Freeview disappeared from all TV’s.

[Hawke]

I have a Sky + box which receives a signal from a communal dish on our estate. The Sky box feeds Sky to four TV's around the house using magic eyes to change programmes. This system means you can only watch the same programme on all TV's. To get round this we have Freeview which comes through the Sky box to all TV's  so if someone wants to watch a different programme they select a Freeview channel. Also useful if the Sky signal breaks up due to bad weather etc as it did a few weeks back in a cold snap - never experienced this with cold weather before? Now suddenly all Freeview has disappeared from all TV's. There is a Freeview signal coming though from the communal terrestrial aerial on the estate as we have a small flip down Tv in the kitchen connected directly to the coax socket which is working fine on Freeview. I am wondering if this is something Sky has done and managed to get the Sky box to stop Freeview going through it. Sky seem desperate to get everyone onto Sky Q and I'm thinking this is something to do with it, I've had several emails offering SkyQ at no charge. The trouble with Sky Q is you cannot record a programme to a DVD recorder only to the hard drive, so in the event the box needs changing all recordings are lost, plus you cannot record something and watch it somewhere else ie holiday home. But thats diverging rather, my problem currently is loss of Freeview. Anyone got any ideas?

[nigea99]

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@Hawke wrote:

I have a Sky + box which receives a signal from a communal dish on our estate. The Sky box feeds Sky to four TV's around the house using magic eyes to change programmes. This system means you can only watch the same programme on all TV's. To get round this we have Freeview which comes through the Sky box to all TV's  so if someone wants to watch a different programme they select a Freeview channel. Also useful if the Sky signal breaks up due to bad weather etc as it did a few weeks back in a cold snap - never experienced this with cold weather before? Now suddenly all Freeview has disappeared from all TV's. There is a Freeview signal coming though from the communal terrestrial aerial on the estate as we have a small flip down Tv in the kitchen connected directly to the coax socket which is working fine on Freeview. I am wondering if this is something Sky has done and managed to get the Sky box to stop Freeview going through it. Sky seem desperate to get everyone onto Sky Q and I'm thinking this is something to do with it, I've had several emails offering SkyQ at no charge. The trouble with Sky Q is you cannot record a programme to a DVD recorder only to the hard drive, so in the event the box needs changing all recordings are lost, plus you cannot record something and watch it somewhere else ie holiday home. But thats diverging rather, my problem currently is loss of Freeview. Anyone got any ideas?

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hi @Hawke 

No it won't be anything that SKy has done.

Have you checked the Freeview feed going into your SKY HD box and the connection into it (I assume you have checked you can watch the SKY box still in other rooms proving the outputs are OK)

As an aside,  just in case you do want to explore Q more at any point  you may wish to read some notes I have made for people considering switching from SKY +/HD to SKY Q

SKY +/HD to SKY Q 

[Hawke]

Hi @nigea99 

Thanks for your reply. Yes I've checked the connections and they all seem fine. Sky is working fine throughout the house, just problem with Freeview. I think maybe the contractor who maintains the communal dish and aerial may have changed something, I am going to contact them. 
Thanks for the info on Sky Q, it is great for having Sky throughout the house without the need for cables and all those connections which are prone to come loose. As I said the main issue for me is the fact you cannot record to a DVD from the Sky Q box only to the hard drive. Not much help if you want to record something to watch elsewhere ie holiday home or friends house. Thanks again for your input into my problem. 

[Mark39]

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@Hawke wrote:

I think maybe the contractor who maintains the communal dish and aerial may have changed something, I am going to contact them. 

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That would seem unlikely as you still have Freeview in the kitchen.

Try unplugging the cable currently connected to your Sky box's RF Input socket, and connect it instead to the aerial socket of the tv adjacent to your Sky box. After scanning for channels in the tv settings it should pick up all the normal Freeview channels. 

[Hawke]

@Mark39 

Thanks for the suggestion, I take your point re the communal dish/aerial. The Sky box, dvd recorder and TV gubbins is all in a cupboard, difficult to access the cables at the back, however I will try your suggestion. Many thanks.