GB News

[karis6197]

Just moved my contract from BT broadband & BT TV to EE  broadband & TV , have set up the TV boxes but GB news is not listed in the TV guide, can/how do I get this? Are there other TV channels that I will no longer be able to receive on EE TV & why?

[DarrenDev · Accepted solution]

If you connect your aerial and then factory reset the TV Box Pro, it'll use that for Freeview and then the internet for subscription channels.

The TV Box Mini only offers the internet mode though I'm afraid.

[Weerab2024]

I take the choice of going with IP mode for the TV Pro and mini box and use the ariel with the built in Freeview in my TV to get best of both worlds with the hbbtv channels not being available on YouView.

Maybe one day we will see more channels in Internet mode. 

[karis6197]

Many thanks, I'll try that.

[karis6197]

Many thanks, Ill see which is best. The switch just confused me a bit as I assumed all channels would be available to stream these days & the quick start book is hardly extensive!

[Ian1306]

That may be so but where I live aerial reception isn’t reliable. There’s no up front warning that channels will be lost when moving from BT to EE. When I bought BT TV there was no option to avoid Freeview via aerial so now, being inundated with info re change to EE I expected to get at least the same service via internet connection.
There seems to be no answer as to why GB News etc is not listed when it’s available. Using the app is OK but it’s not possible to record and finding the right programme is fiddly and irritating when a proper solution is available if EE could be bothered.

Just add all available free to view channels and keep everyone happy rather than making excuses!

[kanturner]

Weerab2024, I have a brand new EE TV Box Pro, arrived this morning, and a 2022 Samsung Smart TV. Both the box and the TV, show channels 250-300 in their respective EPGs and these can be watched on the Sammy TV, but not on the EE TV Box. Though channels 263 and 265 do play for some reason. I've read elsewhere of channels switching to HbbTV and some manufacturers failing to keep up with the new standard. You response in this thread suggest that you have knowledge of this issue and I was wondering if you could confirm that this is why those channels show in the EPG, but won't play and if so, whether you're aware of EE plans to update their boxes. Grateful for any advice/knowldege you might be able to share.

[Midnight_Voice]

@Ian1306 

If you had set up your Pro box as you did when you were on BT TV (whether that was the same YouView box or not), and plugged a working aerial into it, and then tuned it, you would have got exactly the same range and number of channels that you had on BT TV.

However, I deduce that you didn’t plug an aerial in, so when you tuned the Pro box, it used IP Mode, and you got the channels it did give you in very good quality, but you got less of them, including losing GB News, because IP Mode doesn’t provide the whole range of FreeView channels.

You mentioned your aerial reception isn’t reliable, and that may have led you to try IP Mode. But it’s easy to go back; plug in the aerial, Factory Reset the box, and tune again, and it will go back to broadcast mode, where you should get exactly the same range of channels you got when you were with BT TV.

[Midnight_Voice]

@kanturner 

I think we have now covered this elsewhere, but it’s that the two channels that do play are HbbTV, the modern standard (adopted by YouView from the 2012 get-go) and the rest are the older MHEG standard that YouView never supported and probably never will.

It’s these MHEG channels that have failed to keep up with the new standard, much to the chagrin of both YouView and Freeview.

[Weerab2024]

@kanturner unfortunately I don't believe hbbtv channels are available with EE TV and I am not aware or heard of this changing, but never say never. We don't know what will happen in future.

I just use my EE Pro TV in IP mode for the higher quality definition of the available channels currently on it and use the arieal for the channels not currently included. 

Im just a customer like yourself, but I like to keep updated with the various tech updates as they come out, more like a hobbyist. 

[Midnight_Voice]

@Weerab2024 

Somebody is wrong here; is it you or Wikipedia?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouView

“There is no access to some streamed channels in the 225–256 range on Freeview,[8] as YouView lacks support for the MHEG-5 integration channel used by these channels to provide them over IP.[clarification needed]”

Clue: Tiny Pop (Freeview 208) is known to be HbbTV, and YouView can’t show it.

Which would suggest that all I have been saying about MHEG and HbbTV on channels 263 and 265 and the rest of that range, based on the above quote and many repitions of it, has been ass backwards 😛