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Are you using Freeview?

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Freeview is digital TV using a normal TV aerial (not a satellite dish or cable TV). Freeview boxes are marked one of these: 'Freeview', 'ITV Digital', 'ONdigital' or 'DVB-T'.

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Are you using Freeview?

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M
Mike Dimmick
Wednesday 15 June 2011 4:45PM
Richard Abbott: I'm afraid we need a full postcode to see exactly what the situation is for you.

Signal propogation does change over time, and that can lead to increased interference or increased or decreased signal levels, any of which might be the cause of the problem. Nightly changes are usually down to Tropospheric Enhancement, when a cool/warm air boundary develops in the upper atmosphere around/after dusk. Signals can refract off this boundary when they would normally travel through.

If signal levels are fairly high, your problem could be caused by the signal you do want being reinforced by enhancement, resulting in too much signal overall. If you have a booster or amplifier, try it without, or turn it down. If that doesn't help, try adding an attenuator.

If signal levels are low, you would get best results by moving or replacing the aerial, or replacing the cable so that it loses less signal. If it's down to enhancement of a distant transmitter, rotating the aerial slightly to point further away from that distant source, or replacing with a more selective aerial, is all that you can do.

Other sources of interference causing problems at specific times would be street lights, thermostats or central heating pumps.
R
richard abbott
Wednesday 15 June 2011 6:16PM Potters Bar
richard abbott: hi we have installed a new aerial with double shielded cable, this problem has only arisen in the past 2-3 months, our post code is EN6 3BB
A
anne
Friday 17 June 2011 2:13PM
Signal propogation does change over time, and that can lead to increased interference or increased or decreased signal levels, any of which might be the cause of the problem. Nightly changes are usually down to Tropospheric Enhancement, when a cool/warm air boundary develops in the upper atmosphere around/after dusk. Signals can refract off this boundary when they would normally travel through.



In other words the "service" is not fit for purpose.

We STILL have no HD at all.
No signal no quality.

There is a fault with you posting system also
M
Mary
Wednesday 22 June 2011 4:52AM
I have 2 sony tv with built in freeveiw. I am on cable tv. I cannot receive freeveiw. I did receive freeveiw for a while but now when I autotune the tv I receive the message that freeveiw is not connected and I should check my aerial.

Please help.
J
jb38
Wednesday 22 June 2011 10:31AM
Mary: Its not really easy to advise on this when you omitted to mention your location, as your reception possibilities cannot therefore be checked on.
M
Mary
Wednesday 22 June 2011 12:14PM Doncaster
Sorry

My location is Yorkshire. Postcode DN2 5DG
J
jb38
Wednesday 22 June 2011 1:20PM
Mary: Indications are that you can receive programmes from two stations, these being Emley Moor and Belmont. The problem as I see it is that you are quite a distance from both stations, that is 24mls from Emley and 41mls from Belmont, so Emley would appear your best bet.

It should be pointed out though that both stations are still pre-switchover and as such transmitting on low power, something I would expect could well cause problems at your distance, however Emley Moor is due to switch to high power operation starting on September 7th and finalising on the 21st, so
if you are wishing to use the Freeview service then it would be worthwhile having your aerial attended to.

It would also be interesting to know where you were receiving Freeview from when it was working, does your aerial point to the East or West, West being Emley Moor.
M
Mike Dimmick
Wednesday 22 June 2011 2:15PM
Mary: 'Low Power' is relative. Digital UK's prediction for Emley Moor is 99-100% across the board, because 38km away isn't that much for even 4 kW transmissions. Indeed signal strength is more likely to be too high than too low.

You say you're on cable TV. Do you actually have the TV connected to an aerial, for Freeview? With the kind of signal strength expected in your area, it's possible that enough signal could be picked up just in cables for it to work some of the time.

If you only have the Virgin Media cable, and you want to stop paying for the subscription, you would need to have an aerial fitted. There is no free service on Virgin Media (there should be a basic free service of just the public service channels, i.e. the BBC channels, ITV1, C4 and C5, but VM are flouting the law). Even if there was one you would need a set-top box for cable transmissions, which are sent differently to Freeview, and Virgin Media are supposed to take the box away if you stop subscribing.

Some Virgin Media installers are careless or malicious and actually chop the aerial cable, preventing it from being used (happened to my sister). If it used to work before you got cable, and it doesn't now, you may find this has happened.
D
Des
Friday 24 June 2011 4:14PM
Question: I have sat on my remote and must have pushed some buttons, as all I have on the screen is on the very top "Mon 31Dec 2347.
Underneath on the right hand side is Dave: Selected programme not found. On the right 019 and underneath Digital. There is no sound and no picture.

Can you help please.

Thanks,
Des
J
jb38
Friday 24 June 2011 5:54PM
Des:If the TV is not responding to the remote it could possibly be because the remote has locked up, so try taking its batteries out, wait about 15 secs or so, then reinsert them again and check if anything has changed.

You could also try switching the TV off from the mains socket, but whether or not it returns to the screen it was on before switch off is entirely dependant on the set being used.


M
martin Walsh
Tuesday 28 June 2011 9:00AM Wishaw
I have just purchase a Freesat HD and connected to my old sky satalite dish. Not getting signal. Do I have to reposition dish to other tranmitter?
M
Mary
Tuesday 28 June 2011 5:08PM
Long overdue answer to jb38

From Mary dn25dg.

I bought my tv sets after I had cable for a few years and at first I could get freeveiw, then ,nothing except the message telling me to check my ariel. My ariel points west. I know nothing about ariels and when told to check my ariel all I did was to take the ariel lead at the back of the tv from it's socket and then put it back in. Ariel seems to be okay as another bedroom tv works ok. No cable or freeveiw on that set just the basic channels 1-5.

Sorry about the delay in answering your question but life just happened, like it does lol.

Mary
J
jb38
Thursday 30 June 2011 1:35PM
martin Walsh: No, the Freesat TV (or box)should have found channels without touching anything connected to the dish, if it didnt then that can indicate that the LNB on the dish, or the lead to, is defective, or that the dish has been knocked out of alignment.
J
jb38
Thursday 30 June 2011 4:48PM
Mary: No problem about the delay! Anyway going by what's indicated on DTG's trade predictor you should be receiving a good signal from Emley Moor (24mls) with your aerial pointing to the West.

It should be said though that Emley Moor is still on pre-switch over power so any inefficiency with your aerial system might result in the signal being too low for your TV's to resolve a picture, if you carry out a complete re-scan and still nothing comes up, you should carry out a manual tune on Ch52 and check what the signal level is showing as, should there still be nothing shown then your aerial system really requires attention.

Out of interest, did you actually try the bedroom TV on the lead you are using for the TV that you cant get anything on? I ask this in case you have a broken link somewhere along the line, as you haven't mentioned anything about the cable routing from your aerial.
A
Anne Cockitt
Friday 1 July 2011 1:09PM Birmingham
I have had a Samsung freeview box for some years now, and it worked well until the other evening. The images started breaking up, and there was no sound. I checked all the connections and unplugged it and reinstalled the programme, but it only finds a few channels , the images break up, there is no sound.
I can still view just BBC 1, 2, ITV etc. on my TV via my DVD recorder, the quality is fine.
Do you think it is the Freeview box causing the problems?
J
jb38
Friday 1 July 2011 3:38PM
Anne Cockitt: Assuming the DVD recorder is a Freeview type, if the aerial is being fed through it into the Freeview box try changing the connection order over, i.e: aerial straight into the Freeview box, as the problem is caused by the signal level received being on the threshold of dropping out, and "if" its being daisy chained through equipment this will further reduce it.

Nothing is indicated as far as digital work is concerned at the transmitter, and so I wouldn't do anything else at present other than carrying out a rescan every few hours, this being necessary only because you have scrubbed what had been previously stored in the memory, (which wasn't lost!) apart from that I wouldn't do anything as the problem is likely to be out with your control, and likewise will likely rectify itself.
R
Robin
Thursday 7 July 2011 3:25PM Glasgow
I have an HD Freeview tv, and the HD picture is amazing. However the (HD) sound is quieter and weaker than on the corresponding standard Freeview channels. It means that I really do not watch the HD channel because the sound is "weak". Is this going to be sorted or adjusted at transmission?

G66 Blackhill transmitter?
A
anne
Saturday 9 July 2011 1:49PM
My tv keeps pixallating and going black i live at the bottom of a hill and back on to a church which has a tall steeple i am experiancing a bad signal on every channel the picture consistantly cutting out do i need a new ariel
J
jb38
Saturday 9 July 2011 3:24PM
anne: Its impossible to say, as you havent given any clues as to your location (post code preferable) nor any details of the aerial you referred to, like where located roof or loft? and whether or not its very old.
L
Liselle
Monday 11 July 2011 9:14PM
Suddenly the visual writing information on the screen isn't appearing - it used to work with the grundig remote control but I must have pressed something as it doesn't work now - can anyone tell me how I can get the visual information back on the screen?
J
jaz4
Monday 11 July 2011 9:32PM Derby
Hi
I have jusrt purchased a sony EX523 TV and its HD, however I cant pick up the HD channels. I live in Derby but picking up the sutton colfeid transmitter (west midlands news and is also indicated west midlands on the TV autotune. Sony have suggested that I am picking up the Derby repeater but unsure If I am or not. This web site says i should be pickingup the sutton colfeild as well. how can I check

any help appreciated othe rthan waiting until oct to realise the TV is faulty (or pay for arial engineer)
K
KMJ,Derby
Tuesday 12 July 2011 10:09AM
jaz4: The Freeview services you are currently receiving are from Sutton Coldfield, there are no digital signals from the Derby relay until 31st August 2011 when Mux BBCA and Mux D3+4 will replace analogue BBC East Midlands and Central East. The HD mux on C52 from Derby relay is expected to be added on 5th October 2011. At present the Digital UK postcode checker predicts that you should have good reception of the temporary HD mux from Lichfield on C34. If you cannot find a signal from Lichfield check for single frequency interference on C34, possibly from a VCR or Sky box. If reception of this low power transmitter proves not to be possible the high power HD service from Sutton Coldfield starts on 21st September 2011.
F
freda coulter
Saturday 16 July 2011 4:30PM Edinburgh
hi post code eh166ux.. digital tv in bedroomwith freeview..since change over lost some of my fav chanells i,e. itv 3 channel 31

gutted these were my favs lying in bed ..tried re tuning as in first installation of tv but to no avail what am i doing wrong

thanks freda
J
jb38
Saturday 16 July 2011 5:46PM
freda coulter: I assume when you mention Ch31 you are referring to 5USA?

However unfortunately the Mortonhall areas of Edinburgh are known to have somewhat iffy reception from Craigkelly due to the signal path between the area and the transmitter near Burntisland, this resulting in some people choosing to use Blackhill albeit this not being shown on a trade predictor as being just quite so good as Craigkelly.

All I can really say is that should you be using Craigkelly, BBC1 shown as Ch27 in the "tuning" menu, then there really isn't that much you can do except to ensure your aerial is satisfactory, you not having mentioned any details regarding this so I am unable to make any comment as may be found necessary.
lesnicol
Saturday 16 July 2011 10:03PM
JB38 - Freda Coulter - The issue may well be inspite of Mortohall being at the top of Liberton Brae in Edinburgh Arthur's Seat one of Edinburgh's Volcanic Plugs may well be the culprit in terms of iffy reception. It used to be a problem more akin to the Duddingston Village area pre digital switch over and other pockets nearby.
J
jb38
Sunday 17 July 2011 8:06AM
lesnicol: Yes, quite possibly, as the signal from Craigkelly has to pass over the range of high ground that runs roughly from Arthurs Seat across to the West side of the Edinburgh Castle area, driving anywhere to the South of that range always seeming to be going downhill, albeit in real life maybe it wasn't really that much, at least from what I remember of it about 25years back!
N
Neil O'Halloran
Friday 22 July 2011 9:46AM
I have a Fortec star fs-4200
I then bought a Sony HDD Freeview RDR-HXD995 which I cannot set up with the FreeSat leaving me with now a very expensive DVD player. Is there any way to marry the two?
Briantist
Friday 22 July 2011 2:10PM
Neil O'Halloran: Sorry, but no. You can't use satellite equipment with Freeview or vice-versa.
T
tony
Saturday 23 July 2011 11:33AM
Hi having problems getting sound from rf output on sky + box perfect picture no sound just crackling all new cable and fittings I have been told that rf is analoge would that have anything to do with it ? would appreciate your help ps we live in southern spain thanks so much Tony
J
jb38
Saturday 23 July 2011 1:26PM
tony: Its not so much the analogue that is the problem, but the fact of Spain using a system with a lower sound sub carrier than is used in the UK, Spain using PAL-B/G with 5.5Mhz whereas the UK's PAL-I system uses 6Mhz.

Unfortunately there isn't any way around this because no adjustment is possible on Sky boxes to alter this as their modulators were designed for PAL-I only operation.

The crackling you here is because the sound is effectively off tune, a good TV engineer could alter this on your TV, but it wouldn't then work with local stations.
J
jb38
Saturday 23 July 2011 1:47PM
Apologies for "here" instead of "hear" just noticed it!
J
james cully
Thursday 28 July 2011 5:20PM London
After watching a dvd on my nearly new sony bravia yesterday my epg has emptied and I cannot tune into any digital channels. There are no flashing lights on the set nor error messages and aerial is fine for analogue. The has not been dropped either :)

Any reason you can think of for this to happen? No interuption or interference issues?
J
jb38
Thursday 28 July 2011 8:47PM
james cully: There really isn't any connection between the receiving side of the set and its A/V input facilities. If you haven't already tried it, I would completely disconnect the set from the mains, then wait about 15 seconds or so before plugging it back in again, leaving the DVD unconnected for the time being before reconnecting the mains.
M
Margaret Herraty
Thursday 28 July 2011 9:35PM
Our Technika HD box keeps cutting out. Any ideas? Incidently, this is our second one, the first was exactly the same and thought it was faulty so had it replaced.
Briantist
Friday 29 July 2011 8:44AM
Margaret Herraty: I would have a look at Single frequency interference | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .
T
Thomas Mann
Saturday 30 July 2011 12:28AM
I bought a Grundig Freeview set-top box in July and it switches itself off without any warning every three hours. There is no way to disable this "feature" or alter the time period of three hours. Be warned!
T
Thomas Mann
Saturday 30 July 2011 1:02AM
Automatic Standby
Andy on page 4 and Margaret Herraty on page 9 of these messages may have run into the automatic standby switchoff problem I wrote about (also on page 9) with my Grundig Freeview set-top box. They may be luckier than I am, though, as some manufacturers have the decency to provide a set-up menu setting to disable the "feature".
Ia m told that some sets even pop up a warning message on the screen, too!
T
Thomas Mann
Saturday 30 July 2011 3:20PM
Thomas Mann:
I bought a Goodmans GDB300HD set top freeviewHD box. It switches off after 3 hours without no warning on screen. Goodmans claim this is to comply with an EEC Directive and refuse to admit any fault. I contend that the Directive requires that an onscreen warning be provided giving 2 minutes notice before switch off. Goodmans have not complied with this directive and I feel that I should be able to return the unit for a full refund and that potential purchasers should be warned of this failing.
Briantist
Tuesday 2 August 2011 7:43AM
Thomas Mann: Yes, you can return the set-top box to the supplier and ask for a model that works as you wish.
J
Janine
Wednesday 3 August 2011 8:51PM
We have just had an electrical storm, thunder lightning etc. Our tvs are saying that the connection is lost, is there something wrong with Sandyheath transmitter or have we been struck by lightning thro our aerial?
Briantist
Thursday 4 August 2011 9:02AM
Janine: The transmitter is operating normally. You would probably know if your aerial had been hit by lightening, it usually causes at least some smoke...
D
Dave Chapman
Thursday 4 August 2011 3:58PM Burnham-on-crouch
Hi, post code CM0 8DD. I have a 6yr old Philips 32PWG720D/05 CRT tv with inbuilt digital tuner. Since the Sudbury switch, the tv digital tuner will not retain some of the stored services when powered down (Lost services: ITV1, C4, C5,ITV2, C4+1, MORE4, E4, ITV1+1 plus others.) It is always the same services & a full installation or a add new will re-install the lost ones. Whilst the tv is on, all are retained. I have a new aerial feeding through an old Labgear amp & splitter that seem fine. Signal strength & quality also 70%/excellent. Phillips say that the inbuilt digital tuner is an old 2k? standard and superseeded by an 8k?, we have a Humax PVR9200T that is fine & a second analogue tv with a Pioneer DBR-TF100GB that are also fine. Philips say use the Humax tuner or other digi box, the tv is not worth repairing. So, do I buy a new tv when the old one is otherwise brilliant picture apart from the need to repeatedly re-install services?
Briantist
Friday 5 August 2011 9:35AM
Dave Chapman: I would do as Philips suggest and disconect the aerial from the TV and just connect it to the Humax PVR9200T and use that to watch your Freeview channels.

You have very little to gain from getting a new television set as you say, unless you get one with Freeview HD built in.
J
jb38
Friday 5 August 2011 4:44PM
Janine: Another thing for you to consider is "if" you have a distribution amplifier feeding the TV into different rooms, as high static in the aerial system can blow the input circuit on these in the same way as it can do with a mast head amplifier, this being very common in some areas.

Should what I have mentioned apply then try a test by-passing the distribution amp, that is just coupling the lead from the aerial directly into the lead that feeds one of the TV,s.
B
Bill Wallace
Monday 8 August 2011 9:33AM Towcester
Although I'm using a JayBeam wide band LPA which has always been OK in the past, coupled with a Triax 15db TFM15W Masthead Amp at my location NN12 7TN, I'm now experiencing poor signals for transmissions on Channel 67. Is there any reason for this from my current transmitter (Sandy Heath)? I'm prepared to wait a few weeks until further channel rearrangements are completed (August 31st and later).

The aerial still looks fine mechanically but I suppose it is just possible that the head amplifier could have failed in some way (I hope not because I'm less able to climb masts than I once was!).

Any thoughts, particulay on the reliability of the Triax TFM15W?
J
Jim F
Tuesday 9 August 2011 8:07PM
Bill Wallace: The aerial and masthead amp are likely to be OK, but you might possibly have a dodgy power supply or water in the coax cable (or both).
I've seen F connector joints on masts, all wrapped up nicely in self-amalgamating tape where water has somehow got in. This can produce an interesting effect - if the power supply is disconnected, and then reconnected, the signal momentarily comes back OK, but as water starts to conduct current the signal dies away.
First step is to change your power supply - but bear in mind that a new supply could behave as above, in which case check any joints out on the mast.
J
jb38
Tuesday 9 August 2011 9:36PM
Bill Wallace: Another thing you have to consider is the fact of Ch67 still being on low power and yet its operating on the 8k mode, as this can have the effect of responding as a lower signal strength than the other two low powered Mux channels, namely MuxA / Ch43 (until 31st Aug) & MuxC / Ch40 which are still on the 2K operating mode. (operating modes as per Digital UK's trade predictor)

In other words as Jim F has said, there is likely nothing wrong with your aerial or mast head amplifier.
T
Tamar
Monday 15 August 2011 1:10PM London
I live at N7 0RA. I have an LG television (about 3years old), a BT Vision box, and a rooftop aerial.
Over the past couple of months my freeview reception has been very poor on all channels except the BBC channels. The reception quality and signal for BBC is listed at around 80%, for all the others around 70% yet there is so much interference on them I haven't been able to watch.
Now, my TV is not picking up any freeview signal at all, and I cannot watch television. Even if I plug my rooftop aerial cable directly into my tv, I cannot receive ANY channels/picture at all.
BT say the problem is not with the Vision box but with the aerial (which I can't see or get to as it's on the very high roof) and yet I thought even if there was a problem with the aerial I ought to be able to see some sort of picture for terrestrial channels, even if fuzzy. I have tried re-tuning and the vision box doesn't pick up any channels when it scans.
I don't even know if the problem is with the aerial, TV, or vision box - can you shed any light on the situation please? Thank you.
S
S Stephen
Tuesday 16 August 2011 10:05AM
I have LG tv a sky box and ariel. very occasionally I loose sound on tv`s ( at differant times) could the ariel be the cause of this.
J
jb38
Tuesday 16 August 2011 11:24AM
S Stephen: This is more likely to be caused by a slack (or faulty) scart connection between the box and your TV, as the signal input from the dish cannot cause that type of problem.

Whilst listening to continuous audio (music etc) try wiggling the scart plugs and you may well find the cause of the problem.
C
caroline
Saturday 27 August 2011 8:21PM
I have a Panasonic Viera 2009 and since yesterday have not been able to get the BBC channels. Have tried running set-up, switching off aerial but still nothing. Any ideas please?
J
jb38
Saturday 27 August 2011 9:31PM
caroline: Giving a clue as to your location (pref post code) would be of considerable assistance, as nothing can be checked regarding the signal you should be receiving without this info.



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