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Switch over and PC-based systems

The change in broadcast mode that occurs at switchover is causing problems for some people using PC based Freeview systems. Here are some fixes.

The change in broadcast mode that occurs at switchover is causi
Published on by on UK Free TV
Here is what to do

Windows Media Center on Vista

I installed these patches on my Vista 32 bit installation and it installed all the new DVB-T subsystem and the MHEG-5 software. Right, basically, for 32 bit version, install:

Download and install these in this order, and then reboot, run Windows Update

Then when you start Media Center it will automatically detect the tuners you have and the type they are and start the Freeview scan. It will allocate all the channels correctly from the broadcast DVB-T, you don't need to choose a transmitter or anything.

And it remembers your postcode from last time!!!!

Other systems

RobinOfLoxley adds: See this post and my comment within www.avforums.com link icon  Missing ITV and Channel 4 - AVForums.com

Also I have Hauppage PC TV Tuner card upstairs. havent upgraded the software in 3 years, so went to hauppage.com and did so (WinTV 7 CD V1.1d)

Hauppage forum is excellent. Their moderator Mr X seems to be on duty 24/7 and very helpful www.hauppauge.co.uk link icon Hauppauge UK Forum - Powered by vBulletin

Anyone with diff PC cards check your m'fr sites and any forums as appropriate.

I am all sorted now. Exmouth EX8 here.

Have fun all





Your comments: most recent posts are at the bottom


Your comments are always welcome. Please use the form below to add your thoughts or questions to this page. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

mike hunter
Monday 13 July 2009 11:51AM
interesting the freeview patches for vista.
are any available (especially the channel sort) for us oldies who still have the superior windows XP-
mike-hunter-1@hotmail.com
Briantist
Monday 13 July 2009 12:35PM
mike hunter: I think these enhancements can only be applied to Vista, Microsoft no longer support XP.

If you have problems, you can upgrade to Windows 7, which is vastly superior to XP from <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx"> Windows 7 Release Candidate Customer Preview Program </a>.
maja gasparlin
Tuesday 8 September 2009 3:06PM
hi there,

i have been watching tv on my pc for quite some time (windows media center, windows xp), few years, and suddenly i can not get signal at all....i tired amplified indoor antenna for both digital and analog tv. recently i bought tv stick for pc with freeview (DVB-T dual tuner USb TV stick), but i still dont get any signal...not even the bbc, that was until recently available...i have tried to connect to outdoor antenna, still nothing.... pls help
Briantist
Wednesday 9 September 2009 8:20AM
maja gasparlin: If you are in a switched-over area, you need to follow the instructions at the top of the page. If not, please see Freeview reception has changed? | ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover advice, since 2002
Robert Plant
Saturday 19 December 2009 12:43PM
Just to add to the above instructions my pc would not let me install the 4th part until I had rebooted and then I could install the 4th. After that all fine.
Spencer
Thursday 1 April 2010 2:24AM Hengoed
Just to say been having trouble with Media center freezing and hanging while on "live TV" using my Tevion USB DTV. The "Total Media" software supplied with the dongle works fine.

Did the updates above, let windows update do it's biz and...hey presto Media Center works on live tv once more...

One important point to make is windows update might not list any updated drivers that might be availible for your usb tv tuner unless it is plugged in at the time you run windows update. Also it's in the "optional updates" and needs to be 'ticked'.

There was an updated driver for my usb tuner issued months ago. It only showed up during the process of me doing the above because it was plugged in.
Briantist
Thursday 1 April 2010 8:09AM
Spencer: Yes, it does say "then reboot, run Windows Update", but yes, driver updates have to individually selected.

Glad to hear it fix it for you.
Spencer
Monday 17 May 2010 5:37PM
Another important tip: When my laptop's WiFi is switched on I get break up/freezing. Switching it off solves the problem.

However if it's frozen completely rather than just breaking up, switching off the WiFi doesn't fix it. I have to close the application, disconect the USB DVT-B dongle, re-conect it and start the application up again. It's as if the WiFi crashes the dongle itself. I suppose with the wifi antennas being only 4 inches from the dongle it's asking for trouble.


It's just easier to remember to switch the WiFi off before opening the viewing software.

Another point to make out of my 3 USB ports my dongle will only work in 2 of them. Not sure if it's a usb1/usb2 thing or maybe the 3rd usb port is unable to provide it with enough current.

Briantist
Thursday 20 May 2010 1:21PM
Spencer: Have you tried using a 1m USB extension cable to ensure that the dongle is away from the Wifi transmitter?
Roy
Wednesday 21 September 2011 11:33PM
So are you saying if you still run reliable XP then you've had it with media centre. Why weren't we warned. Just saying update to V7 is not good enough, they don't give it away and it won't run on my PC according to windows. This really is poor. I'm also confused ITV worked up to this morning now it's the only one on that MUX that doesn't. I've lost loads of over channels but can't understand why ITV 1 has gone
Briantist
Wednesday 21 September 2011 11:45PM
Roy: Yes, XP Media Centre support ended on 14/04/2009, see
Microsoft Lifecycle Support
.
James
Monday 3 October 2011 12:38PM Bristol
I'm on Win7 Ultimate x64 and I am at a loss to see why I've lost COM4 and COM6 at the 28th Sept re-tune. I'm still trouble shooting and will put my findings in here but it's looking like it might be in need of some patching, possibly the COM4/COM6 frequencies need updating within MC?
Postcode:BS16 1WB
Jim F
Tuesday 4 October 2011 10:19AM
James: Some of the PC TV tuners use a "look-up" table of frequencies / UHF channels for tuning, to speed things up (corresponding to a particular transmitter). The look-up table can be edited, but a re-tune across all channels should find the missing MUXs.
It sounds like your PC may still be "remembering" the data for the MUXs prior to them being moved - I think I have to manually select all my channels and then delete all (involves right clicking in the "all channels" tab to discover the options "select ALL, delete, watch, details).
Once they're all gone, a full rescan gets it all back to normal.
Bob
Monday 18 June 2012 10:18PM Hastings
my postcode is tn341ne, I have attached a new freeview box to my TV with an outside aerial but I am getting no or bad signal on my TV on all channels.
jb38
Monday 18 June 2012 11:08PM
Bob: By being located at less than 1 mile away from the Hastings transmitter its possible that you are receiving an excessively high level of signal which is causing problems in the tuner.

To verify if this is the case if you have access to a set top aerial then for a test try that, or just connect a piece of wire about 12/18" long into the inner part of the aerial socket and re-scan using that, giving an update on results.
Mark
Thursday 28 June 2012 1:59PM
Had the same problem today with win 7 media centre.
Was fine over the first re-tune a few weeks ago but just went in today to re-tune after the second to find everything gone.
WMC couldn't find any tv signal (or so it claimed).
Tried it twice and nowt.
Re-booted and re-ran it and it was fine.

So suggest you keep trying.

Oddly, I also recalled some friends with a panasonic tv saying they had to run auto-tune on their tv 3 times before it found anything - I didn't believe them at the time :)
ds
Thursday 13 September 2012 4:45AM
Got a pctv nanoStick T2 for the BBCB MUX (which I recently discovered was receivable here for some time before switchover began).

This works fine with vdr on GNU/Linux (given kernel 3.0 or later), except that the EPG info is ‘scrambled’ – users need www.realh.co.uk link icon http://www.realh.co.uk/vd…h.gz to fix this.
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