BBC1 and BBC2 missing on freeview box

[Shultzy]

Yesterday my freeview box (Sagem PVR6280T) announced new channels had been found, not on uncommon occurrence. After the search was saved both BBC1 and BBC2 were missing from the program listing. Several searches were initiated but still resulted in the two missing channels (30+ channels are still there and available). After a search on the web the following advice was found.

Switch off the freeview box for 10 mins (I switched it off for most of the day)
Disconnect the aerial
Reconnect the freeview box and initiate a channel search (no channels will be found)
Reconnect the aerial and initiate a channel search (two channels still missing)

After repeating the above procedure twice I am still missing both BBC1 and BBC2 - the channel list starts at three (ITV1)

I've had the box for 18 months and never had this problem before.

Any ideas?

 

[Steve Maskery]

Hi Shultzy
Any ideas? No, none I'm afraid. But, if it's any consolation, the digital signal here has been awful the last couple of days. I can't play the radio in my workshop at all, and it';s not good at the best of times. I can only think that if the signal is weak at the mo, for whatever reason, you box isn't picking it up. Tomorrow may be different.

I hope you get it sorted
Steve

 

[mailee]

That is probably due to all the metalwork around your home at the moment Steve. :lol:

 

[Steve Maskery]

Actually you might be right, I'd never thought about that. Can't exactly help, unless I wire up the tranny to the scaffolding. perhaps that's a little project for tomorrow!
S

 

[andycktm]

I'm in yorkshire and i know of at least two freeview boxes with no bbc1 and 2, i await the answer to this :!:

 

[bodgermatic]

http://www.ukfree.tv carries transmitter status information. You need to tell it your postcode, and it will bring up a list of transmitters. I can't remember exactly where the status info is, but I know it's on there somewhere.

 

[RogerS]

Once you know the details of the channels you need you could try a manual search.

Alternatively do you have a factory reset option. NB make sure this does not delete any recordings (assuming it has a recording facility).

Or delete all the channels and start again.

They do fiddle around with the channels and MUXs which most likely explains why you have lost BBC. Also depends on which way your aerial is pointing, signal strength and quality (quality is as important if not more so than signal strength). If you're really unlucky then what was a marginal signal has now, following the channel reassignment, become unobtainable.

There are quite a few clued up forums for this ....avforum maybe and digispy. Alternatively there may even be a forum for your type of set top box.

Good luck. Let us know how you get on. Feel free to PM me although I am by no means as expert as some.

 

[andy king]

Hi Shultzy,

the tv signals are banded in frequencies, so you tend to find the ITV ones are in one band, BBC in another etc, but it is odd to lose just two out of a band.
Round these parts, (North Somerset) my ITV signal simply disappears when it rains heavily, but I lose all the stations on that particular banding frequency, not just two.
I did email the government digital site regarding channels not working in poor weather, as it's being touted as the be all and end all of viewing, and we have no say in the matter, we have to have digital or nothing eventually.
I got a reply about 6 weeks later, and from the horses mouth, they said that
'at the moment the digital signals are broadcast at a relatively low power as they will interfere with the analogue signal. When the switchover is made, the digital signal will be full power and should eliminate any bad weather problems.'
We'll wait and see I suppose!
It may have some truth though as our analogue BBC 1 signal has an interference problem that was never there before digital was available, so the digital signal may be distorting the analogue BBC1 frequency. Friends and family have the same problem.
Quite why you have only lost two of a banded range seems odd, if it was the box, I would assume you would lose a whole band range, so all of the BBC ones. It could be, as suggested, that those two channels are being worked on locally?

Not much help i'm afraid, but a bit of info for anyone having bad weather problems.

Andy

 

[Matt_S]

can't help but I know how frustrating it is. Where I am the signal is listed as weak. Well we can get all the rubbish channels fine but bbc1 & 2 are difficult. This means whenever the weather is bad we have jittery or no playing and have to go back to analogue!

 

[OLD]

From the above it looks like the signal strength is low why not try a ariel booster then go through the tune to nothing and then to boosted signal.
I have one fitted on my system.

 

[RogerS]

Not sure I agree with you there, Old. If he had a signal but then lost it then that suggests signal strength was OK. Unless it was marginal for the channel that the BBC was originaly on...or even maybe picking up a different transmitter.

 

[Rod]

Just before Xmas i broke the remote on my freeview ,went and bought another box and found it would not get BBC 1 OR 2 .The previous box had a good picture on these channels.I took it back to shop (Argos)and got a refund and then bought a new box the same as my old one.This did not get BBC channels either so i ended up fitting my old box and using the remote from the new one just to keep receiving BBC.

 

[Bodrighy]

Listening to you lot with all your worries makes me realise why we got rid of our TV 15 years ago.

Pete

 

[OLD]

Does this helphttp://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/transmitters/index.shtml

 

[Paul Chapman]

I have a similar problem with DAB radios. I have two of them and there is one station that I like listening to that I can only receive on one of the radios :? :? Needless to say, that's the radio I have in the workshop

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[RogerS]

Schultzy - this link tells you how to rescan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/digitaltv/resetting.shtml

I think you're probably getting Sutton Coldfield?? Channel 41 is the one for BBC 1 and 2. Can you get BBC3 OK?

 

[Shultzy]

Thanks for all your replies.

I understand what you all say, but the box , aerial ( which is a new digital version) and set up haven't changed for over a year so I think that it must be transmitter related.

Roger, you have spotted the problem. I posted on Radio and Telly Forum and one of the comments was about the Sutton Coldfield transmitter. This site (www.freeview.co.uk) has the following info, strangely not mentioned on any other transmitter site.

Some older set-top boxes in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area may no longer work

Engineering enhancements made to the Sutton Coldfield transmitter on 15 January 2008 may affect viewers using older set-top boxes in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter region (including Birmingham and parts of the West Midlands).

These enhancements are required as part of the digital switchover programme. Some older set-top boxes are not compliant with the standard required for digital switchover and will no longer work. These boxes were designed before the full standard for digital switchover had been worked out. It is not possible to upgrade these boxes and a new replacement set-top box will be needed. Find out more about replacement options.

The products affected are older set-top boxes including these models:

Set-top boxes

Daewoo DS608P
LabgearDTT100
Triax DVB2000T

Combined set-top box and video recorder

Daewoo SV900
Bush IDVCR01

Although mine is not one of the boxes mentioned it could have been the reason the two channels disappeared.

The good news is I've managed to get the two channels back this morning. The "new channels found " came up and after the search they were back again. I'll certainly have to look for another box if it happens again.

What is frustrating about this issue is that no information was sent out about transmitter problems, and we can't be expected to keep searching the net on the off chance something turns up.

Thanks for all the comments.

 

[RogerS]

Glad my BBC training wasn't all in vain and that you sorted it out. Sounds as if it is a gremlin rather than the problem you've picked up on re the Sutton Coldfield transmitter. If you do decide to buy another one then I can recommend the Humax. And you can record two channels at the same time unlike that dodgy bit of French kit you've got :wink: IIRC.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Another vote for the Humax here. It has the ugliest remote in the world but it does the job well. They have even sorted out a few quirks recently. It used to display all my recording in chronological order, so you had to scroll through them all to find the most recent. Now the default is reverse chronological, although if you really want the original, that's an option. And they have changed the rather dodgy default of Delete to Play, far more sensible as well as safer. Generally the interface is excellent.

Ours only has an 80G disk, which seems tiny now. I don't know if it's possible to shove a bigger disk in, like on a PC. Do you know, Roger?

Cheers
Steve

 

[RogerS]

Steve

Try here http://hummy.org.uk/