My ITV/C4 Freeview channels have disappeared - what can I do? Is it my SCART ca
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV It is a feature of television signals that they can be effected by the weather. Aside from the obvious damaged that can be caused by wind or torrential rain, the onset of summer can cause a more intriguing problem called "inversion".
Basically, when the sun heats up the land, the hot air can get trapped below cold air at high level. This creates an "inversion layer" which acts like a polished mirror to TV signals. This causes two problems: you can receive both the original and a reflected signal from your own transmitter (on analogue TV this appears as "ghosting") or interference from TV transmitters that are normally too far distant.
The ITV/C4 multiplex of channels (ITV-1, ITV-2, ITV-3, ITV-4, CITV, C4, More4, E4, Quizcall) use a transmission "mode" called 64QAM, and it is sadly much more prone to these problems.
So, whilst a loft-mounted aerial will provide reception at some time, it will fail at others. The only real solution is to mount the aerial (or a new Class I aerial) outside on a pole, but some people report that changing the cable from the aerial to the set-top box to the high-grade satellite cable can also help.
The SCART connection, by the way, only carries a single TV picture, not the Freeview transmission multiplexes, so if this is disconnected it will result in degradation to every channel at once.
All questions
In this section
Wednesday, 10 September 2014
M
MikeB10:20 PM
Isla: I'd hold off buying a new box for a little while, for the following reasons:
1) Your not alone in having problems with this type of box, or should I say, this type of software, and so its possible there is a solution. It looks like the BBC channels are the ones prone to this (my remote refused to change channel from BBC3 tonight), so hopefully any change can be reversed.
2) If you go and buy another box (or simply go to where you bought the first one and demands a replacement) you are likely to get exactly the same thing, at least in software terms, so your unlikely to be better off.
3) As I said before, apart from the Goodman's and its clones, Manhattan seems to be the next available brand. Someone on this site said that they bought one, it didn't work, and they sent it back! Ok, might have been a one-off, but your still talking about £60, and that has an HD tuner, which you dont need for a CRT TV.
Much better to hang on for a little bit, and see if the problem is fixed. If it is, thats fine. If its a total pain, then I'd suggest buying a Humax PVR, because you'd probably have bought one anyway, it works, and you'll get a receiver and a recorder. Yes, its £164, but its better value long-term (see my collegues at a certain shop in Aberdeen, and they will normally recommend the Humax as well).
So the answer is - dont spend anything, unless you absolutely have to. Frankly, I want Goodmans and the BBC to sort it out, and I certainly dont want to spend any money. School shoes and uniform were a bit pricey this month...
| link to this comment |
Thursday, 11 September 2014
P
Paul Radford7:06 PM
@JB38 - My TV is the following make and model.
Samsung 40" F6400 Series 6 Smart 3D Full HD LED TV.
what do you suggest l do?
Pulling my hair out now!
Regards
Paul
| link to this comment |
M
MikeB8:58 PM
Paul Radford: I can confirm for JB38 that Paul's TV certainly has a T2 tuner - in fact its this years model and very popular (its what I've got my eye on should our TV give up).
Since you used to have HD channels, and now dont, something has changed. Its unlikely to be picking up another transmitter, since Crystal Palace is the lowest of the frequencies in the range of transmitters you could pick up, and its really powerful anyway. Could be, as JB38 suggests, your signal is just too strong, and the TV is saying 'no'.
One other thing - try changing//swapping the aerial lead. You dont need to spend much, but if your current lead is dodgy, then that might kill off com 7, which was just hanging on before the retune. Its worth a try, if nothing else. Frankly, you might be fine with an indoor aerial!
| link to this comment |
P
Paul Radford9:42 PM
@MikeB - cheers l will try this tomorrow.
Thank you
| link to this comment |
I
Isla10:04 PM
@mikeb did you ever get a response from the BBC? I really do not want to spend £164! I managed to watch the whole of the Bakeoff on BBC1 yesterday without having to reset, but when it finished the box was stuck and I had to switch off at the mains to get the channel to change. :-( Thank you for all your help, it is much appreciated.
| link to this comment |
M
MikeB10:28 PM
Isla: Yes, its odd that the box will work for ages, but then suddenly glitches in some way. I'm still waiting for an actual reply from the Beeb, apart from the automated reply.
Rather than switch the box off at the mains, I just pull the power connection out of the back and put it back in, but it does the same thing!
Until we get an answer, or the box starts working normally, we are just going have to put up with it. I'm certainly not spending any extra money - this is a Goodmans, etc problem, and they should sort it out. In fact I might email them now...
| link to this comment |
Friday, 12 September 2014
J
jb3812:42 AM
Paul Radford : Now that the brand / model number of the TV is known, this makes the strength of the signal being received even of more importance, as Samsung tuners (as well as LG's) cannot tolerate excessive signal levels being fed into their HD tuners and which generally results in zero reception, albeit that the SD channels are usually found to be working as normal. By all means try that suggested by MikeB of using another aerial jumper lead, but though, according to what you have reported its not just the somewhat lower powered (43 KW) COM7 that you have problems receiving, but "all" of the main Mux Ch30 HD channels which are radiating on 200Kw, this being why I suggested a manual tune test on Ch33 so as "not" to be tuning in a high powered transmitter. By the way, Samsung TVs are not (to put it nicely) particularly user friendly as far as their manual tuning facilities are concerned, plus they are less than satisfactory in level indication department by "not" indicating the strength of a signal, but only its quality, which although being the most important aspect of a signal is in effect useless for test purposes, as both strength and quality have to be known. Although manual tuning on a Samsung TV is undeniably a bit of a bind compared to many other main brands, should you be unaware of the procedure to use then follow the undermentioned / Press on the menu button then select and press on "Broadcasting" Run down the listings to "channel settings" then press on. Select and press on "manual tuning" followed by pressing on "digital tuning". A list of Mux channels already stored will be shown, scroll across to the right of the screen then select and press on "New", the Mux channel you are presently on will be shown, inch this up or down to select a new channel number, in this case its Mux Ch33, then press "Search" and storing anything found.
| link to this comment |
J
jb3810:00 AM
Paul Radford: In addition to that said, I would like if you could clarify on a point, insomuch, that if the guide button on the remote control is pressed this actually shows channel numbers being listed from 101 - 111 and also 123 &124?, but nothing happens when you press on any of them? or is it the case that the numbers mentioned are not listed?
| link to this comment |
M
MikeB10:52 PM
Isla: I've still had no reply from the Beeb, but I did talk to the guys in Technical Support tonight (it was a quiet night at work!), and asked them about the Goodmans boxes. They've had at least 20 back, so its not just us. I wait a reply with interest..
| link to this comment |
Saturday, 13 September 2014
N
Nightjar12:08 PM
Hello all.
I believe that I'm having an identical problem to Isla - a Goodmans set-top box and all BBC channels freezing randomly and remote unresponsive since the September 3rd retune.
All other chanels seem to be running fine, but after about three seconds (wherein I can change volume, access the guide etc) BBC channels screw up.
Generally I've started to 'soldier on', simply switching the box off and on at the wall to reboot, but frankly it's very frustrating.
I'm in central London and no amount of rescanning, first-time installations, or proscibed "Freeview reset procedures" have been able to fix it.
I've long heard that Goodmans boxes are poor but am concerned that if I invest in a decent new TV with integrated Freeview the problem will simply persist.
PS - I've checked which transmitter I'm recieving from under System Information and it says simply "London".
I'm not sure anybody can help, but any advice (or even just balm for the soul) would be most appreciated.
Thanks.
| link to this comment |
Select more comments
Your comment please