My ITV/C4 Freeview channels have disappeared - what can I do? Is it my SCART ca
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV It is a feature of television signals that they can be effected by the weather. Aside from the obvious damaged that can be caused by wind or torrential rain, the onset of summer can cause a more intriguing problem called "inversion".
Basically, when the sun heats up the land, the hot air can get trapped below cold air at high level. This creates an "inversion layer" which acts like a polished mirror to TV signals. This causes two problems: you can receive both the original and a reflected signal from your own transmitter (on analogue TV this appears as "ghosting") or interference from TV transmitters that are normally too far distant.
The ITV/C4 multiplex of channels (ITV-1, ITV-2, ITV-3, ITV-4, CITV, C4, More4, E4, Quizcall) use a transmission "mode" called 64QAM, and it is sadly much more prone to these problems.
So, whilst a loft-mounted aerial will provide reception at some time, it will fail at others. The only real solution is to mount the aerial (or a new Class I aerial) outside on a pole, but some people report that changing the cable from the aerial to the set-top box to the high-grade satellite cable can also help.
The SCART connection, by the way, only carries a single TV picture, not the Freeview transmission multiplexes, so if this is disconnected it will result in degradation to every channel at once.
All questions
In this section
Wednesday, 16 October 2019
D
Dean Rattray8:59 AM
My bbc1 ITV channel 5 and a few other channels are off but bbc2 s4c and others are working fine help.
| link to this comment |
C
Chris.SE3:43 PM
Dean Rattray:
Without knowing which transmitter you are receiving and a full postcode to see predicted reception at your location, it's not possible to say what the problem may be.
I suggest you check your internal coax plugs and connections, flyleads etc., by unplugging them checking for corrosion, poor connections etc, and plugging them in again. If there've been any poor connections simply unplugging and plugging in again helps clean the contacts.
Also check your aerial hasn't moved or been damaged in any high winds and coax is undamaged. Water ingress can affect reception.
| link to this comment |
Friday, 2 July 2021
J
Joyce Stanford9:39 AM
We are not able to get ITV channels can you help
| link to this comment |
C
Chris.SE11:22 PM
Joyce Stanford:
Without a full postcode, or you being certain which transmitter you receive, it's impossible to say. Wherever you are in the country there are some transmitters undergoing Planned Engineering or maybe have a Fault.
If you had no signal or a badly pixellated picture and attempted to retune it may have just cleared the correct tuning, and you'd then have to retune again when signals are back to normal. You might have to try several times as you would wouldn't be certain when that might be.
There's also been some variable "Tropospheric Ducting" with the recent weather conditions which has been affecting reception of some multiplexes for some viewers at different times. This may persist on and off for a few days. Again, you should not retune when such conditions persist.
If your set has an auto-retune function when there is no signal, turn it off if possible as it's more trouble than it's worth when such conditions arise.
| link to this comment |
Thursday, 8 July 2021
N
Neil1:29 PM
Bbc1 and 2 and Radio 4 signals have become intermittently distorted on all 3 TVs, which have all been returned several times.
All other channels are fine. There have been no changes to the aerial or the TVs, or any electronics in the house.
Problem first started about a week ago.
Postcode is IP12 4 DL
| link to this comment |
Saturday, 31 July 2021
R
Richard Garrity12:44 PM
I Live in Bristol (BS1 5AF) served by the Mendip Transmitter and have an LG Smart (or not) TV. Recently been having very bad reception on ITV/Channel4/Channel 5 etc but BBC and a few others are fine. Now after retune they have gone entirely (assume signal strength was to low for the TV to pick up on the retune)
Did numerous auto retunes and manual retunes to channel 32 then to 33 but am presently only getting 25 channels from either
Tried doing a retune with the co-ax disconnected to clear things then a full auto retune but no difference
Cable is a short gold plated co-ax to a connection on the the wall but don't know beyond that (it is a shared service in a block of flats)
| link to this comment |
Sunday, 1 August 2021
C
Chris.SE1:55 AM
Richard Garrity:
Your location should have no problems receiving signals from the Mendip transmitter and it's not been listed for Planned Engineering recently and I can't find any recent faults listed.
Whilst most communal installations are channelised, not all are, and the location can also get excellent signals from the Ilchester Crescent transmitter and good signals from the Barton House relay transmitter.
Even with a horizontally polarised aerial pointing at Mendip, Ilchester Cresent is in an almost identical direction and signals could still be strong enough to be decoded but not necessarily reliable.
ITV/Channel 4/Channel 5 are on the D3&4/PSB2 multiplex which is UHF C34 from Mendip, so check that's the one you are tuned to.
Last weekend and a few days before that, there was some weather related "Tropospheric Ducting" - this causes signals to travel a lot further than normal, so you can get interference from distant transmitters elsewhere in the UK or Europe. Such interference doesn't necessarily affect all multiplexes as it's frequency dependent. If it had affected your signals and you retuned at the time, you might have got tuned to the incorrect frequencies.
Mendip's correct UHF channels are C32, C34, C35, C48, C33, C36, C55, C30. That's is the order PSBs1-3, COMs 4-7, Local mux, so if you aren't correctly tuned, clear any existing tuning and then do a manual tune.
Also check you don't have any corrosion or bad connection at the coax wall plate. Such problems can cause issues with just one multiplex.
Check in the TV's Tuning section that the Signal Strength is high and Quality is 100% for each multiplex. If you are still having problems, post back with the figures for each multiplex.
As a general rule, don't retune if you have pixellation or no signal whether it be due to maintenance, weather or faults as this generally will just clear the correct tuning and you end of needing to retune again when signals are normal (which may need several attempts!). These days there should generally be no need to retune except if you get an on-screen pop-up because a commercial operator has changed channels/multiplex on COMs 4-7.
| link to this comment |
Monday, 16 August 2021
G
Geoff Thirlby9:54 AM
Why have I lost all ITV, Channel 5 and HD channels from my Sky freeview box receiver? This happened on the 15 August 2021.
| link to this comment |
S
StevensOnln111:38 AM
Geoff Thirlby: There are no Sky boxes that can receive Freeview, do you mean that you are receiving the free to air (FTA) satellite channels on a Sky box that doesn't have a subscription? Have you tried powering the box off at the mains, checking the connections on the cables going to the satellite dish and then turning it back on again?
| link to this comment |
Wednesday, 1 September 2021
why are the ITV and Freeview channels consistently being interrupted and disappearing?
| link to this comment |
Select more comments
Your comment please