Any new procedure for channels above 800?

[peterh337]

These don't get the programme listings so cannot be set up for automated recording.

I have done a search and find various procedures which (despite having a degree in electronics and being a hardware/software designer) I find impenetrable. It is something to do with channels being transmitted in groups from different transmitters, etc.

In our area, just N of Brighton, the TV aerials can point in one of two directions and obviously ours was installed to point in one of these, but we can't achieve both with one aerial

Is there some simple procedure?

The Fox T3 firmware is v a7.33 and this is a modded version which enables various tricks which I have used years ago (e.g. decrypting recorded programmes into mpegs) but don't need anymore. A few years ago we went through a period when the box was rebooting quite often (apparently something in the received freeview data stream) and reloading the same software fixed that.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[MartinLiddle]

Is there some simple procedure?

If you have channels above 800 then the box isn't tuned correctly and this can cause various problems and as far as I know only a mnual tune will sort it out.
These are my instructions for a manual tune, please come back and ask questions about anything that isn't clear. It takes less than 10 minutes to perform.

1.Go to https://www.freeview.co.uk/help scroll down to the "Check Freeview at my home" section and input your postcode and house number. When the initial results appear, scroll down past the available channel icons and you should find a "Detailed view" button. Click it to get the results that are useful for tuning purposes. Look carefully at the information returned for each transmitter; don't blindly accept the recommendation for the most likely transmitter. You are looking for the single transmitter that will give you the best signal strength across the range of multiplexes you wish to receive.

2.Having decided on a transmitter, note down the broadcast channel numbers for the available multiplexes (shown in the white column headed N (the N is white on a black circular background)). Carefully mark which one of these channel numbers carry the HD multiplexes (at the time of writing these are BBC B HD, COM7 HD and COM8 HD); you can check by hovering the mouse over the channel number; if the popup says DVB-T2 it is an HD multiplex (although it may carry some SD channels) otherwise it will say DVB-T and it is an SD multiplex.

3. On the HDR press Menu>Settings>Installation. You will be prompted for a password which defaults to 0000.

4. Select Automatic search for channels and immediately stop it; save the results. This deletes all previously found channels.

5. Select Manual search. In the Channel field press right arrow, scroll up or down and select the first channel number from your list. In the Transmission field leave it on the default DVB-T for all the SD channels. For the HD channel it must be changed to DVB-T2. Press Search. This should find a number of channel names. Save the results. If you find zero channels go back and make sure you have the Transmission field set correctly and if not repeat the search.

6. Repeat the manual search for each channel previously noted.

7. You will then need to re-enter your schedule of recordings.

 

[Black Hole]

These don't get the programme listings so cannot be set up for automated recording.

They should, but that's not your problem. Unless you specifically want to receive (say) BBC1 from two different regions, you should not have any services in the 800's.

I have done a search and find various procedures which (despite having a degree in electronics and being a hardware/software designer) I find impenetrable. It is something to do with channels being transmitted in groups from different transmitters, etc.

Try this for an explanation: Things Every... (click) section 7.

In our area, just N of Brighton, the TV aerials can point in one of two directions and obviously ours was installed to point in one of these, but we can't achieve both with one aerial

You shouldn't need to.

The Fox T3 firmware is v a7.33 and this is a modded version which enables various tricks which I have used years ago (e.g. decrypting recorded programmes into mpegs) but don't need anymore.

You've quoted the bootstrap loader version, not the Humax software version nor the Custom Firmware version. If you think you don't need it any more, I don't think you are aware of everything it can do. Quick Guide to Custom Firmware (click), see post 3.

A few years ago we went through a period when the box was rebooting quite often (apparently something in the received freeview data stream) and reloading the same software fixed that.

Pure coincidence. Guidance for crash and reboot problems to be found here: Steps for Resolving HDR-FOX Crash/Reboot Issues (click)

 

[Luke]

1.Go to https://www.freeview.co.uk/help scroll down to the "Check Freeview at my home" section and input your postcode and house number. When the initial results appear, scroll down past the available channel icons and you should find a "Detailed view" button. Click it to get the results that are useful for tuning purposes. Look carefully at the information returned for each transmitter; don't blindly accept the recommendation for the most likely transmitter. You are looking for the single transmitter that will give you the best signal strength across the range of multiplexes you wish to receive.

The first step now has a shorter route:

1. Go to https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/platform-management and input your postcode and house number. Click "Check" to get the results that are useful for tuning purposes. Look carefully at the information returned for each transmitter; don't blindly accept the recommendation for the most likely transmitter. You are looking for the single transmitter that will give you the best signal strength across the range of multiplexes you wish to receive.

 

[Brian]

The first step now has a shorter route:

1. Go to https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/platform-management and input your postcode and house number. Click "Check" to get the results that are useful for tuning purposes. Look carefully at the information returned for each transmitter; don't blindly accept the recommendation for the most likely transmitter. You are looking for the single transmitter that will give you the best signal strength across the range of multiplexes you wish to receive.

@Luke , I have just updated the link on the forum home page under "Broadcast Discussions", "Freeview - Coverage Checker" to use this shorter route.

 

[MartinLiddle]

The first step now has a shorter route:

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that.

 

[peterh337]

Many thanks all.

I followed the instructions. Actually it seems one has to select each channel, select the T or T2 option, and then press Search and after a few secs the Save button appears, if it got any signal.

This is what I see on that Freeview site mentioned above, for my area and crucially for the actual antenna bearing which is NOT the one recommended for our location, but I find it hard to believe the installer would have been so dumb... would this all have changed over say 15 years?

The manual tune obviously got rid of the 800+ channels because I manually set 29 33 34 35 36 48. 33 and 34 as predicted above got no signal. And we got no channel 4 etc (which were previously on 800 and 805).

This was worse than before so I decided to quit while still losing and did an automatic tune to get back to the previous. And now we have ch4 back on the very low channel numbers we had before the last auto retune!

It thus looks like an auto tune was done during some bad conditions.

Maybe I should get the antenna rotated to Reigate which shows all greens on that website. What I wonder is how can anyone generate that data given the local topography varies so much.

 

[Black Hole]

Actually it seems one has to select each channel, select the T or T2 option, and then press Search and after a few secs the Save button appears, if it got any signal.

What do you mean "seems"? What you state is the procedure for manual tuning, which you have to do if auto-tuning doesn't do a good enough job.

Things Every... (click) section 2.

 

[peterh337]

I apologise for not having read item 5 in Martin's post correctly.

Another Q if I may ask: is it normal for receivable channels to move around over the years? It would certainly create good business for TV antenna installers who charge 150 quid just to take a look

 

[Black Hole]

is it normal for receivable channels to move around over the years?

Absolutely. Why else would it be necessary for there to be a website dedicated to providing information for retunes?

The "700MHz Clearance" programme (to make way for more mobile phone traffic) is shifting transmitter frequencies downwards. It is entirely possible that a Group C/D aerial (which has served perfectly well for many years) will no longer provide adequate reception after a retune event, because it does not cover the required channel numbers after the retune.

Gone are the (analogue TV) days when adjacent transmitters had to have broadcast frequencies well spaced from each other, so there were only five channels and the whole network was practically locked in place. Digital makes much better use of the bandwidth, and is resistant to co-channel interference, so the overall bandwidth allocated to broadcast TV is being shrunk so that fee-raising services can bid for the left-over bandwidth. The consequence is an ongoing programme of frequency shuffling, which is not yet complete.

https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/refe...nel-numbers-aerial-groups-how-to-choose.9224/
https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/700-mhz-clearance.9011/
https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/freeview-muxes-55-56-the-future.9568/
https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/large-frequency-shift-tomorrow.9319/

We have a forum section dedicated to this kind of discussion: https://hummy.tv/forum/forums/freeview.16/

It would certainly create good business for TV antenna installers who charge 150 quid just to take a look

A decent firm won't charge to advise, and how much is not having to go up a ladder worth to you?

I had some aerial men around this morning, they've replaced by Group C/D aerial for Mendip with a Group T, and now I have good reception on UHF32 & 33 when I had zero with the old aerial. So, when they drop that fill-in service on UHF49, I'm ready (when it looks like many of the houses around here won't be) .

That cost me £80. However, Covid lockdown might be a problem.