<

Freecom DVB-T USB Stick

Scan for Channels

OK - this might be a bit basic but some folk are obviously puzzled by "what happens next" so this bit is a very brief explanation of what follows, once you have your drivers installed, and your multimedia programme operating. I'm basing the following on what happens in Total Media and GBPVR but I imagine the same applies in the Freecom Player also.

In your programme, go to the bit where you scan for channels. It's all automatic, so there should really be no problem at this stage. What happens is....the programme automatically scans all the relevant frequencies to try to capture some incoming signals of sufficient strength. While this is going on, three things should happen. First, you'll see the "Progress Bar" move slowly across the screen. Second, when a sufficiently strong signal for a particular channel is found, the "signal strength meter" should react - ideally it should show at least 4 bars - anything less and there is probably insufficient signal being received to result in satisfactory reception. Thirdly, when such a signal is found, the LED on the USB stick turns from orange to green. It's quite normal for signals only to be found in a couple of places on the progress bar - say, maybe in the middle and maybe towards the end (it's impossible to be precise as the UK is a big place and signal frequencies vary across the country). So - don't panic if nothing happens for a few minutes, then you get a number of channels all at once, then nothing happens again, then you get another number of channels - all quite normal.

If the whole process crashes in the middle (or, more likely, towards the end) of the scanning process, start again, but this time, stop the scanning just before it reaches the end of the progress bar - that should prevent a crash and is unlikely to stop you getting the full range of channels available to you..

If you find that, after an autoscan, there are no channels identified as "found", but you were able to see the progress bar moving, the chances are your signal is not sufficiently strong. Go check the aerials page for more info.

There is work being done in various places by Forum members on resolving channel tuning difficulties, particularly with Windows Media Centre. I'm waiting for permission from certain Forum users to reproduce messages they have posted regaridng this, so check back soon and see if this bit has been added to.

The Techie from Sneckie