Invalid Service

[Neversaydie]

I  have just bought an LG Smart Tv and have tuned it in via freeview and the guide shows that i have all the channels installed. However I am a Racing tv subscriber and the guide shows channel 261 as installed but when i try to access it I get a message saying 'Invalid Service' with an animation and a blank screen. I had no issues with my previous tv so am a little baffled by the fact that i cant receive racing tv on my brand new LG tv. Is this a compatibility problem or is that i need a flash player installed to stream racing tv. Can someone please offer a reason and a solution for this as it is driving me batty.

 

[Dno9]

Iv called LG and freeview again today. 

I'm luckily on sky, so it dosent really effect me but I want my TV to be able to do everything it should and its the principle of it for me. 

LG again are going down the line of stating they were told all channels would be updated to show both format of channels. 

I said this has been going on for so long now why can't LG and freeview just communicate with each other, I asked if there was any way of being able to get a message through to the powers that be to speak to freeview and sort this between themselves as its not a customers job! 

 

She has filed a voice of concern notice which apparently doesn't get a reply but goes through to them to "review" 

 

Freeview have took all my details for there tech team to call me back 🙈

[Jayqueueaitch]

At least LG are now admitting the problem exists - 6 months ago they were not admitting that they knew anything about it.

We all ought to be complaining to the Consumers Association "Which?". They are losing credibility by continuing to rank so many LG TV's as "Best Buys" and making no mention of this "Limitation" of the sets.

If "Which?" start contacting LG then something might happen!!

[Tinks]

On 10/25/2020 at 3:25 PM, Geren said:

This has all been discussed on AVforums too. One member there quoted LG's response, which confirms that it's Freeview and the channel providers who got it wrong. The quoted response is:

"I have had a look into this for you and from what I can see, as you are only having issues with two channels, this is not a fault with your TV and is down to the format of the channel. Many channels are in the MHEG format, however our TVs support HbbTV format channels. We were advised that all services would be updated to support both formats however some channels have not done this causing this issue to occur. I would recommend that you contact the provider of these channels to see when they are updating these channels as our TV’s are no longer compatible with these."

Freeview told LG that all MHEG channels would also broadcast in HbbTV , so only HbbTV was needed for mainland UK. The TVs are fit for the purpose Freeview said was required, but the channel providers just didn't get their act together. If Freeview updated LG to say that Freeview made a mistake, and nicely asked LG to enable MHEG reception in mainland UK, LG could fix it. This involves Freeview actually admitting that it made a mistake.   The chance of that happening is slightly less than me going for a skiing holiday in Hell.

I have 2 sets from LG. One from 2018 and one from 2019. The 2018 set recurved everything with no problem. Last years set does not receive racing channel etc. LG have jumped the gun by using hbbtv technology only - they phased MHEG out too fast and should take responsibility for their mistake. 

[Tinks]

On 10/24/2020 at 3:52 PM, David38 said:

See my post,  I consider the only way is to replace with a Samsung.

I agree and regret buying both sets. I had a Samsung tv that was 4 years old but it had a design fault due to capacitors. After one phone call, Samsung were round and they changed the whole board in the tv. It’s still going strong in the spare room! I cannot fault Samsung’s customer services. I’ve just been fobbed off by LG with excuses and passing the buck, because they jumped the gun with technology. 

[Trevoradamson]

Hi I had same problem with racing tv I added a fire stick a d download the racing tv app and it works great hope this helps 

[Chris Merriman]

Hello,

I'm a journalist who also bought a UM7400, myself. I've been doing some digging for an article about this problem and wanted to share my findings:

1. Unfortunately there is no requirement for LG to support channels in MHEG format, only HBB.

2. Equally unfortunately, despite dropping this requirement, Freeview have NOT given broadcasters a deadline to migrate to HBB

3. The upshot is that LG aren't wrong, but given that the TV is physically capable of MHEG services (they work if you change the settings to Republic of Ireland and do a retune, but this causes EPG issues so it's not an ideal workaround), I am pushing LG for a firmware drop to fix the problem out of goodwill, given that there is no end-date for this situation.

4. I am also contacting ASA and OFCOM to see if, given the cost of a TV, they consider this an acceptable situation.

If I hear any more, I'll let you know. Not the news you probably wanted, but these are solid facts and that's still progress!

[David38]

Thanks for that good info. and the work you have done and doing .

Because of this lack of interest from LG I would not buy another of their TV sets and when people want recommendation I advise not to chose LG.

[Chris Merriman]

I should also add, Freeview have confirmed that they are 'looking at ways to communicate this better to customers'. I pointed out that its more important that they get LG to make this clear, as people probably won't go digging around the Freeview website when they're buying TVs. 

[Jayqueueaitch]

Hi,

My previous posts - mainly from July/August last year show that after all the aggro I had I returned my set to Curry's.

The things that really made me fed up were that:

LG Customer Services denied any knowledge of the issue - and stated that they would forward my complaint to their Technical Services Team - but that they never reply to any Customers on any issues that are raised! GREAT Customer Service!!!

Freeserve Customer Services denied any knowledge of the issue!

Racing TV Customer Services (the Channel I pay a Monthly Subscription to and could not receive on my new LG SET!!) denied any knowledge of the issue!

Currys Staff at their Cambridge Store denied any knowledge of the issue!

Currys Customer Services denied any knowledge of the issue on the phone (and never replied to my letter!).

The BBC Transmission Services Team (responsible for the transmssion Transmitters) denied any knowledge of the issue!

Which? Magazine TV Testing Team who award LG Voluminous numbers of "Best Buy" TV's - they had not heard of the issue - and then said it would not affect their "Best Buy" Statu for the "Best Buy" sets with this problem as receiving ALL Freeview Channels is not part of their testing criteria!!!

Is it any surprise I gave up and took my set back for a refund on my LG Set!!

Then we get to the next LG Scandal - 

Their large number of 2020 "New Sets" that have "Lost" a large number of their Catch Up Aps that their sets had in 2019!! These include ITV Hub, More 4,  My 5 ... again!!

Again they do nothing about it - stuff the customers! I am informed by a TV Trader that the "Lost Apps" are due to LG having allowed their Licences for these Aps to lapse. They say they are going to be restored - Presumably LG just decided to miss out a complete year and renew the Aps in 2021?

Again - many 2020 LG Sets continue to get "Which Best Buy" Status - with the comment that - it's a pity these popular are missing!

LG really have a cavalier attitude to UK Customers!!

 

[Chris Merriman]

Hi - after a long battle, I've managed to get proper responses from everyone involved in this debacle. The results will be in a report on the issue, for Techradar, later this week. I'll post the link when it's live. 

[David38]

Thanks.

[Jayqueueaitch]

That sounds very interesting - I look forward to reading the contents.

[Johnny_wheelz]

On 11/24/2019 at 8:39 PM, TonyB said:

My TV is the OLED55E8 PLA and the web OS version is 4.1.3.5624 (goldilocks-glacier). Weird that it's just the the UM range that's affected.

Thanks for reporting back on the screensaver.  In fact the LG

link hidden, please login to view

TVs have no option to switch off the screensaver, given their higher potential for screen burn or image retention. It kicks in after two minutes when you're watching a radio channel but it's very irritating that it also happens when streaming a live video channel that happens to be broadcasting via IPTV. I suppose it could be classed as a bug.  I'll try and find out if the 2019 OLEDs also have the issue.

 

 

I suspect, UM stands for Useless Machine?