A number of Freeview set-top boxes have lost their EPG, the Electronic Programme Guide.
Some set-top boxes made by DigiFusion, Inverto, Thomson and Sony get their programme information from a service provided by InView. Apparently their contract has come to an end and won’t be renewed – this means that users of these set-top boxes now no longer get their 14 day programme guide, causing major problems making advance recordings.
Here’s our list of the affected boxes:
- Digifusion: Digifusion FRT101 , Digifusion FVRT100 , Digifusion FVRT145 , Digifusion FVRT150 , Digifusion FVRT200 and Digifusion FVRT400
- Inverto: Inverto IDL-7000T and Inverto IDL-7000M
- Thomson DHD4000
- Sony SVR-S500
InView broadcast the programme guide service over-the-air on the Freeview ‘D’ Multiplex, known as 4TV, but InView is now no longer broadcasting this service.
According to the DTG, boxes that conform to the DTT standard should “fall back” to the standard 7-day Freeview programme guide, but this does not appear to be the case for the boxes affected.
The advice appears to be to make do with the “Now and Next” feature – which is of little use if you want to record something on your Freeview PVR that’s being broadcast in the next 14 days.
Affected by this issue? You might want to look at the Re-instate the 4TV EPG Petition,which has over 750 signatures at the time of writing.
Looking for a replacement Freeview hard-disk recorder? See our Freeview PVR page
We’d also love to hear from you if you’ve lost your Freeview programme guide as a result. Please comment below
This happened to us and we thought PVR had gone wrong – until we saw explanation on WHICH website.
Reference on Freeview website under press release on 14 July which states :- “Whilst Freeview is not responsible for this loss of service, we have contacted the third party involved to see if a solution can be found”
….presumably by supplying the 7 day Freeview EPG ?
Watch this space ?
Gutted to have lost mine. I’m having to go to the guide which is only a now and next now and select the next to record and then have to edit each bloody recording and THEN rename it after it’s been recorded !!! Mine’s a Sony model in the list above….
This is a major irritation. I have an fvrt200 model.It was so nice being able to pre-record programmes that were on at inconvenient times. I do hope that the 7 day guide becomes available as Trevor says.
I think its disgusting that as a free view viewer we had a electric programme guide removed with no prior warning,
I had to call not only a helpline , plus visit the store where I bought the digi fusion box, why could they not broadcast a message to let all the loyal free view viewers now what was about to happen, I lost much faith in the free view service as my old box is now , disconnected and in a box. I may now go to sky and pay for a service as I have no faith in the way I was treated a customer – also no refund was offered by the company who make the devices and the store where the item was purchased , if a company sell a product with a 14 electronic programme viewer , you expect this to remain the case , if they end this service then the consumer is not getting the product they paid a couple hundred pounds for, so there should in fact be compensation, not excuses that its not down to the store or the manufacture , in fact the only person who loses out is the consumer. then the retailer offered to sell me a box that does the same thing for 300.00 pounds – some how im feeling that free view should guarantee the programme guide will not be at risk when your paying such amounts of money .
Hi
Sony has offered owners of their SVR-S500 recorder £100 off one of their current Freeview HDD/DVDR recorders (though those are single-tuner). Phone 0845 6000124 between 9am-5pm Mon-Fri.
https://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1279203108
Regards
Arrived home from holiday early july to find my freeview digital recorder “inverto” no longer has a guide other than the programe that is currently on.
accused the children of messing it up while away! Just read this website. Would just like to thank inverto for selling a brilliant product and turning it into a pile of scrap at a flick of a switch!
Cheers! Nick
So grateful to see that I am not alone in wondering what has happened to my Freeview guide – I have a built-in freeview and have spent all afternoon trying different buttons etc thinking I had done something. All I am getting on the programme guide is Radio programmes! I am lost over the weekend without that as I never bought a TV guide and rely on it to see what programmes are on.
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