Free View, no view?

[dyli795]

Has anyone got trouble with their free view box the last day or so? We are in Lancashire (if that matters) and all the chanels are "no signal" except BBC1 and BBC2,
It's driving us daft because we can't catch up on the soaps. Maybe just our box ? any ideas there ? Many Thanks,

[spudqueen]

I'm in Lancashire - near Preston and there's no problem with our freeview box. Sorry.

[dyli795]

Thanks spudqueen. Well I wonder if it's anything to do with the ariel or the way we have it set up?

[sarah_louise]

Yes I recorded Corrie and Got no signal in Wigan.
ITV is OK todat Saturday

[yassa]

Bring back analogue, digital is rubbish, analogue never froze, it just went fuzzy. Did you know the government is using the analogue system now, for comunication,ie the armed forces, they know it was a better system. As with unsratchible CD's, and microwaves that cook from the inside, we seem to have been conned once again.

[romko]

try uplugging it from the mains and reconnecting it after 30 mins.
they do tend to freeze. Also , ensure there is good ventilation - a lot of them run very hot and are badly designed, they seem to cram all the elctronics into one little box which does not improve reliability

check also the aerial plug has no thin wire strands shorting the centre pin to the outer shielding. that degrades the signal and as you know, with digital you don't get a partial pic - either get nothing or perfection!

[teash]

No problems with it in Bolton, I know it can be a bit tempremental up cumbria way

[Buenchico]

Freeview boxes are prone to problems from electrical storms Recently, I noticed that Film 4 had suddenly disappeared from my screen. (I either got a 'No Service' message or just a blank screen).

The solution to my problem (which should also work for you) was to retune the box. (This was the 3rd or 4th time I've needed to do this, because of similar problems, in the few years that I've had the box).

I hope that you've not lost the instructions to tune your Freeview box. In case you have, I'll tell you how mine works. (With a bit of luck, yours will be fairly similar):
Press 'Menu'
Use Up/Down buttons to select 'Setup'
Press 'OK'
Use Up/Down buttons to select 'Auto Tune'
Press 'OK'
Do NOT select 'Add New Services', instead use Up/Down buttons to select 'Replace Existing Services' and press 'OK'
The system now retunes. When it's finished, press '1' to exit.

Hoping this helps,

Chris

[dyli795]

buenchico, thanks for your advice, we've done that and to some extent it was successful , but we have not regained itv 1 or itv2. .has anyone any other ideas? we'd be very grateful. regards.

[Buenchico]

I'm glad that you've got partial success.

Whenever you tune a Freeview box (whether it's when you first set it up or later on), you're dependent upon the prevailing conditions for radio transmissions. (All sorts of things, from the weather to solar flares can affect the signal you receive). Also, in an ideal world you would have a different aerial for every channel. Obviously that's not possible, so your aerial is rather better at receiving some transmissions than others. (Additionally, other AB posters have suggested that ITV signals use a diffferent type of signal which makes them harder to pick up in weak signal areas).

It seems that you're probably in a fairly poor reception area (or, alternatively, you've only got a fairly simple aerial). However, your Freeview box has previously managed to lock onto a signal for the ITV channels, so it should be able to do it again.

I suggest repeating the tuning process. Ensure that you do so when it's not raining (because this can affect the signals between the transmitter and your aerial). If you don't get success on the first occasion, try again at a different time of day. (There are scientific reasons behind this but I won't bore you with the theory about the ionospheric reflection of radio waves). The signal strength required for the tuning process (i.e. for your Freeview box to 'lock onto' a particular channel) is slightly higher than is actually required for day-to-day reception. You might have to try several times but, eventually, your Freeview box should recognise all of the available channels.

Chris

[dyli795]

buenchico your brilliant! thanks for all your trouble . will try again (and again) ...hopefully we'll catch the soap omnibus today after all. thanks to everyone else who took the trouble to reply. isn't answerbank great..

[dyli795]

Buenchio, it's dylis' husband here, and I echo her thanks for your time. Answerbank IS great, and we ourselves are always glad to help in domains we may know a bit about. Back to the matter in hand, I've noticed, after some high winds here on the edge of the Pennine Hills the ariel has been left swinging in the breeze vertical with the gable end of the house! Still conected, but not the ideal angle! I'll have to get a ladder and take a closer look to see if I can re-mount it. We are in fact within sight of the T.V. transmiter on Winter Hill. I think it will be O.K. finaly, hope so anyway! Thanks again, we'll report back on the results.

[dyli795]

It was the ariel as I thaught. Yep, just like magic ! My wifes son in law turned up with a set of ladders, 2 foot of copper pipe and fixed it at a proper 90 degree angle and all the chanels are back, plus a few . What a star! The weather was atrocious and dark but he was up there in a trice with the spaners and fixed it straight off. Thanxeveryone!