menuMENU    UK Free TV logo Help!

 

 

Click to see updates

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.



All questions
BBC Three Linear channel re-opens1
Removing all barriers to communication between diverse cultures2
How do I get a test card with Freeview3
What can I do when my Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fau4
Can I receive UK TV in Ghana?5
In this section
I have now lost all signal can you tell me what the problem might be?1
I have a Durabrand cg5660-m and I need the lock key code!2
What is the Inversion Effect and why does it effect my Freeview TV reception? 3
My ITV/C4 Freeview channels have disappeared - what can I do? Is it my SCART ca4
My high gain aerial can't get all the Freeview channels I expected5
What are the aerial types about? Are they high-gain?6

Comments
Thursday, 21 April 2022
N
Nigel Wood
11:20 AM
Alnwick

My location is NE66 3QH, and I sited my aerial towards the Chatton Transmitter. It was not until the Bilsdale transmitter fire that I discovered when auto tuning my devices (2 TVs, 2 PVRs and 1 set top box), that I was receiving a hybrid signal from Chatton/Bilsdale/Pontop Pike. I guess that this due to a large metal barn which is about 50m to the rear of the property and slightly more elevated. Since the fire I manually retune my devices to Channels 29,31,37,41,44,47 and although from Pontop Pike Channel 55 for Quest HD etc. But in the last weeks particularly with high pressure the stations broadcasted on channel 41 (local BBC1, BBC news 231 etc.) are totally breaking up, signal fades/ pixelates, and green pixels, both signal quality and strength are way down on the other Chatton transmissions. What I am finding is that channel 39 a Pontop, channel is much stronger but far from perfect and if auto tuning is selected in preference to channel 41. Can any light be shed on this is there still work being carried out at Chatton, there was mention of this back in December.

link to this comment
Nigel Wood's 3 posts GB flag
Nigel's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Merv Faulkner
12:12 PM

All commercial channels pixalating and audio cracking and popping,
Unwatchable tv !!
Nn3

link to this comment
Merv Faulkner's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:02 PM

Nigel Wood:

Yes a large metal barn can be an excellent signals reflector, which could make reception quite unpredictable! It could depend on the direction of the barn in relation to the way your aerial is pointing.

Other than that you are predicted to get pretty good reception from Chatton (22km away) which should be at compass bearing 324 degrees at your location (9 degrees N of NW). Although Pontop Pike is further away, 57km, you are predicted to get excellent reception of all multiplexes but it's at bearing 188 degrees so you could be getting reception from a rear side-lobe of the aerial, or the barn maybe helping. Similarly the reception from the temporary Bilsdale tower at bearing 164 degrees but is much much further away at 117km and maybe helped by the barn but it's only the PSB multiplexes and COM7 that are predicted to be received with this shorter tower.

None of the transmitters are listing any faults or Planned Engineering, but the lists aren't always 100%. A lot of transmitters have had work done on more than one occasion in recent months, so anything is possible. There has also been a little bit of disruption from tropospheric ducting weather conditions but that should have passed for now.

There doesn't seem to be any more definitive information at present. If I spot an update I'll post again.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:11 PM

Merv Faulkner:

The NN3 postal district is a large area and reception can be affected by terrain and different locations may get different reception from different transmitters. A lot of your area is served by the Sandy Heath (Anglia) transmitter and that is currently listed for Planned Engineering with the Possible effect on TV reception as "Screen may go black on all or certain channels" that could also include pixellation. Do NOT retune.
If you aren't getting your signals from Sandy Heath then we'll need a full postcode to give a more definitive answer.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 18 May 2022
C
Charles Jennings
11:08 AM

My aerial is pointed towards the Crystal Palace transmitter and receives all channels clearly except C26 which are the ITV stations. When I do a signal test with my Humax it shows a good signal for C26 one minute and then the next no signal at all. Up and down which makes viewing ITV channels very difficult with pixelating, etc.
Crystal Palace transmitter is chosen automatically by my Humax with setting the channels and in High Barnet we are a London Borough so this is the right transmitter. But we can get good signals also from Sandy Heath but want to receive London broadcasts for example on BBC and ITV.
Can I manually set the Humax receiver to just receive the ITV stations (C24) from the Sandy Heath transmitter and all the other channels from Crystal Palace?
Thank you

link to this comment
Charles Jennings's 2 posts GB flag
C
Charles Jennings
11:09 AM

My aerial is pointed towards the Crystal Palace transmitter and receives all channels clearly except C26 which are the ITV stations. When I do a signal test with my Humax it shows a good signal for C26 one minute and then the next no signal at all. Up and down which makes viewing ITV channels very difficult with pixelating, etc.
Crystal Palace transmitter is chosen automatically by my Humax with setting the channels and in High Barnet we are a London Borough so this is the right transmitter. But we can get good signals also from Sandy Heath but want to receive London broadcasts for example on BBC and ITV.
Can I manually set the Humax receiver to just receive the ITV stations (C24) from the Sandy Heath transmitter and all the other channels from Crystal Palace?
Thank you

link to this comment
Charles Jennings's 2 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:06 PM

Charles Jennings:

Just because you are in a London Borough doesn't automatically mean you will get good signals from Crystal Palace. There are many "pockets" within the London area that have to use a Relay transmitter because they can't get good signals from Crystal Palace. That said, in general, your area should get signals from Crystal Palace (but a full postcode would be needed for confirmation of predicted reception).

Because of your general location your aerial will be pointing roughly SSE and well within the beamwidth of your aerial is the Reigate transmitter (due S) and this operates as an SFN (Single Frequency Network) for the PSB multiplexes. That transmitter is currently listed for Planned Engineering and because of being an SFN it quite probable that changes to signals from Reigate will affect your reception. There is no detail about when the work will be complete, but as it's been listed for 4 weeks, it may finish soon.

As far as your Humax goes, I don't know as I haven't got one, but if it has an option for manual tuning then yes you should be able to tune to Sandy Heath. That said, if you are getting reliable signals from Sandy, you are quite lucky as parts of your area are predicted to get no signal from Sandy.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Monday, 30 May 2022
J
Jery G
8:34 PM
Rickmansworth

Lost reception from Hemel Hempstead today in WD3 5NY. Retuning did not help. Has anybody else got trouble

link to this comment
Jery G's 1 post GB flag
Jery's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:17 PM

Jery G:

Can't find any reports of faults or outages at Crystal Palace or the Hemel Hemstead Relay, although Crystal Palace is currently listed for Planned Engineering with Possible effect on TV reception as "Screen may go black on some or all channels".

It's never advised to retune when you have no signal as this usually just clears the correct tuning.
You'll have to repeat a retune when you have signals back - which you may have to try several times as you can't be certain when that'll be!

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 14 June 2022
A
Alan Mcmaw
7:15 PM

Together tv ch 83 has dropped off the Divis transmitter in n.I.have tried retune to no avail

link to this comment
Alan Mcmaw's 1 post GB flag
Select more comments

Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentUK Free TV is here to help people. If you are rude or disrespectful all of your posts will be deleted and you will be banned.







Privacy policy: UK Free Privacy policy.