Thousands of Freeview Boxes Killed in Network Upgrade!

Update: 23/03/2009 And Another (Sigh)Update: 19/03/2009 Yet Another Dodgy SetPal Box For Sale On eBayUpdate: 04/01/2009 Dodgy SetPal Boxes Still For Sale On eBayUpdate: 06/11/2008 SetPal Boxes Still For Sale On eBayUpdate: 07/11/2008 Watchdog ReportDigital Switchover and Set Top BoxesUnless you've been living in a nuclear bunker cut off from the outside world for the past five or six years you will be aware that "Britain's Going Digital". Yes, that's right, starting from next year parts of the UK will be switching to Digital TV and Analogue TV will be switched off.Freeview RolloutWhat a lot of people don't realise is this isn't an instantaneous
thing. There isn't a great Big Red Switch deep in the heart of TV land that gets flipped and... Da Da! Hello Digital,
Goodbye Analogue! No, it's a lot more complicated than that, it's an ongoing process involving the upgrading of
transmitters and the installation of new equipment all over the country.Yes, it's an incredibly complex process but I'm alright, I've got me a shiny new set top box and Freeview is Freeview right?Wrong! Read on...Whoops!Earlier this year as part of the Digital Rollout a transmitter in the West Midlands was upgraded. No big deal you might think but shortly after the upgrade (end of May 2008) a number of users served by the Sutton Coldfield transmitter reported their Set Top Boxes had stopped working.An investigation revealed something more worrying, all the problems concerned Freeview boxes from the following manufacturers; Bush, Daewoo, Labgear, Portland (a rebranded Labgear box for J Sainsbury?) and Triax.The problem only became apparent when a channel rescan was performed but as some of the boxes automatically rescan on a regular basis users were very soon shouting about it.To make things worse, as the upgrade was rolled out over the rest of the UK the true size of the problem revealed itself and it is estimated as many as 200,000 Freeview users may be affected.SetPalThe one thing those boxes had in common was the SetPal chipset and firmware from NovaPal Trading who, predictably enough, went bust several years ago!SetPal technology was very popular with the box manufacturers because the hardware was quite sensitive (it worked well in poor signal areas) and, above all, it was cheap! This cheapness meant the chipset and associated firmware found its way into a number of budget Set Top Boxes (and quite a few not so budget ones - more profit for the maufacturer) and NovaPal Technology claims more than 350,000 Set Top Boxes based on their SetPal technology have been sold across the UK!



The problem was SatPal's cheapness was achieved by cutting a few corners and
taking liberties with the Freeview standard, they assumed the number of
Freeview channels would never grow beyond a certain limit and now that
it has they do not have the memory in their boxes to store the larger Network
Information Table. And the upshot of all this is... They no longer work!Due to SetPal's demise and the way their firmware was licensed it is highly unlikely any upgrades will ever be released for these boxes which, for most of the boxes based on their technology, consigns them to the bin. They are dead!Affected ProductsThe following is a list of products I am aware of that are based on SetPal technology or otherwise affected by this problem. I have included contact details for the manufacturers wherever possible but, in all honesty, I doubt they will be of any real help.Please Note: This is NOT an exhaustive list so if you know of any others feel free to inform me of the make and model and I will investigate further.Bush IDVCR01This was a NICAM stereo VCR with builtin Freeview. Contact Bush on 0871 230 1777 for further information.
Status: DeadDaewoo SV900
This was a NICAM stereo VCR with builtin Freeview. Contact Daewoo on 0870 100 2525 for further information.


Status: Dead
Daewoo DS608P / Labgear DTT100 / Portland DP100Contact Daewoo / Portland on 0870 100 2525 or Labgear on 0845 757 3479 for further information.
Status: DeadTriax DVB2000TThe Triax website says the following which I doubt will be of much help to those of you who bought their products:"Triax are manufacturers and distributors of multimedia equipment to the TRADE ONLY.Unfortunately we are unable to provide technical advice and support to end users.If you are an end-user seeking technical advice, product support or have an installation query, please contact your local CAI registered installer or see Yellow Pages for details."Status: DeadThomson Top Up TV boxesAlthough not based on SetPal techology Thomson's range of Top Up TV Anytime boxes have also affected by these upgrades. This problem will only become evident if the user performs a channel rescan.An OAD upgraded the Top Up firmware to v2.93 in July and seems to have resolved this problem.I have a DTI-6300 and six DTI-2300s and they are all working fine - both before and after a channel scan. Update: Some of the DTI-2300s I have recently purchased from eBay do not present the channels in the expected order (ie: BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV 1, CH 4, FIVE, ITV 2, BBC THREE etc.) but in frequency order.Status: Working
Sony TVsSome of Sony's TVs with built-in Freeview tuners have also experienced problems following the upgrade;KDL-L32MRX1KDL-L42MRX1KDE-P42MRX1KDE-P50MRX1KDE-P60MRX1KDE-P37XS1KDE-P42XS1KD-28DX200KD-32DX200KD-28DX40KD-28DX50KD-32DX40KD-32DX50KD-28DL10KD-32NX100KD-32NX200KD-36NX200KP-44DX2KD-32DX150KD-32DX100Two OADs designed to fix the problems with Sony TVs were broadcast from 08-11 and 11-15 Sept 2008, these should have resolved the problems with the above models.Status: Working
ConclusionWhen researching this article I found a number of online shopping sites still offering these boxes for sale with no indication whatsoever they were obsolete and would no lomger work.So, if you are in the market for a cheap Freeview box be aware these obsolete boxes are out there and make sure you check the make and model before purchasing. If in doubt ask to see it working and make sure you

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