TV thinking I'm in the Highlands!

[princeofdundee]

My Freeview TV (Toshiba 32BL_702B) is showing Highlands and Islands as region when auto tuning for channels.

Manual tuning does not detect any more channels. I have a basic set of 42 channels, but would love to get the 100 channels (including sky news) which are showing as available on freeview in my postcode. Does the TV affect the number of channels received?

Any ideas what can I do? I tried manual tuning to no avail. I'm wondering if it's due to the TV (would a free view box solve the problem? or a booster?)

The Highlands are quite far away for the tv to think I am there!

 

[ProDave]

Just where are you?

Search the tv menu's for something like factory reset?  you want to at least make sure you do a full channel scan, not just an update.  Has the tv ever been to the Highlands?

EDIT:

If you are in Dundee then you are not that far from the H&I transmitters.  Here is a transmitter map https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0023/48614/stv_v2.2.pdf

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Check what channels should be available for your location.. 

https://www.freeview.co.uk/check-channels-home 

AND  double check your aerial is pointing to the right transmitter...

Are you in an area with some overlap between transmitters?

If so your TV could possibly be picking up a different transmitter because your normal one is down or outputting a weaker signal due to maintenance work..

or weather related problems.. ?

Has this TV ever worked correctly in your location?

 

[princeofdundee]

Tv has never been in the Highlands and I'm in central dundee. It was in glasgow before, and not used freeview for 6 years - I had freesat before just moved to a new house. 

I don't think it's the weather, been a month since I moved ..

 

[princeofdundee]

Check what channels should be available for your location.. 

https://www.freeview.co.uk/check-channels-home  - More thank I have!

AND  double check your aerial is pointing to the right transmitter... Its too far up I love in flats 

Are you in an area with some overlap between transmitters? Doubt 

If so your TV could possibly be picking up a different transmitter because your normal one is down or outputting a weaker signal due to maintenance work..

or weather related problems.. ?

Has this TV ever worked correctly in your location? New house!

I

 

[Sharpend]

Try factory reset, 

https://www.google.co.uk/search? 
 Then you can start from the beginning, if it then picks up HI transmitter then your aerial is facing wrong direction. 

 

[Murdoch]

sounds like an aerial check is in order!

 

[ProDave]

The H&I thing may not actually be "wrong"

Years ago each transmitter had it's own identity which was damned handy when setting up a new aerial you knew which you were receiving from.  Then a few years ago, some bright spark decided that was frivolous and changed the ident to all the transmitters to be the same "Highlands & Islands"

Since dundee is covered by part of the "STV North" transmitter network, it could well be that the Dundee transmitter does indeed identify itself as H&I

So the issue is why are you getting only some of the channels?  That is probably a poor aerial or a poor connection issue which needs sorting out.

 

[Geoff1946]

Poor aerial is a particular likelyhood if the channels you are missing are in a higher frequency group than the ones which work. You can tell that from the freeview information website. 

You can buy simple signal strength meters for about £10 but these can't discriminate between channels. They just show the highest signal level received overall, but are usually adequate for diy aerial alignment.  As well as the aerial itself the downlead often deteriorates due to moisture getting in causing signal loss.

 

[OnOff]

If in a weak or fringe reception area then a band specific rather than wideband aerial is what you want. These guys are my goto. The knowledge base is excellent.

https://www.aerialsandtv.com/

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Some key points worth remembering are..

1/ Not all TV transmitters output the same power.

2/ At various times the output of some transmitters is reduced due to maintenance work.

3/ Many physical property addresses can receive signals from more than one transmitter.

4/ Your TV aerial needs to be pointing the correct compass bearing AND the correct Horizontal or Vertical orientation for the transmitter you are trying to tune in to.

e.g.   from   

www.wolfbane.net/cgi-bin/tvd.exe

Our nearest TV transmitter is approx 2miles away transmitting on a Vertical orientation, and compass bearing of 40 degrees.

The transmitter we are tuned to is 17 miles away, on a horizontal orientation, and compass bearing of 52 degrees, which outputs 10x the power of our nearest transmitter.

There is a third transmitter, 23 miles away, on a horizontal orientation, and compass bearing of 113 degrees, which outputs 100x the power of our nearest transmitter!!

(we are in a dip and there are a lot of trees obscuring a direct line to the nearest transmitter!!)

If our normal transmitter is off or running low power we pick up distorted / reduced signals from the other higher power transmitter 23 miles away!

Guinness   

 

[phil d]

Modern tv's don't lose their memory when they are unplugged, if the tv has been used in another area it will have retained it's settings from there, so if for example you took a tv from London and took it to Scotland it would try to work on the settings it had from London, it may even receive a few channels although obviously they'd be coming from the local transmitter. If you told it to update it probably wouldn't find much if anything.

What you need to do is either a full factory reset, or, go into menu, then installation, then you have two options, first time install, or update, on some you can go into update and then you have the option of updating existing list, or clearing the list and starting again, this is the option to chose (clear list). alternatively just tell it to do a full reset, this will clear not only the channel tuning but also any other personal settings such as picture type or audio settings.

Again as others have said make sure your connections are all good, with the old analogue signal you could get away with a lot, I've twisted wires together in the past when I've been pushed, just to get a tv working at home, however with the modern digital it's a lot less forgiving, and a poorly connected aerial plug could be all that you need to lose a load of channels.