Saorview: Sound but no picture

ViperMAN

Hi everyone,

Just wondering if someone could help me.

I recently moved to a new house. It already has a TV (AKAI AKTV AKTV3223 T Smart - I think they got it in Lidl a few months ago).

I took my 20 quid indoor aerial that I bought from Harvery Norman a year ago - it was working perfectly at my previous place.

So I inserted the aerial and started an auto search for channels. It finds the usual channels; rte, virgin, news, etc.

Here is where my problem occurs - I go to view RTE1 and it displays the EPG details and I can hear the sound, but no picture. Same for RTE2! Virgin, TG4 and the rest have no picture and no sound.

Has anybody seen this before? Is this reception? Perhaps I need to buy one of those more expensive aerials?

Thanks!

The Cush

Non compatible video decoder, MPEG-2 video decoder on board instead of MPEG-4 which is required for Saorview. The older MPEG-2 is used by Freeview in the UK.

ViperMAN

The Cush wrote: »

Non compatible video decoder, MPEG-2 video decoder on board instead of MPEG-4 which is required for Saorview. The older MPEG-2 is used by Freeview in the UK.

Thanks for the info Crush!

Crap! What are my options now - get a Saorview Box? Anybody recommend a cheap one?

The Cush

Just had a look online for that model, it is a modern DVB-T2 TV and so it should have an MPEG-4 video decoder by default. Can you do a factory reset and use Ireland as the country/region?

dxhound2005

Sound no picture seems to be a common enough fault according to google. Not something which can be fixed by an amateur.

byte

From limited looking on Google, it seems to have a DVB-T2 tuner so should be fine for Saorview.

Could you try the TV somewhere you know has a good Saorview signal, just to test if it really isn't compatible.

If it turns out to just be MPEG2 as suggested by The Cush, then return it to Lidl for a refund/replace as it's not fit for purpose.

The Cush

byte wrote: »

From limited looking on Google, it seems to have a DVB-T2 tuner so should be fine for Saorview.

Could you try the TV somewhere you know has a good Saorview signal, just to test if it really isn't compatible.

Sound is good and epg data is there, so I assume the signal is good enough. If this was a 10 year old TV I would say MPEG-2 only video decoder, reviews not great on Amazon.

The Cush

ViperMAN wrote: »

Crap! What are my options now - get a Saorview Box? Anybody recommend a cheap one?

€90 - https://powercity.ie/product/WPS818C

https://www.freetv.ie/saorview/boxes/saorview-boxes/

dxhound2005

But if it is a problem with the TV a satellite box won't fix it. It seems to be a common enough problem on different makes according to google.

The Cush

dxhound2005 wrote: »

But if it is a problem with the TV a satellite box won't fix it.

A box should bypass the on board decoder unless there is a screen/display fault. Attaching an external box/device should verify this.

dxhound2005

According to google the common fault is a lamp in the TV.

ViperMAN

The Cush wrote: »

Just had a look online for that model, it is a modern DVB-T2 TV and so it should have an MPEG-4 video decoder by default. Can you do a factory reset and use Ireland as the country/region?

Problem solved!

I factory reset the TV. Turned it on, selected Ireland as the region, autoscan and boom - all Saorview channels, with picture!

Oddly, when I was starting the autoscan previously (through the normal settings page), I was able to choose the region also and it was set to Ireland. It did show up the EPG correctly so the region was correct.

Unless setting it up first day someone picked a different country, and it defaulted to using MPEG-2 or something. Bizzarre but it works now!!!

Thanks to everyone for their help!