Silly Irish people will be fleeced by electronics stores for Saorview receivers. If you or a friend are heading to the continent (especially Spain) this summer you can pick up a mini receiver gadget for as little as €20 (I did for a friend).

Also, if you want Saorview, Saorsat (tbc) and Freeview there are boxes that will pick up all the signals. I have one, bought online from Tony at http://www.satellite.ie based in Dublin (not a friend of mine, I don’t receive commission – I found him through boards.ie and you get a discount if you say you found him through boards.ie).

I have a satellite dish sitting inside my sitting room window and a little aerial for the terrestrial and I’ve been watching Saorview for months now along with dozens of free satellite channels.

…and the website has stopped working already “Error establishing a database connection”, perhaps its still in Beta testing eh?

Have we ever got a satisfactory explanation why saorview was made deliberately incompatible with freeview hardware?

George Hook in HD – something’s are better left standard

Gavin is totally right, freeview is mpeg2 which is a technology that is dated now, the algorithm used isn’t as efficient as the mpeg 4 used by saorview for the broadcast of HD. It would be like us using VHS instead DVD. Note that all MPEG4 receivers are backwards compatible to receive MPEG 2. the middleware used for the interactive part of the Saorview uses a system called MHEG 5. (not mpeg). Kind of a modern version of teletext. Note also that the uk are trialling a new format to replace the mpeg2 that is currently used in freeview.

If you can get a loan of a saorview box to try you may be able to get the digital despite having a dodgy analogue signal. It’s been known to be easier to receive than analogue in some cases.

Does anyone know if Sky plan on introducing RTE1+1 and RTE2 HD to their packages ?

I agree, waste of money. Saorsat is completely different kit new Lnb satellite different direction to astra (freeview /sky) the saorview will not work with any other system like free to air freesat, only the few channels not worth it, so if you have a current free to air system you will with saorview a new aerial if you don’t have one, and second receiver. 2 separate menus flicking from one box (av) to another, just for rte and tv3

How can it be free if you have to but new kit to get it to work? Surely it should be “free but you have to pay some chancer in a van to get it to work” ? I can’t get RTE as it is {God can be merciful at times} and still have to pay for it,so this new gizmo most likely won’t work anyways. Why don’t the buggers just rent space on the Astra Sat and stop dicking abut?

What a waste of another €70 million that we have to pay for?

Saorview is Digital Terrestrial. Your article confuses it with Saorsat which hasn’t launched yet. Satellites aren’t used to transmite Saorview across the nation.

“The Saorview system can be accessed either by purchasing a set-top box that will decode the satellite broadcasts”

Why dose it only take 18 months to switch in Ireland and 8 years in the UK?

UK digital switch over started in Ferryside, Wales on 30/03/2005 when analogue ended
and will end on 30/03/2013 in Northern Ireland when Channel 5 will finally become a national channel.

Not sure if I’m stupid or confused!!! Both perhaps. If I have UPC, It wouldn’t be worth my while getting the new kit as UPC will prob add RTE 1 & 2, TV 3, TG4 and 3E in HD soon right?

Without wishing to be excessively pedantic Saorview has nothing to do with Satellite instead relying upon digital terrestrial broadcasts.

I understand that there is going to be a switch off of the analogue system and then a switch on of the digi system. this is going to be fraught will problems.
1. there are currently many areas in the country with poor or weak signal. but at least they have a signal, albeit a poor one. with digital you need a good strength of signal aswell as quality so many of these poor reception areas will not be able to receive digital signal strong enough to give a picture
2. what about those houses that were built many years ago. the coax cable in these houses will not carry a digital signal. it can be a big job to rewire a house for television.
now I’m all for progress and getting the digital thing going but it should be phased in instead of switching off the old system. there will be people left with no telly. this idea was mooted by the last government we had, eamonn Ryan I think. typical of them to introduce something without fully examining the problems

Explained here – http://www.mpeg4ireland.com/saorview MPEG4 is what Soarview uses and Freeview HD. UK choose MPEG2 initially which seems odd to me but maybe the tech was too expensive at the time because MPEG 2 was never going to do 720p properly, I think BBC only started broadcasting in 1080p recently as a test. Sky as far as I know use 1080i which is comparative to 720p

yeah. I can finally stop paying for the TV licence, have a set of rabbit ears sitting on the TV, don’t have cable or satellite and when they switch off analogue will be able to show them that I only use it for DVDs and downloaded content…