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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
Saturday, 25 April 2020
I
Iain Girling
7:02 PM
Evesham

Chris.SE: Thanks Chris. Like you, I have run out of ideas. Luckily I have Freesat reception on another TV so will use that pro tem. I will re-posess my step ladder and go up into the loft to see if the aerial has moved..

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Iain Girling's 4 posts GB flag
Iain's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 27 April 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:37 PM

Iain Girling:

To add to the previous, Lark Stoke is now listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible service interruptions".

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 20 May 2020
C
Colin lewis
6:59 PM

Cannot get bbc 1&2 all channels up to 10 have no signal seems to be every time we have good weather can you help

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Colin lewis's 1 post GB flag
Thursday, 21 May 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:24 AM

Colin lewis:

We can only offer some constructive advise if we have some idea as to which transmitter(s) and multiplexes you might be able to receive and what the predicted reception is for your location. To look at the Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker we need a full postcode.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
A
Anne West
9:59 AM

Colin lewis: We view Freeview from Stockland transmitter. Both last night and the one before all the lower number channels were pixelating and impossible to watch. I personally don't know if it cleared as I gave up and watched some programmes that I recorded.
I live in Colyford but a lot of people on the Heart of Colyton were complaining about it. They stated they were getting instruction to retune. I did not have that.

When is the Stockland transmitter going to be updated so that it gets all the Freeview and HD channels. We were one of the first places to get digital tv and we seem to be the last to receive it all.

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Anne West's 3 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:05 PM

Anne West:

I replied to a post last night on the Stockland Hill page (DAB page but should have been Freeview).
"it's obvious you mean the Freeview transmitter.
It's possible that there's some engineering work taking place as the BBC reported a fault yesterday - From 10:35pm to 10:53pm on 19th May 2020 BBC A Reduced quality due to a fault &
From 10:35pm to 10:53pm on 19th May 2020 BBC B HD Reduced quality due to a fault.
Whatever work may be taking place it might affect any of the multiplexes and may well be the cause of what you are seeing. How it might affect your reception of a given multiplex will depend on your precise location - we'd need a full postcode to look at the Freeview Detailed Coverage checker to see predicted reception. "

Additionally I added "There's also some pockets of moderate to strong Tropospheric Ducting around at present which may not be helping matters resulting in interference from other transmitters."

Quote >> I live in Colyford but a lot of people on the Heart of Colyton were complaining about it. They stated they were getting instruction to retune. I did not have that.

Where were those instructions coming from? Their TV set? - unfortunately some sets prompt that when they lose signal and generally it's NOT a good idea to retune in such circumstances as most of the time it just loses the correctly tuned channels or ends up picking up another transmitter (the wrong region or foreign) and you have to repeat the retune when conditions change.

As far as COMs7&8 with extra HD and other channels is concerned, Stockland Hill is never going to have those multiplexes. They have been closed at some other transmitter for technical and financial reasons when the 700MHz Clearance took place, many because they are temporary multiplexes and were initially provisioned using redundant equipment from pre-DSO but that was not capable of moving to the temporary allocated UHF channels 55&56 and operating as Single |Frequency Networks.
It's anticipated that at some future date Arqiva will convert one (and more eventually) of their COM multiplexes to HD T2 possibly starting with COM6 (speculation) which will increase capacity and the ability to add HD channels.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
D
David Warner
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

11:24 PM
London

I've been having COM 7 and COM 8 problems at Crystal Place - Britain's Numero Uno I am led to believe.
About a month ago (end of April we had very heavy rain, and I lost all the channels on COM 7 (BBC News HD and all the odds and sods - including Channel 4 HD +1. As my aerial in a self-installed loft aerial (which one might be forgiven for thinking a reasonable thing to do - as I am only 3 miles from Crystal Palace), I tried all sorts of manouvering of the aerial to tilt it upwards, move it more easterly, move it more westerly etc to no purpose.
Two days ago I lost the COM 8 signal - which is a disaster for me, as I am very particla to PBS America +1 - only available in the mornings on Freeview channel 93. I aso lost BBC Four HD of course - meaning I can't vada (see Polari dictionary) those posh programmee by Andrew Graham Dixon etc on art - which is exactly why you need HD.
I'm still in the process of trying to resolve this issue. I should point out here that I have lived in the house since 1986 - and have because of technical chnages got through 5 loft aerials due to tansmitter technical changes (stating with Channel 5 retune - remember that?) I presently have a 20 element Yagi array - which I upgraded to from my previous 10 element Yagi aerial, last time Arquiva screwed up (if it was they) and I had COM7 COM8 problems.
When I installed the 20 element there was a Freeview calculator which gave you the correct compass bearing to use to Crystal Palace - or which ever transmitter you needed. This now seems to have gone from cyberspace.
Can I please have the correct bearing from 290 Coldhabour Lane SW9 8SE to Crystal Palace?
Can you also comment on whether the trees on the opposite side of the road coming into verdant leaf may had sut down my COM7 and COM8 signal? Should I apply for conservation area consent to have them felled?
Why is COM7 and COM 8 radiated at a mere 40kW at Crystal Palace when the other multiplexes are 200kW? (except the local London Live/Sony Movies multiplex LW (channel 35) which is 20kW.
By the way this local low power multiplex comes in so strongly from Crystal Palace to Brixton that you don't need an aerial to receive it - even with verdant trees on the other side of there road!

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David Warner's 30 posts GB flag
David's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 22 May 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:06 AM

David Warner:

My first reaction reading your post was "a 20-element yagi 3 miles from CP!!" - you probably have too much signal, then you mentioned the trees and I thought hmm, how reliable was it before they came into leaf? Even then, who owns them? Only the owners would be able to consider topping/felling with the appropriate permissions. Even with a loft aerial, unless you are going through loads of party walls, water tanks, solar panels and god knows what else, you might still have too much signal. Except, if you are then splitting the signal with lots of passive splitters to many sets which will reduce the signal! Ah, but what you don't mention here (discovered from a previous post) is the railway viaduct.
Yes, I see the problem.

Probably a good idea to mention a few other factors. There has been some tropospheric propagation around (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/rec…iew) which was quite strong briefly but that should have now cleared this morning.
Crystal Palace did have some Planned Engineering recently, whilst the transmitter isn't currently listed there could still be some work continuing as I've seen several reports elsewhere about issues when work on other transmitters was supposedly completed but appeared not to be, so I'm not convinced the list is accurate!
Other than that, there've been no major changes at CP since March 2018 when COMs 7&8 moved to C55 & C56 (maybe with a power change) and the Local mux moved to C35 with a power increase to 34kW.
Various documents (Including this site and OFCOM) are not consistent with the current Freeview/DUK Detailed Coverage Checker. Here, the site owner has not had time to keep up with all the 700MHz clearance changes and some errors on various pages, as well as a multitude of programme LCN/mux changes. Some OFCOM documents don't appear to have been updated with some changes. I'm assuming the COMs 7&8 power increased to 84 & 81kW respectively when they moved to C55&C56, that change isn't clearly documented in DUK's clearance documents. There was a change to COM8 FEC to 1/2 on Feb.10th this year (that was nation wide).
The Local mux transmission mode also means the signal coverage is far greater with lower power (but it is much smaller bandwidth) also UHF transmissions in Group A tend to propagate much better than those at the top of the UHF band.

I don't know if you've kept any of your previous aerials, but I think you'll be into a situation of a bit of experimentation if things haven't "settled down" by next week. I'm still thinking there is a chance of too much signal, also that maybe an aerial with a flatter response (log periodic) maybe better, but then thinking about propagation aspects maybe the yagi with more gain at the top end! Depending on whether you are splitting your signal and by how much, it's probably worth having one of these Coax TV Aerial Attenuator Adjustable Variable Between 0-20 dB Reduces signal | eBay (eBay item number: 310039226920) so you can experiment, but if you are splitting the signals with a "booster" if it has a variable gain control you can turn that down. Don't forget too much signal will desensitise your tuner front end, when looking at your TV's tuning section it may say you have 100% signal but maybe not 100% quality, but equally could falsely show less than 100% signal as well as less than 100% quality, or even random figures that could be variable (even with no trains!).

Position of loft aerials can be critical, especially if you have water tanks, metal objects, old aerials etc nearby!
The bearing to CP hasn't changed, it's still 152 degrees (~SSE) and the DUK/Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker got moved to different cyberspace - not too cleverly - you had to use the boxes on Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free & scroll down and selected Detailed view, but they've recently added boxes on Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free corporate/platform-management which goes straight to Detailed View.

Hope that all helps, post back if you need more ideas, comment, etc.


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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
D
David Warner
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

11:26 PM

Thanks for you detailed reply.
I have a compelling argument as to why my problem is NOT caused by high signal levels.
All Freeview channels carried by "Old" channel numbers 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 30 and 35 are being received perfectly. This includes channel 30, which in London carries the Full HD channels BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, CBBC and TBC (this being a narrow bandwidth H264 commerical gospel channel).
My problem is only with the low power COM7 and COM8 which radiate at 746MHz and 754MHz.
My own theory is that these much higher frequencies are attenuated more by the roof felt and the slates.
Then of course there is the matter of the trees - which change with the season.
I asked you if you could direct me to a website to give me the compass bearing to Crystal Palace.
Such a site existed a year ago - but not now, as far as I can see.
I notice that when I installed the 20 element aerial - it was ordered from CPC around 20th October 2019. With a compass. Having endured some months of BBC Four HD misery on the non-performing 10 element aerial installed may in April or May 2018, I got six months of decent reception.
Until the leaves came out on the trees??
You said in your replay that the Crystal Palace COM 7 and COM 8 signal had been boosted from 40kW to 84 and 81kW. Where did you get that from. I am wondering whether they have actually altered the radiation pattern - pointing it towards Nigel Farage perhaps, rather than rebellious Brixton?
Just to repeat my TV shows now sign of overloading on Freeview 1-105. Or 231-235.
On the other hand it shows severe lack of signal on channels 106,107,109 etc PLUS 93 PBS America+1 (which I watch a lot in the morning - or did until now).
The TV I use has a sort of signal strength indication - but this seems a bit unreliable.
Your comments about my railway viaduct problems - yes is the signal is week all sorts of things happen to the picture (chopped in half, goes green, sound screetches like bats), Currenntly this woud happen on channel 93 - PBS+1, although most of the time totally unusable.
On the other hand all the non-HD channels plus BBC1-Channel5 HD are very stable.
Over to you mate.
PS the aerial currently installed is https://cpc.farnell.com/a…1003
I do have all the previous ones, except the very first Band A on for analogue which I scrapped.
But I don't see a 10 element 1990 wideband installed for analogue channel 5 OR the Band A 10 element aerial I had to install when Freeview went HD (for me 2010), or the 10 element Band T aerial I had to install when Arqiva/OFCOM introduced the wretched COM7 and COM8. I don't see how they will help me now. You are only suggesting that because of you incorrect hypothesis about the signal being too strong.


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David Warner's 30 posts GB flag
Saturday, 23 May 2020
N
nobody
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

5:57 AM

David Warner: "I asked you if you could direct me to a website to give me the compass bearing to Crystal Palace.
Such a site existed a year ago - but not now, as far as I can see. "

If you'd read Chris.SE's reply properly, you would have found the new location of that website :

"The bearing to CP hasn't changed, it's still 152 degrees (~SSE) and the DUK/Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker got moved to different cyberspace - not too cleverly - you had to use the boxes on Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free & scroll down and selected Detailed view, but they've recently added boxes on Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free corporate/platform-management which goes straight to Detailed View. "


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nobody's 47 posts NL flag
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