Newbie to freeview

ArabChris

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Just got rid of sky (ridiculous 70 quid a month persuaded me) and got a BT youview box

Plugged in, got 122 channels, decent, some hd


Next time i turned it on i had lost the hd channels and lots of others, done a retune and i now have only 33 channels and the bt internet channels that i dont susbcribe to

is this likely to be an aerial fault?

most channels are showing around 55-60% strength and 100% quality, just cant find the hd channels again, would hate to lose them.

Aerial is on roof, was there when moved in (i rent, fairly new aerial im told)

any ideas or is it gonna be an engineer job?
 
A likely cause is HDMI interference.

This is quite a common problem.
Firstly, it is important to say that when you lose channels in the way you did the first time, you should NOT retune when channels disappear, because the likelihood is that they have disappeared because of a reception problem of some kind, and they will return when that problem is removed.
The unit retains the channel placeholders.
This assists when trying to identify the reception problem cause.

However if you retune whilst the reception problem is there - they will not return even if the reception problem later disappears because the channel placeholders will have been removed by the tuning process.

Unfortunately too late on this occasion because you have already retuned.

What you can do to identify IF this is an HDMI interference problem is to remove the HDMI cable and connect temporarily by scart lead and then perform a retune.
Hopefully you will get back all the channels - and if you do, do not retune thereafter.

If the channels return it identifies the HDMI lead as the cause.

Switch everything off before reconnecting the HDMI.
Keep the HDMI lead and Aerial leads as far apart as possible - and maybe that will be enough.
If it isn't - You may have to try a replacement HDMI lead and / or improved screened Aerial flyleads.
Ensure that aerial flyleads are clean and well made at all connectors. This tends to be where the HDMI interference leaks back in.
 
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Thanks for the advixe

Didn't even think of the hdmi interfering

Got it connected by start now and has found some more channels including the basic hd ones. Great shout. Just need to try and keep the hdmi and the aerial apart now

On a different point, is there different qualities of aerial cable? One seems to work better than the other. Both just cheap ones out of the local hardware shop
 
However when I go back to hdmi. Now getting no signal at all. Got the cables a fair bit apart now but still no joy

No signal on any channels now hnmmm
 
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Infact, its almost as if the signal is being shot down as soon as it touched an hdmi or other cable for that matter, poor aerial cable?
 
Sorry to keep replying to my own thread lol

Had a decent signal this morning, I also have an android Internet box under the TV and as soon as i switched that on, I lost all signal to my freeview tried changing the hdmi on it but seems to really interfere with the youview for some reason still
 
How old is the aerial?
I've seen too many aerials hanging off to count, take a look and make sure it is pointing in the same direction as others as a weak signal could produce this effect.
 
Try a different hdmi cable - one from a Pound Store often as good or better than many more expensive ones. The difference in allowing interference to leak out can be very dramatic!

Keep the You View box well away from any other box - at least try side by side rather than stacked on each other especially. (Many many years ago I had an amp and early CD player that interfered when stacked, but were fine side by side - poor screening in the amp casing mainly).

If the aerial cable doesn't come direct to the You View box from the aerial (i.e. there is a fly-lead) look for a quality 'double screened' one or buy some 'satellite grade' cable and TV plugs to make your own. Lots of reception problems are due to poor-quality aerial fly leads. Avoid the thin white ones from pound stores, and supplied with set top boxes, that have cheap moulded plugs. An aerial installer near you might have a shop that sells better hand-made double screened cables if you don't do d-i-y.

It's often worth re-making any hand-made TV plugs to ensure that the screen is well terminated (I accidentally damaged one of my cables which cause me no end of trouble, simply by moving my kit around when installing it in a new AV cabinet last year).
 
Had a look yesterday. Pointing in right direction and looks good condition.

Landlords had it put in 3 or 4 years ago
 
Can you see the signal strength on the TV. It should be in a menu somewhere, possibly to do with set up.
Interference is much more likely when reception is poor, could be a bad connection somewhere.
 
Tried 3 different hdmi cables now

Got it plugged straight into the wall socket, will try a better quality coax in a day or two

It's like the hdmi is interfering from the other boxes too but can't move them far enough away. The cables are apart though

Signal strength around 50 percent just now, quality around 80 to 100 but not on the HD channels, much lower and coming and going
 
Then the aerial/feed needs looked at.
That sounds like reflected signals interfering.
 
Ok thanks for the advice

Will get someone who knows what there doing!
 
The HD channels coming and going is what caught my attention.
 
The interference generated by HDMI is dependent on the content crossing the interface.
High resolution material pushes the link harder than anything else and tends to create the most interference - thus HD channels are always the most critical - Suffering from themselves - so to speak.

Turning down the resolution will usually diminish or remove interference - but that is hardly a solution.

In this case in looks as though some well screened aerial flyleads are required.
If the aerial is supplied from a wall outlet - check the screening and connections at the back of it too.
This has often been a leakage point in bad cases of interference like this.
 
Good point - fly leads are often, to use the technical term, cheap crap.
 
Good point - fly leads are often, to use the technical term, cheap crap.
Shame we never got to hear whether OP found solution as may have helped others with similar problems.

Many threads suffer this neglect after great help from Forum members...shame:thumbsdow
 

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