UPC TV or Satellite Dish?

I

IsleOfMan

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I have the basic TV package from UPC. It is so basic it is not advertised anymore. Basic channels provided through the old cable system. Two other room viewing TV points charged at €85 per annum for the two. Suits me I don't need 50+ stations

My bill for 2014 with UPC has increased to €415 for everything. (broadband + phone line paid separately with Eircom).

I assume that if I put a satellite dish on the roof of my house I should be able to capture all the regular TV channels plus many more for free? Am I right in thinking this or can some of these be blocked?

There will be an upfront cost but thereafter free TV?

Are there any receivers out there that can be placed in an attic space rather than on a roof?

I would welcome first hand information from those who have installed their own dishes and recommendations.
 
sounds like you are paying way too much for your UPC service. Their current basic bundle is about €55 which includes TV, Phone and Broadband. I dont know what they charge for extra TV points, but it cant be that much. You should phone UPC, ask to be put through to the customer loyalty section, see what offer they can give you.

Freesat is a good option also. It will give you a lot of rubbish, but will also give you BBC, UTV, C4 etc. As the last poster says, you will also need Saorview via an aerial to get RTE, Tv3, etc.

remember, if you want the satellite channels in your other rooms you will need a satellite decoder for these TV's also.
 
Freeview is only available in limited areas in Ireland.

Saorview gives you the Irish Stations (aerial + Saorview Tuner)
Freesat gives you the Uk stations. (sat disk and decoder box)

But its not as slick or combined as it is with Sky or UPC. Though you might have or get TV or box with combine a Saorview and Freesat decoder, or just one of them.

Consider though, if you get broadband with UPC, you might find enough on say netflix or now TV, or the internet not to need a lot of other stations.
 
Also, if you sign up for phone and broadband only with UPC, you can still get 17 stations (BBC1/2, UTV, C4, RTE1/2/Three/TG4, and a half-dozen others like Sky News and e4, all in analog admittedly) by simply putting a splitter on the cable to connect it both to the router and to the back of the telly. They don't advertise this either.

I pay about €40/month for phone and 50Mb broadband and between these few channels and the likes of Netflix/Filmon.tv the critters get more than enough choice of dross. Anything I want to watch can usually be found online, and I have an old Sky box connected to a satellite dish to fall back on.

Head over to bonkers.ie and see what's available in your area. Even if you want a wider range of digital channels than are available between Saorview and Free-to-air you should be able to save a fair bit of money compared to your current spend.
 
DrMoriarty said:
Also, if you sign up for phone and broadband only with UPC, you can still get 17 stations (BBC1/2, UTV, C4, RTE1/2/Three/TG4, and a half-dozen others like Sky News and e4, all in analog admittedly) by simply putting a splitter on the cable to connect it both to the router and to the back of the telly. They don't advertise this either.

I pay about €40/month for phone and 50Mb broadband and between these few channels and the likes of Netflix/Filmon.tv the critters get more than enough choice of dross.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify. You have a phone and broadband service only with UPC. No TV service but who/how do you connect a splitter to effectively get 17 free stations?
 
ParkLane said:
Just to clarify. You have a phone and broadband service only with UPC. No TV service but who/how do you connect a splitter to effectively get 17 free stations?
Click to expand...

It's not usually worthwhile for UPC to physically disconnect the cable, and this carries an unencrypted analogue signal.
You need something like
two_way_splitter_class_A.jpg


and
 
...and a couple of these, plus a metre or two of extra cable, to connect to the back of the telly:
fconn.jpg

Your local Maplin store (or any TV/electrical dealer, including www.satellite.ie, from whose website the pictures are linked) should have one for a few euro.
 
Anyone know where to get a reliable company to supply and fit dish and aerial?
I think U.P.C. are now too expensive for basic channels.
 
lowspender said:
Anyone know where to get a reliable company to supply and fit dish and aerial?
I think U.P.C. are now too expensive for basic channels.
Click to expand...

Good question - recommendations for Dublin area would be most welcome.

Only problem would be wall-mounted TV in kitchen with NO visible cables at present. I really don't want to spoil the look with cables running to a new box. Any recommendations for wireless connnections to/from a box would be most welcome too.
 
Hi ParkLane,

We ditched UPC tv about 18 months ago and went with a combi-box which has all the Irish & UK channels in the one box (otherwise you would have 2 separate boxes which would be a pain when switching stations). As we had a Sky dish previously we were able to use that as our dish. All in it cost approx 300e fitted. The box we have lets you pause & rewind live TV (you need to add your own external hard drive for this) and also play any xvid/avi/mp4 files you download from the internet.

The pluses for us are obviously cost - no bills. Also, some of the UK channels at HD and the quality is better than what we got on UPC.

The downside is the inability to add the Sky stations, such as Sky Sports for the Heineken Cup.

For us, the pros far outweigh the cons.

We still have our broad-band with UPC as nothing really compares to be honest.

Firefly.
 
Firefly....did you just use 1 of the TV companies that advertise these type of installations in the likes of the Southside echo for example?

Also, is there a cheaper broadband option than UPC/eircom/Sky? I'm no expert on the technology but could you use mobile broadband and just plug it into your home laptop/PC for much cheaper if you were'nt into heavy internet usage such as gaming or movie downloads?

It sickens me to see adverts on English TV for the likes of BT broadband for £10 a month incl free BT sports. We really are ripped off on that front in this country
 
Delboy said:
Also, is there a cheaper broadband option than UPC/eircom/Sky? I'm no expert on the technology but could you use mobile broadband and just plug it into your home laptop/PC for much cheaper if you were'nt into heavy internet usage such as gaming or movie downloads?

It sickens me to see adverts on English TV for the likes of BT broadband for £10 a month incl free BT sports. We really are ripped off on that front in this country
Click to expand...


That is my situation, so got rid of sky and got a combo box arivia 120, soarview aerial in attic and kept using my meteor mobile BB which gives me fairly good 3g signal in my area so fairly reliable. Also got a student rate in September, of only €10 per month, billpay, for 20gb allowance, I don't even use 3gb a month. They offer this every september in their shops, its not advertised as such, aimed at students but all comers welcome.
 
thanks Pudds, thats the kind of thing I'm talking about. Will look into it when the soccer season is over in May and I ease myself off of sky sports!!!
 
I used Signal Solutions in Cork and they were very good. The box I have is called TRIAX - don't have the model # I'm afraid and I've pulled it out to take a look just now but can't see anything.

We're paying about 37 a month for BB from UPC but it's 50mb. I have one of those mobile BB things also that I use for work. Find the reception a bit patchy though.
 
jdwex said:
It's not usually worthwhile for UPC to physically disconnect the cable, and this carries an unencrypted analogue signal.
You need something like
two_way_splitter_class_A.jpg


and
Click to expand...

So is there still a TV signal running through the old analogue cable in to the house. If I notify UPC that I no longer wish to be a customer they will disconnect my service from their end but I will still receive a signal that I can pick up or enhance using some sort of equipment at my end?
 
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