BRIT households have been hit by a mysterious TV glitch causing some much-loved channels to freeze or turn the screen black.
Owners of a popular Freeview box have been complaining about the issue, saying it's making their telly unwatchable.
Some of ITV‘s and Channel 4‘s channels are reportedly affected by the problem.
However, the glitch doesn't appear to stem from the broadcasters themselves but TV box maker Humax.
And it's specifically impacting the company's Aura device.
“I am having exactly the same issues on a variety of channels, picture comes on for a second or two, goes black or freezes, audio cuts in and out,” one user wrote online.
Another fumed: “Have been away this week and recorded ITV 4 snooker.
“Came back and discovered black screen recordings.
“Weirdly, if I fast forward I can see the recording in the small preview window, but when I stop to play, it's just black.
“Trying to watch live this evening I just get a frozen, or black and intermittent screen.”
The channels that seem to be affected are:
- ITV2 (channel 6)
- Film4 (channel 14)
- C4 +1 (channel 15)
- More4 (channel 18)
- ITV4 (channel 26)
- ITVBe (channel 28)
- E4 +1 (channel 30)
- ITV +1 (channel 35)
Humax told the Cord Busters website: “We are aware of the issue and we are working hard to resolve it.
“Customers should contact the Humax support team directly with any questions and they will be happy to provide assistance.”
And according to forums, the company also told customers: “We are experiencing an elevated volume of contacts due to an issue affecting Aura set-top boxes, where certain channels may experience intermittent reception issues.
“Our development team is actively investigating the cause and working diligently on a resolution.”
For now, the best solution is to watch any channels you can't access via the ITVX or Channel 4 streaming apps which have live feeds available.
Stream swapping – the easy way to cut your bills?
Here's what Sean Keach, Flying Eze's Head of Technology and Science, thinks…
It's no secret that TV streaming apps are costing more and more.
Not only are prices shooting up, but we find ourselves asked to pay for an increasing number of apps and services.
And when you combine those TV bills with your music streaming, mobile and internet fees, and every other drain on your bank account, it all starts to get a bit much.
One of the best ways to cut your TV bills is to simply cancel all of your streaming subscriptions and only sign up to one per month.
Pick an app like Netflix, Disney+, or Apple TV+ and smash through all of the content you want to watch on that app.
Then the next month, swap to something else.
And once you've done them all, you can cycle back to the start again.
It's an easy way to avoid forking out for a rolling library of streaming apps with more content than you could possibly watch.
Also don't forget that paid-for streaming isn't the only game in town.
There are loads of apps that don't cost a penny to enjoy, and downloading a few will unlock thousands of live TV channels plus tens of thousands of movies and shows.
Try apps like Tubi, The Roku Channel, Plex, and Pluto TV to get some ad-supported television without having to pay any monthly fees.
