setting channels « My Humax Forum

My Humax Forum » Freeview SD » PVR 9150T, 9200T, 9300T

setting channels

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avista

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Not sure if this is the right Forum to ask this question. It says Freeview SD. I don't understand what SD is but expect since I don't have HD on my TV and the question is about setting the channels for Freeview stations then this must be the best place to start.
When I tune the Humax 9300T automatically it selects stations for the first 5 channels but using a transmitter in Sandy that is weaker than the one in Crystal Palace according to the Humax System details. The best channels are for Crystal Palace, particularly ITV, Ch 4 and Ch5, but are up at 802, 803 and 804. But I would like these channels to be the new 3, 4 and 5 again like with former analogue settings. How do I get Humax to treat 802 as if it is 3, 803 as 4 and 804 as 5? It is so much quicker and easier when selecting a station to just press the one number rather than 3 to get the station.

I think I have to follow a posted reply saying to tune manually, delete all the stations and then choose the 800 stations. But I don't understand this and cannot re-find that posting again. There are over 100 Freeview stations. Do I have to manually tune them all?

I don't understand what it means by 'favourite group'. I thought that might work when I assigned 802 to 3, 803 to 4 and 804 to 5 but still when I press 3 on the remote I go back to the Sandy transmission for ITV.

I would be grateful if anyone can please suggest something.

Thanks

| Sat 2 Mar 2013 23:03:33 #1 |
Martin Liddle

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You are looking for Link to manual tuning instructions. No you don't tune 100 stations. Freeview works by combining a number of TV channels together and transmitting them as a single multiplex (often shortened to MUX). Typically you will need to tune five multiplexes. Once you have done it once, on subsequent times it will be quicker than an automatic scan.

| Sat 2 Mar 2013 23:12:03 #2 |
avista

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Thanks for your suggestion.

I am trying this now and will report back on progress!

| Sun 3 Mar 2013 10:53:49 #3 |
avista

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Yes, success!!
I can't believe after nearly a year of watching some channels with poor reception I can now watch them with much better results. Used to get occasional and brief squealing or clipping noise as signal was weak and picture would freeze very briefly every 2-3 minutes on ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. Actually spent many nights watching recorded TV with this nuisance with my wife and I complaining about the good ole days of analogue TV. We would sometimes switch to the 800 stations but for some reason the Humax doesn't like to record from them.

Occasionally would re-tune the Humax PVR 9300 automatically thinking you have to keep doing this. Calls to Digitaluk were not at all helpful. They kept saying to get another aerial or a booster (I've done both), they never mentioned about manual re-tuning to the strongest transmitter. I've spent over £350 on aerial installers and another £50 on a booster and they never mentioned a manual re-tune. We just thought we'd have to spend the rest of our days watching poor TV on Freeview and paying that thieving TV license each year.

Just wish I came across your forum earlier. Thinking of a letter to my MP now as I am sure many people have this problem around here. I think it is because we are just on the line between 2 transmitters and the Digitaluk is saying to go the the weaker one. In fairness to Digitaluk it does say how to manually re-tune but it is quite a convoluted way to get to that page.

This has been a particular problem I think among the oldies and just asking about 5 neighbours on my street they have all been suffering the same problem although with different receivers, not Humax. I will tell or help show them how to solve it now!

Thanks again for your help and suggestions.

| Sun 3 Mar 2013 13:22:52 #4 |
Martin Liddle

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avista - 1 hour ago »
Yes, success!!

Excellent.

Occasionally would re-tune the Humax PVR 9300 automatically thinking you have to keep doing this.

It doesn't help you but Humax have recently released a software update for the later HDR-FOX T2 which does a much better job of automatically tuning and eliminates the need for manual tuning for most people.

| Sun 3 Mar 2013 15:14:52 #5 |
Biggles

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avista - 3 hours ago »
.....
Occasionally would re-tune the Humax PVR 9300 automatically thinking you have to keep doing this. Calls to Digitaluk were not at all helpful. They kept saying to get another aerial or a booster (I've done both), they never mentioned about manual re-tuning to the strongest transmitter. I've spent over £350 on aerial installers and another £50 on a booster and they never mentioned a manual re-tune. We just thought we'd have to spend the rest of our days watching poor TV on Freeview and paying that thieving TV license each year.
.....

The question now is have you ever really needed the booster, they can sometimes do more harm than good if they're not really needed. Maybe it's the aerial installer that's doing the thieving.

| Sun 3 Mar 2013 17:07:22 #6 |
avista

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Following this discussion I sent a complaint to Digital UK mentioning that when last contacted in Oct 2012 and having explained the problem to them they said I had to contact an aerial installer again and change the aerial! I then explained that thanks to a product Forum all I had to do was a manual tune and that in giving advice their staff should point to this.
The following day I got a call from Digital UK and they apologised for the staff who gave the misinformation and that the staff should have helped me by explaining the manual tune approach. They said they actually listened to the recorded call I made (5 months ago) and that the staff was wrong to suggest calling an aerial installer again. They said the staff member was temporary and had given misinformation to other callers too and that if I called again now that I would be directed to a manual re-tune and helped more proactively to solve the problem.
I think that was a remarkable response from Digital UK and it sounds like they can provide better assistance than I complained about in my email to the Humax Forum. So I will certainly recommend them to others in future having similar problems.

| Thu 7 Mar 2013 11:49:27 #7 |
Gordon

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An alternative that I tried and which worked was to fit a bandpass filter (I'm on Crystal Palace so Group A) between the aerial and the amplifier/distribution box. It cost under £10 from http://www.satcure.com, plus a couple of leads. I usually do manual retunes, but occasionally I just do the auto retune, the filter excludes the 800 range channels that I used to get.

| Thu 7 Mar 2013 13:02:35 #8 |