42W705 - '2 day' Freeview EPG problem - Dover transmitter

[garfield100]

I noticed in last few days our W705B is failing to show any Event Information in the Freeview EPG for periods after the end of the following day.

eg. Today is Tuesday.  There is no Freeview Event info for all channels from beginning of Thursday.

I have already tried rescanning all channels, and even reluctantly performed a Factory Reset to no avail.

Our older EX723 and Samsung TV connected to same external aerial has no problems receiving full 7 day Freeview EPG.

It looks like a 'bug' in the W705 firmware perhaps linked to some subtle change in the Freeview data.  I don't know exactly when this problem first appeared.  It may have been after 'CBS Action' moved from channel 70 to 64, or the appearance of a new channel called 'Kingdom' last week.

Signal strength 94-96, and quality 100, and there are no viterbi errors reported on the Freeview channel technical stats page.

My aerial is pointed to the Dover transmitter.  Latest 2.263EUA firmware installed.

[FishBanter]

Hi,

Just tested it for you on my TV which is the same model and firmware using a transmitter in the North West. It does eventually populate the guide for the full seven days (it's not quick though, takes a good 10 mins and above to populate all the channels). I also have CBS Action on channel 64.

Hopefully someone who uses the Dover transmitter will test it for you as well.

[Anonymous]

Hi there

In addition to what FishBanter said above, a good website to monitor any issues with your transmitter is ukfree.tv

: http://www.ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/DOVER

Also, as you have a really strong signal, do you have any signal boosters in your setup?  Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing (ie signal too strong).

Cheers

[garfield100]

I tried leaving TV on same channel for up to an hour.  It did manage to populate most but not all channels presumably on the same multiplex, but it still left gaping big holes in the EPG for the other multiplexes.  All Event Information up to 18 to 24 hours ahead for all channels appears in the Freeview just fine.  It's just the event info beyond 18-24 hours which is lacking.

The latest firmware PKG2.291EUA didn't improve it.

I'll leave a week or two and see what happens.  I can't help but think it has something to do with all the recent (or ongoing?) Freeview EPG changes.

(Reminds me of issues which rendered RDR-HD870 PVR unusable until Freeview corrected the fault in the transmitted data stream.)

[rooobb]

Remember that you can always use the alternative EPG in your TV setting the EPG mode in the general setting to "guide and search" - I hope it is translated in this way in English - instead of Guide. It will lunch the gracenote EPG that populate the data from internet (if your tv is connected) and even if it is quite slow, it is really complete...

[chrisbrowe]

Have to conclude that there's an issue with EPGs on newer Sony Receivers. They're too sensitive with regard to EPG filling. 

I reported this previously here, I'm frustrated too. My BTTV box works fine, so why not the Bravai. 

Why don't Sony Customer Services act on this and other pressing issues with the range. 

(USB Recording labelling, Internet delivered channels not working etc.) 

Seems they refuse to visit here and leave it up to us to moan. 

[garfield100]

I tried the alternative Gracenote EPG but didn't like using it TBH.

I compared the Freeview EPG Event Info population behaviour of the W705B to my older EX723.

The W705B always seems to provide up to two days worth of Event Information as soon as I can get into the EPG (about 30 secs) after switching on the TV.  

For my EX723, it only seems to display the current day's Events in the EPG after switching on the TV for first time.  There is no Event information for the next day unlike the W705B.  Within 10-15 minutes, the entire EPG is practically fully populated on the EX723, unlike the W705B.

On further investigation, it appears the W705B always caches 2 days worth of Freeview EPG data. If I unplug the aerial and the DC power cord from the back of the panel, then switch on the TV.  After 30 seconds wait, when I try to press the Guide button, TV reports this feature is not available.

As soon as I plug the aerial in and press Guide immediately afterwards, 2 days worth of Freeview EPG data appears instantly.  From my reading of how Freeview EPG works, it usually takes a few minutes to aquire more than one day's worth of EPG data.

What puzzles me is if there is a hardware fault with the TV, one would expect the cached 2 days worth of EPG data to contain some missing Event information, or for there to be no data at all.   It still looks like some sort of obscure software issue.

[Jelibeli]

I own a 32W705BBU, and I have the same issue.  The TV can be on for hours, but the EPG seems to have big gaps, usually from 48 hours ahead onwards, although sometimes there are a couple of days missing, then there is data for day four or five.

I haven't tried activating the alternative EPG - is it accurate, and how do you activate it?

EDIT: This is from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter, BTW.

[garfield100]

To switch to the other EPG, I think you press the Options button while viewing the Freeview EPG and choose the menu option 'Launch Guide and Search'.

There has been no improvement since I first posted this issue.  If I leave the TV on one particular TV channel, the Event information for the multiplex appears to be updated for up to 7 days after an hour or more.  But it leaves big gaps of missing Event information for the other multiplexes.

I'm not about to try another Factory Reset because it made no difference last time and it is time consuming setting up the TV again.  I have noticed there is an 'Auto Startup' menu option, but it is not clear to me how the brief description of this menu option differs from 'Factory Reset'.

The fact remains the TV seems to cache 2 days worth of Freeview EPG which can survive a power cycle.  This is not how Freeview EPG normally works when you cold boot a Freeview enabled TV or set top box. The Freeview EPG should be populated starting from a blank sheet, with just Now/Next Event data.   I can only speculate this 2 day caching behaviour is contributing to some sort of bug which is causing the 'No Event Information' issue which started recently..

Unfortunately, I can't remember whether the TV has always cached 2 days of Freeview EPG data since I bought the TV before Xmas.  The Freeview EPG always worked and was populated with Event information when needing to check 3 to 7 days in advance within an hour of switching on the TV in the past.

[Anonymous]

Hi guys

As there is a few of you having problems, im going to report this to Sony.  However I think it might be best if we can gather some general information first.  Can everyone having this problem, please answer the follwing questions:

1. What is the exact model of TV (ie KDL-42W705b)?
2. What firmware do you have installed?
3. Have you tried a full retune?
4. Have you tried a factory reset?
5. Have you tried another aerial lead?
6. Does the EPG work on another TV or device correctly?
7. What is your transmitter?
8. Any other details?

Thank you.