Modern televisions

lordromford

Just had a bit of a nightmare trying to watch the Scotland v England match and I’m wondering if it’s a feature of modern TVs to blame.

For context, I’ve just moved into a new house and my internet isn’t up and running properly yet. BT have set me up with hybrid for now, but it’s just a patch until the proper service kicks in. It’s been fine, if a bit slow, up to now. I’ve got a brand spanking new Samsung telly and I’ve been watching it this week, both streaming services and terrestrial tv.

Tonight, there seems to be something wrong with the hybrid and it isn’t connecting to the internet properly. “Never mind” I thought, “the game’s on channel 4”, so I turned on the tv thinking it’s not a problem, only to find that without the internet, my telly can’t connect via the cable in the wall to terrestrial channels! WTF? Is that really a thing? You can’t watch tv unless you’re online? Surely that’s not right is it?

Am I doing something wrong or is this actually how modern tellies operate? Maybe it’s just Samsung?
I just don’t know but I’m royally pissed off now because I saw hardly any of the game because I had to connect to the channel 4 app on my iPad using a poxy glitching BT hotspot.

Can anyone shed any light on this? Excuse my lack of technical know how here, but I expected to be able to view terrestrial channels if plugged into the cable in the wall! Are new tellies unable to tune to terrestrial channels when not connected to the internet? And if so, WHY?

Fumbluff

Is there an aerial connected to the socket you’ve plugged into?
TV will deffo still show regular tv via the aerial or satellite socket (depending on model)

lordromford

Fumbluff said:

Is there an aerial connected to the socket you’ve plugged into?
TV will deffo still show regular tv via the aerial or satellite socket (depending on model)

Yeah, roof aerial. Checked and it’s there alright. 😂
I assumed it was connected and working because it recognised the cable source and picked up all the terrestrial channels when I ran auto tuning. When the internet’s down, it says it can’t even find a source!

CatfordCat

Something does not sound right here.

I've got a smart TV (must be a couple of years old, and Hitachi not Samsung) - it's connected to a loft aerial and via an ethernet cable to my modem (I think it will work on wi-fi, but I prefer cable to wi-fi where possible.)

It works OK on terrestrial TV if the internet isn't on, then when the internet is on, it will either show normal TV or do things on the various players - to get the players I either press the green button (BBC) or red button (one or two others) or the 'Fplay' button on the remote.

If yours tuned OK when you did the auto tuning, then sounds like it is (or was) seeing the aerial.

Wonder if there's a setting for input source (so it needs telling whether to look for aerial or for internet) and either you've accidentally switched it, or if it's done something silly automatically.

May be worth another read of the instructions in case you've missed something.

Alternative might be to go through the setup process again?

up_the_valley

Just a small thought. Some tv's are set to showroom setting, or somethin akin (a setting for tvs while on display in the shop). Look at your settings and if it is switch it off.

HardyAddick

Just got a new LV tv. It’s connected to my roof aerial but the auto tuning does not work. Works ok on wifi and via SKY. Any thoughts? Not a major issue but do I need a different aerial?

North Lower Neil

We've got an aerial on the house but it's not been connected all the time we've lived here, 9 years or so (we had Sky at first and now get the normal TV through the Sky box).

Might be similar?

cafcfan

My Samsung is a few years old now so this may be totally irrelevant.  But here goes.  When we first got it it kept dropping the internet connection and needing a complete factory re-set every time. This was more than annoying as it kept losing all the passwords for things like iPlayer, the Sky box, etc.
After much investigation (by me rather than Samsung Help who were in South Korea and not much use) I found out that the TV was having problems with my router being capable of using either 2.4 hz or 5hz. It picked one frequency up, found the other, then switched back again and then gave up. I solved this by partitioning the 2.4hz and 5hz on the router, giving them separate SSIDs. It's been mainly ok since. And having received several over-air system updates is pretty much running okay. It still loses connection to the remote every now and again and therefore voice control but it is easy to pair it again. I still call it a dumb TV though.

(As long as your TV is fairly close to your router, I would recommend using the 5hz frequency it is more stable for streaming 4k stuff.)

MrOneLung

Sounds to me you need to change input from say HDMI 1 to Aerial

WSS

I'm amazed people still have roof aerials.

letthegoodtimesroll

WSS said:

I'm amazed people still have roof aerials.

I’m amazed people don’t, though mine is in the loft and not actually on the roof.

Algarveaddick

cafcfan said:

My Samsung is a few years old now so this may be totally irrelevant.  But here goes.  When we first got it it kept dropping the internet connection and needing a complete factory re-set every time. This was more than annoying as it kept losing all the passwords for things like iPlayer, the Sky box, etc.
After much investigation (by me rather than Samsung Help who were in South Korea and not much use) I found out that the TV was having problems with my router being capable of using either 2.4 hz or 5hz. It picked one frequency up, found the other, then switched back again and then gave up. I solved this by partitioning the 2.4hz and 5hz on the router, giving them separate SSIDs. It's been mainly ok since. And having received several over-air system updates is pretty much running okay. It still loses connection to the remote every now and again and therefore voice control but it is easy to pair it again. I still call it a dumb TV though.

(As long as your TV is fairly close to your router, I would recommend using the 5hz frequency it is more stable for streaming 4k stuff.)

This is such a brilliant example of someone who knows what they are talking about having no idea how to explain it to someone who doesn't have a scooby...  My computer expert B-in-L does it all the time. 

I have highlighted the bits which may as well have been in Korean. 

This is not a criticism of you cafcfan, I am sure 90% of people reading this are perfectly clear as to what you mean, but us in the other 10%...    

letthegoodtimesroll

He said he switched it off and switched it back on again…

cafcfan

Algarveaddick said:

cafcfan said:

My Samsung is a few years old now so this may be totally irrelevant.  But here goes.  When we first got it it kept dropping the internet connection and needing a complete factory re-set every time. This was more than annoying as it kept losing all the passwords for things like iPlayer, the Sky box, etc.
After much investigation (by me rather than Samsung Help who were in South Korea and not much use) I found out that the TV was having problems with my router being capable of using either 2.4 hz or 5hz. It picked one frequency up, found the other, then switched back again and then gave up. I solved this by partitioning the 2.4hz and 5hz on the router, giving them separate SSIDs. It's been mainly ok since. And having received several over-air system updates is pretty much running okay. It still loses connection to the remote every now and again and therefore voice control but it is easy to pair it again. I still call it a dumb TV though.

(As long as your TV is fairly close to your router, I would recommend using the 5hz frequency it is more stable for streaming 4k stuff.)

This is such a brilliant example of someone who knows what they are talking about having no idea how to explain it to someone who doesn't have a scooby...  My computer expert B-in-L does it all the time. 

I have highlighted the bits which may as well have been in Korean. 

This is not a criticism of you cafcfan, I am sure 90% of people reading this are perfectly clear as to what you mean, but us in the other 10%...    

Understood. I will try to help.  You get that your device, TV or whatever, communicates with your router using wifi? (Unless you use an ethernet cable to connect to your router). Wifi is not really a thing - it's just a trade name. Like people call vacuum cleaners Hoovers. Anyway its a method of using a radio signal to communicate between devices. Most modern routers use two frequencies either 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz. The former provides a slower speed but a further reach, maybe 30 meters indoors.  It is also used for many, many other devices, bluetooth, weather stations, car alarms, remote control models for example. Why 2.4Ghz?  Because it's an unregulated radio frequency. And it's what microwave ovens use and they came first. Anyway, your devices won't interfere with Air Traffic Control, the BBC or other regulated channels.  5Ghz is better for transferring huge levels of data, like UHD streams but the signal doesn't travel so far, maybe 10 meters.

SSID is just the name of your personal network, usually allocated by the router manufacturer/supplier but you can easily change it to something else like cafcfan or whatever. It stands for Service Set Identifier. Your router transmits its SSID so you can find it on your device from the list provided and know which network to connect to. 

This article explains why it can be beneficial to allocate separate SSIDs to your 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands.  https://support.accessagility.com/hc/should-i-use-different-ssids-for-2.4-ghz-and-5-ghz-bands-on-same-router

If you want to do this I can explain further or a google search would do the same job.  You'll just type something like 192.168.1.1 into your browser.

Derek1952

Three are mine the other is for a neighbour

Algarveaddick

cafcfan said:

Algarveaddick said:

cafcfan said:

My Samsung is a few years old now so this may be totally irrelevant.  But here goes.  When we first got it it kept dropping the internet connection and needing a complete factory re-set every time. This was more than annoying as it kept losing all the passwords for things like iPlayer, the Sky box, etc.
After much investigation (by me rather than Samsung Help who were in South Korea and not much use) I found out that the TV was having problems with my router being capable of using either 2.4 hz or 5hz. It picked one frequency up, found the other, then switched back again and then gave up. I solved this by partitioning the 2.4hz and 5hz on the router, giving them separate SSIDs. It's been mainly ok since. And having received several over-air system updates is pretty much running okay. It still loses connection to the remote every now and again and therefore voice control but it is easy to pair it again. I still call it a dumb TV though.

(As long as your TV is fairly close to your router, I would recommend using the 5hz frequency it is more stable for streaming 4k stuff.)

This is such a brilliant example of someone who knows what they are talking about having no idea how to explain it to someone who doesn't have a scooby...  My computer expert B-in-L does it all the time. 

I have highlighted the bits which may as well have been in Korean. 

This is not a criticism of you cafcfan, I am sure 90% of people reading this are perfectly clear as to what you mean, but us in the other 10%...    

Understood. I will try to help.  You get that your device, TV or whatever, communicates with your router using wifi? (Unless you use an ethernet cable to connect to your router). Wifi is not really a thing - it's just a trade name. Like people call vacuum cleaners Hoovers. Anyway its a method of using a radio signal to communicate between devices. Most modern routers use two frequencies either 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz. The former provides a slower speed but a further reach, maybe 30 meters indoors.  It is also used for many, many other devices, bluetooth, weather stations, car alarms, remote control models for example. Why 2.4Ghz?  Because it's an unregulated radio frequency. And it's what microwave ovens use and they came first. Anyway, your devices won't interfere with Air Traffic Control, the BBC or other regulated channels.  5Ghz is better for transferring huge levels of data, like UHD streams but the signal doesn't travel so far, maybe 10 meters.

SSID is just the name of your personal network, usually allocated by the router manufacturer/supplier but you can easily change it to something else like cafcfan or whatever. It stands for Service Set Identifier. Your router transmits its SSID so you can find it on your device from the list provided and know which network to connect to. 

This article explains why it can be beneficial to allocate separate SSIDs to your 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands.  https://support.accessagility.com/hc/should-i-use-different-ssids-for-2.4-ghz-and-5-ghz-bands-on-same-router

If you want to do this I can explain further or a google search would do the same job.  You'll just type something like 192.168.1.1 into your browser.

That is genuinely informative - thank you sir!     

charlton4ever

My new Samsung connects to Samsung TV for non Sky stuff, not to the usual freeview. Try Samsung TV ? (On App ribbon).