Problem TV - Moher-in law style.

[plastic penguin]

The ma-in-law has purchased a new TV: Philips with a Humax tuner. The problem is she isn't picking up all the freeview channels we do on our Sony. Does this mean the Humax needs re-tuning? or is something else going on?

 

[Diamond Joe]

The Humax should pick up the same channels your Sony gets (assuming you're both in the same region) I've got a couple of ideas: try doing a factory reset on the Humax then rescanning, that's worked for me in the past.

The other thing (and I hope it isn't this) is that your Ma-in-law has an older narrow band aerial which was designed to pick up whichever analogue group was transmitted in your region before DSO. Since DSO the channels are liberally scattered around the spectrum and you'll most likely need a wideband aerial to capture every available channel.

I'll double check that though, do you know which transmitter you're receiving from?

 

[plastic penguin]

The Humax should pick up the same channels your Sony gets (assuming you're both in the same region) I've got a couple of ideas: try doing a factory reset on the Humax then rescanning, that's worked for me in the past.

The other thing (and I hope it isn't this) is that your Ma-in-law has an older narrow band aerial which was designed to pick up whichever analogue group was transmitted in your region before DSO. Since DSO the channels are liberally scattered around the spectrum and you'll most likely need a wideband aerial to capture every available channel.

I'll double check that though, do you know which transmitter you're receiving from?

Thanks for the suggestions. Couldn't tell you about the aerial. I think it's the existing one which has been up for years.

Next time I go around I'll try the rescan.

The strange thing is the missing channels aren't listed on the 'Menu' section of the TV. :silenced:

 

[Diamond Joe]

Just did some more digging. I think you live in Surrey/SW London-ish (?) so you probably get your TV signal from Crystal Palace, in which case ignore my comments about DSO, I see it's scheduled for next year, and it looks like they're keeping all the digital channels within the original group, so the aerial is almost certainly not the problem.

If you want to do a manual retune then you'll be looking at chans 22,25,28,29,32,34 and HD on chan 31 (is that on yet?)

Lots more info at http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/

 

[chebby]

The strange thing is the missing channels aren't listed on the 'Menu' section of the TV. :silenced:

Not strange at all. Lose a channel (actually a whole mux worth of channels) and it doesn't get listed. It can't list something it doesn't 'see' and there is no 'placeholder' for each channel.

 

[plastic penguin]

She lives in Dorking. It's a strange area for signals; I lose nearly all channels on the car radio. This is because the town is in a little valley, surrounded by the north downs, so the aerial theory does ring true to me.

 

[Diamond Joe]

I think we might be homing in on the problem, if your Mum-in-law is in a bit of a dip then reception from the main transmitters (Crystal Palace or Reigate) could be a problem, it looks like this is a known problem as Dorking is getting its own transmitter at D(SO)-day! But curiously enough that transmitter will only be broadcasting around 18 channels and HD.