Freeview and Channel 5

[paule1]

Why does Channel 5 and its related channels Fiver, 5US etc keep disappearing from Freeview?

[Postdog]

Not on my box they don't.

[~Wingnut~]

Nor on mine.
Have you checked that everything is securely plugged in round the back of the box?
You can check on some digi boxes how strong the signal is on each channel, maybe you need to retune the box or reposition the aerial? (if the aerial's on the roof, please don't do a Rod Hull!).
We've just had to buy a new digi box (Woolies �16.68) as the box in our kitchen kept breaking up but only on the BBC channels. Our aerials are in the roof so we readjusted it but still the BBC channels kept breaking up. Can receive all BBC channels perfectly with this new one, so maybe your box has had it's day.

Hope some of the above has been of some help :o)

PS. The box from Woolies is brilliant! Def worth the money and is so much better than the old one ever was and cost a fraction of the price of the old one when we bought it 3-4 yrs ago!

[gettinblurry]

They disappear on mine too. I've always put it down to the fact that in my area I shouldn't be able to get freeview (but will be able to in 2011 - yay!) so the signal I do get is weak. Any sort of interference and multiple channels vanish.
In the case of 5 the terrestrial signal is almost unwatchable for most of the time too, which I guess may be related.
I sometimes find re-tuning the box helps, but the watchable channels often move position - BBC1 is on channel 800 for example.

[paule1]

I live in Newcastle under Lyme Staffs, my next door neighbour loses his at the same time and someone who works in his office.

[4candles]

Digital TV uses software compression to squeeze several programmes into one channel space - the main benefit for viewers being the increased choice of programmes. The number of programmes in a single MUX depends on the modulation format. A higher QAM number can carry more data (i.e. programmes), but reliable decoding of the digital signal becomes more error prone.

Four of the six MUXs used for Freeview are 16QAM, the other two (ITV & Ch 5) are 64QAM.

Therefore, if your reception conditions are at all marginal, or variable, it's the 64QAM MUXs which will fail first.

Post analogue switch-off, al MUXs will be 64QAM, but this will be offset by the fact that transmitted power will be substantially increased.