Retune of 1800T

[Black Hole]

But why does the Humax box shift the old channels to a new number and still ask me to retune?

Transition period before you lose them entirely.

 

[MikeSh]

But why does the Humax box shift the old channels to a new number and still ask me to retune? It must be picking up some signal otherwise the TV guide would be blank?

It's not really the box's fault. Freeview programmes are spread across about a half dozen muxes, each on a different radio frequency. These are being rearranged and some (55 & 56) are being removed in stages. 55 & 56 have always been low powered and not available to many people - I have an extra aerial with its own amplifier to pull them in.
It's very likely you never had 55, so the loss of 56 means things moved to 55 are gone for you. You could upgrade your system, but as 55 is also planned to go sometime it's probably not worth it.

(Incidentally, I think Quest HD only became a thing in the last year or two, or since the creation of the 55+56 mux pair at least.)

The TV guide is transmitted on every mux, so you'll see it regardless of how many you receive.

 

[Trev]

Best plan would be to just ignore everything posted previously to try to help and just "Buy and fit a new aerial for £300 or whatever." That should sort it out. Other than that, good luck with the reduced licence fee.

 

[Black Hole]

55 & 56 have always been low powered and not available to many people - I have an extra aerial with its own amplifier to pull them in.
It's very likely you never had 55, so the loss of 56 means things moved to 55 are gone for you.

It's curious that 56 might be received but not 55, if the aerial is group A (or B or K), but there's nowt so slippery as RF.

Quest HD.

I'll read your "Quest HD" as meaning "COM7 HD", and even that is inaccurate - the "HD" means DVB-T2 not High Definition, and indicates the relevant selection to use when tuning (DVB-T or DVB-T2). Auto-tuning runs two scans - one looking for DVB-T muxes and a second looking for DVB-T2 muxes, but for a manual scan you have to select the relevant UHF channel (21-69) and encoding (DVB-T or DVB-T2).

The checker for my postcode says I should be able to receive Quest HD.

Good, variable, or poor? The coverage checker doesn't actually say anything about specific services, what it tells you is the muxes you could receive with the right equipment... and if there are no local factors affecting reception such as trees and multi-path cancellation. If you had read my article instead of dismissing it as too much reading, you would know that moving an aerial even a few feet can make a big difference to reception - which means you can't trust any old cowboy to get it right.

However, as previously noted, it's not worth going to much trouble over COM7 if your other muxes (BBC A, D3&4, BBC B, SDN, ARQ A, ARQ B) are OK - COM7 is going to drop out too. If you are that keen on these extra services, you are being driven towards satellite, cable, or Internet (which is, I suspect, the hidden agenda). Some satellite is subscription free (Freesat), I don't know what the range of services is like.

 

[MikeSh]

It's curious that 56 might be received but not 55,

Yes. I'd expect to see some signal even if not useable.
There's certainly something strange here.

 

[prpr]

Of course you're not

Presumably you didn't bother reading post #14 either?
So, yes, go away and spend £500.

But why does the Humax box shift the old channels to a new number and still ask me to retune?

Because it's still seeing the old channels on COM8 that's why. Retune after the 30th and it won't get them at all.

 

[Mick Allen]

I'd just like to thank everyone for their invaluable advice. I think it's pretty clear where the UK and other countries will be with TV reception in a few years time!