Viewers lose Freeview channels after retune hits problems
Hundreds of people were left without some digital TV channels yesterday after the big Freeview retune. Freeview's website and telephone helpline were besieged with complaints after viewers tried to re-tune their TVs or set-top boxes.
While the service was upgraded to give more people access to Channel Five, up to 460,000 households are expected to lose access to ITV3 and ITV4.
To make matters worse, around 20,000 set-top boxes from makers such as Bush and Daewoo could stop working after the re-tune. Those affected are: the Daewoo DS608P and SV900, Labgear DTT100, Triax DVB2000T and Bush IDVCR01.
A Freeview spokeperson says viewers with problems should try again.
In a statement, it says: "The majority of people find retuning straightforward, but if viewers are experiencing problems, we would suggest trying again."
If you were thinking about calling Freeview for a bit of advice, you might want to think again. Freeview is reporting more than 200 calls a minute to its Helpline (08701 111 270), with many callers being told no more calls were being accepted due to “high call volumes”.
Not helping the situation, Freeview has also admitted that its website is crashing under the pressure of people logging on for advice, and is only working “intermittently”.
Ilse Howling, managing director of Freeview, defends the retune programme: "These are significant and necessary changes which will immediately bring Freeview viewers new channels, introduce new homes to existing channels and prepare the platform for the future availability of Freeview HD."
Have you had trouble retuning to Freeview? If so, let us know.
Comments
Since the retune reception is generally less, with especial problems with ITV channels. I haven't changed anything - aerial or freeview box, so I know it's the retune. I'm wondering if it's just a case of waiting - will this all get better after switchover, or will I be forced to fork out on new equipment because of what Freeview have changed, even though they seem to be advising that all's fine - strikes me they don't seem to be aware of what's actually happening on the ground. No use denying...
I haven't lost any channels, however the quality of some channels is now a problem, More4 and ITV1 last night were occasionally stuttering and pixellating, even though the signal strength on my sony W4000 showed full strength. A quick search on T'interweb leads me to think I may need to do some manual checking and retuning to make sure I'm tuned into the best signal for each channel rather than the first ones the TV finds... what fun...
AFAIK i haven't lost any channels, i've had to retune the main tv & the tv tuner in my pc.
I have lost 13 channels, including ITV1. I note this is part of a growing trend. ITV has prevented archiving to Blu Ray and has also switched off component out on HD. BBC is set to make older boxes obsolete through copy protection. It can only be a matter of time before someone decides we should not be watching Tv, because it makes fat and stupid, and pull the plug on everything
We have lost Dave, Dave ja vu, E4+1, TMF, 4 Music, ITV3 and ITV4! this is very annoying as we used all of these channels and tonight what is on 5?! FOOTBALL!!! my family does not like football!!!
The built in freeview tuners in my Samsung telly and Panasonic DVD/HDD recorder retuned fine.
I think it helps if you have recently had a digital TV optimised aerial installed. We did this last year and our signal strength jumped to 10 on every single channel whereas it had been 6 and 7 before.
I had decent coverage of channel 5 before the re-tune now it is un-watchable as it is constantly pixalating along with most of the ITV channels, Channel 4 and More 4. Looks like I'll be going down the satelite route.
You mean you're not interested in "Hitler's Secret 12-stone Shark Baby in Colour", d_s?
Who wants channel five. Give us back ITV3 and 4. 80% of my viewing is ITV3. There is now nothing worth watching. Where are Heartbeat, Poirot, Wycliffe etc.