Why do I keep losing Freeview reception on my Samsung TV?

Does your Samsung TV keep showing ‘No Signal’ or suffer from patchy reception when you’re watching TV using the built-in Freeview capability? Even when you’re sure there’s nothing wrong with the TV aerial? I had exactly this problem and I’ve managed to fix it – with a little help from the Samsung support forum members. Here’s the solution for when you keep losing Freeview reception on a Samsung TV.

For reference, the solution below worked with the Samsung UE50RU7470UXXU 50in Smart 4K TV – although the forum reports suggest that the same solution works for other models in the range.

Samsung TV being too smart

Recently, after suffering reception problems with the satellite dish connected to my Samsung TV, I decided to have a new TV aerial fitted – largely so I wouldn’t suffer any picture problems during the Euros or have to rely on the delayed streaming services!

The aerial was fitted fine and the reception was great for a couple of days, but then on certain channels I would start to get picture drop-outs or the dreaded ‘No Signal’ message.

That seemed weird, because I’d used the built-in self-diagnostics tools to measure the signal strength on the affected channels, and sometimes the signal strength was up around 80-90% and at other times it had dipped to below 20%. There were no bad weather conditions that would cause such fluctuations, no reported problems with the Freeview transmitters and the newly installed aerial was fine.

After some digging around on the Samsung support forums, it seemed I wasn’t the only person to suffer this problem and it stems from the Samsung TV being too fecking smart for its own good.

The problem is caused by a feature called Standby Auto Tuning. This seems to periodically rescan for the best signal, but seems to get it horribly wrong. Turn this feature off, retune your TV, and everything should work fine.

How to switch off Standby Auto Tuning

To switch off Standby Auto Tuning, go to the Settings menu, then select Broadcasting > Auto Tuning Settings and deactivate Standby Auto Tuning.

Whilst you’re in that menu, use the Auto Tuning function to re-tune your television, taking care to select the Freeview region with the best signal. Use the Detailed Transmitter Information postcode search on this page to get details of the transmitter with the best reception at your property.

Re-tuning will lose any favourite channels you have saved, so you’ll have to go through that process again, but it’s a small price to pay for uninterrupted football, Coronation Street or whatever else floats your boat!