Can't get Freeview streaming to work BT TV Box Pro (unsure of the cause)

[UKViking]

Hi all.

I have switched to BT and I received the BT Smart Hub 2 and the BT TV Box Pro this morning. I was assured by the salesperson that I could watch Freeview without an aerial.

I run a Ubiquiti Unifi multi-AP Wi-Fi system in my propertyl, so I can get good signal all over. So the first thing I did once the Broadband was up and running was to disable the 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi in the Smart Hub, and connect an Ethernet cable to my PoE switch, which feeds the Unifi APs. I also changed the router IP address from the default 192.168.1.254, to 192.168.66.2 (which is what my Sky router was set to and I didn't want to upset the setup in my property and change static IP addresses that are already set up (yes I'm a geek).

The Internet works perfectly on my old SSID and all my devices connect.

Next I go to set up the BT TV Box Pro. It connects to my Wi-Fi. During setup I select that I want to stream Freeview, rather than an aerial. The setup continues but once complete it only has 13 channels and they're not Freeview, they're things like BT Sport and some others.

So I called tech support and a very nice lady could see that my box was "running on an extender". Basically, she could see that it wasn't directly connected to my BT Smart Hub 2. In any case, she remotely told my BT TV Box Pro to do a factory reset and we went through the setup again. Same result, only 13 channels.

She then advised me that, for the BT TV Box Pro to show and stream all Freeview channels, it should be directly connected (via Wi-Fi or Ethernet) to the BT Smart Hub 2. I guess this is to prevent customers from taking their box to another property? Or perhaps to make sure multicast works over the BT hardware properly? So we ended the call and I went to try and do it myself for the third time.

So I went back into the Smart Hub and enabled just 5GHz and I factory reset the BT TV Hub Pro and tried it all again. However, I still got the same result, no Freeview and just 13 channels.

I came on here to see whether anybody knows more about how this feature works and the technical requirements? Is it because my BT Router has to be on internal IP 192.168.1.254? Does it matter whether I use 2.4 or 5Ghz? Did I need to setup using WPS rather than the password?

Help!

[JonMace]

I cant see the IP address being the issue , is it possible to connect the Box directly to the SH2 to see if it works then?

[UKViking]

Hi  @JonMace  thanks for your reply.

I factory reset it and connected a cable across the living room. Set it up with Wired connection. It's still only finding 13 channels.

[UKViking]

I've now tried it again with direct cable and the original IP address 192.168.1.254. And I tried again - having disconnected everything else from my router, and it still doesn't work.

[JonMace]

is it connected directly to the SH2?

[UKViking]

Yes. I tested it directly to SH2 via the included Ethernet cable, with nothing else connected to SH2.

[JonMace]

If the Box was direct from  BT  and is at the address its registered for, then its now a BT issue, and either a faulty Box (doubtful) or the account has not been set up properly

[UKViking · Accepted solution]

I called technical support again and the lady got me to go to the software update screen and select "Update". It had already checked for software update when I first switched it on! And every time I reset it while testing. So there is a bug! After I manually pressed Update, it reset and when it came back online it was working. Note to others with this issue!