LG Smart TV - anyone having problems with the Catchup?

[Harry Bloomfield]

Just bought a new Smart LG TV and Catchup is iffy.

Iffy in that it keeps disappearing from the channel Guide. A bit of research seems to suggest the problem seems to be quite a common one on LG Smart TV's and LG seems not to be that interested.

Its a constant round of retune the Freeview, Catchup appears in the program schedules, then disappear when you switch the set off. To get it back again, you have to retune yet again.

Catchup seems to only work at all, with a weaker antenna signal, with an attenuator, whereas using such you tend to loose the weaker channels and HD ones.

Anyone got the same issues, maybe found a solution?

[Jeff Layman]

Return it as not fit for purpose. Get a refund, or a replacement make which actually does what it is advertised to do.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Jeff Layman explained :

I believe it is a software issue, so LG ought to be able to resolve it if enough customers complain.

[Graham.]

^ and send back their sets.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I have a Panasonic. Quite often when I go to catch up (backwards on the EPG) it is blank. Quitting and reselecting the EPG usually gets it going again.

[Brian Gaff]

This sounds like a fault to me. Not sure how catch up works on these sets. Assumedly its not simply using on line resources or it would not be affected by the signal level.

Of course it might be interesting to find out if the set is being overloaded by one particular signal, maybe 4G and this is causing the root channel or placemarker that catch up uses to drive the on line part to be lost, but one would imagine if that was happening another off air channel or channels would vanish or be flaky Might be worth getting that checked out first and also whether anyone else is having the same issue in your area. Brian

[Harry Bloomfield]

Brian Gaff explained :

The CatchUp is just a more direct way to watch content which has already started, or finished recently - it is (supposed to be) listed in the Guide or EPG schedule. It plays using the same system as BBCi, ITV Hub and etc.. played from downloaded content, instead of from the transmitted content.

My guess is that the CatchUp schedule comes from the transmitter, along with the live TV schedules and the TV's software is somehow screwing this process up. The live TV schedules do seem to not be available for several seconds after switch on, which suggests the CatchUp schedules will also have to be downloaded from the same source - but fails.

If it were a local area problem, I suspect lots of people would be complaining, rather than LG TV owners. In another specialised forum, I have found lots of others complaining of the same issue with LG TV's. One of whom managed to get an admission from LG that they are being inundated with the very same complaint. So I'm hopeful LG will resolve it.