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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
Monday, 9 August 2021
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:35 PM

Chris :

If you are still at the same postcode as you posted in 2017 then your predicted reception from Midhurst is not good, and could be quite poor in certain parts of that postcode.
In addition to what StevensOnln1 has said, what direction is the aerial pointing and are the Rods (or squashed Xs) vertical or horizontal?
Your 2017 postcode would get reliable reception from Guildford (nearby) but that is London region instead of Meridian.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Sunday, 15 August 2021
J
Jeffrey Morgan
1:58 PM

My local transmitter at Aberdare (Rhondda Cynon Taf) is a repeater, it's main transmitter being either Wenvoe or St Hilary ( both in the Cardiff / Vale of Glamorgan area ). Quite a few of the non-main ( BBC, ITV, S4C, Ch5 ) channels are pixelating badly due to poor signal quality. Who is responsible for the control of the signal quality on these channels, It happens on a regular basis - all the main channels are perfect, yet the additional Freeview channels are rubbish.

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Jeffrey Morgan's 2 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:47 PM

Jeffrey Morgan:

FYI, the main transmitter would be at Wenvoe.
All the BBC channels are carried on the same multiplex BBCA/PSB1 so they would all have the same signal strength and quality. A number of the other broadcasters' "supplementary channels" will be on some of the other multiplexes, the main ones being on D3&4/PSB2. The main HD channels are on BBCB HD/PSB3. All channels on a given multiplex would have the same signal strength and quality (unless there's a possible problem with your installation).
See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which channels are on which multiplex, note, there is no COM7 or Local multiplex at Aberdare, only a very limited number of main transmitters carry those.

All multiplexes at Aberdare are transmitted with the same power in normal circumstances. The transmitter hasn't been listed for Planned Engineering recently (when there might be power reductions depending on the work), however the BBC have today reported some faults on other services at the mast, so any work there might affect DTV.

Your reception of each multiplex will depend upon your location. Sometimes different multiplexes may not be received as well as other depending on the geography of the locale etc. Without a full postcode we can't advise if that might affect you.

Any problems with your aerial installation and cables can also affect different multiplexes differently, this is because some faults can be "frequency" dependent ie. affect some UHF channels differently from others.
Also check in your TV's tuning section that you are correctly tuned to Aberdare's UHF channels, they are -
C24, C21, C27, C25, C22, C28 for the muxes PSBs1-3 and COMs 4-6.
Any retune at a time when the transmitter was off-air, on reduced power, or there was interference due to whether conditions could result in incorrect tuning. Once correctly tuned you should not need to retune at any time unless you have an on-screen pop-up about a commercial channel on one of the COM multiplexes being changed by it's broadcaster. if your set has an auto-retune function when there is no signal, turn it off if you can, it's more trouble than it's worth.

Interference due to weather conditions is one of the more common events (no doubt more so because of climate change) and can occur when there is "tropospheric ducting" which can sometimes be caused by high pressure. These conditions have been present in the last few days affecting reception in various places, more so in the South of England and Wales. It may continue for a day or so. It can affect individual muxes differently (if at all, it is often frequency dependent), it can last for seconds, minutes or hours - it's not that predictable.
Do NOT retune in such conditions.
The usual symptom you'll see in the TV tuning section is a reduction is quality whilst the interference is present, they may also be an affect on the signal strength.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Friday, 24 September 2021
T
Tim McDermott
9:44 AM

I have occasional pixel break-up on BBC 1 only, sometimes also on channel 231, but never on the HD BBC 1 channel on 101. All other channels are OK, but after trying re-tune lost channel 7 and 11 (sky arts).
The Sandy Heath transmitter is ok, so what`s my problem?
Thanks for your assistance.
Tim

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Tim McDermott's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:56 AM

Tim McDermott:

Sandy Heath had been on Planned Engineering and that work may not be complete. You should never retune if you are having reception problems due to weak/no signal or interference/weather conditions as invariably you end up just clearing the correct tuning and losing channels as you have now.
I suspect you'll have lost more than LCNs 7 & 11, LCN is on the Local multiplex and 11 is on the ArqA/COM5 multiplex. See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which channels are carried on which multiplex.

To compound matters current weather conditions may be causing issues, see the last paragraph of the post before yours. You'll have to try retuning (manual tuning of the affected UHF channels would be best) and may require several tries when signals are back to normal. If you continue to have problems after the weekend, please provide a full postcode so we can look at predicted reception in your locale.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 5 October 2021
S
Samuel Kayes
4:26 PM
Glasgow

G13 3HS house no 80 lost lot of freeview channels today, why?

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Samuel Kayes's 1 post GB flag
Samuel's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:24 PM

Samuel Kayes:

Which way is your aerial pointing? If it's about 9 degrees S of Due E, then you are pointing at the Black Hill transmitter which Freeview predicts is your most likely transmitter, if its pointing about 5 degrees E of Due S, it's pointing at the Darvel transmitter, which whilst still predicted to give you good reception is not predicted to be quite as reliable as Black Hill.

I can find no faults currently listed for either transmitter and Freeview are reporting no outages for Black Hill. Neither transmitter is currently listed for Planned Engineering, however Black Hill was listed for the previous two weeks and we know the lists aren't always 100% reliable. My guess is that there is still some work ongoing at Black Hill and this is why you experienced the problem. Your channels should now have returned.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 6 October 2021
M
Mike Turner
7:35 PM
Llandudno

Post code LL30 2LD. Llanddoga transmitter. Heavy pixellation on the ITV channels (MUX 2, I think). Wet and windy weather but often is. First time I've had problems like this

link to this comment
Mike Turner's 1 post GB flag
Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:55 PM

Mike Turner:

Have your signals returned to normal?
I can't find any faults currently listed for Llanddona (that doesn't mean there weren't any) and it's not listed for Planned Engineering.

If your problems continue, you may of course have a problem with your aerial installation with water getting into the aerial connections and/or coax. Such problems can affect a single multiplex but ultimately are likely to affect them all. Check the signal levels in your TV tuning section to see if other multiplexes are affected.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Saturday, 16 October 2021
J
Johnny Blair
6:04 PM
Crawley

Lost all freeview channels in Crawley (RH11) have tried retuning several times, but to no avail.

Is there a problem with the transmitter?

link to this comment
Johnny Blair's 1 post GB flag
Johnny's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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