TV Has Just Some Channels?

[TheDutyPaid]

It started yesterday (Saturday) I turned on the TV which is only FreeView and it said on screen "weak or no signal" not thinking much of it I turned on BBC1 all fine, went up to BBC2 yep, went up to ITV black screen with the message, same thing with Ch4, Ch5 and some more.

Did a scan and the channel markers have gone altogether.
The scan said it found 102 channels, but looking for information for my area it says that there should be 115 I understand that the missing channels are all under one group 'PSB2'

The TV is a Samsung LE32B554M2W which is getting a bit old now.

I live in a small block of flats in North London, Enfield and just checked with an neighbor who is getting the channels I'm missing, we are all on a communal aerial. So no problem with that and the picture for the other channels is perfect.

The only information I found is the local relay in Edmonton is under maintenance, but you would think next door would have troubles as well.

Any ideas?

[kalniel]

Check your local/flat connection first, as well as any sources of interference. If OK then I've seen some issues depending on when a scan is carried out - mine seem to be temperature dependant and I can loose channels if it's extremely hot. Try scanning at night?

[watercooled]

It does sound like you've lost one or a set of muxes as opposed to reception altogether, but it's possible you normally receive the muxes from separate transmitters where you live. Any idea if your neighbour is getting the channels from the usual transmitter or did they have to re-tune to get them back? If so, it could be that you're either on a lower power tap or your TV's tuner is just less sensitive if it's right on the edge in signal strength.

If you enter your postcode and make sure to check 'detailed view' you can get an idea of which transmitters and repeaters are in range, and what muxes they broadcast: http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/coveragechecker/

Edit: Didn't see first reply.

[TheDutyPaid]

If you enter your postcode and make sure to check 'detailed view' you can get an idea of which transmitters and repeaters are in range, and what muxes they broadcast: http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/coveragechecker/

Edit: Didn't see first reply.

Here is what the page says, it all looks good.

[watercooled]

Hmm. Is the signal strong for the other channels?

[TheDutyPaid]

Hmm. Is the signal strong for the other channels?

I tested it on a few channels and it was up around 85 to 87%,
Have downloaded the latest firmware for the TV, well 2010 was the last one. Going to install it tomorrow, not sure it do any good but worth a go.

I see searching the web this is quite common, but like so many forums no one ever posts to say if it was fixed lol

[DanceswithUnix]

Can you borrow a known working Freeview box from someone, to check if it is the aerial or leads?

[TheDutyPaid]

Well, today I turned on the TV to do the software update. Thought I give it another scan... It found 150 channels! A website said I should get 115, all the channels are back 3,4, 5 and things like E4 Film4
If I was away over the weekend I would have never have known.

What caused it, who knows. Maybe a butterfly beating its wings in Mexico?

It's not like we watch much TV but its good to have all we should. Thanks again to the forum for the help, it nice to be able to rant about what has happen.

[EndlessWaves]

Definitely an odd one you had there. PSB2 is one of the muxes sharing the strongest signal level, in the middle of the frequency range for crystal palace and using DVB-T instead of the newer DVB-T2 ('Freeview HD'). That rules out all of the usual causes of missing/tenuous channels

Possibly the first sign of failure on your freeview tuner, or maybe something else in your flat or a neighbours was generating interference on that frequency for some reason.

If it happens again you could try try turning off everything else electrical for a few minutes and see if that brings them back.

[ik9000]

I had this with mine a while back. Just did a retune, then another a day later and it sorted itself out. I put it down to a glitch, or possibly some quirk of an auto-update, but glad to hear you're all sorted now. The only thing I've had since then is London Live or whatever they call it disappearing - or rather, detecting but no longer appearing properly. But since we hardly ever watched it, meh.

[EndlessWaves]

The local channel mux is broadcast at the lowest power and often only in limited directions, so that could simply be reception problems.

[TheDutyPaid]

It's happen again, just switched on the TV and have the same problem I had about a month ago.

[ik9000]

Is your TV box losing power/getting turned off?
When did it last auto-update the firmware?

[TheDutyPaid]

Is your TV box losing power/getting turned off?
When did it last auto-update the firmware?

The Freeview is part of the TV which is only ever on standby, no separate box
Never done an auto-update as it has never worked, I do have the latest firmware on the a USB stick. The TV has been fine for the last 9 years.
The last firmware is about 7 years old.

[ik9000]

The Freeview is part of the TV which is only ever on standby, no separate box
Never done an auto-update as it has never worked, I do have the latest firmware on the a USB stick. The TV has been fine for the last 9 years.
The last firmware is about 7 years old.

auto-update. Not one that you do. Our one does it every so often. It also does a re-tune every so often too. Don't ask my why, it just does.

[Ferral]

This happened to me a few weeks back on just one of my TV's (Samsung 50" Plasma with Freeview)

Unplug the aerial and do a full channel search to clear it completely, then plug aerial back in and do a fresh scan. Most my channels came back on bar 1 or 2, seems that in the high winds we were having at the time adjustment on the rooftop aerial has happened, so now we have an indoor with booster (£20 from Amazon and noticed them in Tesco a few weeks back) and everything is available again