Bravia KD-43X8305C losing freeview channels

[Pixelz]

I have a 2021 Bravia KD-43X8305C running the latest firmware, receiving a Freeview signal from the Crystal Palace transmitter.  My aerial connection is pass-through via a media centre PC and provides excellent picture quality and signal strength whilst the PC is switched on.

When the PC is switched off signal strength is poor (as expected) so I don't try to use the TV tuner at these times.  However, even with the TV in standby any period of poor signal strength results in the TV permanently losing all Freeviws channels on BBC-A (PSB1) and BBC-B  (PSB2).  This means a new channel scan is necessary when I restore the signal strength.

I can understand not being able to receive these channels when the signal is poor, but for the TV to delete them from memory each time is very frustrating.  I suspect this only started happening after a recent firmware update.

Is anyone else experiencing the same problem?

[LightFoot]

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@Pixelz wrote:

I have a 2021 Bravia KD-43X8305C

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Hi @Pixelz  If somebody has sold you a 2015 TV as a 2021 TV then you have a case for the sales of goods act. Please note that according to the KD-43X8305C support pages the last firmware update was nearly two years ago. Certainly nothing recent.

Support for KD-43X8305C | Sony UK

[Pixelz]

Thanks for the reply, and apologies -- the autocomplete filled in my old TV model number and I didn't notice.

The TV in question is a 2021 model KD-43X81J

[royabrown2 · Accepted solution]

@Pixelz 

As @LightFoot observes, either this is a 2015 TV, or you have the model number wrong. [Edit: the latter, I see]

At a guess, the lost channels happen because the TV has been set to auto-update on channel changes.

So the TV sniffs what’s coming down the aerial for one or more of the channels it knows, finds them gone, decides there’s a change, and retunes. All gone!

I had this with an LG TV that was installed in an aerial-less location, to be used for internet-only access, but it would complain no channels were tuned, and need several keypresses to get out of this, every time it was turned on. So I took it into another room which had an aerial point, tuned it, brought it back, and it behaved all that day.

Next day, no channels again. Researched this, turned off auto-update channels, tuned it again, and the tunings held this time.

So you could do this; or, perhaps better, get a Y-splitter for the aerial cable and make separate feeds into the PC and the TV. As long as this doesn’t degrade the signal quality, it’s a superior solution all round. 

[Pixelz]

Thanks for the insight @royabrown2

I've made the changes & I'll post the results for information.

(BTW I already tried a splitter but it degraded signal strength too much.  Maybe I'll try a masthead amp with 2 outputs)

[HannahEd01]

Hey Pixelz, any updates? How did it go? 

[Pixelz]

Yes, this is now a confirmed fix.

[HannahEd01]

Hey Pixelz, glad to hear it. Thank you for updating the thread, it is really helpful.