Freeview reception problems

pebblebeach8

Hoping someone might be able to help.  My parents have a freeview tv and freeview recorder and they have suddenly lost some channels.  Mainly UHF frequency 25, which includes 5USA and Legend.

Chatted with Freeview and they said it could be to do with work being carried out on the Crystal Palace transmitter, but I live about 3 miles from them and all my channels are fine.

We are now wondering if it is to do with the age of their TV and recorder, probably both about 10 years old, or older.

Their aerial appears to be OK, looking at it from the ground and is pointing the same way as everyone else.

They tried retuning a few times and once lost some of the channel 4 channels, but they eventually came back.

According to the Freeview site they are still working on the Crystal Palace transmitter, no end date given.

Thanks.

beckstar1975

Hmm, where are they? I am South Croydon in a dip by the railway and our entire street and many surrounding are either Sky or Virgin as we cannot get a decent Freeview signal. The online checkers all say it should be fine but when you get someone in the roof they then struggle.

There's are newer, better aerials that may work but that would cost a few hundred to install so for now we're on virgin. 

Used to live in a flat in Palace and again no signal as too close to the receiver (so close we had terrorism insurance in the flat in case the IRA tried to blow up the tower and it landed on us!). 

elsien

I think if your TV and recorder are separately set up, then losing the signal with both is more likely to be an aerial or an external issue. 

It would be unusual to be losing all the channels on both of them independently.

When I lost both sets of channels together on my TV and hard drive recorder, it was the aerial. It looked fine from pavement level, but the booster had been incorrectly installed and water had got in. 

Do any of the neighbours used terrestrial TV and they could check with them if they are having any issues?

pebblebeach8

Thanks, they do live close to a railway station, but been fine until about 2 weeks ago.  I did tell them to ask the neighbours but don't think they have done this yet.  Maybe need to get someone to look at the aerial just in case a wire has come loose.

jackieblack

This happened to my parents and seemed to coincide with a new green cabinet being installed in their street.  They got a AV/TV chap in who said it was a common issue to do with interference 🤷🏻‍♀️ He fitted some kind of signal booster in their loft and everything has been fine since.

molerat

DTTV is a quirky old thing.  Very minor changes in the area or slight damage to cabling can have massive effects on one multiplex and nothing on the rest.  We can't get Com5, Sky Mix etc, when it rains and sometimes PSB2, ITV etc,  is stronger from the transmitter that is 180 deg from the direction the aerial is facing.  Go figure !

JSmithy45AD

Have you tried the TV and the STB separately? Is it the same issue on both?

Try https://restoretv.uk/contact-us/ and if needed they'll send out a filter to plug inbetween the aerial lead and the TV or box.

pebblebeach8

Thank you, I did try them separately. Just looked at the link you sent so will get them to fill in their details.