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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, 26 May 2024
C
carol
3:42 PM

Chris.SE:

Hi Chris, thank you for your prompt reply. I appear to have all channels back apart from my HD channels.

The aerial is outdoor roof mounted and appears to be intact and pointing the same way it has always pointed. I dont really want to climb up on the roof for closer inspection of cables etc. It seems very odd that all of a sudden I am experiencing problems in the last few weeks the same time as engineering works are happening.Things have been working problem free for many years until now.

I will give it a few more days then do the manual retune as per your suggestion. I hope I do not have to pay out for another aerial for crying out loud!

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carol's 9 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:48 PM

carol:

If the channel LCNs 101-107 are not appearing in your channel list (as opposed to being there but with "No Signal") then you may as well do that MANUAL retune of C40.
If it's still no signal it could be a transmission issue but there's still no fault reports that I can find!

How old is your aerial? Do you know what type it is by any chance?
Should you need to go down the path of a replacement you should have a Group K aerial (not a Group B as some might advise). Group K cuts off above C48 to help protect you from possible mobile mast interference from any new/upgraded phone masts. Group B does not cut off like that.

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Chris.SE's 4,240 posts GB flag
Monday, 27 May 2024
C
carol
9:42 AM

Chris.SE:

Hi Chris, still no luck with the HD channels....I shall try again in a few days time.

The aerial is a wideband aerial installed in 2005 for the digital switchover. It's looking likely that its a new aerial isn't it? The thing is, I can't see anyone else having these problems in my area.....

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carol's 9 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:29 PM

carol:

That is at the age where problems could be expected, however how long an aerial system survives depends on exposure and the original quality of the aerial plastic connector box and the coax cable. The cable sheath can get brittle and crack as can the connector box and water can enter and get into the coax. If it were a transmission problem I would have expected to see several posts about reception problems especially on the Sutton Coldfield page and there's still no fault reports listed.

If your downlead terminates in a wall plate, have a look at the back of it to check for corrosion or water. If it goes straight to a coax plug into the back of the set, check the plug especially after it's been laying on the floor for a while, water tends not to go up hill when it up plugged into the set !!

The thing about these sorts of problems is that it doesn't always (visibly) affect all multiplexes. The behaviour of the cable can become frequency dependant depending on where the fault is due to what's called "standing waves". Sometimes looking at the Signal Strength and Quality figures in the TV Tuning section can give a clue.
If the signals return after a few days of dry weather, water in the system is the most likely cause.

If you are able to find the Signal Strength and Quality figures in your TV Tuning section, post them for each multiplex, it could confirm what we suspect.
Don't forget, if you get the aerial replaced, a Group K and double screened coax for the downlead.

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Chris.SE's 4,240 posts GB flag
Saturday, 1 June 2024
C
Carol
6:33 AM

Chris.SE:

Was pleased to see the HD channels had returned to the channel list this morning. However, upon entering the channel, still no picture, error message still saying 'selected programme not tuned'. Performed an auto and manual tune, HD channels disappeared off the list again. Back to square one!

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Carol's 9 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:54 PM

Carol:

Can you not find the Signal strength and Quality (or error) figures in your TV Tuning section? This may give us a clue as to what is going on!

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Chris.SE's 4,240 posts GB flag
Sunday, 2 June 2024
S
Sarah
7:12 AM

My sharp TV with Humax Freeview box is missing bbc1 and bbc2. Retuning doesn't help. Looking online I should be able to get 130 odd channels but auto tuning gets me 80?! Looking at the transmission, frequencies etc makes no sense when I look at my manual tuning options. I think I might need to do a factory reset but I am worried it will delete recordings? Can you help please?

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Sarah's 1 post GB flag
C
Carol
10:24 AM

Chris.SE:

HD channel list reappeared again yesterday late afternoon when I switched on the tv! I went into one of the channels and the picture appeared as well. However, not long afterwards the picture started pixelating and eventually broke up. It was a bit better early evening.

I got the following figures for you on signal quality (SQ) and signal level (SL) on each multiplex:

BBCA SL 97 SQ 81
D3&4 SL 95 SQ 11
BBCB - SL 95 SQ 0 to 2
SDN - SL 95 SQ 12
ARQA SL 95 SQ 39
ARQB - SL 96 SQ 38

This morning, the readings on BBCB were much higher SL 95 SQ 25



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Carol's 9 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:10 PM

Sarah:

I would strongly advise against a factory reset. There is the possibility you might lose recordings and you'd certainlyt lose any series recording you've already set and have to repeat set it up again.

Retuning was not a good idea either I'm afraid. You were already correctly tuned. You haven't given a full postcode so we don't know which transmitter you might be receiving, many have Planned Engineering and signals can get interupted albeit for short periods, or may have reduced power and if you are in a weaker signal area you may have no signal for longer.
You cannot tune to signals that aren't there or are badly pixellated they cannot be decoded.
The usual result is to clear your correct tuning, or sometimes tune to weak signals from a more distant transmitter that will be unreliable and often disappear.
It doesn't matter what the cause of no signal, be it engineering, transmitter faults, your own aerial faults, weather conditions etc. if you were correctly tuned to start, leave it alone, you just have to be patient until signals return to normal;

Manual tuning is always the best option to try and restore multiplexes that may be missing if you've inadvertently cleared the correct tuning.
In your case if you are missing just BBC channels, you need the UHF channel for the BBCA/PSB1 multiplex. If it's the HD versions the it's the UHF channel for PSB3/BBCB HD.

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Chris.SE's 4,240 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:48 PM

Carol:

Hi again. Those SQ figures are bad. They should all be 100%, so there's either a major issue with your aerial/downlead (or a connection) OR you have strong wide spread interference.

Now, despite the fact that Restore TV claim to have not sent postcards to your postcode, that doesn't mean that you aren't now suffering interference from a new/upgraded phone mast!
Have you noticed any new ones appearing nearby? You are surrounded by at least 6 within a least 1km.
If you put your postcode in at https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/ then go to Contact Us and given them a call on 0808-1313-800 and tell them you've been having all sorts of problems with the HD channels in particular in recent weeks and occasionally on other channels and an engineer has; told you that your Signal Quality on all multiplexes is very poor. You can even quote the figures to them. Play the innocent, haven't got any technical knowledge etc. they MAY send you an engineer free of charge rather than just sending you the Free Filter.


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