My father is in an old folks home and has an old Matsui TeleVideo in his room. I visited yesterday and noticed that all channels can be accessed via the remote control, but most are missing when using the up and down channel buttons on the TV. i.e. it progresses through 2, 5, 10, 11 etc. (1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 etc. are missing). Can't get my head around that.

well someone hit auto tune and didnt change the channel numbers

of course you fixed it for him .................................. in time for christmas

Yeh but no but yeh but ...

Why would the channels be accessible normaly via the remote control but not via the TV controls?

No I didn't fix it. No real need because the purpose of my visit was to give him his Christmas present ~ a Freeview box with nice big buttons on its' front for his 85 year old fingers. How do old folk manage the tiny buttons on remote controls?

Some TVs have a skip feature that means the channels can be accessed via channel number but not by channel up/down.

Sounds like they've been set to 'skip' in your case.

I'll investigate next time I visit him. The trouble is that he's at a minimum three hour drive away.