Loading ...Sep 29 2009
Freesat have released the following press statement to ensure customers do not get confused by tomorrows re-tune on Freeview.
Customers of subscription-free digital TV satellite service, Freesat, will not be affected by the Freeview retune day tomorrow, Wednesday 30 September, which Digital UK estimates will affect up to 18 million homes in the UK.
All Freeview set-top boxes and televisions will need retuning so that viewers can continue to receive all of Freeviews channels and services. However, Freesat customers won’t have to lift a finger to re-scan or re-tune as updates of this nature happen automatically with Freesat channels and services.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
That statement is not strictly correct for Freeview viewers attached to local relay transmitters, some of whom will lose ITV3 and ITV4. I suspect that the majority of Freeview viewers attached to relay (as opposed to main) transmitters are not aware of the implications of the retune on 30 September. The information has been available, but not on websites that many of them would see.
A few people are not going to be happy about the loss of football that is occasionally on ITV4!!
Clearly this could result in more customers for Freesat.
An engineering test channel (usually identifying as channel 501) continues from Crystal Palace, but many Freeview sets and boxes can’t recognise it. It doesn’t seem to send MPEG2…
DerekQuote
September 30th, 2009 at 8:59 am
In other news: People who walk do not need to fill up with petrol!!
In a shock announcment today, it was revealed that owners of some cars will need to plan have fuel put in them manually. This isn’t a requirement for walkers as the human body automatically notifies them when it requires a top up.
OK, so the simile doesn’t quite work, but come on. The most important news for freesat owners today is that they don’t need to retune due to a change with another, completely seperate service. Wow.
SparkeyQuote
September 30th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Spare a thought for those that are clearly not as technologically advanced in these matters as yourself…some viewers still don’t even know what digital switch-over is all about!
adminQuote
September 30th, 2009 at 9:49 am
@Derek.
Suspect the engineering test is for the upcoming HD channels on Freeview.
Prison WardenQuote
September 30th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Sparkey – “sarcasm is the lowest form of wit”
This is in fact useful information as it does help Freesat viewers to have an overall view of what is happening on rival services. Besides I expect there are a large number of viewers like myself that use both Freesat and Freeview.
DenisQuote
September 30th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Digital switch over? The technology is already well out of date. Went to france recently and was greeted by multiple channels of hi-def on their freeview equivalent (this was in Calais). We have too much bureaucracy in this country, too many people assuming that we dont know what we are doing or understand what the digital switchover is. GET ON WITH IT! we are so far behind already. USA had their changover recently and mopped up afterwards. Come on……
MarkQuote
September 30th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Well said Mark.
Brian PQuote
September 30th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
So, Quest is already on Freeview and (according to their website) is coing soon to $ky. Glimmer of hope for Freesat?
Glyn SmithQuote
September 30th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
@ the admin
well it just goes to show, how people are not used to change or this technologically age. As for myself who is 65 i just love all the new advances and all the gadgets thats going around, and i known all about the digital switch-over. I think the general public should read more about the new changes thats happning all around us.
FrancisQuote
September 30th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
@Mark – In fact, the technology (DVB-T2) that’s going to be used for Freeview HD (which the retune today is helping prepare the way for) is so new that the UK will be the first country in the world to be using it
I agree though that the digital switchover could have been planned to take place over a shorter time scale, four years does seem rather a long time to do it…
AndrewM the firstQuote
October 1st, 2009 at 6:57 am
I switched on yesterday and found that I had lost all freesat channels except 1-5, BBC1 and 2, ITV, Channel 4 and 5. How is that if there is no need to re-tune???
AnnQuote
October 1st, 2009 at 8:07 am
Francis – How do you propose to make the general public read about changes?
The fact is people are interested in what they are interested in and other subjects just leave them cold. Thats just the way life is.
Its like on this site, I want to keep updated with all the changes and how it will affect my viewing. However when posters come on here writing all the technical info about bit rates etc, etc , well I just switch off.
DenisQuote
October 1st, 2009 at 10:49 am
@Ann
Trust us, the Freeview re-tune has absolutely nothing to do with freesat! Are you talking about losing Freeview channels or freesat channels? If it’s Freeview, then you need to re-tune. If it’s freesat then there’s some other problem like dish misalignment, or heavy rain, it’s really nothing to do with the Freeview re-tune.
ChrisQuote
October 1st, 2009 at 6:47 pm
I tried to re-tine my TV yesterday. I did an update scan to re-tune but then all my channels disappeared my sister also did it yesterday and she ended up with more channels. What do i need to do?
abiQuote
October 1st, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Not strictly true – we’ve retuned our tvs and they’re fine, all new chanels are there but when retuning Humax Freesat+ there are channels missing and no apparent changes as was expected – we have retained previously record-links and saved recordings are still there????? How’s that???
deeQuote
October 1st, 2009 at 8:28 pm
@abi
As per this post, retunes are not required for Freesat. It sounds as if you are trying to retune Freeview which isn’t the same platform.
adminQuote
October 1st, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Well, it was interesting to see, after the Freeview retune, that Qust had started to broadcast. Gosh, that was alow key, long drawn out launch! Disappointed to see the news of the proposed launch on SKY. So, I immediately put fingers to keyboard, got onto the Quest website and mailed them about the likely desire of more than half a million FREESAT viewers to see Quest added to our favoured platform. It may not be the bees knees, but at least it is not another shopping channel.
Not had a response so far, nor do I expect one. However, if enough Freesat viewers did the same, maybe, just maybe, they will get the message.
Anyone up for a push at Quest?
Paul S WattsQuote
October 1st, 2009 at 10:50 pm
@paul. I will be up for a push with you.
Tell me the e-mail address, and i will give them a message.
Another £30,000 for the next 12months for freesat can only be good if they sign up.
AlexQuote
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:46 am
Unfortunately I don’t think there’s that much chance of Quest joining anytime soon as it’s not FTA:
http://en.kingofsat.net/channelhistory.php?ch=7475
AndrewM the firstQuote
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:35 am
I am surprised that Freesat do not generate some form of simple software encoding that enables channels such as quest who are not FTA to transmit over freesat. Its obvious the system is quite flexible with what ITV HD do with regards to putting some of the video feed up the audio channel (i think its something like that) so why not mix the bits of the video signal (reverse the bits) to enable only freesat (and obviously the linux based pirates) to be able to decode the signal? Very very simple if you ask me, just need to be inventive to ensure the signal isnt true FTA. This would also allow some of the other channels (DAVE/CH4HD etc) to maybe join in too. I know these Freesat boxes are quite powerful so they should be able to cope with an update to allow this…… thoughts?
MarkQuote
October 3rd, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Thanks for this information – all my questions answered – I’m a happy bunny now, knowing that I don’t have to bother trying to retune freesat+ as it’s a different animal to freeview!!
deeQuote