If your Freeview digital TV set-top box stopped working recently, you’re not alone. Freeview are making changes to the transmitter signal to improve their facilities, and these changes are being gradually phased in across the UK. Unfortunately, a small number of older boxes (around 1%) can’t handle the new signal and have now effectively been rendered obsolete.
The affected boxes are the Daewoo DS608P , Labgear DTT100 , Triax DVB 2000T and the Portland DP100 . The Daewoo SV900 and Bush IDVCR01 DVRs are also affected.
The Daily Record has the story here. More details are available in this story at Digital Spy and this forum thread.
At the time of writing (early July 2008), parts of England and the whole of Scotland and Northern Ireland have already switched over, with the rest of the UK due to follow eventually.
It’s unclear whether any of these boxes can- or will- be fixed using over-the-air upgrades. That’s unlikely since they can’t pick up the signals in the first place, but we’d hang on to them for a while just in case.
To be fair to Freeview, it’s not entirely clear whether this is their fault or whether these older boxes didn’t quite meet the required spec but got away with it until this recent change. Or it’s possible that the new improved service might have been worth rendering a few older boxes obsolete.
What is annoying however is that Freeview- or rather, the people behind the service- knew that this problem existed, but don’t seem to have bothered publicising it! (Hey, we’re doing their work for them here!)
Daweoo Dilemma
The first we knew was when our vintage 2004 Daewoo DS608P reported ” New or changed channels have been found “. Fine… we let it rescan the channels to pick them up and after the usual ” Pre-Scanning ” and ” Scanning ” screens we got…
” No channels have been found ”
” Press SELECT to re-scan or CANCEL to exit ”
Strange… let’s try that again. Didn’t work. Again…. and again. We quickly realised that the aerial was fine (analogue TV picture was clear) and so was Freeview (via our PC’s digital TV card). But it was only by chance- and a few days later- that we found out what the real problem was!
What’s annoying is that the box worked (using the old list stored in its memory) until we let it rescan the channel list. Had we known about the problem in advance, we wouldn’t have let it do this! And we wouldn’t have been left scratching our heads…
Unfortunately, in the case of this particular model, a fix appears unlikely as the company behind its software ( Setpal ) went belly-up years ago.
Get it sorted!
Freeview, do us a favour- even if you have a good reason for this change, at least publicise the issue before you finish rolling it out across the rest of the UK.
I received the upgrade software instruction (for my Bush DVB-T) only after selecting BBC1, which would then lock up after a minute or so - no problem with other channels at that stage - eventually I accepted the upgrade option but this never seemed able to complete the operation. Then the problems started, whilst the majority of the Freeview channels were OK but not most of the standard terrestial channels - BBC1, BBC2, ITV/UTV (being in Ulster, Northern Ireland), or Channel 4.
So why no warning and why the instruction to upgrade? - received nothing on my other Freeview box about having to upgrade the software.
Have found that channels No. 800+ actually have some of the missing channels BBC1, 802=BBC2, 803=BBC News, 804=E4, 805=ITV4, 806=BBCi, 808=More4,809=BBC1 Northern Ireland, 810=BBC3, 812=UTV, 814=C4, 816=C4+1.
Comment by Robert P Morley — July 12, 2008 @ 4:45 pm
I have spent the last 24 hours trying to reset my Daewoo DS608P after the electricity cut out during a storm.. after reading the above, I now understand that the reason it won’t restart has nothing at all to do with the storm/blackout..
I usually ignore the rescan request when “new/changed channels have been found”. Unfortunately mother nature has forced me to catch up with the changes and now my setpal is dead.. thanks a lot freeview.. and from my 4 year old as well!! Grrrr.
Comment by Nicky Marsh — August 6, 2008 @ 5:08 pm
Just been called into the neighbours house, she retuned for new channels and lost bbc1 bbc2 itv1 c4 c5 etc, found them as above useing bbc1/808 then using the channel up key for the rest. Her box is Ferguson FDT500. Hope this helps anyone with one of these boxes.
Comment by Chris Barrett — August 7, 2008 @ 6:17 pm
This is apalling! I had two of the affected Digi VCRs one a Daewoo and the other a Bush. Both failed on retuning within two days of the change over. There seems to be nothing that can be done. It is not the manfacturers fault but Freeview should have taken the option of letting people know. There can be only one reason why they didn’t and that is that they didn’t want the hassle before they switched over!
If someone comes up with afix I’d be grateful because they were good boxes and did a good job in a conventional way. Does make you wonder whether the software in them was always a bit suspect though, doesn’t it? Food for thought!. Rod Deane. 7th August.
Comment by Rod Deane — August 7, 2008 @ 10:05 pm
I too am experiencing trouble with the set top box the set freeview channels seems to be reasonable but all ITV channels are rubbish. After reading the comments above I am afraid to re-scan, as it would appear that I will more than likely end up with nothing at all. My Set Top box is a Grundig DV3
Comment by Lynette Skellington — August 8, 2008 @ 6:56 pm
Call Freeview on 08701 111 270 to let them know your frustration.
Maybe if they get enough complaints (they said they are keeping a count of the number of them at least), they will investigate whether they can fix their signals to restore functionality for owners of older Freeview boxes.
Comment by Stu Tomlinson — August 9, 2008 @ 5:46 pm
Is there no way that a software upgrade for the Daewoo/setpal boxes can be pomulgated. If the official figure of boxes affected is 1% how did they get this figure? 1% of users complained or 1% of boxes sold? Given 16million households in the UK the most of whom have already got DVB that is still a lot of boxes.
Every body is encouraged to be green these days and all that Freview have done is thrown a lot more electronic garbage into land fill. (by proxy of course)
HMG is insisting on the change to DVB so if a fix is not possible they should pay up.
Comment by Bruce Durant — August 10, 2008 @ 8:21 am
During July I checked details concerning the software in my Daewoo 700 Box and found that there was an upgrade available. Selecting this option the system hung at 0% for a very long time. Aborting this I left my box with version 1.1 installed and everything appeared to function satisfactory until I attempted to to do a Full Scan for channels to replace my existing channels at the beginning of August.
That is when my trouble started.
After completion of the Full Scan, only certain channels appeared to have been found, these starting with Channel 5, Not BBC1, BBC2, ITV1 CH4 plus a number of other Channels.
The lost channels were noted to have been found and designated as CHANNEL 000.
Searching for information on BBC and FREEVIEW sites has been fruitless.
Up to now I have not found any reference to the possibility that my missing channels are to be found at 800+ and then some of these are
questionable.
Comment by Mike G — August 10, 2008 @ 1:22 pm
Came back from hols & my Daewoo DS608P asked me to ‘re scan’ as did my other 2 boxes ( yes i got 3 DS608P’s) now i have sweet nothings!!!
Surely compensation should be in order.
Regrds Mel. Not a happy Bunny.
Comment by M.Kelly — August 13, 2008 @ 2:47 pm
DO NOT ring the 0870 number given in comment 6 above - THIS IS A NATIONAL RATE NUMBER issued by Freeview - ie they PROFIT from your complaint call!!!!
Their direct standard rate number is 01204 771025 - why on earth should they profit from complaints about such rubbish customer treatment!!!????!!!
Comment by Dae Bennett — August 14, 2008 @ 10:11 am
Just tested the number (01204 771025) - it works - select option 3
They will make some lame excuses and try to fob you off to the box manufacturer… but it’s entertaining at least (more so than the now defuct telly reception..)
Comment by Dae Bennett — August 14, 2008 @ 10:17 am
You should complain to OFCOM about freeview and if so have you got anywhere with it?
Comment by Jim — August 14, 2008 @ 1:24 pm
Lost signal from my Bush freeview box. Apparently the menu proclaimed that there was no signal coming in. After hours spent dismembering all my wiring I finally gave up. Thanks freeview for any information saying that my box was now inoperable. A truly miserable service, and yet another expense. Are they (Bush/Freeview)allowed to get away with what amounts to taking money under false pretences.
Comment by paul morgans — August 15, 2008 @ 6:06 am
I have also discovered this fault by accident(retune). More people are going to discover this problem the same way, poor info freeview.
Comment by john — August 16, 2008 @ 7:18 pm
I WOULD LIKE TO THANK FREEVIEW FOR ALL THEIR HELP IN SORTING OUT THE LOSS OF SIGNAL TO MY DAEWOO SET TOP BOX- I RANG 01204 771025 —- AND PRESSED OPTION 3 —AND I NOW PASS ON THE CAREFULLY WORDED ADVICE THEY GAVE ME TO OTHER POOR SODS WHO HAVE ALSO LOST BOTH MONEY, TIME AND SIGNAL. THEY SAID…….
THROW IT AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by BARBARA KIRWAN — August 17, 2008 @ 11:41 am
Thanks for that…it saves me a whole heap of time…
Disgraceful attitude from them though isn’t it?? The customer it seems doesn’t matter at all to them!
Comment by David Jilverts — August 17, 2008 @ 12:02 pm
This is hilarious! I posted a comment on 17th August at 11 am, and they have pulled it off, because I actually told the truth on it!!!! David Jilberts reply to me is proof that it was there!!! How pathetic can they get…
It said that when I contacted them they told me to ‘THROW IT AWAY’
Comment by Barbara Kirwan — August 17, 2008 @ 2:08 pm
Ferguson FDT600. All channels in the wrong order. No info about this on freeview website - had to come here to find out what is going on. I think a few phonecalls will be made tomorrow.
Comment by Dave Harrington — August 17, 2008 @ 10:56 pm
[Barbara; your comment was not “pulled”- all comments are moderated by an admin before being made public. This is to prevent abuse of the system, such as blog spamming.
We normally do this during weekday office hours. Your original comment was approved first thing this morning (Monday 18th), and would never have been publicly visible before this time.
The same applies to David Jilverts’ response (sent via the same network address as your original comment).]
Comment by admin — August 18, 2008 @ 9:26 am
Message for Dave Harrington:
Any luck with your FDT600 ? Ive got the same model and cant seem to get the channels back in the right order, Ive phoned to complain but no luck. Let me know if you find the key. Thankyou.
Sarah.
Comment by Sarah McC — August 18, 2008 @ 4:50 pm
Like many others here, I was caught out in the same way - Unfortunately, having lost one Daewoo box after re-scanning, I was foolish & when the other asked me to re-scan, I did it, which resulted in loss of THAT box too…. This is outrageous, we have been duped, with apparently no come back to anybody……Surely some sort of warning could have been put out via the media?? I now have 2 useless bits of equipment fit only for the bin - Thanks Freeview - progress? I think not……
Comment by Fred Gregory — August 21, 2008 @ 10:13 am
I have a BUSH DFTA3, I came back from holiday and some channels were missing so I did a rescan which usually works. Now BBC1 is on 813, BBC 2 on 806, Channel 4 on 821, I can’t remember where ITV1 and the rest have gone, also there is no information about these channels when you go into guide. Were Freeview unaware this would happen? 1% of boxes don’t work at all - how many don’t work as well as they used to?
Comment by A. Hughes — August 21, 2008 @ 6:55 pm
My sagem box is up the spout too. like all of the others I am disgusted by the lack of any consideration given by Freeview. I was going to complain but having read previous comments is there any point?
Comment by G Hooker — August 23, 2008 @ 8:37 pm
I thought these Daewoo and Portland products were very good when I sold them to countless OAP etc telling them that these would be needed to enable their T/V’s to continue receiving when the digital switchover occurred.
Now I hang my head in shame, who would have expected that the units would be useless before the digital switchover!
I have 4 units here, 3 Daewoo and a Portland that my 90 year old Dad, 83 yr old Father in law, and best mate bought at my recommendation.
All totally useless.
Thank you very much DMOL, Thank you very much Daewoo, Thank you very much
Portland, Thank you very much Freeview, Thank you very, very much !!
Comment by Robert — August 24, 2008 @ 10:10 pm
Both myself and my disabled and pensioner father (house bound) also has the Labgear DTV100, which are (were) exellent boxes. Setpal was great. His box failed after a rescan at the weekend and he is now stuck with good old analogue (no CH5 in his area). It’s lucky that I was there at the weekend otherwise he would have been left without a signal. I can’t believe how badly Freeview has handled this. Come on Freeview, sort it out! I can afford to replace my equipment (even though I don’t think I should be made to) but he can’t.
I think that this problem may turn out to be bigger than Freeview thought. Some paople wil ltink that their box has failed and replace it without compalining (perhaps that’s what Freeview are hoping for).
Comment by Keith Starbuck — August 26, 2008 @ 8:29 am
I had same problem with Ferguson FDT 500. Did a re-scan and ended with channels number all over the place.
BBC1 - Ch 821
BBC2 - Ch 828
ITV1 - Ch 822
Chan4 - Ch 823
Five - Ch 005 - still where it should be.
The channels can be re-ordered, but you are still stuck with the new numbers, so BBC1 for example cannot be selected just by pressing key No. 1.
Like one of the comments above, I think Freeview have understimated the size of this problem. Even if ‘only’ 1% of boxes are affected, that is 160,000 households with messed up boxes! I would not call this an insignificant number.
Comment by Richard — August 27, 2008 @ 8:55 pm
is there no transmitter in the uk yet to change where we can re-tune these vcr/freeview units? (as of 29/8/08?)
Is it worth taking on the booze run to France and trying to use there digital tv system to download
Comment by spilly — August 30, 2008 @ 2:53 pm
My BT setpal has rescanned on sept 3 2008 and like everyone above has lost all the channels permanently.
What a con…
I’ve got a message to Blagger Brown, the BBC and freeview:-
I won’t be paying for next years TV licence, I consider as compensation, so they can stuff their freeview.
I also have some very interesting information for the public and I invite the national newspapers to check and verify this:-
Do you know that the new LCD and Plasma type screens cannot be detected by detector vans or equipment. Yes the in the old style cathode ray version the detectors work by detecting electron radiation imprint on the screens.
Remember the hoo ha over GCHQ some years back and also where some bank “hackers” were using this technique to read computers monitors of bank staff for account numbers and indeed cheltenhams GCHQ were so worried that they had their monitors sheilded to stop this.
As the new LCD etc technology does not use this system it renders the TV vans and old detection equipment useless. The same is true of course for modern flatscreen PC monitors.
As my licence fee is paying the likes of Jonathan Ross exhorbitant rates without ever consulting us, let them stuff it.
[ Edit by website admin: Minor glitch in link to BBC Watchdog website above fixed. Works fine now! ]
Comment by John @ Bristol — September 6, 2008 @ 8:40 am
this has been a really helpful website I found through google while I was trying to find someway of getting my Daewoo SV900 to work again. I worked wonderfully until mid august when it suddenly told me there were no channels to be found when I scanned (this was lunch time - the kids had used it fine when they got up!) I thought I’d try and tackle it again when we got back from holdiday but still unable to make it work and today found these comments on this website. Glad to say I’m not the only frustrated person out there!! I got the SV900 as I am deaf and can record digital subtitles on it but this is obviously no longer the case. I’ll let the local supplier (a deaf and hard of hearing society) know of the problems and hopefully they wont sell any more. Have just seen an ad for Sky+ which I will follow up as an alternative….this is not good service Freeview!
Comment by Neil Boardman — September 7, 2008 @ 2:13 pm
I have a Daewoo DS608p and I checked for new channels this afternoon, and guess what, I have lost all channels. Why was no warning given so I could have ignored the request to check for new channels?
Can anyone tell me what to do now? Is it okay to go and buy another, will they pick up the channels? Which make to go for? I don’t know a great deal about techy stuff and was just about able to connect myself to freeview and now have to start all over again!
Which make can be relied upon? Any advice appreciated.
Comment by margaret — September 9, 2008 @ 4:46 pm
I have an Echostar T-101 FTA and i noticed that for certain channels the listing weren’t being updated, for example E4 still showed Big Brother as being on, so i decided to re-tune to fix the listing…only for the channel numbers to mess up and to end up as the stupid 800 numbers. I havn’t noticed anyone else having an echostar box, but if anyone knows anything…thanks in advance.
Comment by Richard Doades — September 10, 2008 @ 7:02 pm
Thanks ,
Sorry thanks for nothing .. The power of the WEB saved my sanity by linking me to your site . I am too am a 1% statistic .. Daewoo SetPal DS608p The word I would like to use . sorry Christian Ethics prevent me. But Go forth and …. seems to fit the bill .
This unit was brilliant one of the few I discovered that had a PAL Modulator built in.. Why buy new TV’s when the old ones still work !
Fortunately I have a neat external modulator and I can use on of the more modern less equipped Set Top Dig Boxes . I am sure many have not.
I think that OFCOM should solicit some compensation for this ill announced change.
Mario ANNOYED DS608p Owner
Comment by Mario — September 12, 2008 @ 5:27 pm
The recent changes to the format of the digital t.v. transmission signal and the ensuing obsolescence of tens, and potentially hundreds of thousands, of digital receivers or set top boxes is disgraceful in itself, but what makes the situation even worse is the complete contempt for those adversely affected that has been demonstrated by the organisations involved in orchestrating these changes. With hindsight we can speculate that the extent of these “technical enhancements” and the incompatibility of some of the first generation receivers were well understood by the organisations involved, but for political & commercial reasons this information a was not widely circulated in the public domain. This is clear from the paucity of advanced information that was communicated to consumers ahead of the change as evidenced by the complete lack of awareness highlighted by the above correspondence. It’s obviously yet another example of the culture of “burying bad news” that pervades today’s society. In my case I’m now faced with scrapping two Triax DVB 2000T digital receivers which between them cost around £250 when originally purchased. Thanks to the lack of forewarning of this change I wasted a significant amount of my time fruitlessly trying to determine why the system displayed the “no signal can be detected” error message for seemingly no apparent reason. On contacting Triax’s technical department on (01443) 778910 all you get is a long and indistinct pre-recorded message advising of the broadcast changes and stating that the receiver isn’t defective and declining any further liability for the product. This is the shameful level of customer support shown by a U.K. based company to customers who paid a premium for equipment that purported to be of high quality and supplied, if not manufactured, by a “British” company. No concessions on upgrading or replacing the unit were offered, which was a huge missed opportunity. Even if the inoperative receiver is not the fault of the manufacturer, a goodwill gesture would have gone a long way in redeeming Triax’s repute. It just goes to show what little value businesses attach to customer loyalty these days. So, accepting that the issue was not the manufacturer’s direct responsibility, a visit to the Freeview website revealed limited information on the changes to the broadcast signal format, but gave significant prominence to the fact that only 1% of viewers were projected to be affected by the change, thereby dismissing the impact of the change as if unimportant. It is significant to note that they relish in quoting percentages rather than absolute values as this conveniently disguises the true number of people likely to be affected. Yet more spin and subterfuge! A phonecall to the Freeview help line to register my dissatisfaction with the management of the upgrade programme and the lack of clear public communications was met by repeated denials of responsibility and an eagerness to level the blame on DMOL who have responsibility for the technical management and delivery of the upgrade. It was even suggested that my views were conveyed to Ofcom as another ploy to avoid shouldering any of the blame. When I ventured to ask the person manning the help line as to how many other people had taken the trouble of reporting the issue and complaining to Freeview the person had the insolence to put the phone down on me rather than provide a truthful answer. That was the final straw that prompted me to take the time to write this account in order to highlight the contemptuous manner in which consumers are routinely treated by so many organisations nowadays, and specifically those of us who have been disadvantaged through no fault of our own over this digital broadcasting fiasco. Forget traditional values such as loyalty and moral responsibility, welcome to the 21st century where the unaccountable, grab-what-you-can ethos prevails!
Comment by Bob Jones — September 12, 2008 @ 6:03 pm
I also have an Echostar t-101 fta Box,I have also lost channels 1-4,im in the Fife area,they must have recently changed the signal because everything was working fine until Friday.
Comment by Ryan Boyd — September 21, 2008 @ 10:07 am
Here’s an interesting thing! I too had a dud Daewoo DS608P which reported ‘no channels found’ after prompting for a re-scan. Since then (about the last two weeks) we have simply reverted to good old-fashioned analogue through the TV tuner. At the weekend I tried the Daewoo out of curiosity and to my surprise it was working once again. I’ll shall take great care to not re-scan again but the question is, why has it started working? Surely the powers that be can’t have noted the level of complaint and somehow worked out a workaround for these older boxes. Am I alone or have others found this mysterious rebirth of their boxes. I’m on the Rowridge transmitter and the box reports that the channel database has 52 bytes free.
Comment by Ashley Sutton — September 22, 2008 @ 7:36 am
I have a Labgear Setpal DV3 which was working fine until re-scan came up which I did, as I have many ties before. Since then it has not worked, it will not find any channels. Is this one that has also been affected by the upgrade? Does anyone know please?
Comment by Carolyn Gyseman — September 22, 2008 @ 8:17 pm
In reply to comment 31, I have exactly the same problem with the same box (Echostar T-101 FTA), I rescanned because of the channel guide not updating properly and then the channel order went all loopy. I have noticed that it seems to be all the BBC, ITV and C4 channels. I’m not too bothered about the channel guide, I just wanted to try get it working again and now it is even worse! I think it is totally unfair that we have spent money on boxes which won’t work properly now, I paid £40 for mine because I wanted a decent quality one which would not pack up!
Comment by Ian Carter — October 2, 2008 @ 7:02 pm
I have a JVC tv with built in Freeview it just stopped working on the stroke of midnight 1st October 2008. Does anyone have any knowledge of this?
Comment by Janette mClelland — October 23, 2008 @ 8:04 pm
Thanks to your forum I can now stop tearing out my hair and get back my sanity. I have just spent untold amount of time testing everything attached to my TV and set top box to find out what happened to BBC, ITV etc. after a rescan. I also found the missing channels above 800 thanks to another post on your site.
My set top box is a TWF STB501 and is not all that old. I wonder just how many boxes are now obsolete, it must be hundreds of thousands.
Has anybody heard of this affecting TVs with built in digital tuners? That could be a very big piece of merde heading for the fan.
I don’t suppose it has anything to do with the new Freesat service, does it?
Comment by Tony Guy — October 24, 2008 @ 2:01 pm
I have 2 echostar T-101FTA’s and a Goodmans digi tv all now re-tuned into oblivion! Thanks Freeview, in times of iminent recession, credit crunch, job losses and market slow down - is this your way to generate sales stimulation by obsoleting a large number of customers digi boxes and tv’s?
Disgraceful
Comment by Paul Lane — October 25, 2008 @ 1:08 pm
I owned a Daewoo VCR/Digital Receiver SV900 which was wiped out by the last change.
I started complaining to Daewoo who at first were not keen to get involved - I kept on at them and I negotiated with Daewoo for a replacement - I ended up with a DSD9503TFB which is a twin Freeview tuner with PIP and a 160 GB Hard disk - I paid a cash balance of £ 15 as at first they wanted to give me a cheaper unit.
So it shows that if you complain loud enough ‘you do get results’
The DSD9503TFB is excellent.
The picture quality is more Colourful than my other units so I had to tone it down a bit. { I can view seven other Freeview unit so its easy to do a comparison }
So far the Hard disk is silent and the Recording quality is excellent.
It was such a good unit I bought a second
All in all a ‘ Good result ‘
If You are having problems trying to get Daewoo to make a free replacement ‘ you are not alone ‘
please read
“More Freeview boxes become obsolete”
You need to send to Daewoo
Serial number
Date Of Purchase:
Place Of Purchase:
Copy Of Receipt Of Purchase:
Please note with units being bought four years ago you may not have a receipt and in this case you should send a photograph of the unit and a close up showing the serial number.
I myself did not have to produce a receipt but I do know others who were asked for it.
Put it this way ‘ if you don’t claim you will not get anywhere ‘
[Disk Depot Admin note: Plain URL in above post changed to standard link as it was too wide for the page. URL itself not changed.]
Comment by BRIAN CARSON — October 28, 2008 @ 10:30 am
I have a BT Setpal box dated 09/03 and brought it out of storage today to use on the bedroom TV. It worked initially but had a few channels missing so I ran the manual re-scan. After the scan it said no channels are found. I have now turned to Google and as a result found these threads. I guess that all it’s good for now is lovely hi-tech door stop!!
Comment by Paul redman — November 2, 2008 @ 3:52 pm
When i complained to Daewoo about my DS608P set top box, i was asked for a receipt, who the hell keeps receipts that long (over 4 years old )Daewoo know people don’t keep receipts,this is there get out clause, but i’ll still keep on fighting them !
Comment by Peter A — November 8, 2008 @ 5:38 pm
Today i sent Daewoo a photo of the underside of my set top box, because after 4 years i didnt keep the receipt, their responce was : We have read all of your e-mails and I am afraid we are unable to make further consideration. Any one any ideas on what i should do now ?
Comment by Peter A — November 10, 2008 @ 3:27 pm