I've had my Thomson for about a year now, and it has been faultless - never missed a recording, and the EPG has updated succesfully most nights. My Mux D reception has always been borderline, but this doesn't seem to have affected the EPG or software updates.

However, since I rescanned for new channels about a week ago, the EPG has not been updating certain channels. It started off with the occasional programme having no details available, but then it got steadily worse. According to my calendar, I've got 11 days worth of EPG, but as from today, there are no listings at all for BBC2, Channel 4, Five and a few others. However, other channels are fully listed.

I really hope this problem resolves itself - I really like the Thomson, but if I can't get the EPG, it's not a lot of use.

Anyone else seen this?

Happens with mine, sorts itself out after downloading a new EPG.

Think its all down to signal strength, i'm in a boderline area to and get a YLD about once every few months I think the loss of the EPG for certain channels is a simliar but less severe case of the download getting corrupted.

I'm in exactly the same position as Aitkendrum. PVR always fine. No YLD. Perfect until about a week ago. Then noticed no EPG coming down. Got EPG through to 9th Nov only - and the info that it contains is mainly "No Program information Available"
Rang Thomson yesterday - they said "rescan channels"which I did, fine.
Now shows 4TVInteractive on channel 300 - but still no EPG last night.
Nothing has changed re my aerial signal from Sutton Coldfield (41). Strength is yellow, Quality is Green.

Rang Thomson this morning - not very helpful - suggested that it could only be a signal strength problem! But nothing has changed!!

All suggestions gratefully received.
Bob

Worrying isn't it? My EPG now hasn't updated for the last 6 nights, and, somewhat ominously, none of my Mux D channels show a picture (even though they were picked up on the rescan).

So, even though I've had no trouble in the past, I'm going to try a signal booster. I picked one up this lunchtime, so I'll try it tonight and post back tomorrow.

Aiken

Maybe try another channel rescan again. It could be that if you rescanned (for ITV4 / Sky Three?) during bad weather when Mux D wasn't being received well that you "lost" the channels - including the 4TV channel on 300

Cliff

A signal boosters definitely worth a go.

Also have you tried a power cycle? As your not receiving some channels the problem sounds signal related, have you got another aerial point you can try it on? Also might be worth checking if bbc reception website to see if they’re doing any work on your local transmitter.

Another thing to try is to try the YLD recovery process on the box, I know you don’t have a YLD, but having everything ‘set’ ready to receive the EPG update may help.

Well, the signal booster actually appeared to make things worse!! Despite an 18dB gain, the box would only pick up 5 muxes on a rescan with it connected. I disconnected the booster and rescanned, and it picked up all 6 muxes again! The Mux D channels are still there, although subject to a lot of picture freezing/breakup.

Still stuck with 7 days worth of EPG, with no program information showing for almost all channels now. I am not aware of any work being done on the Bilsdale transmitter, so I think my next step might have to be an aerial upgrade.

I still don't understand how the Thomson has picked up the EPG perfectly for the last year or so, but can't seem to now. I would be very reluctant to get rid of it, but I might consider a PVR which uses the Freeview EPG instead.

Thanks for the suggestions guys - I'll let you know how I get on.

Does the booster have varible gain? On mine I had to adjust it to the 'sweet spot' to get the best results. When on full gain it made my signal worse

Thanks for your suggestions Hubamonster - I'll try tweaking the gain on the booster, and if that fails I'll also try the YLD recovery process.

As you can see from previous post, I was in exactly the same position as Aitkendrum.
Problem solved by a YLD recovery (although I never had the YLD problem). Full EPG came down last night. No need to change Aerial or get a booster.

Aside: why don't the people at Thomson read these threads?
You are all much more knowlegable than them!
They said that my problem MUST BE to do with signal strength - but nothing had changed in that regard.
They didn't even acknowledge the possibility that it could have been a 'logic' problem!
If they read this stuff they could build better software - and quicker!
THOMSON - READ THESE THREADS. THESE ARE YOUR LOYAL CUSTOMERS. EDUCATE YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICES PEOPLE TO BE UP TO SPEED WITH THE PROBLEMS THEY ENCOUNTER AND THE WORKAROUNDS THEY FIND. BUILD THE SOLUTIONS INTO BETTER OPERATING SYSTEM SOFTWARE!!

Bob

Well, tweaking the gain in small increments made no difference - the reception is definitely worse with the booster attached, which is rather disappointing.

So, I tried the YLD recovery method (even though no YLD experienced) - this made no difference on Saturday night. However, tried it again on Sunday night and when I checked the calendar this morning, I thought whoopeee!, as it showed EPG present for full 14 days ahead. However, there is still no programme information showing for a lot of the channels.

This is most annoying - especially as the box has faultlessly downloaded the EPG for about a year.

Hey-ho.

I spoke too soon! My EPG is only coming down after I do a YLD recovery ie if I don't do a recovery, I don't get an EPG the next day!!! (note: I'm not suffering from the YLD problem.)
Help!!!!
I thought it might be worth doing a software reset. Is this possible without losing all the previously recorded programmes on the harddisk? Is it possible without reverting to the earlier version of the software? I simply want to 'reboot' and reload the current version of the software.

Aikendrum - what's your current situation?

Bob

I dont get my EPG everyday, sometimes it is everyday, sometimes its every 2-3 days. Not sure thats the case for everyone though.

I'd give it a few days

Well, my current situation is that I'm getting no EPG updates at all. Although it's worked faultlessly in the past, because my Mux D reception has always been borderline, I suspect that the wind has nudged my aerial just out of alignment. My local transmitter (Bilsdale) transmits Mux D at a much lower power than the other Muxes, so I think the reception of the EPG has just been tipped over from borderline-but-adequate to unusable.

I'm currently setting up recordings manually, with a weekly repeat to record things that are on at the same time each week. It's not ideal, but we're moving house soon, so it's not worth the expense of getting a decent aerial setup. I'll make sure the aerial on our next house pulls in Mux D really well.

My knowledge of Muxes and things is pretty hopeless. Can you please help. I get my signal from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter.
1) I get my EPG from channel 300. Correct?
2) Channel 300 is transmitted on Mux D. Correct?
3) How do I find the strength of Mux D, in particular, as opposed to Sutton Coldfield in general?
4) Is my understanding arse-about-face?

Thanks
Bob

It seems you have a similar underlying problem...


Don't touch your library of recorded programmes while you are running the older code. Definitely don't record anything.


Reloading the current software probably won't do much. I think something in the EPG section of your file system is borked.

Maybe leaving it overnight while running the old software will help. The old software may not have the same bug, it might even overwrite whatever may be causing the problem during the EPG update.

Or remove the disk and blitz enough blocks that the Thomson cannot detect a valid file system and writes a new one. You'll loose everything though, library, scheduled, reminders etc.

Well, the latest news is that my EPG updated 3 nights ago, and again last night. I'd gotten used to putting in my recordings manually, but it's so much nicer to use the EPG as it should be used!

I'm well chuffed - my Thomson has been pretty much faultless, and judging by the other PVR threads, none seem to be as good (even the much anticipated Humax 9200T).

Perhaps the cold, clear weather helped? I still can't view any Mux D channels (which I don't consider a great loss), but as long as my EPG keeps updating, I'll be happy.

Now, my next step is to whack in a larger hard-drive....

Well the EPg arrives on a MuxD channel so if your reception of it is bad it's hardly any wonder you get patchy EPG updates. You'll only get EPG updates if the MuxD channels happen to be "viewable" for about half an hour each morning at 3am. If I was you I'd look at ways of improving your MuxD reception new aerial/masthead amp/signal booster/wiring/etc.

Cliff

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the aerial - well, I say aerial, it looks more like a large twig (blame the previous house owners). I'm faintly surprised that I can receive digital at all to be honest. A new aerial will have to wait until we move house.

Tried a signal booster (see previous posts) - no help at all.

Thanks for the advice though!

would someone please explain what an YLD recovery is

Yearly Logic Download. Once a year, no more often than that, Thomson release a new software update that fixes problems with box.

I presume klunk's reply was a joke?

Meaning of YLD and the recovery procedure is here.

Cliff

Dont forget signal "quality" is so important on freeview, and even more so on these Thomson machines. I can get away with a 7 for signal strength, but my signal quality over all channels is always 8-9, and we are in a poor signal zone. Due to a weaker signal, but a clean signal my epg downloads have never been an issue.

Dave