Why is Freeview and digital radio so very shit?

[NoTelly]

Just done a retune because the picture was so bad - again - and now I've lost all my BBC channels. Really it was better before we went digital. Can't get cable due to boring rights issues re the freeholder of my apartment block. So is this the future then? Half the channels not working and the others pixelated? It's crap.

Interesting, the recent speed says 52. Chance would be a fine thing. I will complain. While weeping over my box.

@GorgeousLadyofWrestling yes it's annoying. I just want to watch normal telly and actually I shouldn't have to fanny on paying for streaming this that and the other bloody platform. Never used to have to. You could just plug your telly in and bloody watch it. Ffs.

Coming back to TV, have you tried a signal booster? I appreciate that there's a risk of throwing good money after bad, but these - www.argos.co.uk/product/9407147?clickPR=plp:2:3 - are currently £7 at Argos, who have a fairly good returns policy.

Thank you, it's worth giving it a go for seven quid.

Update: the channels are back after a retune.

It is shitty provision though. People had to upgrade their aerials, tellies, boxes etc for a service that falls over when it encounters an unexpected gust of wind. And it's not frigging free, despite the name. In the last three years I've spent £630 on a frigging set top box and licence fees for a screen full of distorted pixels and error messages.

I can't get a thing where I am (Wales, back of beyond).

I have a Firestick from Amazon, and I watch TV via that - all the major channels have apps, and you don't need to record stuff cos it's almost always available for a good while on the channel app.

You can also listen to radio via the firestick/TV - Sounds is really great for the BBC stations, and there are less useful apps for other radio stations.

I record things that aren't available on catch up though - old classic films from the old movie channels, stuff off the horror channel, documentaries that have previously been on BBC 4 so aren't put on the iPlayer etc. So that doesn't work for what I want to do. And after shelling out 630 notes I don't see that what I want to do is so very outrageous.

Plus if all I watched was things suggested by an app I would just be watching the same things over and over again. Some of my best TV discoveries have come from randomly tuning in and scrolling, where I've enjoyed things I wouldn't have otherwise seen. Eg recently I watched an excellent documentary about men in Siberia and their garages. It was genuinely amazing, a real window into a different way of living, very well made, quite moving and quirky (I found out later it had won awards) but there's no way I would have gone onto the iPlayer and searched for a programme about Siberian garages. It's things like that that mean I don't want to go entirely app based. And apparently I shouldn't have to - according to the BBC, they're still providing a Freeview service. Except half the time they're not.