Missing channels - ITV, channel 4 & 5

[alisont]

I have been given a Sony Bravia KDL40-EX401.  I have tuned it but it doesnt detect ITV, Channel 4 or Channel 5.  I have another tv downstairs connected to the same aerial and that is picking up the channels.  Why doesnt the sony detect them?

[royabrown2]

@alisont 

Maybe it didn’t work before, which is why someone gave it away?

But while a 2014 set is aging, it could still be a perfectly capable TV as far as terrestrial channels go, and which you could even make 2022-smart with an Amazon Firestick or a Roku device.

However, if you don’t know the history of it (or even if you do!) all sorts of things could be configured wrongly, even if the set is in perfect working order.

e.g. Maybe the previous owner hid those channels?

So do a ground-up Factory Reset, as here:-

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/televisions-projectors-lcd-tvs/kdl-40ex401/articles/00274...

and see if that fixes things.

If not, then if it was smaller, I’d suggest taking it to where the working TV/aerial combination is and trying it there. Though if the one upstairs is smaller, you could always bring it down to the ‘suspect’ aerial point, tune it with no aerial attached, to get rid of all the existing channels, and then tune it with the aerial attached.

That will at least show you if it is the TV or the aerial point at fault.

Please come back when you have tried these things, and tell us how you got on!

[alisont]

I have done a factory reset and also tried tuning it from downstairs where my other TV (which gets all channels) is. Still no ITV, channel 4 or 5. All othe channels are ok.

[royabrown2]

@alisont 

That’s extremely odd. so channels 3,4 and 5 are missing and no others?
You have 103, 104 and 105 OK?

And all the other subsidiary channels from itv, Four, and Five? e.g. ITV2? More4?

All the +1s, and so on?

And absolutely no other channels missing?

And do you get a TV channel count on this TV that is just 3 lower than the count on the TV that is fully working?

[alisont]

So I re checked and whereas my other TV gets approx 135 channels, the bravia gets 101. Its missing  ITV 1, 2 & 3, E4, Film4, channel 5, Yesterday, plus others. Strangely though the plus 1 versions of some of them are present.

[royabrown2]

@alisont 

I can maybe sort-of explain it, a bit, or at least why some channels are present, and some aren’t.

With digital TV, the Freeview channels are organised in groups, called multiplexes, and each multiplex is carried on one of the ‘old’ TV channels, 21-69 (now restricted to 21-60). Which multiplex is carried on which 21-69 channel varies depending on where you are geographically, designed so that channels from different transmitters don’t interfere with one another, and there are some geographical differences in what is broadcast on each mux, but basically they are as here :-

https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/multiplexes

So you can see that what you have missing is all the channels on one or more of these muxes; certainly PSB2 aka D3&4, and if you are missing Yesterday, then also COM6 aka ARQB.

Which translates to your TV, when tuning, missing out whichever 21-60 ‘old’ channels these are being carried on, something that will depend on which transmitter is serving your area. Do you know which this is? If not, can you look it up here?:-

https://www.freeview.co.uk/

(Or without giving away too much specific information about where you live, name the general area?)

Then I can see which channels are used. (e.g. if you lived near me, I could tell you that having those two muxes missing means that your TV were only tuning from 24-60, and missing out 21-23, which those two muxes were on at 21 and 23)

Which is what I suspect might be happening.

Though it’s a funny way for a TV to be faulty, and I haven’t come across it before; but it maybe fits the facts of what you are seeing; and you can check if all the other channels on PSB2 and COM6, and only these, are the ones that are missing.

Once we know, we can go from there; but I suspect this gift horse is one we will be looking in the mouth of, and perhaps deciding it isn’t worth getting its teeth fixed 😢

NB: AAMOI, what’s the make and model of the TV that’s OK?

[alisont]

My transmitter is crystal palace, the other TV is an LG 32LB580V

[royabrown2]

@alisont 

Thanks - so 26 and 28 missing. With the BBC present, SD on 23 and HD on 30, that blows the ‘truncated channel range’ theory out of the water, but the rest of my analysis above stands.

So the other TV is also 2014, probably pre-WebOS, but none the worse for that,