News TV Update will brick 20,000 set-top boxes

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2009/09/30/millions-of-set-top-boxes-need-to-be-retune/1

Up to 18 million homes will need to retune their set-top boxes and 20,000 may stop working today as the service is upgraded to allow future HD broadcasting.

 

I think my ex-housemate will die if his TV doesn't work anymore. Poor 40 year old guy with no technical knowledge whatsoever.

 

Diddums. Same thing happened about 12 months ago. Freeview update bricked some ancient Set-top boxes, owners went out and bought a replacement for £10.

This really is a bit of none-news actually, they periodically do this as the government shuffles around the frequencies to get the most out of the available bandwidth. They took out an advert on the inside front page of the Metro that outlined everything that was happening.

 

It's only none-news to those who know about it. I for one didn't though.

Then again, I never watch TV.

 

If you watched telly, you'd know. They've been spamming this on every single channel for what seems like weeks now. I've lost count of the number of times I've been informed how to update my set-top box. I'm guess I'm just very fed up of hearing about this! Lol.

 

Think how pissed you'd be if you spent over a grand on a huge lcd with a built in tuner and it got bricked, i'm sure i'd be suicidal by tomorrow !

 

TV is for people who don't know their way 'round the internet.

 

+1

 

-2

 

I watch a load of telly and missed this completely. Hopefully my old box in the bedroom (fanar) still works after this.

 

Is it just me or does it seem daft to give channel 5 to 500k people but for another 500k loose 1-4 i know what batch of channels I'd rather have.

 

I don't even watch TV - interesting and true fact & somewhat related, John Logie Baird is my great great great uncle. Didn't get a free TV though - actually that's a lie, I got one with my phone contract.

 

where does it say 500k will lose 1-4? I believe it states that upto 500k might lose ITV3 and ITV4. Not really a big loss. Though channel 5 isnt really a big gain either so fairs fair.

 

Actually your right i miss read tfa. Still rather have the football on ITV3/4 than the crap on 5.

 

Update went quite smoothly, well, once I'd flashed an update to the box. No biggie, I picked up a whole new user interface complete with series record while I was at the support site.

This little Topfield 5800 is one of the best things I've ever bought, coming up for 4 years old, still supported, modded with a 1TB HD. I'm not a great T.V. watcher but for movies and sci-fi it's a must, I can't remember the last time I sat through a commercial break

 

My box updates automatically, it was almost unwatchable earlier, as it constantly updated the channel list every few minutes. Done now and its all fine and dandy, just watching "Quest", how stuff works is about to start. Its not quite as good as how its made, but its a good start.

 

Bricked mine...

But like they said. £10. Which may be more than current TV is worth.

 

/me got Sky.. care?

 

It doesnt brick your frieeview box.

It feels like that you have used that headline to scare people. Your making out that they have changed the frequency and you boxes might die. They dont, you just can pick up the ITV channels or Channel 5.

The freeview box works perfectly fine, it just becomes useless, not bricked.

 

Sorry can't resist...

http://www.walletpop.co.uk/2009/09/29/will-tomorrows-freeview-box-retuning-day-cost-you/6