LG TV Freeview Play

I have emailed LG, to see what they have to say about it. Now when I select Freeview Play, it is complaining my location and country settings do not match and takes me to the Settings - On checking, they match perfectly.

[EDIT] I have just run an auto DTV channel retune and Freeview Play seems at least for the moment to be working. This is my fourth retune, in the time (couple of weeks) I have had the set - the first when I installed it, second when I found BBC Four was absent, a third a few days later when a message on the screen, I then ignored yet a second retune message until now.

[EDIT 2] Well that didn't work for long....

I did a bit of exploring Play, tested it by loading one or two earlier programs, it worked absolutely fine, until I switched the TV off, switched it back on - now nothing. Exactly the same complaints as before. I tried a retune and still no Play.

[EDIT 3] Turning off, then back on the HbbTV plus (maybe) an unnecessary retune, has brought the Play back again.. I will try it next just switching HbbTV without a retune.
 
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Hi All, new to this
We bought a LG 55SJ810V from Currys in April 2018 and got free TeamKnowHow for 5 years, but didn,t take their 5 year support package as being a retired IT Manager and from experience if this type of equipment will go wrong it will happen in the first year while still under warranty.
Got it home and set it up to a Virgin Media router running at 100mbps wired connection wne thru the set up the TV detected it had a wired connection to the internet. All went well until the freeview play 7 day catch up scroll back became flaky. Then around Oct 20th lost scroll back completely saying it was not connected to the internet so could not load app info, funny as the settings said I was and I could get all the On Demand apps running perfectly. Sent an email to LG who obviously didn't read it properly as his reply was about a WiFi connection when I said it was wired !.
I rang LG and was asked to check my broadband speed thru the TV browser it was 88.44 download and 5.98 upload more than enough. The agent said she would pass to the tech guys and would ring back in a couple of days. Guess what NO ring back so rang them the guy said 5.98 upload was too slow and should be twice that, dumpling ! He also asked me to check the signal strength on some UHF Channels they were between 93 and 96%, he said that was too high and should be between 75 & 85% and was advised to get a RF Signal Limiter to go between the antenna lead and the tv. Felt I was being fobbed off so agreed, went to Currys who had never heard of such a thing and said the higher the signal strength the better. We went to the TeamKnowHow desk to complain under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, they said that they are allowed one repair. To an LG software problem that was rubbish they tried to get their LG expert and while we waited the agent looked on her system and found a lot of the same complaints. I said I wanted my money back or a replacement as it was "not fit for purpose" she said she would get in touch with head office and ring us back in a couple of days at least by the following Tuesday, she also copied our receipt and printed something else which she did not show us. Guess what NO ring back that was a week ago today. We are going back to Currys tomorrow to try again quoting we should have an "expectation of durability" as we were not advised about this problem when we bought the TV as they must have known about it. My wife wants to take the TV back wrapped in a blanket (the original packaging long gone) the stand removed I would rather they gave us a replacement. By the way we have a Panasonic PVR Freeview Play connected to a Samsung TV in another room and have never had a moments problem with it.
Sorry for the spiel will let you know how we get on.

Too high a signal level can cause signal clipping when a sensitive tuner is involved. I have to attenuate the signal level to my FVP-5000T using a loft aerial 30 miles from a relay

Any O level phsics student who has done simple amplifier theory will tell you that for any amplifier there is limited range over which the output faithfully follows the input (it behaves linearly). If you overdrive the amplifier it chops the peaks of the output creating signal distortion.

The symptoms are similar to too low a signal however the quality indication varies constantly. It should be a constant 100%. For instance Humax Freeview kit work best when the signal strength is around 60%.
transmitter The idiot who told you the stronger the signal the better is completely wrong. Signal measurement varies with kit but the quality measurement is key. It should be 100% as this measure how much of the built in error correction of Digital is being used.

Fit one of these and bring up a TV channel you are having issues with. Reduce the indicated strength to a point where 100% quality is maintained.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aerial-Coa...&qid=1542725797&sr=8-1&keywords=TV+attenuator
 
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I can tell you for certain that LG has known about this issue for at least the last 12 months and doing a search on the Internet probably longer. I had this issue in January of this year, but following an LG software update the problem went away.

The fact that the programme idents in the EPG are in colour when the service doesn't work and in monochrome when it does is indicative of a bug and that bug has been there as long as I've owned this TV.

Whenever I or others have contacted LG directly, I have been informed their tech guys are aware of this problem and are working on a solution. I think you can take that statement with a rather large pinch of salt.
 
My LG WebOS 3.5 show the channel ident in red, irrespective of whether the Play works or not. There is no obvious change I could spot in the Guide, apart from when I hover the pointer at the extreme left of the channel ident.
 
Went to Currys this am spoke to the Teamknowhow lady I did before she apologised saying someone had mislaid her paperwork so could not do anything. She asked the store LG expert and he said all look OK to him signal strength and all quality 100% on all channels. He confirmed it is to do with software updates the ones LG are putting out now are for their range of 2019 TV's and does not differentiate between them and 2018 TV versions. If only we could roll back the software to the one that works, trouble is they don't show the date, and then untick auto updates I think this problem would be solved. The lady has now got my documented history of my problems including emails sent and recd from LG and results of phone calls to them and will speak to the LG expert about it when he comes in at 13:00 and ring us later - here's hoping. grahamlthompson when I bought the TV the signal strength was the same as now and all worked well. Thanks for the link at least I know what an attenuator is shame the LG agent didn't. I am in line of site to the Black Hill transmitters in central Scotland, at least 30 miles away or more. I use a 4 way amplifier in my loft input from an outside chimney aerial and output to 3 TV's and the Panasonic PVR. Will keep you all updated. Bye
 
This morning, I checked the signal strength (SS) and quality. Quality always showed as 100%. I have an almost line of sight view of Emley Moor, some 25 miles away, from my rooftop antenna. The coax from which runs down inside, to an 8 way distribution amp, then out to each TV, including the new LG next to the DA.

The LG's SS as fed from the DA, was 95 to 97%. The SS fed direct from the antenna was 90%, adding attenuators in I was able to reduce the SS to 45% or 70%. I did an auto retune between each attenuator swap test.

On either 45 or 70% I was able to click on the F (top right of the Guide page) and get Catch up on Demand to appear. I was not able to get to see any past programs to the left of each channel no matter what I tried this morning - next to the channel ident.

No matter what, I lost access to Catchup each time by switching to standby.
 
As said more than once in this thread (including as far back as January of this year). This has been an issue for a long long time. It isn't signal related it is an issue for LG to solve but as yet this isn't happening.

They solved this issue previously and can do so again. Problem is just how long is it going to take them and is it even seen as a priority?
 
It would be interesting to hear from someone for whom Freeview Catch Up is working and what Model and Firmware they are running.

I have a 2017 (E7) running firmware 04.70.95 - the current firmware available for this is 05.80.04 (LG OLED55E7N Product Support :Manuals, Warranty & More | LG U.K.) but I have not yet updated - it seems a huge jump in version numbers but is only 1 firmware version different from my current one and only list a handful of fixes, and none of them looks to be Freeview related.
 
I have a lg 55 oled E7 and the freeview play stopped working some week ago I have done everything I could think of and suggested nothing helped even manually tuning

I decided to try reducing the signal to 70 percent and amazingly it worked and has worked for 4 days
 
How did you reduce the signal strength?


I have a lg 55 oled E7 and the freeview play stopped working some week ago I have done everything I could think of and suggested nothing helped even manually tuning

I decided to try reducing the signal to 70 percent and amazingly it worked and has worked for 4 days
 
I was an electronics engineer so just temporarily knocked something up out of an old aerial splitter I had laying about but I have ordered a variable atenunator of Ebay

P. S. That’s the wrong tv model it’s a LG-OLED55B7V
 
I was an electronics engineer so just temporarily knocked something up out of an old aerial splitter I had laying about but I have ordered a variable atenunator of Ebay

P. S. That’s the wrong tv model it’s a LG-OLED55B7V

It will be interesting to hear how long the Freeview Play continues to work with the reduced signal.

Can you please keep us updated.
 
On the off chance that this might fix it for me I have taken a punt on one of these
http://amzn.eu/d/iGOfLlg I am not convinced as manual tuning fixes it until I put the TV into Standby. If it fixes it I can only assume that Freeview Play does something when it runs after standby to look at which Freeview Transmitter and Region you are in and having an Aerial that picks up more than one Transmitter throws it. Will let you know...
 
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My LG 49UJ630V, according to General > About is on software version 04.71.00. I have it set to 'Allow Automatic Updates'. Clicking 'Check For Updates' reports - No Updates Found. It doesn't give any indication of the WebOS version, but I understand it to be V3.5. It does suggest 'WebOS TV Version 3.7.2-57323 (dreadlock2-drto).

I have only once so far and briefly, since I got the set, seen the selection buttons appear next to the channel idents in Guide, to select earlier programs.
 
As already said, I have a good solid signal from Emley Moor mast, but I could also select a weaker signal from a Tyne Tees mast, via the back of the antenna. Back in the days of analogue, I would have the TV tuned to Emley Moor's output, with TT on a spare buttons. Digital scan always pauses on the TT frequencies, before moving onto the Emley Moor ones..
 
On the off chance that this might fix it for me I have taken a punt on one of these
http://amzn.eu/d/iGOfLlg I am not convinced as manual tuning fixes it until I put the TV into Standby. If it fixes it I can only assume that Freeview Play does something when it runs after standby to look at which Freeview Transmitter and Region you are in and having an Aerial that picks up more than one Transmitter throws it. Will let you know...
That's why LG recommends you switch off 'channel update' in the tuning menu. It did fix freeview play for some months but now even this fix has stopped working.
 
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I have added in even more attenuation, which seems to be helping - at least it has survived 3x switching off's. Unfortunately, the signal to the TV is so weak now, that it is failing to find many of the HD channels. So at least here, the problem seems to be signal strength related.

Rather odd issue, when Catch Up uses the Internet to provide the actual Catch Up service ???
 
OK, I have since posting yesterday, spent a considerable amount of time trying to get to the bottom of this issue trying to see what works to get Guide> Catchup working, what doesn't and not arrived at any absolutely definite conclusion. I have complained to LG, LG just wrote back and asked what signal strength the set was indicating. I replied with 96/97% and 100% Quality, on all channels - since when LG have so far failed to reply further.

I have also complained about the issue to the retailer I bought the set from and suggested they pester LG for a solution to the Catchup issue.

Reading between the lines of LG's question, plus other comments I have read, I tried various attenuation levels of the antenna input. My experiments suggest that the weaker the signal within limits, the more chance it will enable Catchup in the Guide system, but the weaker the signal, the fewer the channels a channel search will find - particularly the HD and the more marginal digital channels will be lost from the line up.

Even if it manages to find the Catchup, once the set is put in standby almost certainly the Catchup will have been lost after switching back on. Only once did Catchup survive off then back on. Whilst ever the set is left on, Catchup does seem to survive. Quick Start, on or off seems not to make any difference to survival of Catchup, nor it seems does the HbbTV setting.

Each time Catchup is lost, the set needs to be retuned to get it back, but with no certainty that Catchup will appear - Catchup never reappeared without the retune, once lost. When it does appear, it does seem to 'stick' there, until the set is put to standby.

The Programme List Update setting on or off, seems to have made no difference to Catchup at all.

I think I am correct in suggesting that following the retune, if it fails to ask you to confirm - Country, County and Town, Catchup will not show up.

I have ordered a variable 0 to -20dB antenna attenuator, to see if that might do anything useful, all I have at the moment to test with are fixed level attenuators.

Other than the above issue, I am delighted with the LG set, but a TV advertised as a Smart TV ought to do what a Smart TV is advertised as doing. If it cannot be made to do that and with so many having the very same issue, then I suggest the next stage is to contact BBC's Watchdog. Anyone agree?
 
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Have spent an hour today I've come to the same conclusion as above.

Manual retune and entering the multiplex channels causes Freeview play to spring back into life until the TV is turned off.

Having attempted set auto update to off/on, quick stsrt on/off and stopping the TV from updating the channel listing, the Freeview play is not retained.

What is strange is the Freeview Play broke when there wasn't a firmware update applied to the tv, so there was no software update applied.

I can't recall if it broke after an update to the channel guide or not. It just stopped working on pretty much all LG TV's
 
I'm assuming that LG will apply a fix at some point as they did earlier in the year. I have spoken to LG this PM and they have indicated they are very aware of the issue as they have been inundated with complaints.

The company position (as told to me) is the tech guys are working on this issue as a priority. Make of that what you will.
 
I have 3 web os 3 TVs and all show 100% signal these do not have this problem yet my web os 3.5 tv has the exact problem
 
I'm assuming that LG will apply a fix at some point as they did earlier in the year. I have spoken to LG this PM and they have indicated they are very aware of the issue as they have been inundated with complaints.

The company position (as told to me) is the tech guys are working on this issue as a priority. Make of that what you will.

Thanks Faust, that is potentially good news. As I think I said - I do like the set, but it needs to work as advertised, on the spec. I made the purchase as it as meeting.

I have emailed LG (yet) again, more strongly - pointing out what I have done to try to determine a fix, as a customer.
 
Bought an LG55UK6400PLF a few days ago and have been struggling to get Freeview Play working ever since. I don't even get as far as the EPG. When clicking on the Freeview Play button the screen goes blank and then I get "can't connect to server"

I am connected via Wi-Fi and can stream everything else without a problem apart from iPlayer with often either buffers or fails even though I have a steady 70mb down and 16mb up connection. It also did that on the YouView box we had.

So far, not very impressed with WebOS. It seems a little "clunky" in operation and not as fast as our previous Samsung curved screen tv. That was always very slick in operation but didn't have Freeview Play at that time.

What is bothering me now is reading about all issues people are having in this thread and honestly I didn't just buy a new tv in order to faff around trying to get something working that should be working right out of the box. As far as I am concerned if it doesn't work when you switch it on then it is not fit for purpose.

As much as I like the screen I bought a whole tv and all aspects of it were part of the buying decision. Right now I am decidedly unimpressed with LG.
 

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