Digital signal upgrade sparks more controversy

8. I owned a Daewoo VCR/Digital Receiver SV900 which was wiped out by the last change.

I started complaining to Daewoo who at first were not keen to get involved - I kept on at them and I negotiated with Daewoo for a replacement - I ended up with a DSD9503TFB which is a twin Freeview tuner with PIP and a 160 GB Hard disk - I paid a cash balance of £ 15 as at first they wanted to give me a cheaper unit.

So it shows that if you complain loud enough ‘you do get results’

The DSD9503TFB arrived the other day and they picked up the SV900.

The picture quality is more Colourful than my other units so I had to tone it down a bit. { I can view seven other Freeview unit so its easy to do a comparison }

So far the Hard disk is silent and the Recording quality is excellent.

All in all a ‘ Good result

I have to hold my Hat up to them as at least they accepted responsibility although there will be loads of people who never realised the problem was not at their end.

Daewoo could have sat on their hands but they quickly changed their Policy - I am certain they were as surprised as we were when Daewoo units started self destruction - I am sure that someone in the costing department thought it was a great idea to fit a non standard buffer to save a few pence - I wonder if they are still in their job this week.

if your Daewoo stopped working because of the Split NIT then please contact them .

7. I suspect this problem is wider than first thought.... I have 2 Panasonic DVD Recorders, each just over 2 years old and both have this issue. Hardly old kit! Panasonic say they are aware of the problem, but as yet no fix.

6. anyone who has Channels shunted to 800’s should read

http://www.freeview.co.uk/help/faq/id105131

as there ' may ' be a Solution.

5. Please note if you have a Sony Integrated Digital TV check

http://sonycic.custhelp.com/

OAD 2 will be active from September 11 at midnight through to midnight September 15 2008 and will only relate to the following models:

KD-28DL10U KD-28DX200U KD-28DX50U KD-32DX150U KD-32DX200U KD-32DX50U KDE-P37XS1 KD-EP42XS1 KDL-L-32MRX1 KDL-L42MRX1 KDE-P42MRXI KDE-P50MRX1 KDE-P61MRX1.

The OAD will run automatically via your TV antenna when you are watching TV.

as there may be a solution to ' current problems ' but please note unless Sony bring out a fix for the next change { transmission mode from 2k to 8k }

there will be a big difference compared to the ' split NIT ' as there is no change ' at your end ' so there is nothing you can do to stop it.

All that will happen is that you don't see any channels at all

4. to - betie20

I take it you have not been affected . { yet }

The original problem came about because of a so called improvement called a ' split NIT '

The information at http://www.freeview.co.uk/features/transmission was posted in June 2008 so they don't have a clue how many it was affecting - it was only a guess and in fact the master list is not complete and they have used the exact same figures even although one of the Manufactures believe 250,000 of their Customers now have dead machines so the figure is a lot more than they are letting on.

Now the ' split NIT ' came down and some units may have been switched not to accept it but the bulk of machines did not allow any refusal so on the day the split the NIT { it varied throughout out the Country } came down this switched the machine to ' cant find any Channels ' and it does not matter what you do - its a dead machine.

I had two Freeview units knocked out because of this so I do know what I am talking about.

Most of these units were claimed to be DVB-T Compliant but some were built with cheaper components and the split overloaded the buffer hence why they are now dead units.

if you write to Freeview they blame DMOL and DMOL Blame the Manufactures and they blame Freeview so its a pass the parcel and its very frustrating .

Please note if you have a Sony Integrated Digital TV check

http://sonycic.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/sonycic.cfg/php/enduser/popup_adp.php?p_faqid=369&p_created=1216219189

OAD 2 will be active from September 11 at midnight through to midnight September 15 2008 and will only relate to the following models:

KD-28DL10U KD-28DX200U KD-28DX50U KD-32DX150U KD-32DX200U KD-32DX50U KDE-P37XS1 KD-EP42XS1 KDL-L-32MRX1 KDL-L42MRX1 KDE-P42MRXI KDE-P50MRX1 KDE-P61MRX1.

The OAD will run automatically via your TV antenna when you are watching TV.

as there may be a solution to ' current problems ' but please note unless Sony bring out a fix for the next change { transmission mode from 2k to 8k } there will be a big difference compared to the ' split NIT ' as there is no change ' at your end ' so there is nothing you can do to stop it.

All that will happen is that you don't see any channels at all.

Don't bother complaining to Freeview or DMOL jump up and down on the Manufactures

as they are the only ones who may be able to come up with a software update.

I would advise everyone to double check this list

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/10093/models_affected_by_switchover_13May08.pdf and if your Integrated Digital TV is listed you should make as much stink as possible .

Make no mistake about this its not easy to do this as most Companies will blame everyone rather than themselves.

By good fortune I am not affected by the change in transmission mode from 2k to 8k

3. The point is that the tuning problem only comes to light when the customer chooses to re-tune the TV. I think there must be a lot of customers out there who are unaware they have a problem, hence the small number of reported cases.

2. My Sony KD-32DX150U television cost £1250 new. Hardly a budget model. Auto tuning failed recently and needed an engineering visit to correct. The set is only five years old.

1. My so called Budget unit cost me £ 130 so I would not describe that is ' Budget '

its now dead even although it was working up to the forced OAD which I had no choice so ending up with a dead unit.

I asked Freeview directly if there was any other changes in the pipeline as I own several units so it would be good to know if they will end up in the scrap heap

and they claimed the ' split NIT ' was it - no further changes.

One second we had the DVB standard then it went to DVB-T and now they are going on about the Digital Tick which as far as I can see is to do with the digital switchover.

They are making this all up as they go along - until they get this all sorted out I would advise everyone not to buy any new Freeview unit as clearly Consumers have to know which units will be obsolete though no fault of the Customer.

Someone should admit the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.