TV deletes BBC channels each day?

[XFool]

its bloomin annoying
TV was left on again all afternoon showing BBC
no problems and no loss of any channels

Um...

I wonder. Could this be a symptom of 'firmware rot' * ? Over the years this seems to have done for my digital box and there are no firmware updates anymore.

Is it still possible to get a firmware update for your TV?


* In my opinion, 'firmware rot' seems to be yet another of the hazards of digital electronic devices.

[servodude]

its bloomin annoying
TV was left on again all afternoon showing BBC
no problems and no loss of any channels

Um...

I wonder. Could this be a symptom of 'firmware rot' * ? Over the years this seems to have done for my digital box and there are no firmware updates anymore.

Is it still possible to get a firmware update for your TV?


* In my opinion, 'firmware rot' seems to be yet another of the hazards of digital electronic devices.

It's pretty rare though; but corruption of the data it needs isn't

Even if your firmware rots, and the Muppets that wrote it didn't check for it, an "upgrade" with the old image should fix it (if it's traditional bona fide rot and you can get access to do it)

A factory reset will normally blow away any data added subsequently that's borked

[XFool]

Um...

I wonder. Could this be a symptom of 'firmware rot' * ? Over the years this seems to have done for my digital box and there are no firmware updates anymore.

Even if your firmware rots, and the Muppets that wrote it didn't check for it, an "upgrade" with the old image should fix it (if it's traditional bona fide rot)

A factory reset will normally blow away any data added subsequently that's borked

"data" ? Surely the point is the firmware itself is updated (into flash memory) by OTA upgrades? You can't blow that way with a reset, though a new firmware update ought to work, provided there is no memory hardware issues.

[servodude]

Even if your firmware rots, and the Muppets that wrote it didn't check for it, an "upgrade" with the old image should fix it (if it's traditional bona fide rot)

A factory reset will normally blow away any data added subsequently that's borked

"data" ? Surely the point is the firmware itself is updated (into flash memory) by OTA upgrades? You can't blow that way with a reset, though a new firmware update ought to work, provided there is no memory hardware issues.

Yes. Code that a TV needs will be updated OTA
The channel info is data though - it's not baked in to the image, it will vary by location.. it might persist around reprogramming

[CliffEdge]

It shouldn't lose channels like that. Mine doesn't.

[mutantpoodle]

thanks everyone
thread has moved into areas FAR beyond me.

however yesterday was thrid day without loss of channels..........so I am hoping that whatever gremlin I had has moved on to greener pasures

thanks again

[cinelli]

I wonder if the channels are actually there but that they just do not appear in the EPG. This is the case with me and Talking Pictures on channel 82. I can receive this channel but it has no presence on the EPG. Moreover if I select channel 81 and press up arrow, it skips to 83. Therefore the only way I have of watching TP is by pressing "82" on the remote. I have a Panasonic TV.

Cinelli

[Watis]

I've had similar problems to the OP over the last year or two, so have taken a keen interest in the development of this thread.

Thanks are due in particular to AF62 and mc2fool for the more technical information and explanations.

My TVs are pre-smart Samsungs.

For me, the main problem has been pixellation, together with the sound dropping out. But only on the BBC channels - and Dave (don't judge me!).

I've put the problem down to atmospherics in the absence of any other identified causes - but one thing that resulted in an improvement was replacing a decades-old splitter/amplifier designed in the analogue era with a modern equivalent intended for handling a digital signal.

Watis

[Watis]

I'm resurrecting this thread because I'm continuing to experience problems with reception.

Most of the time, reception will be perfect, then the picture starts pixellating (and the sound may drop out).

This can be fixed by twiddling the coax aerial in its socket on the back of the TV. Then it will be good for a few more hours.

I'm going to try a different coax cable but, in the meantime, does anyone have any other ideas?

TIA,

Watis

[Infrasonic]

^^ Have you tried the Freeview Play app as an A/B - https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/watch-freeview-online

[Gerry557]

You could try running an aerial ext cable from the good one to the faulty TV to see if the fault disappears........ well if it come back

Or switch TVs around


Maybe it a new trial to get rid of the TV licence

[kiloran]

I'm resurrecting this thread because I'm continuing to experience problems with reception.

Most of the time, reception will be perfect, then the picture starts pixellating (and the sound may drop out).

This can be fixed by twiddling the coax aerial in its socket on the back of the TV. Then it will be good for a few more hours.

I'm going to try a different coax cable but, in the meantime, does anyone have any other ideas?

TIA,

Watis

I had rather similar problems with Freeview. Sometime a fiddle with the coax connectors helped. I knew the aerial wasn't ideally situated (pointing straight through a neighbours house) but the TV showed a signal strength of 5/10 (and a quality of 8/10) which I thought would be OK. I fitted a simple signal booster and it's been perfect ever since.
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/3036040?clickPR=plp:1:2

--kiloran

[XFool]

^^ Have you tried the Freeview Play app as an A/B - https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/watch-freeview-online

Gee! Thanks for that. It might allow me to investigate very puzzling issues I have with DTV.

Namely pixelation and unstable pictures on SOME channels/programmes(?)/content(?) where there would appear to be no local identifiable reason for it.

[XFool]

I'm resurrecting this thread because I'm continuing to experience problems with reception.

Most of the time, reception will be perfect, then the picture starts pixellating (and the sound may drop out).

This can be fixed by twiddling the coax aerial in its socket on the back of the TV. Then it will be good for a few more hours.

I'm going to try a different coax cable but, in the meantime, does anyone have any other ideas?

With digital, there can be even more obscure problems. I used to originally have problems with my digital box BBC channels suddenly not working. This was caused by two things: the original firmware plus varying weather (also possibly engineering works in the early days before analogue switch off.)

It had a 'feature' where it automatically scanned for new channels, this 'feature' couldn't be manually turned off in the original firmware version. Nice idea but as with all these digital 'nice ideas'... What happened is that varying weather, leading to varying propagation conditions, meant that 'New' channels would pop up and were automatically put on the Logical Channel Number list. But these were not 'New', they were standard BBC, but out of area, channels that were picked up by the auto-scan. They then became the default BBC LCNs, with the original and proper local BBC channel getting kicked 'upstairs' to the LCN 800s, or something. Of course, when I selected say the normal LCN for BBC 1, the out of area channel had by then disappeared below the event horizon and I was left wondering why I couldn't see BBC 1, until I rediscovered it at LCN 805 or wherever.

Could anything like this be going on with your TV? Have you looked at much higher LCN numbers to see what is up there? (Although how this is handled will differ between different manufacturers.) Have you got an automatic channel updater that you can manually turn off?

Digital? Aaarggghh!

[XFool]

I have a small DAB radio which has suddenly declared "No ensemble" on all three of my preset channels.

Your "small DAB radio" wasn't by any chance a small, black, Sony DAB portable radio was it?


(I eventually smashed mine hard onto the hard floor. That finally 'sorted' it...)

[bungeejumper]

I used to originally have problems with my digital box BBC channels suddenly not working. This was caused by two things: the original firmware plus varying weather (also possibly engineering works in the early days before analogue switch off.)

It had a 'feature' where it automatically scanned for new channels, this 'feature' couldn't be manually turned off in the original firmware version. Nice idea but as with all these digital 'nice ideas'... What happened is that varying weather, leading to varying propagation conditions, meant that 'New' channels would pop up and were automatically put on the Logical Channel Number list. But these were not 'New', they were standard BBC, but out of area, channels that were picked up by the auto-scan. They then became the default BBC LCNs, with the original and proper local BBC channel getting kicked 'upstairs' to the LCN 800s, or something. Of course, when I selected say the normal LCN for BBC 1, the out of area channel had by then disappeared below the event horizon and I was left wondering why I couldn't see BBC 1, until I rediscovered it at LCN 805 or wherever.

Interesting. We've been 'losing' channels for some months now - sometimes even BBC4, although it was the absence of Sky Arts that finally prompted me to do a manual rescan. And back they all came, looking as though nothing had ever been amiss.

The only minor niggle was that we also got all the channels that I'd specifically excluded from my set's EPG display - the home shopping and the adult channels, for example. Oh well, you can't have everything, I suppose. Or do I mean you can't not have everything?

I've never had a connection problem with coaxial, though. Does it happen because of dirt, or loose fittings? Or is our problem-free reception due to the fact that we use an amplified set-top aerial? (Actually on a windowsill on the south side of the room, where its view of the transmitter isn't disturbed by the local pylons. )

BJ

[mutantpoodle]

interesting to see that others have the same issue
I only lose BBC 1 and 2...not the HD ones which are up in 800s on EPG
but they are not no. 1 and 2 on my EPG and i can see no way to change the order of channels on the EPG

its almost a daily routine now to do a channel reinstall
(I cannot do factory reinstall as wife has forgotten all her Netflix etc etc passwords which obviously I use as well)...its the sort of tech problem

the reinstall only take 3 or 4 minutes so not huge problem...but is annoying as all unwanted channels re appear on list

I will try the 'wiggle' of aerial cable its the sort of tech problem I can understand...........and perhaps resolve!!

[mc2fool]

I only lose BBC 1 and 2...

Unlikely. You almost certainly also lose BBC Three, Four, News, Parliament, CBBC, CBeebies, the red button and a whole bunch of radio stations. If you are indeed only losing 1 & 2 then it's very unlikely to be a reception problem.

[Dicky99]

I'm resurrecting this thread because I'm continuing to experience problems with reception.

Most of the time, reception will be perfect, then the picture starts pixellating (and the sound may drop out).

This can be fixed by twiddling the coax aerial in its socket on the back of the TV. Then it will be good for a few more hours.

I'm going to try a different coax cable but, in the meantime, does anyone have any other ideas?

TIA,

Watis

I had exactly the same problem until recently. Unplugging and replacing the cable providing a temporary improvement. Some channels worse reception than others.

Long story short I now have perfect reception on all channels after an aerial engineer made up a new coax cable. TV reception can be unbelievably temperamental and the only thing we could put it down to was that the coax connection at the TV end was a bit loose on the old cable and very much tighter on the new one.
A cable made up of good quality coax with F type connectors will always give better results than an off the shelf cable.