BBC1 and BBC2 but nowt else. Absolutely no signal

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BBC1 and BBC2 but nowt else. Absolutely no signal

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Fluffykins

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Hi all.

My FVP4000-T has been pretty good so far, although it has seemed a bit low-sensitivity to signals in general.

Horsham is almost served by Crystal Palace but there are too many hills in the way from here.

Our preferred signal is from Midhurst, though that can a little marginal at times of atmospheric jiggery pokery.

Yesterday and today, however, I have been getting BBC1 and BBC2 OK but absolutely nothing else at all.

FVP Signal strength on BBC1 and BBC2 is ~75% or more and quality ~95-100%

FVP readings for both Signal strength and quality on anything else are both precisely zero.

I've done a rescan to no effect.

I've fought shy of a reset so far.

There is signal there: the Humax antenna loop-through output is feeding my TV (a Samsung Q49Q60R), which happily reports ~100% strength and quality on BBC1, 2, ITV, Ch4, Ch5, etc.

Any ideas anyone?

| Tue 7 Jan 2020 15:56:23 #1 |
grahamlthompson

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Fluffykins - 56 mins ago »
Hi all.
My FVP4000-T has been pretty good so far, although it has seemed a bit low-sensitivity to signals in general.
Horsham is almost served by Crystal Palace but there are too many hills in the way from here.
Our preferred signal is from Midhurst, though that can a little marginal at times of atmospheric jiggery pokery.
Yesterday and today, however, I have been getting BBC1 and BBC2 OK but absolutely nothing else at all.
FVP Signal strength on BBC1 and BBC2 is ~75% or more and quality ~95-100%
FVP readings for both Signal strength and quality on anything else are both precisely zero.
I've done a rescan to no effect.
I've fought shy of a reset so far.
There is signal there: the Humax antenna loop-through output is feeding my TV (a Samsung Q49Q60R), which happily reports ~100% strength and quality on BBC1, 2, ITV, Ch4, Ch5, etc.
Any ideas anyone?

Could be too high a signal level. Try a variable attenuator on the BOX aerial input.

What signal strength and quality does the signal info in the menus give you.
?

| Tue 7 Jan 2020 16:55:19 #2 |
Trev

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I'm in Bexhill on the Hastings transmitter and lost nearly all my channels yesterday (7/01/20)afternoon. Had to go to Freesat to get anything. They all returned in the evening.
When you 'lose' channels that you have recently 'had', it is 99% likely to be reception problems due to atmospherics.
DO NOT RETUNE. Doing so will not make them magically appear and you will have to wait until conditions improve then retune yet AGAIN to put the missing channels back into the channel database. Just wait. They will return (to badly miss-quote Arnie).

| Wed 8 Jan 2020 16:34:05 #3 |
Fluffykins

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Joined: May '18
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Well, smother me in yogurt and call museli.

I did just need a retune after all.

Its all a bit odd. After the FV4000-T spitting its dummy out over ITV, I checked the bedroom TV and old recorder box, neither of which we use much and both also turned out to bereft of ITV etc.

I discovered yesterday that there WAS a retune advised for Midhurst, for 19/10/19. I believe it affected the mux for ITV and Ch4 etc. and which don't believe I actioned.

Now, I'm pretty sure I HAVE watched ITV from time to time since the retune (which I didn't action), and with no real problem but how?

The fact that the lounge tele was OK is probably was due to it being new, I was tuning a brand new set I'd bought the same day as my first post, as the old one had died (PSU fault). I had scanned the channels and obviously got ITV etc. just fine.

Never mind, a quick retune of our legacy kit - 2 digital recorders and an old tele in the bedroom - and all is now well.

Is it likely that the old mux carried on broadcasting for 80 days after the supposed date of switch over? >scratches head<

| Wed 8 Jan 2020 19:54:27 #4 |
Trev

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Ah. OK. The problem was caused by a complete All Multiplex shift down in frequency at Midhurst then?
Of course a change 'at their end' does normally require a retune. It was random losses of signal such as that which has been happening recently to which I was referring.
However, after eating a bit of humble pie, you did say at Post #1 the you had rescanned (to no effect), which should have picked up all the new frequencies.
Like you, what surprises me, having briefly investigated, is that you didn't lose the lot in October.

| Thu 9 Jan 2020 8:50:07 #5 |
Fluffykins

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Thanks Trev.

I ought to clarify the rescan. The Humax box offers two scan options: Default, which also nukes any timer settings and Smart, which doesn't. I used Smart for the first rescan and it turns out that rather than smart, 'Smart' rescan is actually a bit thick. So beware.

Still, alls well that ends well.

| Thu 9 Jan 2020 9:04:20 #6 |
Trev

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Fluffykins - 13 mins ago » 'Smart' rescan is actually a bit thick. So beware

Souds like 'a lot thick'. Still, gave me a chuckle. And thanks for clarifying.

| Thu 9 Jan 2020 9:19:42 #7 |
EEPhil

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Trev - 6 hours ago »

Fluffykins - 13 mins ago » 'Smart' rescan is actually a bit thick. So beware

Souds like 'a lot thick'. Still, gave me a chuckle. And thanks for clarifying.

My rule-of-thumb is if the manufacturer has defined the item as smart - it isn't. (I'll exclude disk SMART).

| Thu 9 Jan 2020 15:45:30 #8 |
Fluffykins

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Just a quick, final update. I queried Freeview via Twitter (@FreeviewTV), citing the Midhurst transmitter and asking whether an "old" mux would carry on transmitting for a while once a reallocation had been made and folk were supposed to rescan.

They came back with a fairly general and not-really-specific reply but they did say "Some TVs and boxes will retune automatically. In some instances the old frequency will continue for short period of time." - how long "short period of time" is, I dunno but there you are.

Cheerio

| Tue 14 Jan 2020 14:15:38 #9 |
Malcy93

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Greetings fluffykins another Horsham resident here.
You are correct Midhurst changed the frequencies of IIRC 3 of the multiplexes last October so those needed retuning. Definitely the ITV&C4 and BBCHD multiplexes and one of the commercial ones.

I find with my Humax box here it works best by tuning the specific frequencies broadcast by Midhurst. We are on the North East boundary so marginal coverage. Crawley still get their TV from Crystal Palace.

Not sure how long you have lived here but back in analogue days we and most others had two aerials one for Midhurst and the other Crystal Palace. As well as the different regional coverage this was needed because Midhurst lost BBC1 and ITV coverage in periods of high pressure because of interference from one of the other nearby transmitters which broadcast those channels but with the frequencies reversed.

| Wed 15 Jan 2020 22:56:42 #10 |