Why have certain set top freeview boxes been turned off lately without any explanation.?

Question

There seems to be no reason as to which boxes and which area they are in. could anybody help me please

Answer 1

Because you probably have a box with the brand name Bush, Daewoo, Labgear and Portland or Triax. In effect all these boxes were made by the same manufacturer but with just a different brand name or label on them. They were all made before 2006 and the new update made them obsolete.

You will just have to upgrade to a new model.

Answer 2

Not heard of this, could someone link to an article?

If you can't receive a signal anymore, my guess would be that the box is not capable of decoding whatever format is being broadcast. DVB-T ("FreeView") does allow for a number of formats to be broadcast, so it's possible some programs are being broadcast in a format your box wasn't built to decode.

Answer 3

Approximately 200,000 of the cheap and nasty Freeview boxes have become obsolete in the last few weeks, following a transmitter upgrade in the West Midlands.  There is nothing you can do, except buy a new box

I keep on saying, "Buy cheap, buy twice".  Now everyone knows why...

Answer 4

They were Daewoo, Labgear, Triax and Bush made before 2004. Apparently they couldn't handle a broadcast upgrade intended to add channels.

Answer 5

Freeview have been upgrading their network. In order to do this, changes are required to the transmission standard. Most STBs can cope via a software upgrade but a few can't. Articles have been published in most newspapers explaining what has been going on but I think Freeview should have advertised the changes in advance with full page ads.  

Answer 6

they are out of date . it was on the news last week