Now TV Smart Box - Freeview channels missing

[Anonymous User]

I set up my box today and noticed in the Freeview section that BBC 1 and 2 are missing - the channels start with ITV. Scrolling through, I found BBC 1 HD and BBC 2 HD located after the Horror channel. 

Ideally I'd like to have BBC 1 and 2 at the top of the EPG. Better still I'd like my regional BBC 1 and BBC 2 HD at the top of the EPG. 

I can't see my local station or the non-HD versions listed anywhere in the channels found.

This box is replacing a BT YouView box which picked up the above missing channels.

Any ideas please?

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hi @Anonymous User,

Are you hooked-up to an out-door aerial or in-door aerial?

[Suey72]

Outdoor aerial. But the picture keeps going off saying no signal. I rescanned the channels and no HD came back

[schnapps]

@Anonymous User

Normally the BBC one SD and BBC Two SD channels should be on the top of the EPG list.

I woulld try disconnecting the aerial then plug the aerial back again tightly into the aerial socket on the smart box, then i would try a rescan of the TV channels.

After the smart box finished the auto channel scan did it give you an option to choice a region, if so try a different region to see if that improves things.

If still no luck, i would try a factory reset and start from scratch, go to settings, system, advanced systems settings to carry out a factory reset.

One last question are you using a Y splitter or Distribution box on your smart box feeding our TV devices with an aerial, if so try testing the smart box with an aerial going directly into the smart box bypassing any Y splitter or Distribution boxes to see if you get the full compliment of TV channels in your area. 

[Anonymous User]

When I did the scan, it completed, stated it had found 105 channels.

I was not given the choice of a region and I suspect this is the crux of the problem. I can't see how to select one in the menus.

The connection is direct from an external aerial. There are no splitters, boosters etc involved.

As I said, I think it's the region setting that is preventing the appearance of the channels in the correct order.

[schnapps]

@Anonymous User

Have you tried a factory reset on the smart box and re scan the TV channels again from scratch, it might be worth a try.

Go to Settings > System > Advanced systems settings > Factory reset (before a factory reset make sure you know your wifi password and NowTV username & password).

When using your YouView box how many TV channels were you receiving ? 

After i did an automatic scan on my smart box i was given the option of two regional areas to choice from, saying that i have excellent reception from my roof aerial where i am lucky i can pick up two local TV transmitters where i receive  a total of 176 number TV / Radio channels .

[Anonymous User]

I disconnected everything, made sure all the connections were nice and tight, then turned the box on, did a factory reset and set it up again.

This seems to have brought in the SD channels and placed them at the top of the EPG.

BBC 1 is a little ropey so I'll play around with the cables a little in case that's the cause.

I'm not terribly impressed with the box, I managed to get it to crash fairly easily by clicking too quickly. Obviously as a Sky user I have expectations that are far too high for this box.

Thanks for your help @schnapps & @SeeMoreDigital

[Anonymous User]

I think you'll find the choice of region is done automatically according to the post code you entered when you initially registered the box.  If the post code is incorrect or unrecognised, this would prevent the regional selection being made.

As you have discovered, missing channels are usually caused by a weak signal (poor aerial or dodgy aerial connection).

The Freeview channels are listed in the order which corresponds to the channel numbering set up by Freeview, even though the numbers are not shown.  At present there is no way to rearrange the order of the channels on the Smart Box, so you would not be able to place the HD channels at the top of the list.  Very inconvenient, as it means we have to scroll right down the list to select the HD channels.  I hope this will be improved in a future firmware upgrade.

[Anonymous User]

Oh, by the way ... as already mentioned elsewhere in the Forum, you can jump up and down the channel listing a page at a time by pressing the >> (FF) and << (RW) keys.

[lenturn]

---

@Anonymous User wrote:

At present there is no way to rearrange the order of the channels on the Smart Box, so you would not be able to place the HD channels at the top of the list.  Very inconvenient, as it means we have to scroll right down the list to select the HD channels.  I hope this will be improved in a future firmware upgrade.

---

This is something that SHOULD be done. With no channel numbers and no way to quickly select what channel you want to watch, being able to move your favourite  channels into a list at the top of the EPG is a must imo.

[jobbie8]

Loving the new smart box, however I have to rescan Freeview channles every couple of days.
I often lose BBC channels, ITV, YourTV and today the CBS channels or they break up.

I've had an installer to check the aerial, all OK.

He suggested that my house can pick up Pontop Pike and the weaker Bilsdale transmitters.

Is there a way for force the NowTV box to only tune to the stronger transmitter?
Manual tune?
There's no way on the progress bar when tuning to see what channels it is scanning.
The installer took out the aerial at the beginning of the tuning process, to miss the Bilsdale channels, but it was just a guess when the Pontop Pike channels kicked in to connect the aerial, resulting in some HD Mux channels missing.

[Andy]

@jobbie8

Welcome to the forum.

During the scanning progress, if the smart box detects several transmitters it should give you the choice at the end of which transmitter you want to use, but unfortunately several people have reported not getting the choice at the end and it seems a bit hit and miss whether this happens. If it doesn't happen there is currently no option for manual tuning. You could try repeating the scanning process several times to see if you do get the option, but if not there's not really a lot you can do. One user has fitted a filter to filter out the weaker signal so the box locks onto the stronger transmitter but again you wouldn't know if that would work for you or not until you tried it.

You could always try factory resets and the like, but may well be that, until the box is hopefully updated at some point with manual tuning options, you might find it more reliable to just connect the aerial to the TV and allow that to act as the Freeview tuner (if it is capable) and just use the box as a NOW TV box, but I appreciate that's not much of a solution.

[jobbie8]

Thanks for your reply.
I've never had the option to choose transmitters, but I know I can receive 2.
I bought the NowTV Smart box for the Freeview HD channels as the TV doesn't have a HD tuner.
I've done a factory reset today and will see how that works out.
I hope there is an update of some sorts soon.

[Andy]

@jobbie8

I also don't get the option to choose transmitter and as a result I've had occasions when I had to keep retuning it as it strays from one to another as it feels like it. Without the option to choose transmitter or some manual tuning option we are a bit stuck as to how to force it to look at one particular transmitter all the time (luckily for me, I have the option of using Freesat and the smart box is now just used as a normal now tv box). 

As you've had an installer out to check your aerial I can't see anything you can do to improve things there, so it might just be a case of bearing with it a couple of days, doing some factory resets and retunes and see how it goes (and if anyone else with the same problem has found any magic solutions and posts them!), and then if it is still playing up maybe returning it for a refund and looking at getting a dedicated Freeview HD box if the HD channels are of particular importance to you. 

@schnapps you play around with the smart box a lot - any magic solutions?

[schnapps]

@Andy

Not really to be honest Andy, with my smart box connected from a roof aerial when i setup the box i did a automatic channel scan, where after the box completed the scan i was given the option of Wales (Wenvo) my local transmitter or England (Mendips Somerset) and i got 178 TV & Radio channels on my box.

I have done a few factory resets for testing purposes and a new automatic re scan each time and i always seem to get the option of Wales or England with around 178 channels (now gone up to 188 channels for the Olympics).

One of the trial members on the PB was getting erratic channel numbers from 37, to 77 and now currently up to 150 total channels over a three month period by doing a factory resets on the box.

The only things i can think off is maybe the direction of the terrestrial tv aerial is pointing to the different transmitter stations or if your house is close to a 4G transmitter then they can have an effect with the number of channels and picture quality (where i believe a special 4G filter will fix it which you can get for free). 

[jobbie8]

I did a factory reset on August 3rd. All channels (168 ish) were present.
Signal green on most or over 20% on some channels.
The freeview channels have been solid until last night, (8th) when More 4 started to play up. Now BBC 1 to ITV2 have no signal at all and alot of the rest are breaking up. HD channels are still there and working.
I really thought the box had settled down. 😔

[SeeMoreDigital]

Out of interest...

How many of you guys with 'weak picture issues' have your smart boxes connected to the internet using 'WiFi'?

Cheers

[dr_necessitor]

During the smart box trial, I reported that my box did a tuning oddity, as described below (stop reading now if not interested in the details!!) but nothing was done to resolve this.

It picked up 5 of the 6 multiplexes (groups of channels) from the correct transmitter (the one that the rooftop aerial points at) as expected. Let's call that TX1.

But it picked up the remaining 1 multiplex from a completely different transmitter (one that is in completely the opposite direction to the rooftop aerial). Let's call that TX2.

The signal on that frequency from TX2 is strong enough to be picked up here but it's not strong enough - you constantly get pixellation and no signal problems on those channels.

That's because that multiplex is broadcast from TX1 on a lower frequency than the same multiplex from TX2.

Discovered all this by using the hidden Tuner menu to check frequencies and signal strengths.

When this situation arises, the box seems to just select the first frequency that it finds for each multiplex. It should really choose the one that has the strongest signal.

I fixed it myself by introducing a filter to weaken the signal input to the smart box during tuning. But the man in the street isn't going to know what's happening nor want to fiddle doing tricks about to resolve it. 😞

[Anonymous User]

How do you get to the hidden/secrent tuner menu. Many thanks

[jobbie8]

Thanks for your explanation. That sounds about right. The engineer who came out said similar, as my aerial is pointing to Pontop Pike but can also pick up some weaker signals from 'the side' Bilsdale transmitter.
I wish the box would just keep to the channel Mux that was originally tuned to.

My box is wired and not using wifi.

[dr_necessitor]

@jobbie8 yes I have found that the smart box seems to have done a Freeview retune of its own accord and unnoticeably a couple of times (perhaps as part of a firmware or app update, not sure). Annoying!