Skip to Content

Will tomorrow's Freeview box retuning day cost you?

Emma Lunn
Sep 29th 2009 at 6:00AM

Filed under: Technology and Online

Millions of TV viewers could find their Freeview boxes won't work unless they are retuned on or after Wednesday this week, and thousands more will be left without their favourite channels if their freeview box isn't up to the task.

The retuning is the result of changes to the frequencies used to broadcast TV channels and radio stations. It's part of a plan to make Five available to a greater part of the country and clear the way for high-definition digital TV channels.

So will it leave you out of pocket?


The changes to the transmissions will mean that 22,000 older digital TV set-top boxes, including the Daewoo DS608P, Labgear DTT100, and Triax DVB 2000T, will no longer work.

So in order to ensure a load of strangers can get to watch Neighbours, you will have to fork out for a new box, which is charming. New boxes start at around £7, which isn't going to break the bank, but it's incredibly frustrating.

In addition, around 460,000 households which get their TV channels from a relay transmitter will no longer be able to watch ITV3 and ITV4.

So what do you do?

Generally you can follow the steps below (from the Freeview website) to retune your box but in some cases you might need to refer to your box's instructions.

• Switch on your Freeview TV or box
• Using your remote control, press "menu"
• Select the "set up" or "installation" option (sometimes called "factory reset", "full retune" or "default settings")
• Press "OK". If your equipment asks if you want to delete all your channels, don't worry, this is normal.
• If you are prompted for a code, try 0000 or 1234
• Channels will be automatically installed. This may take a few minutes and your equipment may shut down and restart
• After retuning, you may have to reset your "favourites" list and when retuning your Freeview+ digital TV recorder, you may need to reset your future recordings
• Remember to retune every piece of Freeview equipment you have
• Retune your equipment from time to time to ensure you have the latest channels and services available to you

Of course, if you get your TV and radio channels from Sky or Virgin Media, you can just sit back and relax. You'll already be paying a hefty price for the TV everyone else gets for free, so it would be rude to ask you to pay more.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.