RDR-HXD890 - Freeview EPG Not working

[brian_mk]

My RDR-HXD890 has been stuck displaying 'UPDATING' for at least 2 days.

All front panel buttons & remote have no effect.

After Power cycling, the machine returned to the same state.

After searching Internet forums, I found many posts from people with the same issue. Most were dated around 2019.

I tried most of the suggestions:-

A Soft Reset got the machine out of update mode but EPG no longer works and, following auto-tuning, all BBC channels are missing. All other Freeview channels were found.

A Factory Reset did not fix the problem.

The machine displays Software Version 115. I tried to initiate a manual firmware update but no updates were found.

Has there been a recent change with Freeview EPG such that it is no longer compatible with this machine?

[PatJW1]

I'm working now but no BBC

[liketv]

As of 9pm, my 870 and 790 are retaining the channels (so far 40 minutes), but the EPG still have strange colours.

[No_Pic]

Unfortunately my successful retune yesterday did not survive the overnight EPG update in the early hours of 26/8/23 and it has broken it again.

The recorder did not get stuck in an 'update' loop overnight but I have lost tuning on BBC1 and BBC2.

Selecting BBC1 or BBC2 briefly shows the transmission for a few seconds then the screen freezes and goes to black and stays that way.

Neither a factory reset nor a retune clears the problem.

I have fed this back to Freeview as they requested.

[PatJW1]

Same here. I'm going to stop posting until it's fixed. Doesn't seem any point. Thanks to everyone for tips. Think we'll just have to wait for Freeview or someone to sort it out.

[Camo_King]

Managed to get ours going again on the 25th, but the morning of the 26th its back to square one after another update. 😡
Why so many updates! Its becoming more and more like my computer. 😜

[brian_mk]

I had noticed the recurrence of this problem a couple of days ago but was busy with other things so ended up just pulling the mains plug from my HXD890 until it was sorted.

Freeview are clearly failing to carry out proper regression testing before introducing updates.

You would have thought that Freeview management would have learnt from previous *****-ups and made changes to their test procedures. Obviously not!

From my own past personal experience working on broadcast test equipment for Marconi, the stringent test processes employed by the BBC or IBA would never allow such errors to occur.

Thank God Freeview are not responsible for nuclear power station or flight control systems.

[brian_mk]

Perhaps we need to badger Jonathon Thomson - CEO of Everyone TV who is ultimately responsible.

https://rocketreach.co/jonathan-thompson-email_3887882

[Mooly01]

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@Camo_King wrote:

Managed to get ours going again on the 25th, but the morning of the 26th its back to square one after another update. 😡
Why so many updates! Its becoming more and more like my computer. 😜

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They are not those kind of updates. The recorders haven't seen an update for well over a decade.

These problem 'updates' are just daily changes to the Freeview EPG listing (the programme guide) and there was a big big change a couple of days ago. The problem is in the structure (the compiling of the code) for the EPG.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/tv/check-your-freeview-tv-now-or-miss-out-on-new-channels-an... 

What is going wrong:

Winter Hill (Bolton, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy for 21 years (ukfree.tv)

[brian_mk]

Indeed.

As I already said - the real problem is that Freeview are failing to test that their EPG changes are not breaking older devices. Maybe they have a policy such that older devices are no longer tested or supported. It would be nice if they would tell us in advance rather than just wait for users to complain when their devices fail to work.

[brian_mk]

I don't see why I should throw my Sony HXD890 into landfill just because Freeview can't be bothered to make sure their EPG updates are compatible.