More Freeview boxes become obsolete
In May 2008, a bunch of Freeview boxes served by the Sutton Coldfield transmitter stopped working. Now it looks like boxes in Scotland have gone the same way.
Boxes powered by the SetPal technology, including those made by Daewoo, Labgear, Portland and Triax, lack sufficient internal memory to cope with the number of Freeview stations after a transmitter upgrade, and become useless.
More on the story, including a quote from our sister site, Radio & Telly can be found here: Daily Record 5 July 2008
There are believed to be between 200,000 and 350,000 affected boxes in the UK, and as the transmitter networks get upgraded ready for the Switchover, more and more boxes are set to become landfill fodder
At the end of November I reported a change in Daewoo’s Replacement Policy.
Over the past two weeks four people who I have been helping discovered that Daewoo has changed their Replacement Policy so it now looks like this.
Policy 1 – No replacements under any circumstances.
Policy 2 – No replacements but a £ 10 discount on buying certain units.
Policy 3 – Free replacement provided you sent in the serial number.
Policy 4 – Free replacement provided you sent in the serial number and a photograph of the units s/n.
Policy 5 – Free replacement provided you sent them the receipt and supplied other details.
Policy 6 – No guarantee of a replacement until the Customer sends in the receipt and the unit in advance at the cost to the Customer.
Policy 7 – Free replacement provided you sent them copy of the receipt and supplied other details.
They have also accepted a Invoice in place of a receipt and on one occasion it was a delivery note so they appear to have relaxed their conditions by a slight margin.
I am glad to say they all took my tip and paid the extra £ 15 to get the better spec Daewoo DSD9503T PVR and they have all received their new units.
So for anyone put off by Policy 6 they should try again.
Happy New Year to everyone and as you can see I am still about.
brian
Brian.
So am I !!
Good to hear from you.
A new TV with built in digital tuner has moved the Daewoo to the kitchen.
Regards
My Dell LCD TV is now useless unless I purchase a freeview box. My TV is now a monitor!!! and Dell isn’t interested in a fix! The Tv cost over £1000 2 years ago – I am really annoyed about this!
My tv stopped recieving freeview a few months ago. Thought it must be the ariel, and when got some cash would check it out. But the analogue works fine. And then I started wondering if perhaps the box, bought in 2003, had become obsolete… Thanks for this – tho’ I’ve had to search hard to find you. This information very important – other folk probably have spend money on their ariel when all they needed was £25 for a new box….
After a download earlier this week created 17 800 channels (including nearly all the most-used channels — BBC News, BBC4, BBC3 etc) I’ve spent the last few days trawling every forum I can find to try to discover a solution to this problem.
I have a Ferguson FDT 600, slightly more than two years old. Phoning Ferguson just gives me recorded messages saying no one is available to answer my call. I phoned Freeview (unfortunately on an 0870 number, 08701 111 270, which costs more than the standard number 01204 771025), and a very friendly Scottish guy chatted at great length, ultimately saying nothing.
I’ve tried the usual “fixes”, such as unplugging the aerial and downloading nothing, to clear all the channels, then downloading them afresh, and all this does is swap the 800 numbers around.
Okay, if I have to I can get used to 800 instead of 80 for BBC News, etc, but it’s a pain. If anyone does have a solution, please say! (Or if anyone has managed to get any sense out of either Freeview or Ferguson.)
David V Barrett.
I don’t know your set but if it has a menu to creat a favourite list then make one with all your most used channels in it.
This from another forum .
quote: “Thanks everybody for your help, I have been in touch with Ferguson, I gave them the model number and they told ME!! what the problem was and there is no rectification it is a old software box and they cannot issue new sofware for it.”
Hope this helps .
Regards
On Saturday I left a message on Thompson/Ferguson’s phone, 01788 541 970. This morning I had a reply from 01788 570 215, a call centre dealing with Thompson/Ferguson customers including people in our situation. (I suggest everyone here phone the guy, because he said he’s not had many complaints!) A long conversation boiled down to “There’s nothing wrong with the box. Freeview changed the parameters. Thompson have no plans at the moment to issue a new download.” I said that this is extraordinarily bad customer relations, and asked him to pass on my comments to Thompson.
I also expressed my views on the fact that Freeview and the set-top box manufacturers don’t appear to be communicating with each other. If as a mere user you phone Freeview, they tell you you need to speak to the manufacturer; if you speak to the manufacturer they say it’s nothing to do with them, because it was Freeview who changed things.
Is this really the 21st century?
At least your box is still working !!
Daewoo boxes died dead !!
No over the air update could be issued as the boxes would not receive ANY channels.
Look back through this thread for details – I won’t go through the saga again but I got a free replacement from Daewoo after complaining .
Regards
Anyone who owns a Echostar T-101FTA can get it sorted out for free { well a few quid postage at the most }
see http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=925450
Brian { Not Dead yet }
I had a working Daewoo SV900 until last night when I stupidly asked the machine to find any new channels. What I don’t understand is how the machine worked at all after the Freeview change last summer. How did it continue to receive the channels using the settings in the machine?
Any machine that is currently working will continue working ‘ at least for this year ‘ provided its not set to hunt out new Channels.
Its the expanded Network Table it cant cope with – once it packs in it cant be revived.
Technically your Daewoo should have packed in last year as there was no way to prevent it from updating itself so your machine software must have had a flaw in it or you may live in a area that was for whatever reason not receiving the signal that the network table had been updated – I was considering taking my one to the Channel isles but found it cheaper jumping on Daewoo.
As you will see from above some of us have managed to make a deal with Daewoo but currently they have changed their conditions again
Policy 1 – No replacements under any circumstances.
Policy 2 – No replacements but a £ 10 discount on buying certain units.
Policy 3 – Free replacement provided you sent in the serial number.
Policy 4 – Free replacement provided you sent in the serial number and a photograph of the units s/n.
Policy 5 – Free replacement provided you sent them the receipt and supplied other details.
Policy 6 – No guarantee of a replacement until the Customer sends in the receipt and the unit in advance at the cost to the Customer.
Policy 7 – Free replacement provided you sent them copy of the receipt and supplied other details.
policy 8 – All bets are off and they are back to Policy 2
I have stubled across my name on this website as a contact for Daewoo. I would just like to let you all know I left Daewoo in November 2007! It is my understanding that Daewoo seem to be down sizing. Adam Mudford was the customer service manager when I was there and he is the person you need to contact. Colin Lillard was the technician and has no sway. When I was there it was company policy that a proof of purchase did need to be supplied for any swap or returned product. I too had a set top box from Daewoo that of course went defunt once they did the signal upgrade. Personally I just went out and bought a £12.00 cheap once from Dixons, figuring if it happened again at least I wouldn’t of lost too much money. I wish you all the luck in the world about getting swaps & money back but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Good luck. Marina Eames (x-employee of Daewoo.)
Was the £12 cheapy a Daewoo !!
Kev
I reckon Daewoo was running a ‘ daily quota ‘ system hence why some people were favoured more than others.
I hope everyone ended up with a good solution.
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As some of you will be aware I have Prostate Cancer and had a few Drug Courses – Hormone Implants and recently was undergoing Daily Radiotherapy for eight weeks .
Originally my PSA level was 19.8 and this has been reduced to 0.01
The plan is provided my PSA does not get higher than 0.01 then I will be checked every three Months for the next three years.
yesterday I received a prescription of ‘ Clonidine ‘ which is claimed will counter the side effects from the Hormone implants which may run on for a further nine Months.
So its been a very long twelve Months but I am glad to say that the NHS system has worked in my case and I have been astounded at the care they take – a very big thanks to all who work in the NHS.
Brian
Good to hear from you Brian.
Take care.
Have you seen the latest on DS about the weekend EPG cockup with TUTV?
Regards
My Daewoo SV900 developed the same problem which has affected the other owners of the product on here. I read through this page and many other forums and with the help of a number of emails to Brian Carson (who was a huge help) I put together a thorough letter to Daewoo.
After about three weeks after I sent it I got a reply from Adam Mugford saying “We are happy to replace your Daewoo SV900 with a DSD9503T (160gb Hard drive recorder)”.
It has since been delivered and the courier service took away my obsolete SV900.
I’m content with the replacement offered and it was worth the effort and in my particular case I did not have to pay any extra cash since when I purchased the SV900 in May 2004 it cost me £160.
No problem Thomas I was glad to help and you got a better deal than I did – I paid them £ 15 which really was very fair and now it has a 500 GB Hard Drive in it its a real contender – some of the menus are better laid out than my Humax .
It just shows you if you stick with it – you can get a good result
all the best brian
Only last month { November 2009 ) I did hear from one of the people who I was helping who received a new PVR { it took them over a year to find the receipt } so even if you have not made a claim with Daewoo its not too late.
Good luck and Merry Christmas
brian
Hi everyone. I’m back after some 18 months with details of another Freeview scam that is about to unfold. It appears that when the new HD Freeview is launched in the early summer/late spring, there is a very good chance that existing Freeveiw boxes and more importantly, HD ready TV’s with Freeview, will not be able to receive HD. Also it is not very clear if existing freeview boxes/TV’s, will continue to work !!!!!!!!!! I was going to replace my 13 year old CRT very soon, which is dying, but given this latest info, will now try and hang on until the new TV’s with HD Freeview have been launched.
Having since looked on the web, it has been confirmed that existing Freeview boxes/TV’s, will not be able to receive HD, but will still be able to receive standard Freeview that will still be transmitted. TV’s with the new HD Freeview are expected to be on the market sometime in April 2010. Fingers crossed my old Philips CRT will not die before then.
Damn. Ferguson FDT500 still working but MUX 1 channels stuffed in the 8xx range. So I decided the outdoor aerial was tired and bought a good wideband one for the loft. 10km from Blue Bell Hill and I dont do heights. Most evenings I lose the BBC chanels and I now know this is a common problem. No improvements so I have been moving the new aerial around the loft into some far reaching corners. Last far reaching corner I tried has no boards…..
I now have a permanent reminder of what a mess Freeview is in my mothers bedroom ceiling. I have already wasted a lot of time and effort but I have not lost my temper yet. But when I am convinced about who to blame words will not be enough, there will be REVENGE. That dameged ceiling is going to be there for a long time.
I am sorry for everyone who lost out and were unable to get a discount but a few of us did manage it and looking back I am now a big fan of PVR’s
I now own four PVR’s and a Freeview DVD/PVR Recorder which was the best money I ever spent which is hooked up to my Virgin V+ unit.
So I have ditched VHS completely and now everything gets saved onto DVD-R’s.
The Virgin V+ unit is excellent and has more HD Channels than Freeview HD but I am holding back buying a Freeview HD unit until the hard drives get much bigger.
all the best brian