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My Freeview box has no EPG, is blank on FIVE, ITV3, ITV4, ITV2+1, has no sound o

My Freeview box has no EPG, is blank on FIVE, ITV3, ITV4, ITV2+1, has no sound or the channel line up is wrong

My Freeview box has no EPG, is blank on FIVE, ITV3, ITV4, ITV2+
published on UK Free TV

To deal with the problem you must clear the channel list completely and then rescan - if your box has it in the menus, please the 'installation menu' to do an initial scan or a reset to factory settings or First Time Installation. You MUST delete the entire existing list of channels. On most boxes this technique can be also be used:

Try this:

1) unplug your Freeview box (or idTV) from the mains;



2) unplug the aerial from the Freeview box by disconnecting the cable from the 'RF in' socket;



3) wait 30 seconds;

4) plug Freeview box (or idTV) mains back in;



5) do a complete scan for channels - it will fail without the aerial. (This may be in the installation or initialization menu, and is distinct from any 'add channels option'). Once this is done your channel line up should be empty;



6) reinsert aerial by reconnecting to the 'RF in' connection;



7) do a complete scan for channels again.



The Freeview channel line-up provided by six "multiplexes" - each of which carry five or more TV channels, radio channels, text services and EPG data. In this diagram each ROW represents a multiplex. If you are still missing a whole multiplex (ie everything on the row) you may need to replace your aerial with a wideband type, purchase a larger aerial or you may have interference from a VCR, games console, Sky Digibox or similar.



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Comments
Sunday, 19 February 2012
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:30 PM

Gill: If its not powered then there isn't really anything that can go wrong with it, but I did notice that Mendip was reporting a weak signal on the afternoon of the 17th and which could have caused the signal to drop to under the reception threshold of your TV / box, and "if" by any chance you tried carrying out an auto-tune whilst the weak signal was in evidence then you will have scrubbed what was stored in the memory.

If (and only if) you did carry out an auto- tune then carry out another one and this will restore the channels.

By the way Mendip is shown as being the main station covering your area, good reception across the board being indicated.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
G
Gill
9:56 PM
Bristol

Thank you jb, you are absolutely right! By process of elimination and by sheer frustration at not being able to watch the new series of Topgear and the snooker final tonight, my son went up to the roof after I gave him your last advice, and plugged the tv directly into the aerial and got a picture! He then proceeded to grin widely and sat there on the rafters to watch his programmes. However, this does not solve the problem for the rest of us, unless we join him. Also hubbie can't record, on the BT Vision box, HIS programmes :( This concludes we need a new splitter, yes?

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Gill's 8 posts GB flag
Gill's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 20 February 2012
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:59 AM

Gill: Pleased to learn that at least your son managed to view the programmes he wanted, but as far as the splitter is concerned when its not powered there really isn't anything that can go wrong with it unless by some fluke it has developed an internal bad joint, but I doubt that it has!

However what you have reported does indicate that the signal received from the transmitter is low to the extent that its falling underneath the reception threshold of your TV's and with the non-powered splitter positively contributing to this happening, as the reason your son managed to get reception again was simply because his action of by-passing the splitter lifted the signal back up again just enough to be "above" the reception threshold of the TV, thereby enabling the set to operate correctly.

You see splitters of this type "always" (no exceptions) reduces the signal passing through them and a reason I always favour powered types being used, unless that is a person resides in a very high signal strength area, although sometimes even then I still favour their use if they have three or more outlet points, although with the splitter being used in conjunction with an attenuator in line with its common input socket, as not only are these type of splitters in effect being no-loss devices but they even give a slight boost to the signal, something I suspect your reception could benefit from, albeit admittedly that the transmitter output could possibly still be down slightly, but by it having that effect indicates that your signal isn't really that good at the best of times and is likely to be constantly running at only slightly above the cut off threshold referred to.

Maybe by now the situation will have corrected itself, but if not if your son couples the aerial "in turn" to each of the feeds to the other rooms then that would enable you to re-tune each of them, but only "if" they were retuned when you lost the signal as otherwise they will still be OK.


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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
A
Alan Gill
5:52 PM
Southampton

Dave Lindsay:

According to my Humax PVR, Signal Strength for all 6 channels (28, 30, 32, 33, 34 & 37) is about 70%, and all have a Signal Quality of 100% - except channel 32, which is reported as variable, 20 80%.

I wondered if this might be caused by interference from another transmitter operating on channel 32, hopefully to be rectified after Changeover?


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Alan Gill's 2 posts GB flag
Alan's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:37 PM

Alan Gill: Perhaps someone else could offer their thoughts on this as I'm not sure what to suggest.

The only thing I can think of is to check that no device (video, Playstation etc) that puts a signal out on the aerial lead that could be the source of interference.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
D
delboy
11:23 PM

No signal at all. Not a single solitary channel: Sunday evening [2012 Feb 20th] for at least an hour. I think the best thing for us is to dump all the tellies and not waste our money on the licence fees - the public are being cheated as usual, the freeview service is just not up to it. After the changeover? I have no confidence in that being any help - there's no evidence that the service is going to be any good.
BTW losing channels is a regular occurrence. I live in East London supposedly with a strong signal, however my manager who lives in Kent has been saying that he also loses the same channels. I wonder what the advertisers on the ITV channels think about this, pehaps I'll list them and email them.
Just to cite one of the many peculiarities: can sometimes get E4+1 but VERY rarely E4 (different MUXes I know).

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delboy's 1 post GB flag
P
Poller
11:48 PM

Mine and my flatmates freeviews arnt working!! Anyone else in Clifton, Bristol having problems?

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Poller's 1 post GB flag
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:34 AM

delboy: London and Kent have yet to switchover
to digital, therefore you are served by analogue (if you are served by any terrestrial television). Thus, the digital signals eminating from transmitters are not as strong as their analogue counterparts yet and will not reach as far. Those in poor areas, such as low down or with obstructions, may have issues.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:43 AM

delboy: My last sentence should say "Those in poor areas, such as low down or with obstructions, will be those who have the greatest probability of having issues."

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
M
Michelle
2:10 PM

Hi, we lost all analogue channels on Sunday night on all TV's in the house. Some receive their feed through a Channel Plus system which also distributes our sky+HD. Video and Virgin Media. These are now all fuzzy on the other TVs only clear on the TV in theLounge to which they are directly connected. Any suggestions on how I can get a clear picture on our other TVs BTW they are getting a clear picture of the freeview channels. Do I need to retune something? I did clear all channels on both DTV and analogue and then rescan but analogue to no avail. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

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Michelle's 1 post GB flag
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