All posts by martin brown
Below are all of martin brown's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.I have now completed all the recommended retunes including a 'default' settings for the Humax box that gives me this option, and am still stuck. I have tried manually retuning as suggested by Timbo above, and channel 49 came up with various programmes (mainly ITV) that were there in any case - only adding four channels - and tuning to channel 50 706 Mhz gave the response 'no channels found'. This is clearly the multiplex containing the BBC channels, so I am back to square one. One of my Humax boxes does not even give me the option of manually retuning.
Does anyone have any advice, please? Is the problem really with my Humax boxes or is it a transmitter problem, ie the signal is just not reaching my house? I don't want to spend hours queuing to speak to the Humax helpline if it's a transmitter problem.
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jb38: Many thanks for trying to help me (your message at 1.07 pm today). You advised as follows:
"Make a note of the strength & quality (particularly the latter) on each of these five muxes, or six if you have an HD box, then give an update on results.
Ch50 (BBC) - Ch59 (ITV1) - Ch54 (HD) - Ch58 (ITV3 etc) - Ch49 (Pick TV etc) - Ch55 (Film 4 etc))"
Can I start by saying that I have two Humax machines: one is a Youview HD machine model DTR-T1000; the other is a non-HD PVR 9300T. The HD machine does not have a facility for manual retunes or for setting the channel number for which a signal check is required. I must first select the channel and then go into settings mode to perform a signal check for that channel, then exit, reselect a channel and repeat the process. Only two of the TV channels you mention are available this way, but they differ from the multiplex descriptions you give. Channel 50 is the "Marketplace" channel, and its signal reads 42% strength and 100% quality; and channel 49 is the "Jewellery Channel" with identical signal strength 42% and quality 100%. The other four channels, when selected, show a message "No channel".
On the other machine, however, there is a facility in the installation settings for taking signal readings and selecting the channel for which a reading is required. The readings were as follows:
Ch 50: Strength 63%, Quality 0%
Ch 59: S 71%, Q 100%
Ch 54: S 64%, Q 0% (NB this Humax is not an HD one)
Ch 58: S 72%, Q 100%
Ch 49: S 65%, Q flips erratically and quickly between 0%, 10% and 50%
Ch 55: S 68%, Q flips erratically and quickly between 0%, 10% and 50%
NB on the non-HD machine giving these full readings, channels 49 and 50, when viewed as TV, are jewellery and Marketplace just like the HD model.
Hope these results may give you a better idea of what might be wrong
Incidentally, I found this website through a search engine and it seemed to be the only place where problems with this 10 April retune are mentioned. I find it strange that so many people seem to have the same problem, and yet box manufacturers like Humax and the BBC's own website carry no information about the issue.
Thanks again for offering to help.
Martin
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jb38: Many thanks for your analysis of my problem. Unfortunately I'm not familiar enough with the technological jargon to say I understand it fully, but.... I think you are advising me that my next step should be to get an aerial engineer to come and do some adjustments to try to improve reception. If, however, there is a phase matching deficiency (whatever that means, is that an insuperable problem that an aerial engineer would not be able to solve?
If you feel an aerial man should indeed be my next step, I'll do this, though I do find it odd that reception from Winter Hill was good enough to get BBC on 9 April but not on 11th!
Many thanks again for your advice
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jb38
Sorry for delay since your last posts to me of 7.25 and 8.00 PM on 13 April. I checked with the only neighbour with freeview in this sparse country area (retuned no probs); followed up the Humax help desk's further suggestions to carry out a Maintanence Mode software update and Reset (no change from 39 channels); and rang Digital UK for advice (nothing helpful). I then moved on as you advised to aerial engineers. The first would not even come out, suggesting I needed to retune (doh!). The second has just been out and after considerable testing and head-scratching we have a result!
As he explained it, the new (lower) frequency of the BBC channels was coming through more weakly on my aerial than the previous position, and he resolved the problem by making a minor tweak to the direction in which the aerial was pointing, which improved the signal strength a little, and adding a signal booster in my loft. This has now restored service to 113 channels.
I remain aggrieved that I have had to shell out £ 158 to correct a problem caused by the transmitter people beaming out a signal on a frequency that (for me at least) caused reception problems. (I asked Digital UK who I would sue if I wanted to, but predictably they could not tell me!)
But I am am very grateful to you for your helpful advice which eventually led me in the right direction.
Martin
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Thursday 11 April 2013 8:19PM
Macclesfield
I live in Langley near Macclesfield (postcode SK11 0NA, aerial on roof)and have two Humax boxes. Since 10 April I have lost all BBC channels on both boxes and despite retuning (including unplugging aerial and wiping the memory to 0 channels, each retune finds only 39 channels instead of the 100 + previously. I cannot find a solution anywhere on the internet. Help.... please!