AVI files on the Triax Saorview Box
May 18, 2011
A couple of week ago I spoke about the Triax Saorview box. A simple but good box for receiving the new Saorview signal from RTÉ. Near the end of the post I mentioned that it played AVI files. Since then I have used the box a couple of times to view some movies I have in AVI format. There are plenty of people out there that will be infinitely more knowledgable on DIVX and formats, all I concerned with is if the movie will play, and play properly.
I have a collection of children’s movies on my laptop and I regularly connect the laptop to my TV and hopefully give myself an hour and a half of peace as the kids are entertained. Last weekend I copied 4 children’s movies onto an 8GB USB key, popped it into the Triax box and over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday we watched all 4.
Control was achieved without having to consult the manual, the process is logical; press the media button on the remote and then select the USB stick and then select the movie you want to view. The only issue we had was how to get from movie playback mode back to watching normal TV. You would imagine that the “Exit” button in the middle of the remote would exit any mode the box was in and return you to normal viewing. Picture me pointing the remote at the box and frantically pressing the “Exit” button. To switch off the USB/Movie playback mode you need to press the “Media” button again.
I’ve so far had no problem with picture quality or sound quality, the movies were not recorded in HD so I don’t expect HD quality but there are by no means pixelated pictures. Colours are vivid and there is no blocking. Sound is clear and shows no signs of sync issues.
All in all, I’d be happy to continue with the Triax Saorview box as my main media player media player.
The Triax Saorview box is currently priced at €100 and available from either of our stores.
Triax SAORVIEW box
March 31, 2011
The Triax TR112 is the 2nd box to arrive on the market with the SAORVIEW logo. SAORVIEW is the new Irish digital TV broadcast which is replacing the current analogue system, which is to be turned off in 2012.
The box is simple but looks good, a black mirrored front with a power light, up and down buttons and a power button. Other than a SAORVIEW logo there’s nothing else on the box. Around back there’s a power socket for the 12volt PSU. A scart connection, a USB port for recording and updating the software, a HDMI socket, an optical out socket for audio and the aerial in and loop through. The back is basic but should have enough connections for everyone.
The one complaint will be that there is only 1 scart which means for those of you with DVD recorders you will miss a 2nd scart for connection to your recorder. A small thing as you can feed the SAORVIEW box through the recorder and then on to the TV but this does complicate things slightly. The RF loop through will allow you to send current analogue signals on to another TV.
Set up is straight forward simple connect the aerial, the box to the TV and do an automatic scan. The menu is easy to use without needing to read through the manual. A simple press of the centre button on the remote brings up the channel list and lets you scroll through the available channels pressing enter again to select the channel, in my opinion all set top boxes should work like this. The buttons for navigation are well laid out with the EPG button at the top. The EPG lets you view programming in ’weekly’, ‘now and next’ and ‘daily’ modes. Daily mode stacks all programming for that day in a column and makes it easy to find a programme you’re looking for at a glance.
The picture is good via HDMI or Scart (I usually test on a small screen, but did run the HDMI through a 42″ 1080p set and RTÉ2 HD looked as you would expect an HD picture to look). One quirk of the picture menu is that while it has an option to change the aspect ratio, there is only one choice, 16:9. Audio through the HDMI or Scart is fine, and loud enough on the small speakers in the 20 inch flatscreen I tested it on. I did not try the optical out.
The Triax SAORVIEW box, as with the newer Walker SAORVIEW (WP12) box (although I’m still to get my hands on one of these) comes PVR ready. This means that with the addition of a USB memory stick or a USB hard drive you can record via USB. I use an 8GB Verbatum USB stick to test recording on boxes, which has worked perfectly on all tests so far, however each time I tried to record with this the box it showed the message “Device speed not enough, RECORD anyway?”. Each time the box recorded my programme with no problem and I later set the box to record 5 programmes throughout the night, which it did faultlessly. In fact, adding a recording is effortless; within the EPG you highlight the programme you want, press the green button on the remote once to set a reminder and a second time to set the box to record. Within the settings menu there is a timer feature to allow you to set a time and channel to record manually.
While I could not fault the box so far, finding your recordings subsequently is not as easy as setting the box to record. To access the files on the USB you must first press the “media” button, then navigate to the correct section using the left/right keys then select that category (say Record Manager or Movies, although recording are held in the Record manager you can still access them in Movies) then go to the folder containing the recordings using the arrow keys (recordings are held in the PVR folder) then select the file to play. Once the recording has played you press the left button to go back to the previous folder for a list of what else is available. While the whole process is more cumbersome than confusing, it is compounded by the fact that the user manual is not clear and concise on these instructions.
The media player of the Triax box also handles JPEG photos, MP3s and a host of video files. I tested an AVI movie and it worked fine. All the usual controls are there, pause, forward, rewind and it worked every bit as good as any media player I’ve ever used. The only other small complaint with the media manager is that to close it you press the “media” button again and not the “Exit” button.
While it is great to have a media player built into the box I’m not sure how many people will use it. The majority of boxes we’ve sold or installed the customer had no interest in the recording features or the media playing cababilities of the box, they simply wanted a box to let them receive the new digital RTÉ channels.
The Triax SAORVIEW box does a very good job of its primary task, a digital terrestrial receiver with MHEG5 for digital text.
New HD Digi Box
March 16, 2011
Sky has replaced the standard Digi box with a new high-definition one. The new box will be supplied to new Multiroom customers and existing customers adding an extra box. It will not be available as a stand-alone option. Essentially it should be the same as the current Sky+ HD box, but without the recording capabilities. An extra HD subscription will be required to watch non-free-to-air HD channels.
New RTE channels
February 24, 2011
RTE yesterday announced 5 new channels to be added to the SAORVIEW line-up.
Go here for RTE’s anouncement.
SAORVIEW
February 16, 2011
RTÉ will be switching off its analogue broadcast at the end of 2012. For those of us with Sky this will mean nothing, however if you receive your Irish channels via an aerial at the moment, you will lose these channels at this time. Many of us, including myself, who have Sky also have 2nd TVs in bedrooms or kitchens that use aerials to receive the Irish channels. These 2nd TVs are, at times, the only thing that keeps families from killing each other, and come the end 2012 the marital harmony may be disrupted.
RTÉ launched their SAORVIEW service in October 2010. This is, simply put, a digital broadcast of the current Irish channels. So after RTÉ switch off their analogue channels, the only way to receive RTÉs (by RTÉs I include TV3 and 3e) will be using a SAORVIEW box or by getting a TV with a built in SAORVIEW tuner. So you’ve been warned…get a box. This throws up one little problem and it takes a minute to explain.
In the past, if you wanted to view the RTÉs in, let’s say 4 rooms, I would install a VHF aerial, (for RTÉ 1 and RTÉ 2) and a UHF aerial (for TV3 and TG4), these would be combined using a diplexer and then fed into a four way distribution amplifier which would be connected to the cables running to each room. Simple enough, costing under €200 depending of the amount of labour needed to run cables. Because each TV will have an analogue tuner, all we need to do is send the signal to each TV.
However, come the switch off of the analogue signal things will be a bit different. Because the SAORVIEW signal is a digital signal it will need a Digital Terrestrial Tuner to decode the signal. While these can be found in most new TVs, the majority of us have older TVs with analogue tuners which are still working perfectly but will be unable to pick up the new broadcast without the addition of SAORVIEW boxes.
Put SAORVIEW into the previous scenario, 4 TVs. You will need only 1 aerial, a UHF. This will need to distributed in the same way, but what happens at each TV. Let’s say you’re lucky enough to have a new TV with a built in SAORVIEW tuner, you will still need to buy 3 SAORVIEW boxes, one for each of the other TVs. Average cost…€320 for equipment and about another €70 to €100 depending on labour.
See any problem?
Here’s a few figures, there are about 1.5 million homes in Ireland. It’s fair to assume that all have TVs. Sky claim to have broken the 600,000 mark. Chorus NTL are believed to have under 500,000 subscribers. That leaves somewhere around 400,000 who receive their RTÉs through aerials (I know I’m assuming that all receive RTÉs), not to mention the dual system people i.e. those with Sky or Chorus and RTÉ aerials.
Over the next few months RTÉ will be asking these people who are already receiving a broadcast with existing equipment to shell out for either a box or get a new TV…and pay all the new taxes in the last budget…and take pay cuts…and STILL pay a TV licence.
I see a few angry phone calls on the horizon as I try sell SAORVIEW.
Paul DTV
Sky Channel Swap
January 31, 2011
On February 1st 2011 Sky are swapping the positions of several channels. This is partly due to Sky’s acquisition of rival channels such as Bravo, and partly to make HD channels more accessible to HD customers.
All the changes will take place automatically, you won’t have to do anything. Any recordings/series links will be unaffected.
For HD customers only, many of the HD channels will be swapping places with their counterpart SD channels eg. Sky1 HD will be on channel 106 while Sky1 will move to channel 170.
Other changes include:
- Living and Livingit will become Sky Living and Sky Livingit;
- Channel One and Channel One +1 will close;
- MTV will be added to the Variety Pack and move from channel 350 to 126;
- Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2 will be added to the Variety Pack.
On February 28th Sky3 and Sky3 +1 will be rebranded as Pick TV and Pick TV +1.
For more information see Sky Channel Swap.
Sky Launch New Channel
January 8, 2011
On February 1st 2011 Sky are launching a new channel called Sky Atlantic. Sky have signed an exclusive deal with HBO to be first to show all their new output for the next 5 years. They also have new series deals for shows like Mad Men, Blue Bloods and The Borgias. The HBO deal includes rights to their back catalogue, so they’ll be showing series like Sopranos, Six Feet Under and The Wire as well.
Initial information suggests that Sky Atlantic will be on channel 108, currently occupied by Sky 3. Sky Atlantic HD will be available to HD subscribers.
UPDATE: Sky Atlantic and Sky Atlantic HD will be on channels 108/173. Sky3 is moving to channel 152 with Sky3 +1 on channel 153. Sky Atlantic will be part of the Bonus Pack ie. free to all Sky subscribers at launch. It will become part of the Variety Pack from August 31st 2011.
Sky Anytime +
October 27, 2010
Sky launched a new Video-On-Demand service yesterday. Those of you with Sky+ or Sky HD boxes will be aware of Sky Anytime, where you can view specific offerings from Sky’s library of titles. This is a push service where Sky “push” programming they are promoting to your box, allowing you to view this at your own convenience. These titles are downloaded overnight and sit on the hard drive of your box.
Sky Anytime + is a new feature that allows you to view the complete catalogue of programming available and view any of that content as if it was on your hard drive. The idea is you search through the catalogue, find what you want and start downloading/streaming. The process should take a few minutes to start but we’re told that after a couple of minutes the programme is ready to watch.
All good so far, the feature is currently only available to;
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Sky+HD customers
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Sky Broadband customers
Also, as with the regular Sky Anytime you can only access programming from the packs you subscribe to. So if you don’t subscribe to Sky Movies you will not have access to the catalogue of movies.
So what about Sky’s Irish customers? I have no idea. The official blurb suggests that the service will eventually roll out to all customers, but I cannot confirm if or when that will happen. Sky still have no intention of rolling out broadband in Ireland so we will have to wait for Sky to launch on other UK broadband networks first, before they consider Ireland.
For further info see Sky’s own website
BBC One HD
October 22, 2010
Eastenders will be in HD this Christmas, deck the halls of the Queen Vic!
That’s right soap fanatics, Eastenders, along with a host of your favourite BBC One programmes will be broadcasting in glorious HD starting next month. From November 3rd this year BBC will run a simulcast HD channel, which will show selected programming in HD. Supposedly it starts on November 3rd at 7pm with The One Show (can’t wait), however plans do include Match of the Day, QI, The Apprentice, Doctor Who and Top Gear.
Click here for piece from the BBC website.
Changes to BBC4 and CBeebies Frequency
October 20, 2010
On Monday the 18 October the BBC made some changes to the broadcast frequency of a range of channels. The main effect of this is that customers with Free to Air boxes will need to retune certain channels.
For a full list of channel changes see the BBC web site http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/info/sat_frequencies.shtml
The main changes are that BBC4 and CBeebies haves changed broadcast frequency thus necessitating a retune of Free To Air boxes. You can get a walkthrough of how to retune specific boxes here, we’ve posted a walkthrough on each model of box we’ve sold. http://www.dtvav.ie/service/tune-your-free-to-air-box/
And the frequency needed for BBC4 and Cbeebies is
Freq Pol Sym
10803 H 22000
You can find a more detailed list of Astra2/Eurobird1 frequencies here
http://en.kingofsat.net/pos-28.2E.php
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Contact Dalton TV
DTV Audio Visual LTD
t: 056 777 1900
e: info@dtvav.ie