Freesat keeps dropping channels

luckat

How do I retune the channels on Freesat?

I don't watch TV much, and have a few different things plugged into it - DVD, Freesat box, thingy for watching TV from a computer, stereo; about to have thingy for rebroadcasting radio channels from the Freesat to FM radios around the house.

But it keeps dropping the channels.

I haven't watched any TV, apart from the odd Vincent Brown Show, since Christmas, but tonight I had a sudden craving for candy and went looking for the entertainment channels.

"No signal" was the answer on evey one. I briefly had BBC news, then that disappeared as well.

How do I retune them?

(For that matter, how do I tune in more of them? The selection is pretty drastic. Maybe I should have given Buck House as my postcode rather than Newry? Or does that make a difference?)

Oh, and don't say RTFM - the manual is no use in this case.

GerardKeating

luckat wrote: »

How do I retune the channels on Freesat?

I don't watch TV much, and have a few different things plugged into it - DVD, Freesat box, thingy for watching TV from a computer, stereo; about to have thingy for rebroadcasting radio channels from the Freesat to FM radios around the house.

But it keeps dropping the channels.

I haven't watched any TV, apart from the odd Vincent Brown Show, since Christmas, but tonight I had a sudden craving for candy and went looking for the entertainment channels.

"No signal" was the answer on evey one. I briefly had BBC news, then that disappeared as well.

How do I retune them?

(For that matter, how do I tune in more of them? The selection is pretty drastic. Maybe I should have given Buck House as my postcode rather than Newry? Or does that make a difference?)

Oh, and don't say RTFM - the manual is no use in this case.

Sounds like the dish needs to be realigned maybe, mine does after some recent storms...

luckat

It might be the dish - but it did this twice at Christmas. The first time I brought the Freesat box back to Argos in Belfast and got a new one; the second time someone with a genius with these things was in the house and retuned it for me. Now I'm on my own with it...

Finne1993

I found that happening to a couple of freesat's I installed, seems to happen on the Bush boxes especially the HD ones, a reset (switch off at the socket for a minute, switch back on and wait another minute or two before going into the tv guide) normally does the trick. If that does'nt work then its either a dish alignment or cable problem.

luckat

Thanks, Finne1993. What about tuning in further channels? The selection at the moment is pathetic.

chelseaaremagic

same was happening to me then i discovered the 'expensive' hdmi cable was the problem inserted the freesat supplied one and all perfect

luckat

Same was happening to you - dropping channels or too few channels?

mjsmyth

I would not have said the channel list was pathethic... The best of the FTA channels are there (apart from my new favourites Travel and Travel 2). But how and ever, to each his own.

To add in extra non freesat FTA channels, hit the menu button, then click on add non freesat channel, enter in the details of the channel you want tot scan for there.

To view the non freesat FTA channels, hit Ch List and then the swap button to bring up the list.

The above is only valid for the Bush HD, it may well work with the Grundig and Goodmans freesat boxes and also with the Sat4free boxes.

mj

luckat

Thanks, mjsmyth, I'll try that. When you say the 'swap' button, which is that? (And yes, mine's a Bush Freesat box.)

mjsmyth

Its the button that says "SWAP" on it

2nd last row, middle button.

mj

muincav

Finne1993 wrote: »

I found that happening to a couple of freesat's I installed, seems to happen on the Bush boxes especially the HD ones, a reset (switch off at the socket for a minute, switch back on and wait another minute or two before going into the tv guide) normally does the trick. If that does'nt work then its either a dish alignment or cable problem.

Me too! Have brought 2 back already..The Bush HD seems quite prone to this problem.....go for the Humax...

Lossy

I had the Grundig HD Freesat box and it worked for a few days and then just said "no signal". I tried all the reset and plug out from the wall stuff but still no go. I returned the box and went back to my silvercrest FTA box and have not tried freesat since. Btw, the silvercrest box worked flawlessly before and has done ever since. I found the interface of the grundig box to be quite clunky and the SD picture quality is actually better on the silvercrest box IMHO.

deffin

muincav wrote: »

Me too! Have brought 2 back already..The Bush HD seems quite prone to this problem.....go for the Humax...

Have the Bush HD box and what i find is that from time to time the sound will disappear altogether. I just switch off the power at the socket for a few seconds and it seems to rectify the prob. Otherwise a great cheap option for free satellite and the BBC HD has a terrific picture. A good buy.!

muincav

deffin wrote: »

Have the Bush HD box and what i find is that from time to time the sound will disappear altogether. I just switch off the power at the socket for a few seconds and it seems to rectify the prob. Otherwise a great cheap option for free satellite and the BBC HD has a terrific picture. A good buy.!

It is a pain in the ass having to do that all the time.....Just bring it back and tell them what it is doing and any retailler worth their salt should replace it.
If you go through the reviews on the Argos uk site you will see just a few of the complaints and problems with this box and you could print them out as confirmation for any retailler who does not believe you...
Good luck..

mjsmyth

If you leave your HD Box on today, the software should update itself to the latest version.

Seemingly it has fixed a number of bugs.

mj

luckat

mjsmyth wrote: »

If you leave your HD Box on today, the software should update itself to the latest version.

Seemingly it has fixed a number of bugs.

mj

Good news - thanks!

luckat

mjsmyth wrote: »

To add in extra non freesat FTA channels, hit the menu button, then click on add non freesat channel, enter in the details of the channel you want tot scan for there.

To view the non freesat FTA channels, hit Ch List and then the swap button to bring up the list.

mj, tried this, but when I ask for non-freesat channels, it just resets the option from No to Yes. When I hit the Swap button, it says "No channels stored".

Actually, I've now found an option with a kind of grid arrangement. This searches for channels, but the only one it's actually found (visibly and audibly) is ETV. It alleges it's found 11, but the others were blank.

recyclebin

There still seems to be bugs with the new update. Sound went today when I left the box on for a few hours. Theres another problem with non freesat channels like nme, bliss and flaunt. They can be added to non freesat channel list but then disappear after a while. Im using a grundig hd box with software version 1.5.46

mjsmyth

@luckat

You have to add the non freesat channels first... The install does not add any channel that is not on the freesat epg.

To do this, hit Menu -> Settings -> Add Non-Freesat Services

Once in there, add the channel parameters for those to you want. You can find them over at kingofsat.net

mj

luckat

mjsmyth, I went to kingsofsat.net and found a dazzling maze of information, but nothing I could add to the list of channels. What is an Atlantic Bird? (gannet?) How do I add a simple channel - say, for instance, History Channel, or France Musique radio?

I'm sorry to be dense about this, but it seems a bit of a thorny thicket, to be honest. The whole satellite business, from getting a dish to acquiring channels to watch and listen to.

mjsmyth wrote: »

@luckat

You have to add the non freesat channels first... The install does not add any channel that is not on the freesat epg.

To do this, hit Menu -> Settings -> Add Non-Freesat Services

Once in there, add the channel parameters for those to you want. You can find them over at kingofsat.net

mj

mjsmyth

You are looking for channels on Eurobird 1 and Astra 2A,B,C & D

This is a list of fta channels on Eurobird 1
http://en.kingofsat.net/pos-28.5E-fta.php

This is a list of fta channels on Astra 2A,B,C & D
http://en.kingofsat.net/pos-28.2E-fta.php

As you scroll down through the pages, you will see the information similar to the following in a blue banner..


Astra 2D (28.2E) - 10714.00 H - Txp: 41 - Beam: Astra 2D DVB-S (QPSK) - 22000 5/6 - NID:2 - TID:2041

Out of that, you need information in bold. When you enter that information, it will do a search for channels on that frequency.

Obviously those details will change depending on the channel you are looking for.

I hope that helps a bit.

mj

luckat

It does help a bit, mj. The only thing I need to know is how and where I enter that information.

luckat

Actually.... I don't. Having read the list of channels here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free-to-air_channels_in_the_UK

and what they do, I don't want them.

I imagined Freesat as some revolutionary organisation that would give me TV from all across Europe, and maybe the world. But it all seems to be British or else Indian, Bangladeshi or Pakistani. What a disappointment.

Still... I suppose I have the main British channels and the main Irish ones; if I want to watch TV, which i rarely do, I can do so! Pity about the radio, though.

mjsmyth

Those settings are entered in the menu page under add non freesat service.

As for what freesat offers, well basically it is as you say, the main British channels. By using the non freesat mode, you can add russian, chinese and french news channels...

Using a FTA receiver and a motor would be more benificial if you wanted foreign (non Irish or British) tv.

If you were going to consider that route, I would recommend you get a pro in to set it up as, and I don't mean to appear smart ar5ed or insulting here, you are having difficulty adding non freesat channels.

There are plenty here in the forum, selecting one is down to where you are located.

MJ

Finne1993

For anyone who does'nt have sky or does'nt want to pay any monthly bills freesat is an excellent service, I know it might advertise 140+ channels, realistically speaking there are 25 channels where you will find stuff worth watching, its great value fully installed with dish for €200 - €300 and around an extra €90 for the HD option which really is top class especially for the footie, watch out for the Man Utd match on ITV HD tonight. (For anyone who does'nt know go to ITV1 London and press the red button when the match starts) anyone who I've installed one for seems delighted with it. Have to agree though that the SD picture could be better in some cases but as they say you get what you pay for and most people are just grateful for the extra channels.
To add the non freesat services first go to the menu and select 'show non freesat services' then go to 'add non freesat services' Add whatever frequencies you want then go to channel list then hit the swap button and delete whichever channels you don't want by pressing the > button followed by delete code (normally 0000)

luckat

Well, ok, that's fair enough. My expectations were made unrealistic - I was drooling at the expectation of a host of fabulous foreing stations, and got a bunch of suburban British ones.

It's kind of like having a fancy-ish aerial.

Let's hope Freesat puts on some real culture at some stage in the future. I feel a little ripped off by the over-selling.

coffee to go

Your expectations weren't unrealistic, you may have just been side tracked by the term 'Freesat' - Generally people on here now use this to refer to the stations available in English and that come from satellites at 28.2 degrees east (Astra 2D) and 28.5 degrees east (Eurobird 1) and are in some way connected to the BBC/ITV venture covered at freesat.co.uk

If you're looking for a selection of foreign TV, then you can get it too, you'll just need a dish that points at different satellites (For example Hotbird at 13 degrees east adn Astra 1 at 19.2 degrees east.

You can see a slection of the predominantly non-english speaking free-to-air channels here:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/media/pdfs/list_by_satellite.pdf

A free to air satellite receiver and a dish pointed at Hotbird or Astra 1 might be what you're looking for. You can get dish arms and/or motors that will allow your receiver to see these two satellites without you having to go ou and move it yourself, but I'll leave those tips up to the pros on here.

'Freesat' is more a 'does what it says on the tin' kind of service, i.e. it provides people with an extended range of english language channels without subscription (and in preparation for the analog switch off in the UK)

Hope that helps.

mjsmyth

There are some excellent non fressat channels that you can tune in on your freesat box.

World Movies, is as the name says, a channel that offers movies from around the world.

Travel Channel and Travel Channel 2 are also pretty much what you might think... they have some great documentaries.

Al Jazeera gives a different slant on world news.

If you want to show off your HD, take a look at Luxe TV, beautiful HD Quality, not quite sure what the channel does though, but if you got loads of money, its for you

Simply Movies offers "classic" movies from the US and UK...

O Music offers up classical and opera type music for the more cultured listener

France 24 offers up a French view on world events. Hey its French, it must be cultured

Should you so wish, Sky News can also be tuned in for that "tabloid feel" to the daily news.

There are other channels available too, granted making your way through the 2 lists I gave you can be a bit daunting, but there is plenty available for free on 28.2 / 28.5, even if it does not show up on your freesat box at first.

mj

evilivor

mjsmyth wrote: »

There are some excellent non fressat channels that you can tune in on your freesat box.

Al Jazeera gives a different slant on world news.

France 24 offers up a French view on world events. Hey its French, it must be cultured

France 24 and Al Jazeera are both Freesat channels.

mjsmyth

Well feck me, so they are. Now how did I miss that....

Thanks,
mj