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For the last six years, I have answered many thousands of personal emails that you have sent to UK Free TV.

Sadly, I am unable to offer this personal service at the moment.

Until I can restore this service, please can you leave any questions you have on an appropriate page, where they will be answered as soon as possible, or below, if you can't figure out where to ask.

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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.

jb38
Thursday 28 June 2012 3:19PM
Teurayi Rugonye: Sky cannot cause you to experience a "no signal" warning, and indeed they have no means at their disposal to stop you viewing non-dedicated Sky programmes.

Press "services" on your remote control then 4 - 6 and check what's indicated on the signal strength / quality screen and which should be showing in excess of 60% or so on both bars, if not then the dish could have moved slightly out of alignment or water has gained access to the "F" connector plug.

Give an update on your findings when you carry out the signal check.
Angela
Thursday 28 June 2012 5:45PM
I have a 3-yr old LG tele - first re-tune took 3 or 4 times to get the programmes - second re-tune now - nothing at all. Has been retuned approx 12 times and still nothing.
the aerial has not been moved or damaged
the cables or connectors that connect the digibox to the aerial are not damaged

it came with freeview - no separate digital box
Mark Fletcher
Thursday 28 June 2012 6:37PM Lytham St. Annes
Angela.
Unless you leave a full postcode or nearby location as such,we cannot be of valuable assistance to you.
ALAN PEACHEY
Friday 29 June 2012 5:19PM Saffron Walden
Hi. Just to say that STVHD is back on again. On 10935v, for some reason I had to put it in again and it worked. Alan
Tunny
Saturday 30 June 2012 1:52PM
My tv had analogue and digital tuners but when I switch it in it still shoes the old analogue channel 01 as default which is now a blue screen,

Can I either make it default to DTV or tune in the old channel 1 to show ext2 which is my hdd recorder with digital tuner
Simon
Saturday 30 June 2012 2:13PM Witney
would you be able to help please.

I have plugged tv in bedroom into my sky and i get the picture that is displayed on the sky downstairs in the bedroom and can control the sky channel from the bedroom.

I would like to know if there is a way to change the channel on the tv in the bedroom without changing the channel downstairs. there are no additional tv aerials plugged in. just the coax from sky rf2 port to tv.

thanks
jb38
Saturday 30 June 2012 5:02PM
Simon: The answer is basically no! although if TV downstairs is a Freeview set and has a normal aerial connected into it as well as the Sky box then the aerial lead to the downstairs TV can be split two ways, with one output going into the TV aerials socket and the second output going into the Sky boxes normal aerial socket, as this will then pass the Freeview signals through the Sky box picking up the Sky boxes "analogue" channel in the process, then both sets of signals are then fed up to your bedroom TV.

Needless to say your bedroom TV has to be capable of receiving Freeview as well as analogue which you are presently viewing Sky on, then all you would require to do on your TV is select either DVB to view Freeview channels or alternatively analogue if you wish to view Sky.

If though you are thinking on doing this sort of thing then if you provide your post code, or at least one from a nearby shop etc, advice can be given on the RF channels "to avoid" using on the Sky box so as not to clash with either the three or six used by Freeview, as the post code will reveal the transmitter serving your area enabling its channel numbers to be checked out.
Roy
Sunday 1 July 2012 10:43AM
Hi ,
Wish I knew what is going on here - did the retune as required and at first lost only bbc1&2 on HDMI ... and Sky sports ! & 2 visa BT Vision.. then after 3 days all channels have a weak freeview signal (no picture possible) and even normal tv will pixellate under adverse atmospheric conditions .. never happened before!!
Tried retuning at different times/weather and re-seting with aerial disconnected - no change . Any suggestions please ? based near Ashford in Kent.
Mrs Thompson
Monday 2 July 2012 7:40PM
please can you help? I tried to tune in channel 11 and somehow I have switched the telly back to analouge, would the channels have been erased, I can't get the menu back and I don't know what to do.
jb38
Monday 2 July 2012 8:38PM
Mrs Thompson: If that's all you have done then the Freeview channels should still be there, look for a button on your remote control marked A/D (or DVB) and press it. By the way if you are referring to Pick TV when you mention Ch11 you cant tune that in individually as its part of a group of other programme channels such as (19) Dave / (20) Really / (29) E4+1 etc.

Any problems with the TV come back with its model number, or if you cant get the channels mentioned your post code, or at least one from nearby such as a shop, as this will enable the signal levels expected at your location to be assessed.
Mark Fletcher
Monday 2 July 2012 11:25PM Halifax
Mrs Thompson.Unless you provide a full postcode preferably we cannot provide valuable assistance to you with your current predicament as such.
Mark Fletcher
Monday 2 July 2012 11:28PM Halifax
Roy.A full postcode for a start will go a long way in providing valuable advice and assistance as such.Unless you do we cannot be of much help to you !
Mark Fletcher
Monday 2 July 2012 11:30PM Halifax
Tunny.Unless you provide a full postcode as such we cannot be of valuable assistance to you !
david
Tuesday 3 July 2012 1:26AM
Hi,lost quite a few channels on sky hd over last 12 months,half music channells,military,some selling channels and other various,long story short sky engineer comes plugs in and says instead of recieving 6 sats im only getting 3,no probs he says i put a new dish up for you,3 hrs later he knocks front door and says,sorry you cant recieve any sky tv now as i cannot get a signal at all!!!,call an independent installer and ask for a taller mast as that should solve it,im off to my next appmnt as im late!,i phone sky for 45mins and get told thats unacceptable,lets get it re booked for another visit and in the meantime follow me through these menus-away we go end up doing a reset summat or other,get a code29,great he says its the lnb,guy coming thurs should sort that for you,so i await and will update-prob is i have lost everything in my planner!!-will it come back?/,thanks,David.
NottsUK
Tuesday 3 July 2012 8:53PM
Briantist: More 4+2 is transmitting on Astra 1N 11127/V/22000, with adverts for the new channel "4 Seven" starting on the 4th July 2012.
Peter
Wednesday 4 July 2012 12:26PM
I have ended my subscription to Sky. I have a lot of recorded programmes on my Sky+ box. Can I carry on watching these? I have left the sky box connected to the TV by scart but have disconnected the sky box from the satalite dish and disconnected the telephone link to the sky box.
jb38
Wednesday 4 July 2012 12:56PM
Peter: Sky generally disables the recording / playback side of Sky+ boxes at the same time as cancelling your ability to view Sky dedicated programmes, but "if" you can still playback your recordings and never at any time re-connect the dish leads nor the telephone link then you stand a good chance of the situation staying as it is.

Its really boils down to you trying a test.
joseph shakesby
Wednesday 4 July 2012 2:43PM
we have just had a thunder storm and lost sat signal is this normal in storms
Mark Fletcher
Wednesday 4 July 2012 2:53PM Halifax
Joseph Shakesby.Yes !
Jacqueline
Wednesday 4 July 2012 10:18PM
How do I remove the card from my Sky+HDDigibox? having problems and have lost connection while playing a recorded programme back (it happened immediately after fast forwarding at adverts and trying to play on the second half of my programme) How frustrating!!!!!
NottsUK
Thursday 5 July 2012 1:18PM
Briantist: Eight more SD Olympic Streams have come live on Astra 1N 10876/V/22000. They are 7800, 7806, 7812, 7818, 7828, 7834, 7840 and 7846.
Clair
Friday 6 July 2012 10:22AM
I currently have sky+ with an aerial cable from RF2 to another tv in the kitchen which serves me well as there is no echo and I can see what I can hear from the lounge on my tv in the kitchen.
I want to switch to freesat and need to know whether I can just continue to share the signal between the two tv's as I am currently doing with the aerial cable. I don't want to watch a different channel, just two tv's in different rooms showing the same thing from one box?
steve h
Friday 6 July 2012 1:18PM
clair dont forget you could carry on using your current box if you want to, even if you cancel your sky subscription
Clare
Friday 6 July 2012 1:33PM Bridport
Hi, Help. Have completely lost all BBC services. I live in an area that is apparently known to suffer from co-interference (sometimes lose BBC channels for a while and pick up France perfectly) - Seatown, West Dorset. We have lived here for 18 months and experienced this occasionally during good weather last summer. Got the local aerial engineers in and they checked our aerial, confirmed the position, and said there was nothing we could do about it short of getting freesat or sky.

However, the weather is now awful, and over the course of the last few days the BBC channel signals have been coming and going / pixellating etc. Yesterday, we got to a position where all TV's in the house are totally unable to pick up any BBC channel at all (ITV is perfect), and nothing has come back yet, not even a pixellating picture.

I have tried rescanning them all several times - no change. Aerial has not moved. No trees near us (just lots of sea). No neighbours either in fact.

I don't understand how this can be co-interference given that there is no high pressure at present. I've searched the internet to see if anyone else is complaining about BBC channel loss, or any "aerial" event occurring over the last week, but I can find nothing.

Any ideas on what might have happened? Do you agree that we just need to accept the financial outlay of cabling house for freesat and give up on freeview?

THanks for any thoughts
Clare
Friday 6 July 2012 1:57PM Bridport
PS - Another thing the aerial engineers said when they came out last year was: the aerial is a loft aerial. They replaced it. I asked if it should go outside (not ideal as we live in a very windy location). They said no because they said the co-interference problem would probably be worse if the aerial was outside. I may be completely imagining this but I think they said something about magnification across the sea and the expanse of sea infront of us.

Not sure if that makes any sense. But still cannot see how the weather conditions of the last 48 hrs could have led to a complete break down in BBC services.
KMJ,Derby
Friday 6 July 2012 5:40PM
Clare: I have just checked the William Hepburn's tropospheric ducting forecast, there was a small area over the West country that could have experienced lift conditions during the previous 48Hrs. These conditions should have cleared completely in the early hours of this morning, so should be back to normal now. It is not a good idea to do a re-tune in an attempt to restore channels when they disappear due to interference. This could move the normal channels into the 800s of the channel list or remove them completely, having replaced them in the normal positions with out of area versions of the BBC channels, or something completely different from France. The aerial engineers are correct when they say it is sometimes better to position an aerial where it is screened from interference, rather than raise its height to a point where it could benefit the interference more than the required signal. With regard to other posts, there was another from a Dorset viewer who had lost Film4 from Stockland Hill.
Dave Lindsay
Friday 6 July 2012 6:03PM
Clare: Is your aerial directed to Beacon Hill which overlooks Torbay or Stockland Hill?

Confirm that it is tuned correctly. If you have difficulty with it picking up the wrong one, then:

- for Stockland, run the automatic tuning scan and unplug the aerial at 30% or when it gets to C30; or

- if your aerial faces Beacon Hill, start the scan off with the aerial unplugged and plug in when it gets to 30% or C30.

If it is Beacon Hill, then C60 is used by BBC and is also used by Cherbourg which is about 45 miles across the Channel. Cherboug does not share any other channels with Beacon Hill.
John Humphrey Williams
Saturday 7 July 2012 8:45AM Dolgellau
Just a query regarding Freeview in certain areas of Wales. Since the changeover to Digital,transmission via Preseli to the LL40 1LT area, do not accomodate all of the channels on Freeview. Will this be amended in the near future ?. The new channel that came on Freeview is unavailable in our area, many residents cannot purchase either Sky or Freesat to give them a full allocation of channels, so why it is unfair that most of UK can receive all channels, and this area are unable to receive all channels.
Bob Loader
Saturday 7 July 2012 9:51AM
Congratulations on your 10 years. You have provided a very helpful, important service.thanks Brian
ALAN PEACHEY
Saturday 7 July 2012 8:42PM Saffron Walden
Hi. Another quick question. Now that ITV ANGLIA WEST is on Astra 1N, why ia it still encryted? Thanks.
Thommas
Saturday 7 July 2012 9:10PM
Hi, my friend gave DRX 550 AND i DID CONNECT IT TO SKY DISH AND GIVE ME THE SIGNAL USING THE SSAT FINDER BUT THE DRX 550 DID SAY NO SIGNAL SO I DID UNPLUD AND PLUG IT TO THE TECNOMATE 5200 AND DID WORK.
cOULD YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IS WRONG.
THANKS.
alan thompson
Sunday 8 July 2012 1:49PM
Just to say following my May 22nd posting!welcomed your advice,pleased to say problem now solved-getting digital reception,also able to record on twin channels etc,many thanks .Alan Thompson
jb38
Sunday 8 July 2012 3:48PM
alan thompson: Many thanks for your update and its good to hear that all is now OK.

Pleased to have been of assistance.
Christine
Sunday 8 July 2012 8:12PM
I have 3 tvs with free view boxes. I have had to go through the process of disconnecting the aerial, waiting, reconnecting and reinstalling the programmes periodically. This week 2 of the tvs have lost the ITV, channels 4&5, pick tv and a few more. I have reinstalled the programmes and they are fine.Even when I leave them on standby but and turn them on they are ok but every time I switch off at the mains I lose them again. BBC channels are there and the third tv hasn't had this problem. They all come from the same aerial. Any help appreciated.
jb38
Sunday 8 July 2012 8:33PM
Christine: This can happen with some equipment that is routinely re-scanned in an attempt to pick up lost programmes, which in most cases aren't but have just dropped under the reception threshold, as what happens is that the box will pick up more channels than its memory is capable of holding hence losses them when the device is switched off.

The way to get over it is to blank out everything stored by carrying out a factory reset, this called "default setting" on some equipment or "first time scan" on others, then afterwards carry out a normal auto-tune
Mark Fletcher
Sunday 8 July 2012 8:47PM Halifax
Christine.If you leave a full postcode preferably to ascertain reception possibilities at your location,then you will provide further help for our resident experts on here to distribute valuable advice and assistance to you !
Chris Simpson
Sunday 8 July 2012 10:04PM Darlington
Mark Fletcher: Hi Mark we did as you suggested with the Thomson DTI 6300,to no effect.
The handbook only advises factory reset for the tuner, which is working fine. Still 'no hard disk' message. Chris, Darlington
Chris Simpson
Sunday 8 July 2012 10:20PM Darlington
Chris Simpson:
Martin McCloskey
Sunday 8 July 2012 10:21PM
We have two Sony digital TVs (one "HD Ready") both connected to a roof mounted digital aerial pointing at Limavady transmitter.
The larger HD ready one has lost Multiplex 1 (BBC1, 2, 3 and BBC News) and a rescan does not find them, however they are all still present and perfect on the smaller tv

How?
Martin McCloskey
Sunday 8 July 2012 10:59PM
I should have pointed out that a factory reset first time scan has failed to find the missing BBC Channels also.

Mark Fletcher
Sunday 8 July 2012 11:11PM Halifax
Martin McCloskey.Did you rescan automatically.If your larger HD ready TV allows try manual scanning the affected multiplex you indicated as such,which is Mux1 on frequency 67 from Limavady.
Mark Fletcher
Sunday 8 July 2012 11:32PM Halifax
Chris Simpson,Darlington.All i can say if this can be of any use is to Google Search and key in Thomson DTI 6300 Problems.
About 32,000 results should come up !
Chris Simpson
Monday 9 July 2012 8:10AM Darlington
Mark Fletcher: Thanks Mark, Chris
jb38
Monday 9 July 2012 8:26AM
Chris Simpson: The procedure to try as mentioned by Mark Fletcher is the maximum that any viewer can do, because if that doesnt rectify the situation then only a engineer "might" depending on the extent of the problem, because these boxes "are" notorious for power supply problems as well other issues relating more to software, and the cost of repairing them far outweighs the value of the box whereby only an owner / technical enthusiast would justify even taking the outer casing off.

The problem you report could indicate a defect in the aforementioned issue concerning the power supply, or it could actually be the hard drive itself that has failed as this isn't exactly a "once in a blue moon" type of situation.

The only other issue that can stop them working is if the hard drive is full, but that wouldn't (or shouldn't!) give the message that you refer to.
Chris Simpson
Monday 9 July 2012 1:13PM Darlington
jb38: Thank you both. Looks like we are going shopping for a new PVR. On the bright side, we have a spare (non-record) box. Chris
Mervyn Davies
Monday 9 July 2012 1:35PM
Please can u help?We have brought our old amstrad sky box to Hungary to our holiday home.The dish has been tested by a satellite signal finder & is showing a strong signal the box however is showing no signal.
We have followed steps 1,2&3 checked the signal into the box & still no luck.We have not got a sky card but understand this is not necessary to receive free view satellite.It seems the box is not accepting the signal.Any ideas?Thank you
John Beckett
Monday 9 July 2012 9:02PM
I lost ITV/C4 channels during torrential rain last week in Belfast. I have tried retuning to no avail. I live in a block of apartments with communal aerial. Is it possible that this is an email problem? If so what action do I need to request be taken to resolve it?
John Beckett
Monday 9 July 2012 9:03PM
Sorry typo in my post, I meant is this an aerial problem obviously.
Mark Fletcher
Monday 9 July 2012 10:52PM Halifax
John Beckett,somewhere in Belfast.If you leave a full postcode preferably then further valuable advice and help will be given to ya as such !
jb38
Monday 9 July 2012 11:07PM
Mervyn Davies: Although you may well be getting an indication of a strong signal but are you positive that the signal is from the correct satellite? as 28.2 might seem to be quite far away from say 19.2 but in reality when a dish is being turned around in its horizontal plane the difference is only fractional, and of course any indication of signal strength on the Sky box is "only" made from the default transponder on 28.2.

Another point being, are you sure that the actual box is OK, as many of these older Amstrad boxes suffer from power supply problems which unfortunately only show up when the mains power supply is disconnected after not having been for a considerable period of time, as when the components cool down that's when a fault usually develops.

If the TV being used can be seen from where is dish is positioned then you should leave the box on the signal checking screen and loosen the horizontal plane clamp, then very, very slowly move the dish to the right or left watching for the slightest sign of an indication on the strength / quality bar.

If though the TV cannot be seen from the dish, then use a coax link from the boxes RF 1 output and feed this into the aerial socket of an analogue TV, tuning same to pick up the box, then use the method previously described to adjust the dish.
Andy
Monday 9 July 2012 11:40PM
Hi, can anyone tell me if i will be able to receive english tv channels whilst on holiday in the coastal area Cherbourg. I have a new tv so don't need a set box etc etc. We are having problems with out sat dish on the van and hoping we may not need it anyway.
Lesley Ainsley
Tuesday 10 July 2012 7:27PM
Why, as soon as it rains do I lose signal? It is the most frustrating thing. All this money and technology, and a bit of rain shuts everything down!!!!!



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