What would you be left with if you didn't retune (Post DSO area)?
Would everything which has not changed number still be intact?
Would those which have changed number (like BBC News) still be there on the old numbers or would they vanish completely?

I ask because I have an 83 year old relative who is far off but I speak to on the phone for whom retuning is an absolute nightmare (getting him through DSO was bad enough).
It would be helpful if it is not essential for him to retune because he doesn't use the obscure channels (not even BBC News usually).

Speak for yourself!

We have 3 digital TV and 2 digital recorders to re-tune. I will also need to wipe the crap channels from each one, set up favourites and swap SD for HD channels on 2 TVs.

Estimated total time: 90 minutes

Absolutely stupid. The General Entertainment section is still going to be a complete mess. Another opportunity missed.

Yes, they do.

Why are you moaning now for crying out loud, as you tell us daily you don't watch TV anymore

True, but the absolute minimum requirement is the rescan. Everything else can be done later (especially deleting the crap channels), at more suitable times surely.

Provided there are no multiplex moves it won't matter, the channels will appear on the wrong numbers that is all (some boxes will do odd things though - my Pace Twin will eventually get everything moved on it's own but with strange placements in the interim). Some boxes will move everything automatically.


After the fifth DSO retune I had got that down to a fine art - about 15 minutes for the same number of devices (2 tvs and three pvrs).

Is it a requirement though?

If you don't rescan what will happen?

Places like Belgium, Holland, and Germany don't use LCNs. You put the channels in the order you want them and the only retunes are for new channel launches.

France has LCNs but I don't think there have ever been massive re organisations like we seem to get.

@MarkLS12 If you have a non-auto tuning device, the channels stay on the wrong (old) number. Most Freeview HD devices *should* do it automatically.

Netherlands have had retuning events (like when the transmitter in Northern Netherlands collapsed last year!) Germany has had a few retunes due to 800 MHz clearance and associated frequency changes. Ireland had a mini-retune event on the 10th July.

Meaning we will all need new HD boxes because I do not think that the old HD boxes are HEVC compatible at around £300 a pop
and YouView users will need to replace their boxes too as these are not HEVC compatiable either - good job I have not got one yet

The reason is that these other countries have few channels and even less growth. DTT has variously grown and shrunk massively in the years since its launch in this country in 1998. That there have been only two major reshuffles and one minor one so far is frankly amazing. Just think about it. We've had the rise and fall of ONDigital, after which there was a pretty major reshuffle in 2002 where most of our current genres were created (though Teletext somehow stayed in general entertainment) - general entertainment was 1-29. But, after the Freeview reshuffle, there were still quite a few launches and closures, again creating gaps. Then there was Top Up TV which created an explosion of channels, filling up the general entertainment genre. So, there was again a major reshuffle in 2005, creating a lot of space in general entertainment which now had 1-69 to play with, finally moving Teletext into the text genre. Then Top Up TV's linear service all but collapsed creating another whole load of gaps. At the same time, the free adult channels and TUTV Anytime data streams were being put into general entertainment for some reason, creating issues as children were just one channel change away from slapper channels. So there had to be another reshuffle, which occurred in 2009, which moved the Anytime channels into the 300s, adult ones into the 90s, and filled up some of the remaining gaps. So now we've had adult channels overflowing (which has been fixed temporarily but with little expansion room) and later general entertainment overflowing, and what might be an explosion in IPTV channels. So another EPG shuffle is inevitable. How else would you propose this be handled?

Never had this problem with analogue I don't watch TV, but every time they do this retune thing I had to sort my fathers TV out, which is fine if it happens around the time I am going to see him, but not at other times.

why can't they just leave it alone? because every time they add something to it they make things worse, if that is possible.

so once again this country can't do things right. should get used to it i suppose.

And you've conveniently missed out the response confirming that they do have retuning events in other countries.

I see that after the 19 September 2012 SD boxes will die an early death due to the fact they will not be picking up the new Information Channel on the new Freeview Channel Number 100
http://www.dmol.co.uk/__data/assets/...ul12_Final.pdf

Interesting bit from the C5 response with regard to HD:


http://www.dmol.co.uk/__data/assets/...7/78145/C5.pdf

What is so hard about pushing a couple of buttons on a remote, its not the end of the world.

Those channels that have been renumbered won't appear in their new positions (and won't tally with the listing magazines and on-screen announcements).

However, I was referring to the tasklist as supplied by jxp. And the minimum requirement to complete a retune is .... a retune! Otherwise, it's not a retune!!

Who says that their way ir right anyway?

No, SD boxes won't see it. And nowhere does it state otherwise. So stop being alarmist.

If you read the appropriate part of the report properly, you would know that. From page 37 of that report::

So that seems to rule out Channel 5 HD bidding for the 5th HD slot then, as I am sure that Ofcom and the BBC would not be happy to wait two or three years for the vacant slot to be filled.

Tyne Tees DSO was mentioned earlier. This is what DMOL said:

You should never underestiamte the stupidity of the general public.

So just to clarify for myself as I will need to be doing this at home for my parents and myself.

1) If you don't retune on 19/09/12 the channels will still be active on old numbers until you do retune (Asking this as we have TUTV and downloads happen upto about 7 am then round noon to 2 pm and I can only retune before 7am (leave for work at 6:30am or after 4 pm (when I get home from work) so if you haven't retuned the equipment will still work.

2) First chance you get retune so you're channels are all upto date. Then all the channel except those that can only get picked up by HD kit will show up on your TV, PVR etc. if you don't have HD across the board.

3) SD boxes will still work for the foreseeable future this channel 100 thing is is only viewable by HD kit as it's on the space that will used for the 5th HD channel until it gets taken on. Our PVR/DTR units are SD via TUTV hence the question.

Is this right?

I'm not very tech smart so I'm asking this just to make sure I understand the impact correctly.