My ITV/C4 Freeview channels have disappeared - what can I do? Is it my SCART ca
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV It is a feature of television signals that they can be effected by the weather. Aside from the obvious damaged that can be caused by wind or torrential rain, the onset of summer can cause a more intriguing problem called "inversion".
Basically, when the sun heats up the land, the hot air can get trapped below cold air at high level. This creates an "inversion layer" which acts like a polished mirror to TV signals. This causes two problems: you can receive both the original and a reflected signal from your own transmitter (on analogue TV this appears as "ghosting") or interference from TV transmitters that are normally too far distant.
The ITV/C4 multiplex of channels (ITV-1, ITV-2, ITV-3, ITV-4, CITV, C4, More4, E4, Quizcall) use a transmission "mode" called 64QAM, and it is sadly much more prone to these problems.
So, whilst a loft-mounted aerial will provide reception at some time, it will fail at others. The only real solution is to mount the aerial (or a new Class I aerial) outside on a pole, but some people report that changing the cable from the aerial to the set-top box to the high-grade satellite cable can also help.
The SCART connection, by the way, only carries a single TV picture, not the Freeview transmission multiplexes, so if this is disconnected it will result in degradation to every channel at once.
12:31 AM
Hi @mikeb thanks for your reply. The BBC channels are the only ones I'm having problems with, and they were completely fine until Thursday, which seems like a huge co-incidence. I'm not sure how to go about finding a different transmitter, when I re-tune it finds all the channels fine. I did a webchat with Goodmans' help yesterday and they said to try a "hard reset" (taking all the wires and aerial out of the box for 30 minutes) which made no odds. We're off into town tomorrow so may take a trip to John Lewis to buy something else - what a nuisance! Thank you again for your response.
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11:38 AM
Isla: The hard reset advice sounds like they know there is a problem, but have no idea what to do ('have you tried tunrning it off and on again?'). Go to JL and ask my Tech Support partners if they are having any problemswith that box - I was working yesterday and was too busy to ask them (I work in Audio/TV at....), but I know that the Goodmans box is the only SD Freeview box we sell - thats where I bought mine! The next one up is the Manhattan HD receiver, which someone asked about on this site a week or so ago. I hear decent things about it (and actually put one through the till yesterday), but at £59.95 http://www.johnlewis.com/…5174 thats a bit of a jump. If you have a CRT TV, then the HD is not much use to you, and any new TV you buy should have one built in. Yes, you get Iplayer, but frankly, if you needed a scart connection, I'd buy the Humax PVR for £164, which records, has two HD tuners (so you can use one to watch, one to record), gets you Iplayer and you can use with any new TV. I'm going to contact Goodmans, but since it sounds like a software glitch associated with BBC channels, I'm going to email the BBC as well. Such things do happen, as lots of us with Sony PVR's found out a while back when the EPG got updated and froze our recorders. Hopefully, there might be a solution, but if not, there are possibly alternatives.
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5:11 PM
Hi @mikeb just an update - my partner did another scan just before we went out, and BBC1 was fine! We actually left the TV on while we were in town and came back to it still on and working as normal. He's convinced he fixed it, I wonder if whatever problem there was was updated overnight. Either way, I'm very pleased. I hope you get things sorted soon.
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7:49 PM
Isla: Great news. I know that mine did freeze today on CBBC, so it might be the channel, the software, the signal, the box or the power supply...
If you go into the setup menu of the box, look for technical information, or something similar. It will tell you the transmitter your tuned into. It wont say Waltham (in my case), but instead is called 'East Midlands'. If you put your postcode into this website, it will bring up a link to DigitalUK's website, and give you the most likely transmitters. The Goodmans box will tend to call the transmitter something similar to the name of the BBC local news or its general location. If you know the transmitter, at least you can work out if your on the right one, and it could be that it was just a low signal in your case, caused by another transmitter.
If its not solved, you know where to come for advice!
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10:18 PM
@mikeb I spoke too soon. We switched channel, then swapped back to BBC later tonight and it froze again! So annoying! If it's not resolved by next weekend it will be a new box. Meanwhile, iPlayer on the iPad.
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Isla: would it be OK to suggest a look at Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | Switchovers | ukfree.tv - 12 years of independent, free digital TV advice ?
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10:36 PM
I have a freeview plus box. I did the update just now and it seems to have deleted e4+1 i have retuned it but nothing has come back!?!
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11:07 PM
Hi can, someone please give me a clear answear to why l could watch HD channels on my smart TV this morning and then when l had to retune the TV they had disappeared (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, CH4)?
I have reset the TV 3 times and the same thing has happened, channels that where present are no longer available!
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11:16 PM
@briantist we were one of the first areas to switch to digital (Aberdeen) and this is the first problem we've had, so I really think it must be something to do with the update and not the signal?
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11:18 PM
Since the update on Wednesday, I can not use any BBC channels without it completely freezing my freeview box, can not even change the channel or volume unless I unplug an plug it back it, if i dint change the channel fast enough I can watch whatever BBC I'm on but eng up frozen from changing the channel, this update has been annoying as hell, really need to fix this problem asap as I've tried everything I can think of
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