Categories: TVs & Home Cinema News   Tags: ,

freeviewFreeview has emailed us to apologise to customers who have been adversely affected by the retune saga which continues to draw hundreds of complaints. However, the TV player still claims that fewer than 1 per cent of boxes have experienced issues, saying “early manufactured equipment” is at fault.

Sara Jones, Freeview’s PR manager, has at last responded to our persistent requests for an apology to those whose Freeview boxes have been broken by last Wednesday’s retune.

In a statement sent to us today, Jones said, “Early evidence indicates that most people have retuned fine without problems. Unfortunately a small number, estimated well below 1 per cent of boxes sold have had product specific problems. These are mostly homes with early manufactured equipment and we apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused. If people think they may be affected, we would advise they check the models listed on the website first and contact the manufacturer on product specific issues.”


Five ways to fix your Freeview


However, this flies in the face of comments we have received from owners of new Freeview–packing TVs and recently purchased set top boxes. One commenter, Kevin, told us his “relatively new Humax PVR-9200T,” had stopped receiving BBC channels. Meanwhile, Nick said, “Panasonic TX-28DTX11, new high gain aerial fitted last year. Retuned five times on three seperate days. Nope BBC 1 and 2 are definately [sic] gone.”

Ian Davies told us he had, “Re-tuned one tv in house, recent flatscreen with integrated freeview. Lost all ITV channels, C4 & C5.”

Jones told us any loss of ITV 3 and ITV 4 was a result of the network’s own commercial decision. However, she went on to say that, “Freeview’s consumer research shows high levels of satisfaction.”

Has the retune broken your Freeview box? Is it a new model? Tell us your woes and remember to give us as much detail as possible so we can take your complaints straight to Freeview.

Out now | Free | Freeview

  • Toby

    Hooray! It’s a bit of a slap in the face that they can’t fix it, but at least they’ve admitted the mistake. Not sure it”ll make me feel better when I sling my pace box, but it’s a start. Well done Electric Pig!

    • http://www.gravatar.com James Holland

      Thanks Toby! Glad to be of service.

  • dave bartlam

    ive retuned 4 digiboxes 2 no problems 1 lost everything 1 all channels are all over the place wot a rip off
    davebartlam@talktalk.net

  • Jenny

    No consolation. My freeview box is only 3 months old (Goodmans GDB10CA). Lost all channels!! Tried a software reset to no avail. I don’t buy something new expecting to need to replace it after 3 months. Hope someone takes responsibility, whether that be Freeview or Goodmans.

    • http://www.electricpig.co.uk Ben Sillis

      3 months? Talk about failed future proofing. We’ll be putting these cases to reps from the companies involved so keep an eye out later.

    • Marc

      Hi Jenny, I have same box as you and have experienced same problems only today! I have tried absolutey everything to get the channels back, nothing seems to work.
      Where do we go from here??

      • http://www.electricpig.co.uk Ben Sillis

        Have you phoned Goodmans? If you could drop us an email with your experiences, we’ll put them to the company.

      • Dave Allum

        Hi,

        I have a Goodmans box which is 9 months old and nothing, it retunes all the channels but no picture or sound works? Will be emailing Goodmans right now, will let all know the response they send.

  • http://www.electricpig.co.uk Joe Minihane

    Hi guys, keep these reports coming in. We’re not letting it go and will be chasing up all leads.

    Cheers

    Joe

  • http://3dbloke.blogspot.com 3dBloke

    Yes I have problems following the retune. My postcode is RH15 8ET (Burgess Hill, West Sussex). My aerial is pointed at the Heathfield transmitter, I think.

    After the retune I can no longer receive BBC1, BBC2, BBC3 and BBC News24. (BBC4 is OK).
    Fortunately, I did this on my old Sony CRT TV’s built-in digital tuner which I don’t use normally as, these days, I always watch via my PVR.

    Without the retune, the PVR is still working OK, and all channels that I watch are fine. I don’t care about Channel 5, by the way.

    Presumably the old channels will cease transmission at some point. So I’ll have to retune the PVR, with the loss of those BBC channels.

    The upshot of this is I will need to get an aerial specialist out to upgrade my aerial (higher and bigger, probably) at some considerable expense.

    This must be happening to thousands of people around the UK. Absolute fiasco.

    • Paula

      I didn’t realise my 2-year old Humax 9200T is already ancient technology which can’t cope with new-fangled stuff, such as adding a channel it already gets! I, too, have now lost ALL my BBC channels except BBC4, and ALL the other Freeview channels I used to be able to get clearly (but thank goodness I can now get Gay Rabbit and BBC Parliament). An expensive TV bod is going to check my aerial next week (yes, he’s snowed under with work all of a sudden). I can’t wait until we go digital and have to do it all over again.

      • http://www.electricpig.co.uk Ben Sillis

        Paula, we’re sorry to hear that. Drop us a line to let us know if the technician solves your problem and how.

      • Richard

        I have Humax 9200 and have retuned fine. You need to select ‘default settings’ to do a full retune.

      • http://3dbloke.blogspot.com 3dBloke

        Hi Paula. After some research, I retuned my Humax PVR9200T today. It worked OK. Here’s what to do:

        1. Make a note of you current Recording Schedule and Favourites lists, as these will be lost in the next steps.
        2. Go into the Edit Channels section of the menu and DLETE ALL THE CHANNELS, TV and Radio.
        3. Perform an Auto-Search to find all the channels.
        4. Save the new channels.

        That’s it. (your recorded programmes are NOT affected by this, of course)

        Now you can go through deleting any channels you don’t want and re-scheduling your recordings.

        • Paula

          Hi, thanks very much for this.

          Over the last week I’ve tried deleting everything and reinstalling everything; now I’ve followed 3dBloke’s advice, just in case anybody tells me I’m doing it all wrong… :) But petal, that doesnt work either…:(

          I ever bought an aerial booster from Argos at the weekend, and took it back yesterday. The chap behind the counter said “the retune? eeeeeeeergh…” (think that’s how you spell it!!). Apparently Argos locally have completely sold out of indoor aerials and boosters in the last week! And the TV bod who will be sorting my life out can’t give me a date yet, because he’s booked up for weeks to come. Something to do with the Freeview retune…

          btw, I live in a tiny village called Stratford-upon-Avon. We don’t have TVs here.

          xxxxxxxx

    • http://www.electricpig.co.uk Ben Sillis

      Agreed. We’re looking into it now to see what consumer rights you can put to good use, if any, so stay tuned.

      • Paula

        Today Mr Aerial Fitter managed to squeeze me in at last, and installed a brand new shiny aerial for £240 *sobs uncontrollably*. Everything works perfectly, but I’m trying to work out how much Casualty is costing me per episode…! Still, I’m so pleased to have my channels back, and a load more (which I’ll never watch). Apparently Stratford will have a reception problem when we go digital anyway, so we all need to make sure our aerials are up-to-date by then. Mr AF did try to explain why all this stuff is happening to people who are perfectly happy with what they’ve got, but I fell asleep after an hour…

  • Geoff L

    I live in the south Bristol area and get a good signal from Mendip (Somerset) on channel 55 upwards & Wenvoe (S.Wales) on channel 30 upwards. Re-tuning is a pain because the automatic scan starts at the lowest frequency and so fills all the slots with the Welsh versions. I have to disconnect the aerial and reconnect it halfway through the scan, or do a full manual tune.

    It may be pure coincidence, or a design feature, but, following an evening retune session, by the next morning, my DV940BN STB had blown up its power supply, taking out its internal fuse, the 5A fuse in the plug, and the 32A circuit-breaker for the ring main.

    Unit out of guarantee, so this retune has cost me £20+.

  • Paul Howe

    I have a SONY KD-32DX40U which, according to Freeview, should be able to be retuned without problem. After the returne deadline I was getting all digital channels without problem except C5 so retuned, and after doing so I now can’t get any digital channels. I’ve tried to retune numerous times to no avail; the auto-retune gets to 8% and stops. I’ve left it running all night but the next morning still at 8%. I’ve removed all preipheral equipment and done a basic setup just to make sure none of my equipment is casuing the problem to no avail. The retune worked perfectly prior to Sep 30 so what the hell have Freeview screwed up? And, more importantly, when are they going to fix it?

    • Tony Maiklem

      Exactly the same with my Sony kd32dx40u. My 2 sons have the same set with the same problem. Someone (Sony or Freeview) should pay for this.

    • Mr Solanki

      Hi we have the exact same tv and have had the same problem after the re-tune, we have no digital channels and can only watch analogue channels 1 – 4. we have tried ringing sony on 08705 111999 the automated services tells you to ring the national retune no 084560001246, who in-turn tell you to ring sony, you just end up going around in circles! Freeview need to fix this now!

  • FJC

    As an early adopter of Digital TV (built in tuner for Freeview) I found this last retune a real pain. (TV is a Sony KV 32DS60). Firstly, all the BBC channels no longer appeared to be avaiable. Secondly, lots of radio stations were not retuned (i.e. disappeared).
    Since I don’t like to be beaten by this sort of lack of support from either Sony or Freeview I decided, with great reluctance, to do a manual retune of the channels that I use. This was a long and arduous task since it first required me to find the Mux channels for my local transmitter and which Mux transmitted which TV channels. It took me ages until I managed to get some semblance of my previous set-up of channels. Having spent a lot of money buying the “latest technology” which I thought was future proofed fot the change to Digital TV I am feeling very peeved at the way in which it is being implemented and the apparent lack of the manufacturers’ ability to adjust their products to the changes. They seem to be hiding behind some understanding that Freeview has changed the goalposts. Who has changed the goalposts and made older TV sets obsolecent and where do the consumers have any sort of recompense due to changes made by Freeview?

    • Anthony Harrison

      I to have a kv-32ds60.. I have tried tuning mine manually since the full switchover.. and I cant get anything.. I bought the tv in 2001 for the same reason to furture proof my digital viewing.. I cant get anything on the TV at all.. The manual tuning menu doesnt seam to work correctly. When I manually tuned after the first partial switchover I too found out the Mux Channels on my local transmitter and then did a search on each service and that worked fine.. Now I have a lump of junk in the corner of my room, Surely I have been mis-sold this TV!

  • FJC

    Please read obsolete instead of obsolecent !!

  • FJC

    Having re-read Freeview’s reasons for the necessary re-tune it appears that one of the reasons was to make Channel 5 available to more people; on the other hand ITV3 and ITV4 are no longer available to others. To an amateur this seems like a massive disruption for what is a change of one channel ….. I hate to think what it may be like when the full switch to digital happens!!!!

  • Mikki

    I have a Sony KDL 32P3020. After the initial retune on Wed I’d lost BBC 1, 2, 3, 4, News24 and CBBC. I did a second retune and got all channels (but missing ITV 3 & 4). Everything seemed fine until this evening when I’ve lost all BBC channels again (apart from CBeebies and Parliament), and no matter how many times I try to retune or turn the TV off, I cannot get these channels back!

  • danny

    yes the retune has messed up my digifusion fvrt 150 no channel 5, thought it was just temporary this is shocking i bet lots more people are having this problem too.

  • http://www.electricpig.co.uk Ben Sillis

    What Freeview failed to stress fully, though must have known was a side effect, was that people would lose channels while others gained them, rather than just a blanket increase. @FJC, when that channel is Five, you do have to wonder at the point of it all!

    • Bill Owen

      Sony KD32DX40U

      I rang Sony this morning and an update is £40 however they rang back and said that the Digital Tuner in the DX40U will not work after the full Digital switchover in 2010 (Emley Moor Area). No point in having it updated then

      Last Sony product I will buy!!

      • http://www.electricpig.co.uk Ben Sillis

        Bill – we’d love to hear your full story so if you could drop us a line through the contact page that’d be great.

  • Captain Jack

    My retune went okay!

    However, the EPG does not work. Of course, the retune has cleared all of the scheduled programs for recording, so they need to be re entered. What a pain!

    I spoke to my manufacture’s helpline, and they just said that the EPG will come back when it is broadcast again by Digital UK. I thought this happened every night? When nothing happened after a couple of days, I rang again. They said they were aware of the problem, and it will work when Digital UK bradcast the EPG. How long do they need to prepare for this broadcast? Perhaps noboby told them about the retune?

    Anybody had the same issue?

  • Colin

    I get my signal from Tacolneston (Norfolk) and have a Digifusion FVRT200 PVR. Following the “Update” – a misnomer if ever there was one – I have lost EPG data for Five, also for something called ITV (= ITV2+1), ITV3, and bidtv – on channel 24 (= ITV4 !!). I have tried the channel rescan three times using the “unplug RF and scan, plug in and scan again” but to no avail. I have no Installation option except to reformat the drive. However, this will lose the software updates sent OTA over a year ago and, since Digifusion are no more it won’t be broadcast again, so that is not an option. Is there anything else I can try? Are all FVRT200 PVRs suffering in the same way?

  • brian Togwell

    I hav e a Curtis hard drive freesat recorder (Asda). fine up to retune now broken an pixalated picture unusable. it has been retuned several times. Asda help line useless they are fixated on aerials.

  • Geraldine

    Wharfedale CTV2123F 21in Digital TV. Bought on Thursday (1 October) for a house move. Tried to set it up last night (5 October). Nothing. Blue screen. Not even the opening first installation screen that is supposed to appear when you first turn the set on. Can get two analogue channels. I now have no way of telling whether the problem is the aerial, the tv or freeview!
    CMaybe someone else can help?

    • Richard

      If you’ve moved house it might be an idea to check the current coverage for your area on the Freeview web site (the Digital UK one as a postcode checker too). If you can’t get all analogue signals, though, sounds like it’s the aerial or your in a place that generally has naff terrestrial TV reception.

      • Margaret

        Hello guess what I tried to retune and got almost the same problem can not get no further then reset on the menu it will not move from there so how do I retune Idid you manage to solve the problen if so please HELPPPPPPPPPP

  • Chris

    Hi, I’m having a problem with my EPG. Got a Hitachi tv with built-in freeview / dvd player. Only one month old, was working perfect prior to digital retune. Since retune I’ve lost EPG completely. I even took tv back to Dixons who exchanged it only for me to discover my new tv has same problem.. HOW ANNOYING! Has anyone else had this problem or can shed any light on a fix??

  • sam

    after i did the instaliation my tv was fine, then a couple of days later most of my channels werent there. now all my channels dont work

  • Cait, Glasgoq

    Having major issues still with the re-tune. On 30th Sept, retuned and got 104 channels, some of which have since disappeared. This morning (Sun 11th Oct) an all time low of 33. No BBC channels at all.
    We have 2 year old Sony TV with built in Freeview and a new (less than 1 year old) digital aerial pointing at Blackhill.
    What signal we do get is crystal clear….but it swaps around as to what is available.

    When will this be resolved – it’s beyond irritating!

  • howard

    I have a Thomson dti 6300 pvr which has al channels after re-tune,
    also a daewoo freeview box which also gets all channels, but a
    furguson 500 digi box has lost bbc 1 & 2.

  • http://electricpig.co.uk PPaul Castle

    I too have lost ITV3 & 4 as a result of being on a relay transmitter. If this was a commercial decision by ITV it seems to be a very odd one, since I get ITV2 & ITV2+1. It would be far better to get ITV3 instead of ITV2+1 (and ITV4 instead of CH4+1). Better still relay transmitters would provide more than 3 multiplexers.

  • Ste Dawes

    Lost all channels on Toshiba with freeview – tried numerous re-tunes.
    Lost all channels on Sony KDL V4000 – some return for a while then disappear – without retuning!

    Typical disorganised, garbage I’ve come to expect from this woeful country. Same old – same old. Always someone else’s fault.

  • Dennis Walton

    I’ve got a digihome pvr80 from Argos. It’s 2 to 3 years old.
    It appears to retune ok, but every time I switch it off it looses ITV3 (ch 10) so if I want to watch ITV3 I have do a retune. Not noticed any other problems, but I only watch the same few channels most of the time. Regards.

  • Charlie Morris

    I have a Technika 15.6″ HD Digital LCD TV with Freeview (bought 1 month ago) and a Digihome PVR80 digital video recorder with Freeview. After switch both seemed to work fine but now I have problems getting: 4, 4+1, 5, ITV1, ITV2, ITV2+1, E4 but E4+1, ITV3 and ITV4 are fine. Is this a transmission type problem? or just week signal. I live 2 miles from Crystal Palace and they have no reported problems.

  • beky

    i have a new soundwave flat screen tv and i was told to retune on the 30th of september now i have retuned i now onli have 12 programmes it will not let me get anymore does anyone no how to fix this ?

  • http://www.kidsfm.com kidsfm

    Every since the retune we are now having issues with ceebeebies and cbbc – with two kids in the house it is very frustrating.
    The Freeview box is a Humax PVR-8000T with over the air updated firmware to the latest version (as per humax’s advice) – and nothing!

  • Simmobb2

    I’ve a Pace and a philips freeview box, neither of which will get BBC1 or BBC2 after the Granada digital switchover. They’ve both been re-tuned on several occasions with zero effect. A total shambles if you ask me, imagine the nightmare these buffoons have caused the elderly and infirm!

  • Martin Bowman

    I suddenly lost MUX 2 from Crystal Palace about two weeks ago. Can get good signal on bright clear days (and nights) but No signal when it’s cloudy. Have retuned several times. Anyone got any solution please (Freeview)

  • Graham

    Ever since “Retune Day” we suffer interruptions of service caused by the persistent “new service” signal. After researching this with Panasonic (I have a TX32DT30 IDTV) they state it is the signal broadcast from my transmitter. I talked to Freeview, who told me that this is new way of doing things: for no readily apparent reason, the “new service” flag seems now to be permanently transmitted, so every time we turn on we are told to retune. Which we dutifully did, every day for the first two weeks (imagining that the various stations were catching up day-by-day). When we noticed no changes to the few channels we actually watch, we started retuning only once a week, until Freeview finally told us nothing was happening so don’t bother. So now we must ignore the signal, but that mean we can never know when a valid change actually happens! Also, when the signal is detected and the alert message appears (anything up to 15mins after turning on or changing mode) the “receiver mode” (my term!) is overridden until we cancel the message, i.e., if we are in the middle of doing something on an AV input (like watching a DVD) or in the TV menu (like setting a DVB timer-lock for the benefit of our analogue VCR) the TV switches away to display the DVB tuner channel and display that now infuriating “New service detected please retune” on a blue box covering quarter of the screen.
    They had no reason or even excuse, the only comment Freeview could make was the total non-sequitur “oh I bet you turn off your TV at night don’t you!” Well, d’urrrr! The TV is only turned on during the day sometime for a specific programme, all the environmental organizations, even the government themselves, and any safety group (including the fire brigade) are desperate to persuade us to turn things off and, in particular, NOT LEAVE STUFF ON STANDBY. “Oh but that’s not so with DVB items Sir, for instance you shouldn’t turn off your Sky box…” *Excuse Me!* Some model of Sky+ box is now notorious for having electrical faults having caused more than one house fire on public record, and several fire brigades have been pleading that people switch them off at night or when the premises are unattended. And “Someone”, or more properly “They”, have decided to implement a broadcast system that *requires* us to leave all our equipment switched on 24 hours a day?!?
    Who’s responsible for this insanity, and why has it not hit the national awareness and been legislated against by whatever government department, agency or broadcast commission is responsible for monitoring it?
    Is it that everyone reading this site, and indeed everyone else in the country, ignores the advice, guidance, instruction, pleading of all these expert groups, ignores the environmental impact, and ignores the obvious safety implications, and leaves every piece of current-using equipment switched on (on standby!) at all times when they are not around to monitor their kit?
    (My AV-amp uses 1.5-3W in standby, the DVD player 1.5-3W, VCR 12W, TV 12W, so that’s 27-30W I save by switching off at the wall when I have nothing to timer-record that night…)

  • Martin

    Ever since retune day we have been unable to receive ITV 1, 2, 3, C4, C4+1, C5, Five USA, Fiver, E4 and More 4 …. probably giving up and going to FreeSat.

  • Pjftjf1970

    yes the retune has broken my freeview its unwatchable its a joke as we have built in freeview we are not made of money

  • Mark

    my wharfdale deletes all my recordings? It is so annoying is there any way to retrieve them?The memory says they still occupy space.

  • Mickw

    Mick W
    I have a Freeview hard disc recorder thats about four years old was working fine till the retune in Oct 2011 it is a Durabrand model DPVR801
    When I record any programs, on playback the image just jerks and freezes making it unwatchable ,Ive had the aerial checked and it was found to be ok .

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