Another Freeview Problem.

[Petrushka]

Disconcerted to find that right in the middle of the Proms season BBC4 and R3 have packed in on my Freeview box. Some of the other stations (the rubbish ones, naturally) are fine while others have very jerky picture quality. I have tried retuning three times without any difference. Everything was fine on Tuesday.

Is there an easy explanation? Can BBC4 be viewed live on i-player?

(Also have a lot of trouble with the smileys. Click on and nothing happens).

[johnb]

Have you tried disconnecting the mains cable, waiting a minute or two then reconnecting it?

[Mahlerei]

Would it be worth retuning your box? IIRC there were notices a while back warning of impending reallocation of some channels. That would explain why some of the more peripheral stations are still available but the core ones aren't.

[Norfolk Born]

You may be situated more or less mid-way between a transmitter which has had its signal boosted following switchover and one that hasn't yet been upgraded. This problem has cropped up in, for example, Wickham Market in mid-Suffolk. Also, your aerial may need adjusting. (I'm glad I switched to Freesat!).

[mercia]

Can BBC4 be viewed live on i-player?

I believe I'm right in saying you can watch all BBC TV stations live on-line
for BBC4 go to the BBC4 homepage rather than the i-player homepage

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

the signal strength is most likely cause, i have been suffering this problem for months ...went to local retailer in first sortie to renew the aerial box tv etc only to be informed that the digital signal was reduced in strength until the analogue is switched off .... we change finally on Aug 31st and advised to wait until early September before making any decisions .... i had emailed bbc and gone through their entire rigmarole of retuning switching on and off etc [i know there is a technical basis for this but it does feel more like a magic ritual .... and it is for most of us] eventually to be told that the transmitter was fine .... no information on web or from AUNT but the signal is reduced ... my box gives a 'poor or no signal' message quite often ... find out when your area finally switches and have patience is the cheapest option .... changing kit is a bit pointless until then ...

[salymap]

I have a differnt Freeview problem which goes back several months. I paid 'experts' to refit new Freeview box and they stayed allof two minutes. I did a channel search and can get the stations but the sound is well below the analogue channels.
When I tried the video, the TV picture rotates when I try to record BBC4 and breaks up until I put the video off. I have tried all the channels on the video from 1to 8 and the A2 where I always filmed BBC4 is just as bad as the rest. Could itbe a roof aerial problem. I had the aerial specifically for Freeview.

[Word]

Saly,

I wouldn't have thought it a roof aerial problem; it sounds as if the output from the video and Freeview boxes are on a similar channel so interfering with each other.
It should be possible to change the frequency used by one or the other, but exactly how you achieve that is device/model specific (if you post the make and model it should be possible to find instructions on-line).

An even better solution would be to connect the devices to the television via a SCART or HDMI cable, if that is an option.

[salymap]

Thanks Word, they are all on scart sockets but this came on before I changed Freeview boxes so it must be an outside source I think.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

the signal strength is most likely cause, i have been suffering this problem for months ...went to local retailer in first sortie to renew the aerial box tv etc only to be informed that the digital signal was reduced in strength until the analogue is switched off ...

I don't know what is going on. On retuning, the signal strength for the main BBC channels is "1". A few months ago it was "8". Yet many of the the weirder channels have a stronger signal. It's bizzarre.

[Petrushka]

I took johnb's advice and disconnected from the mains and that seems to have cured the problem for now but I think that Ofchchap and Calum de Jazbo have the likely cause behind this.

[Word]

they are all on scart sockets but this came on before I changed Freeview boxes so it must be an outside source I think.

Ah. What you may then want to try is changing the order in which the video and Freeview box are connected to the aerial as the signal is attenuated by each device it passes through (and by some devices more than others).

If the problem is with the recorded picture it's probably the case that the rooftop aerial is connected to the Freeview box and then from there to the video. You could try connecting the aerial to the video first, which may help (or may cause your Freeview picture to break up).

If the signal isn't very strong it could well be an outside source, but those tend to be intermittent an fairly easily identified (such as the neighbour with a hedge trimmer )).