Radio Times

Q As advised by RT, I rescanned my Freeview box to ensure my channel list was up-to-date. But it's made things worse! The main channels are now up in the 800s - help!
Roger Mills, Birmingham

A This is tied in to the signal upgrades that recently caused a small number of Freeview boxes to stop working altogether, as discussed in 30 August's Feedback. Following those changes, if you're within range of two transmitters, your digibox can become confused and reassign channels to the wrong numbers.

The answer is something called an over-air download. Your digibox is essentially a small computer running software that sometimes needs updating to fix problems; these updates can be received via your aerial. Getting your box to do this isn't too complex, but the method varies from box to box: visit www.freeview.co.uk for details, contact your manufacturer direct, or don't forget you can always phone Freeview on 0870 111 1270.

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this is such a con. Having paid £100 for a new airiel, and £30 for a digibox (I need another 2 for the other TVs in the house not yet connected up), I now find that, after all was working, the last two weeks I have had no ITV or S4C. Having been quite content with BBC1 & 2, and ITV plus S4C, this "improved service" is actually now over 50% worse - I say over, because I can't even revert to analogue (advice from airial installer) as BBC2 has gone from there. Missed the x Factor. Installer and Digital say "it's because you are in the middle of the changeover" but nowhere in any literature or website does it say that this changeover process will mean you lose almost ALL your TV for a month. I am absolutely fed up with it all. I was quite happy, suddenly nothing works, adn I have to start paying out silly money. The powers that be (who are these?) are just assuming / hoping / expecting us all to sign up to Sky in frustration. All the lies about it not costing and being better....

I live in Southport, Merseyside. Since the re-tune on 4th November all digital channels are fine except for BBC2 which continually breaks up. Any ideas?

Since retuning my Philips digibox as requested on the TV, I somedays cannot get BBC1 or BBC2, (and perhaps other channels that I don't watch)the signal strength meter indicates a strong signal for those channels, but there is no picture or sound. Some days and some afternoons the channels are OK but other days there's nothing. I have retuned three times and each time the channels appear, however the next day they're gone again.

Any thoughts, please?

Prior to any switchover changes I was getting a poor digital signal( 1 mux only at that) and reception seemed to vary with weather conditions. I upgraded from a £20 box to a £60 Humax box. This gave a little improvement but I thought it would come into its own when switchover took place.

Instead I have lost BBC2 analogue and ALL digital channels have disappeared.

Although I live in East Cheshire the Winterhill transmitter is blocked by hills and I can only recieve from Moel Y Parc. Will this improve when the switchover is completed or might I just as well have flushed the £60 down the loo?

FAO digger21 - The Winterhill transmitter is in Bolton, which is quite some distance even if you're in North Wales. It sounds as if your digibox didn't find it when retuning, so there may not be a way to force it to.

However, you can try checking your digbox manual or onscreen guide for what may be called fine or extra tuning. It takes longer than a standard retune but generally finds more channels.

i live in wales can i get english progammes from winterhill i apper to only get welsh bbc 2 since retuning on nov 4

My friend has built in freeview on his panasonic tv and when prompted to retune, the process only gets so far then aborts. He can't get BBC1, BBC2 and 5 among others.

I have also lost ITV 1 2 and 3 plus channel 5 and all channel 4 channels.

I have done a re scan this does not work, when i tried rescan with replace existing and new channels the rubbish that come through with no channels attached was confusing all 800 numbers, I have a Telesonic freeview box and an indoor digital receiver which has aways given me an excellent picture, I did re tune on 30th of September so why would I recieve problems now?

I HAVE FREEVIEW VIA MY DVD RECORDER,I ALSO HAVE THE FULL SKY PACKAGE. I RECENTLY RETUNED MY FREEVIEW CHANNELS AND SINCE DOING SO I CAN NO LONGER RECORD ANY SKY CHANNELS THAT I CANT RECEIVE ON FREEVIEW IE I CANT RECORD SKY FILMS,SPORTS OR DOCS.BUT I CAN RECORD FOR EXAMPLR SKY 3 WHICH IS ALSO AVAILABLE ON FREEVIEW.

WHEN I TRY TO RECORD A SKY CHANNEL I GET A MESSAGE "YOU CANNOT RECORD COPY PROTECTED MOVIE". I HAVE A VIDEO RECORDER CONNECTED TO THE SAME SKY BOX WHICH RECORDS ALL THE SKY PROGS. WITHOUT PROBLEMS.

IS ANY ONE ELSE HAVNG THE SAME PROBLREM??

Replaced both Panasonic boxes, cheap Argos £19 special ok if you are not connecting to a recorder. £39 Phillips box also ok and connects to AV2 of recorder and has a timer.

I live on the cambs/beds border PE19 area - Before 30 sept I had all the chanels with near perfect reception. However after the retune the reception is extreemly poor and nearly every chanel is unwatchable. My equipment hasn't changed and I am at a loss to see why reception is now so poor.

i have lost 5 freeview channels and gained a load of crap.I live in de74 area.how do i get these back

same as 'confused in oxon' Attemped to retune panasonic TU-CT20 set top box about 20 times but channels all mixed up, different everytime but no BBC 1 or 2 at every attempt.

I have re-scanned all of my channels, took a while but found most of my channels i had, the problem is that when i click on the channels it just comes up with a black screen and it says bbc1, bbc2 etc when i flick through the channels but none of the channels pick up a picture for each channel? have i lost all of my channels and do i now need a new freeview box? also i had the channels working fine and didnt need to rescan but thought id best to get any new channels i wish i hadnt now please help!!

On retuning I have lost BBC1 & BBC2. I've retried it several times, with still no joy. Any idaes?

The standard of written English here is unbelievably bad. I cannot understand what some of you are saying.

Some of you people need to go back to school and learn to speak and write English properly instead of worrying about your tv

I have retuned my TV several times as per handbook but BBC1 has moved from position 1 to 802 & BBC 2 has moved from position 2 to 805. The reception on the DTV is also poor with the picture breaking up. I have a Freeview recorder which has retuned without problem . I live in Ulverston in Cumbria

I pressed software reset on my digibox yesterday and it switched off, so i assumed it was working. I then went out and returned after midnight to find that it only started scanning for channels once i turned it back on. It now says i have all my channels, but is just a black screen when i click on any of them! What can i do? Does this mean i have to get a new freeview box?

Attemped to retune panasonic TU-CT20 set top box about 20 times but channels all mixed up, different everytime but no BBC 1 or 2 at every attempt. Thinking of buying new box but concered problems may be widespread and new box may not tune in.

I live in South Wales and have a new Sony set with automatic retune facility. I have tried to retune half a dozen times since 1300hrs and got 'Community' (no longer available and 2 radio stations. Could it be me, my set, or have the 'Powers that be' failed again?

FAO jess - first try retuning again - and if your digibox has an option for fine or full tuning, try that.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were teething problems that will be resolved soon, though.

ive retune my freeview box, but i have lost itv 3 and 4 d e4, but can get e4 plus 1, they said to go to 33 for itv 2, t its a locked channel, what shali do?

It's important to say first that very few people will lose these channels. But that's obviously no help if you're one of them. There are two ways to find out and unfortunately the easiest is just to retune after lunchtime today. If you are going to lose the channels, there's nothing that can be done about it and there's no option to stay as you are: if you don't retune, you'll lose all channels.

The other way is more long-winded and not guaranteed to tell you, just to give you an idea. Go to the Freeview postcode checker: www.freeview.co.uk/availability. It'll tell you what channels you ought to be able to get but ignore that. This list will be of the channels from the main transmitter in your area: if you know that's where you get your TV signal from, you're probably fine. But there will also be an option to check alternative or relay transmitters in the area. It's these relay transmitters that may lose those channels. So if you happen to know where your signals are coming from and it's listed as a main transmitter, you won't lose the channels; if it's a relay or alternative one, you might well.

Remember that all information about channel availability assumes ideal conditions: it's usually accurate but tall buildings near you, for instance, may mean you get fewer channels than expected.

How can I find out whether I live in one of the areas that will no longer get ITV3 via Freeview after the retune on 30 September?

FAO scott - you need to retune your Freeview box otherwise you'll lose Five, you might lose BBC radio and you won't see the new channel Quest, which launches on Freeview that day. Retuning will also update your channel numbers.

You can read about the Freeview retune in more detail in our special piece:

www.radiotimes.com/blogs/744-doctor-digital-freeview-retune-alert

why do we have to re-tune tvs or boxs on the 30th of semteber

FAO Paul - It's a weak signal. But one of the reasons for us all having to retune next week is that the new service will improve reception of Five.

If you continue to get problems after the September 30 retune then you need to check your aerial. It's possible you may need a better or just newer one. But unfortunately it's also possible that there will always be some channels you do and don't get clearly.

Would like to know why some channels like five or fiver keep going like they've got static or fuzzy on the picture.

FAO David - Freeview+ is just a name some manufacturers use for Freeview digiboxes that also contain hard disk recorders: it's named after the way Sky calls its recording digiboxes Sky+.

Could you let me know the actual difference between 'Freeview' and 'Freeview +'

freeview is good

FAO nick - Probably the easiest thing to do is call the digital helpline on 08456 50 50 50 because the staff there will be able to tell you more about what's happening in your specific area.

Alternatively, you could look to see if your digibox has a fine tuning option: some do, some don't. Conceivably it will find a Channel 4 signal if it's at all available where you are.

wer just had the swichover just a week ago and when i re-tune it i had s4c on 104 and 800 cos what shoud i do

FAO lee - The most likely thing is that there's a fault or an error somewhere in your friend's equipment. It's not likely to be the digibox since he is getting some channels through it, but you could try another box. Definitely check the aerial connections to see that they're tight, that the cables are secured and the aerial is correctly positioned.

Other than that, your only practical option is to get a local TV engineer to check the system for you both.

i when up is house and then re-tune is didgr box and he re-tune it therr times and the channel that were missing sit diont show up.pllse hel my frind

Tell him to retune his digibox. It's not guaranteed to get him everything because not all channels are available in all areas, but with so many missing it's almost a certainty that a retune will get him very many of these.

WHEN I WENT UP MY FRIND HOUSE HE DID NOT HAVE THE FOLLWING CHANNELS SKY THREE,YESERDAY,FILM 4,GOLD,DAVE,BID TV,ITV4,ITV2+1,FIVER,FIVE USA,HOME,SMILE TV2,SMILE TV3,BIG DAEL,TOUP ANYTIME 1,2,3,4,BABSTION,LOTTRY EXTRA,PRICE DROP TV,QUST,TECHERS TV,RABIT,4TVINTRATIVE,TROVE

your nice

why arent pepel in england and wales not geting all the channels we shold be geting + we all re-tune

FAO nick - Very occasionally you will be recommended to retune because there may be new channels or a shuffling of the ones you've already got. But it's not a common occurrence, you're seeing it now in part because of the digital switchover in your area.

Do check with digitaluk.co.uk/wales or the helpline 08456 50 50 50 if you continue to have problems because these will be able to give you more specific advice for your particular region.

will i have to re-tune every time a new channels comes to freeview or a anolog tramsion swich off in wales

FAO nick - It looks as if you're going to need some local engineering help. The digital switchover documents that have been released for Wales recommend that you either check with the advice on digitaluk.co.uk/wales or phone the helpline on 08456 50 50 50.

why arent yoy aesrig any moer commes on the site

when i re-tuned erier i had all of the channels but i cant acces the all ones i lost of them.

me and my siser both sere the same arelal in the same house & we both re-tune plus she sitll has all the channels we shold have but when i looked and still cant get the channels i lost on my build-in freeview

FAO nick - Earlier you said that you didn't have all the channels your sister has: that sounds very much as if she's retuned hers (or had a new box) where you haven't. Losing channels is a different matter.

The transmitters covering Swansea went into stage 1 switchover on August 12. You will definitely have lost the old BBC2 analogue terrestrial signal then and you will lose all the rest at stage 2 on September 9. It's possible that you're living near the edge of the coverage from these particular transmitters but all the ones in your approximate area are changing on similar dates.

The best advice is to retune. There shouldn't be a difference between a separate digibox and a TV with built-in Freeview; the difference is going to be in your aerial and the connections between that and your TV.

by the my siser has a digitga box and i have buled in freeview

channels i lost on my tv will i get them back onses the swichover is complate on the 9th of sepeber

FAO nick- It is extraordinarily unlikely that you'll lose these channels from retuning. (Though they may be on different numbers depending on when you last tuned.)

If you want to test it, you could swap boxes with your sister and see whether hers can still pick more channels than yours. But the best thing to do is to retune.

when i re-tune my box tommoro will i stil have sky sports news,sky news and sky 3. puls me& my siser live in the same house

FAO nick - It's possible that your aerial needs replacing. However, you could just be in a poor reception area: various factors mean that for the moment it's possible that Freeview can be patchy enough that one person gets much better reception than someone else in the same area.

Are you in Swansea too? That was one of the first parts of Wales to switch over to digital, the process started on August 12. One little- known factor in switchover is that once the old analogue signal is switched off, the digital one can be boosted: while both have to run side by side the digital signal is on reduced power.

So your sister may be benefiting from this. If you're in the same area, it's worth adjusting your aerial (by yourself if it's a set-top one, perhaps with a local engineer if it's a rooftop one) and retuning your digibox again. Some boxes have a fine-tuning option; if yours does, select that. It'll take longer to find all the channels but it will get more if it's possible to receive them.

i re-tune my tv but i stil dont have teleltext,teletext holdays,gay rabit,rabit,sky text, drictgov.pule when i re-tune my wiil i lose sky sports news,sky news,sky three.puls my sister sits get all of the channels in swansea in wales in the uk

FAO nick - The first step is to try scanning for channels again. It's not likely to magically get you channels it didn't the first time but it might and you need to rule it out. Do look for whether you have any options for the scanning: sometimes you get a choice between a quick and an exhaustive one. Choose the exhaustive: it'll take longer but it will find more.

While we don't have any statistics to back this up, we are seeing anecdotal evidence that those ITV channels are quite fragile: if you're using a set-top aerial then try repositioning it. If you're using a rooftop one, is it an old aerial? You may be one of the fairly few who really need to upgrade their aerial to receive Freeview properly.

i have a new tv and the fist tune i dont have itv 1/itv 2/itv 3/itv 4/netplay/super casio/teletext/teltext holydays/rabit 1-2-1dateing/smash hits.plus i live in swansea in wales

FAO mike - You need to get your digibox to scan for channels again: it's worth doing this every now and again anyway but especially when you know there are channels you're not seeing.

The way to rescan varies from box to box but look for a Setup menu screen and options such as Rescan or Initial Setup.

i havn't not channels 48 49

FAO NICK - Just get your digibox to rescan for channels: every digibox is different but typically you'll find an option to rescan somewhere in the setup screen options. This makes your box forget all the channels and go looking again. Sometimes boxes will do this automatically, sometimes they won't, but it's a good idea occasionally when channels have changed their numbers or new channels have been launched.

One thing to note is channel names are not always what you expect: JML is showing up here correctly on Freeview Channel 49 but under the title Netplay TV.

SuperCasino is on Freeview Channel 48.

I LIVE IN WALES BUT I DONT HAVE SUPUR CASIO O.NETPLAY AND JML HOME AND DIY .HOW CAN I GET THIS CHANNELS