i want to watch rte in birmingham

brummiekel

can anyone help me. I am starting from scratch ie no satellite but I want TV not computer

compufunk

You'll need to be a little more clear on exactly what you want.

I cant see that it would be possible to pick up any terrestrial signals in the midlands, so your only option is an Irish Sky subscription.

Crusty Burke

Buy a second hand digibox on Ebay or wherever.

The best option is to get a Northern Ireland Sky sub. That gives you RTE 1/2 and TG4 (not TV3 or 3e but you are not missing much with them) as well as all the UK terrestrials but as with the Irish subs you need an address in Northern Ireland but will get away with a GB bank account.

If you don't have a contact in Northern Ireland you will need a Republic of Ireland sub.

You will need an Irish address and ideally an Irish bank account, so if you have a friend or family member who is prepared to "host" your subscription then that would be your best bet.

Connect the digibox at the Irish address you will use and call Sky.

Tell them you have a digibox already and want a "second hand" contract. Any Sky deals for new customers usually involve buying the digibox from Sky and these deals will commit you to keeping the box connected to an Irish phone line. The second hand contract does not oblige you to keep the box connected to a phone line.

Sky will send the card to your Irish address. When the card arrives insert the card into the box and call Sky again. You are doing a self install and do not need an engineer to visit. Sky will then pair the card to the box.

Once you can clear RTE One, RTE Two, TV3, TG4, 3e and your other chosen pay channels (RTE etc are pay channels and not free) then disconnect the box and bring it back to the UK.

Never ever call Sky from the UK and NEVER connect the box to the phone line.

But be warned the Irish Sky EPG is very restricted compared to the GB EPG. No BBC HD, Five, ITV or any other UK terrestrial channel. If you have subscribed to Sky+ or Sky HD you will only get BBC 1 NI, BBC 2 NI and Channel 4 from the UK terrestrials on the RoI EPG. All other UK channels such as ITV 1 or Five will only be available through Other Channels so Sky wont let you record them.

Had RTE not forced the closure of Tara TV so they could get ad revenue in Northern Ireland none of this rigmarole would be necessary.