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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
Friday, 3 April 2020
M
Michael
6:49 PM

My signal comes from Redruth transmitter in Cornwall - we live in Crowlas near Penzance . Over the past couple of days the picture on two televisions ( one upstairs / one downstairs) has completely disintedrated to the point where it is completely unwatchable. Why? Television reception is worse than dreadful and people are paying expensive television licences . Freeview is a terrible service when the transmitter reports NO problems. GET A GRIP in a national emergency people need to know what is happening please

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Michael's 1 post GB flag
A
Alan
7:18 PM

I'm based in Northwich and use the Winter Hill transmitter. The BBC4 HD signal has dropped to near zero over the past 24 hours. Other channels have a high signal strength. A reset & re-tune failed to find BBC4 HD at all. Is this a known issue?

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Alan's 1 post GB flag
Saturday, 4 April 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:27 AM

Michael:

As an independent help site, we try and provide people with as much assistance as possible with reception problems, but that isn't always possible when a full postcode has not been provided. In general, you shouldn't normally have reception problems in your area from the Redruth transmitter, it should be virtually perfect.

I'm not sure where you have got your information about the transmitter, but the BBC have reported recent faults affecting their transmissions (some advised on this site's transmitter page) which might have been the cause of your reception difficulties, but those appear to have been resolved, but be aware in the current covid-19 situation it may take Arqiva longer than normal to get faults fixed.

You haven't said which channels /multiplexes you been having problems with, but from the way you have phrased your post, I assume all of them, and the recent faults about a week ago, and a couple of days ago could have affected all multiplexes.

If you find your problems are continuing (and have been continuous over recent times) then you may have a fault on your installation, so you would be advise to check all your coax plugs, connections, flyleads etc, unplug connectors check for corrosion or other problems and reconnect them. Flyleads are a common problem, try swapping/changing them. See what signal strengths and quality you are getting for the multiplexes shown in your TV's tuning section. Also check that your downlead looks undamaged (especially if it is old) and that your aerial seems intact and pointing in the correct direction.
Problematic connections, water ingress etc. can seem to affect reception of just an individual or several multiplexes.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:39 AM

Alan:

The Winter Hill transmitter has had Planned Engineering recently (see Planned engineering works | Freeview ) with "Possible weak signal", which as mentioned in the recent post about Mendip, can appear to be no signal in some locations.
If you retune when there is no or very weak signal, this may not find the channels and correct tuning is lost and you will need to retune again when signals improve. I would try another retune if you haven't yet got all channels back.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Thursday, 16 April 2020
C
Colin Dutton
8:55 AM
Broseley

Post Code TF12 5SN. Recently purchased a new TV and as per my old TV tuned, into Sutton Coldfield Transmitter, although my nearest transmitter is The Wrekin. This was recommended by the aerial installer years ago.

My new TV updates itself during the night occasionally and for some reason re-tunes BBC1 to East Midlands rather than West Midlands. So when I switch on there is no signal on BBC1.

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Colin Dutton's 1 post GB flag
Colin's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:33 PM

Colin Dutton:

Well for Sutton Coldfield from your location your aerial should be pointing at a bearing of 91 degrees, virtually due East. (For the Wrekin it would be almost NW). The only transmitter that I would have thought you'd likely pick up, that is East Midlands region is Waltham and although it could be within the beamwidth of your aerial, it's more to the N of East, possibly ENE.
All the normal transmitters that you'd usually be predicted to get are all West Midlands.

Didn't the TV ask for your preferred region or postcode when setting it up initially?
Is this "retuning" to BBC1 East Midlands a regular event, or has it just been happening very recently? If the latter, it might be due to the fact that there's been a bit of Tropospheric Propagation about the last couple of days, see Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | Help receiving TV and radio
The PSB1/BBCA multiplex is on UHF C43 from Sutton Coldfield and C32 from Waltham - you'd have to check your TV's tuning section to see which UHF channel it was on when you have the East Midlands.

IMHO receivers that auto-retune, particularly when signal is lost, invariably pick up the wrong signals, apart from which, retuning when you have lost signals is usually a bad idea because it just clears the correct tuning!
The best way to resolve this sort of issue is to turn off this automatic retuning in your TV's Tuning Section. Frequent retuning is not required, there's no further retune events for the 700MHz Clearance program for Sutton Coldfield and the only other reason for a retune is when some Commercial Broadcasters change their channels and/or have them moved to different multiplexes which isn't usually that frequent. You'd find out that had happened when you couldn't receive one of them, or see an on screen message, or keep an eye on Service updates | Freeview where there was in fact one such event yesterday.
When you know that's happened, you can initiate an automatic retune manually.
HTH.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 22 April 2020
I
Iain Girling
3:51 PM

This morning (22/4/20) no freeview reception on any ITV Channel. Ch's 3,4,5,6,10,13,14,15,18,24,33). All other channels working correctly. Lark Stoke Transmitter. Indoor (loft) aerial. Re-stored with aerial out, Re-Installed as first timer. Reset several times. No change. Those channels not found. Aerial is only 3 years old. Any Ideas ?

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Iain Girling's 4 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:28 PM

Iain Girling:

Yes, Lark Stoke is currently listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible service interruptions".
It's not a good idea to retune when you have no signal, it usually just clears the correct tuning, so you have to repeat the process when the signals return.
If you haven't yet tried again and got the channels back, try again, maybe just before 6.pm. They don't usually work during the evening but it just depends.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Friday, 24 April 2020
I
Iain Girling
8:34 AM
Evesham

Chris.SE: Thanks for the assistance. Tried all the options so far, still no change. Unfortunately I don't have any neighbours on Freeview to compare with. Ch 23 appears to have no signal according to the TV. Everything else is working 100%, just this one frequency.

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Iain Girling's 4 posts GB flag
Iain's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:27 PM

Iain Girling:

Tricky one whilst we have this lock-down, I would have suggested the nearest "neighbour" that's got an aerial pointing at Lark Stoke just to check with.
If you still haven't got the D3&4 mux back I'd try ringing ITV on 020-7157-3000, Channel 4 on 020-7396-4444 and/or Channel 5 on 020-3580-3600 and asking if they can get someone to check the Lark Stoke transmitter as you can't get any channel 3, 4 or 5 channels, you checked everything , retunes etc and have no problem with the BBC or other multiplexes.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
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