Broadband, tv & 'phone providers

[Moh]

I have been given a quote by BT which is quite a bit less than Virgin for the same things - I just wondered who is satisfied with their provider.

[PanBiker]

Phone and Broadband from Talk Talk and a Freesat Box which now costs nothing after original purchase. Happy with channels using my Sky dish which they leave rather than remove when cancelling the contract. Talk Talk are trying to get me to get the full TV, Broadband and Phone package as are Sky who want me back. Told them both to whistle as I'm happy as I am.

[Pluggy]

EE/Orange for my Phone & Broadband, very happy, not interested in paying for telly over internet. I watch catch up on the internet and watch live telly from sky satellite(freebies only) and freeview.

[Gloria]

We have EE/Orange as well, and happy with it, anytime calls, great. Mobile is with vodafone pay as you go, I keep wondering whether to see what package EE/Orange could offer me with a mobile, then I remember why I left orange mobile---the reception here was dreadful. That was about 4/5 yrs ago so perhaps things have improved since then. Actually it is longer than that, must be 8/9!!!! time flies when you are having fun, or, getting old

[Stanley]

I'm in there with Ian Gloria. Mind you, I think I might benefit from a good aerial man checking everything out. HD takes about two or three minutes to load. Know a good man Ian? Mind you, my Freesat box is one of the very earliest ones and perhaps is showing its age. Many of the cnannels listed have no signal. Anyone else have the same problem?

[Gloria]

We have a freeview+digital tv recorder, which we have had only a couple of years. It has suddenly lost all its programmes, I have the list of bbc1 etc etc but no programmes. I have unplugged it, rebooted it, plugged it back in holding the power switch on, all sorts of things. When it comes back on everything is there until I tab down and it all goes. We are at the point at the moment where we cannot video anything, and that is very annoying. Has anyone any ideas as to whether we need to spend money?

[PanBiker]

Can you get to a software upgrade option on the box Glo? Stuff like that is normally buried down in the settings options. I'm not familiar with your particular box, maybe someone else who has one may be able to comment on how you find the option. It's worth a try if you can find it.

[Moh]

Virgin have come back with a quote of £2 more than BT so it hardly seems worth changing. Get same channels etc. lose free daytime calls except weekend (we hardly use 'phone) and upgrade speed to 60mbps.

[Pluggy]

Gloria, I'm with Ian, somewhere in the settings will be a re-scan function that will scan the spectrum and set all the channels, unfortunately, its called different things on different freeview boxes, Its the nature of the beast, they add a channel and often everything moves requiring this retune/rescan process.

This might help :

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/howtoretune/ ... structions

[Gloria]

Thankyou both, I have done a re-scan which has given me the channels but not programmes, it says ---
Undefined
No guide data available
No Synopsis available

[Pluggy]

Telly aerial and lead OK ?. Another digital box plugged into the same aerial is the easiest way of checking since the demise of analogue telly.

[Gloria]

Yes thanks, everything fine there. I have read and re-read the manual and cannot find anywhere to factory re-set, it must be somewhere. I have been in the menu, then set up, but nothing there. All good fun, I will not be beat.

[Gloria]

Done it. There were three scenarios in the manual showing problems, none of which I had but thought I'd give it a go, and it worked.
Thankyou for your help and thereby keeping me at it.
Cheers.

[PanBiker]

A lot of the boxes just use generic instructions Gloria so not surprised that some of the options are not documented in the manual or available on the box. Glad you are sorted anyway and well done As a time served bloke to the trade I may have to elevate you to honorary TV Engineer.

[Gloria]

[Wendyf]

Nice one Glo

[Stanley]

I think Glo should come and look at my old Freesat box. The 'manual' is crap and none of the options in setting force a retune or upgrade. Mind you, I think I might benefit from a good aerial engineer to check everything over.... Any suggestions welcome.

[PanBiker]

I there is nothing wrong with it, I would leave it alone.

Its 25 years since I was in the trade and we dealt with Mick Handley at Burnley, the firm is still going, saw one of their vans at the top of Ash Grove yesterday. All the lads in the firm I worked with will be long gone but the firm has been going 40 years which must say something I suppose. Probably would be my first call if I needed anything that I cant do myself.

[Pluggy]

My grand-daughter removed and lost the viewing card for my Sky box, its not a desperate problems since everything I watch isn't encrypted, its just the BBC and ITV default to London region. I have to use obscure channel numbers to get the local regional news. If I use the default channels I find myself watching a lot of news articles about Boris Johnson....

I'm in two minds about forking out for a new viewing card (I'm entirely divorced from Sky and don't pay them anything so viewing cards have to be paid for).

[Gloria]

Perhaps she has done as the child on the advert did, and posted it through the floor boards---oops. How old is she?

[Pluggy]

My avatar is a picture of her when she was a baby, she close to 2 years now.

Unless she took it upstairs, there aren't any floor boards....

[Big Kev]

I'm in two minds about forking out for a new viewing card (I'm entirely divorced from Sky and don't pay them anything so viewing cards have to be paid for).

Treat yourself to a Freesat box. You can pick up a standard definition box for less than £50, you just input your postcode and away you go. No viewing cards to lose...

[PanBiker]

Ditto that though I bought a HD model with storage facilities, postcode just to set your regional channels. I think my Humax box has about 170 channels with a 1TB drive for recording plus on demand and YouTube connectivity, it sits on my home network via the router.

[Stanley]

My Freesat box is the first HD model. Funnily enough the HD seems to have improved no end over the last few days, perhaps the fault was with the BBC. I had a look at the forums and was amazed at the problems some people have had, luckily I seem to have escaped them all. Pulled all the SCART pugs off and reconnected them the other day, that seems to have improved low definition channels on channel 2. (The one I play my recordings on)

[Big Kev]

My Freesat box is the first HD model. Funnily enough the HD seems to have improved no end over the last few days, perhaps the fault was with the BBC. I had a look at the forums and was amazed at the problems some people have had, luckily I seem to have escaped them all. Pulled all the SCART pugs off and reconnected them the other day, that seems to have improved low definition channels on channel 2. (The one I play my recordings on)

If you're using scart leads you won't get the full HD signal to your TV. You should be using HDMI