free TV' in it's generic sense, and it was actually a totally different Dublin company that I used!. Apologies!.

The apartment dwellers issue, sorry. I confess that I never thought of that!. I hadn't thought of the eysore a plethera of dishes attatched to the block would be!.

Hope you all get sorted very soon (and not at an extortionate price!).

Darth.
 
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Bill Free TV are just one of a number of companies installing free-to-air equipment. If you're handy, it's an easy enough DIY job, and full self-install packs start a little over [broken link removed]. ~€100-150 will buy you a box with two satellite tuners and a Saorview digital tuner so that can tune in and record any of the FreeSat and Saorview channels on the one box, with recording, live pause, etc. available if you add a USB drive.

Do you know if both a satellite dish and Saorview aerial needed for the install?

And if you have multiple TVs, if each has their own tuner box can they watch different satellite channels?

My folks have two TVs, still in analogue ("community aerial") world and if they have to go digital probably makes more sense to go with a once off option like this than digital with Virgin.
 
Do you know if both a satellite dish and Saorview aerial needed for the install?

Yes, different signal types, so dish & aerial required. An internal aerial may work for Saorview depending on where you are, but if you're installing a dish, you can add a suitable digital terrestrial aerial to the bracket and run the cables together.

And if you have multiple TVs, if each has their own tuner box can they watch different satellite channels?

Yes, you'll need a separate feed on the sat dish LNB for each tuner in the box (to record one sat channel while watching another requires two tuners & two cables). LNBs supporting 8 feeds are common.
 
Hi
My analog tv signal switched off on May 7th
I’m with Virgin Media...I have only broadband&phone for €56/mth and to get digital tv they want €89/month...
Is any better/cheap way to get few channels as before?? I don’t watch irish tv too often as I have satellite dish@ receiver from my homecountry
Tks
 
Looking at three unlimited BB 30pm and Sky Q as alternatives 47.20 pm and one off fee.

even with 3 rooms covered on variety option no movies or sport it comes to 77 plus 125 one off fee so 87 per month

Cheaper than virgin

It all depends on if three BB is any good.
Anyone using it?
Can I borrow a router to test the signal the map says 4G inside but the proof is in the surfing.
 
I got the note to say that they were switching off the Analogue TV on 7 August.

My only reason for being with Virgin is that I get analogue radio. When I enquired about cancelling, they came back and told me that the analogue radio is not being switched off - just the TV.

Brendan
 
We got a letter this week saying that they are reducing the number of stations to 9 this middle August but they won't be turning off the analogue until 2019. The 9 stations that we will have are basically some Saor View plus BBC1 and Sky News.

I have paid my subscription for the full set of Analogue channels until the end of the year.
 
I have digital in the sitting room but the connections to the bedroom and kitchen are just the analogue.

I know I can get 2 more boxes for an extra 11 each a month, more money

All my connections (3) are analogue. Each has a video recorder to go with each TV.

Am I right in saying that if I go with digital, I get a box that can record multiple shows at the same time?

Would I even need the other TV's in the other rooms. There are only two of us in the house and we only have the other TV's to record programmes that are on at the same time?
 
Am I right in saying that if I go with digital, I get a box that can record multiple shows at the same time?

Yes, I have the Horizon Box and it's very good. You can record multiple programmes simultaneously. And you can watch one while recording the other. You won't need a DVD recorder much. It will be useful if you want to keep a copy of the programme permanently.

The Hard Drive on the box holds a lot of stuff. But if you switch from Virgin or from the box, you will lose what you have recorded.

Brendan
 
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