How to retune Saorview

To retune Saorview, open your TV’s settings, find the channel or broadcasting menu, and run an automatic scan (usually called Auto Tune, Auto Tuning or Auto Scan) with the aerial plugged in and the country set to Ireland. On a Saorview box, it’s the same scan in the box’s own menu, and either way it takes about five minutes.

When you need to retune

Saorview’s help page is straightforward about it: on rare occasions a re-scan is needed so your TV or box can pick up new channels or a channel that has changed frequency. Its news page shows how that works in practice. When Challenge arrived on 8 in February 2023, and TG4+1 and Cúla4 on 14 and 18 in September 2023, Saorview said most viewers would see them with no adjustment, and some would need to re-scan.

So retune when:

• a channel you had has vanished;
• a new channel has launched and your TV doesn’t show it;
• you’ve moved house, moved the TV, or had aerial work done;
• the list is full of dead entries, like the RTÉ digital radio stations that left in January 2026.

Before you start

• The aerial lead goes into the TV’s aerial socket. It’s the round one marked ANT, RF or Antenna. Philips’s guidance is to connect the aerial straight to the TV for the scan, not through a splitter or through another box. That’s sound advice for any brand.
• The TV is on its TV input. Samsung notes that its Broadcasting menu only appears when an aerial cable is connected and the TV’s source is set to TV. Other brands behave similarly.
• If you use a Saorview box, retune the box, not the TV. The aerial goes into the box, and the TV is just a screen on an HDMI input.

The steps, on any TV

The words change from brand to brand. The shape doesn’t.

1. Press Settings, Menu or Home on the remote. On newer TVs it’s the cog icon.
2. Find the channels section. Look for Channels, Broadcasting, Tuning, Installation or Channel setup.
3. Choose the automatic scan. Auto Tune, Auto Tuning, Auto Scan, Auto Program or Search for channels.
4. Pick Aerial, Antenna or Terrestrial. Not Cable, not Satellite.
5. Pick Digital only if it offers analogue as well. There’s been no analogue TV in Ireland since 2012.
6. Set the country to Ireland if it asks.
7. Start, and wait. A few minutes, during which nothing appears to happen. Make tea.
8. Check the result against the channel list. RTÉ One HD should be on 1.

Menu paths by brand

These come from each manufacturer’s own support pages or manuals. Menus change with software updates and model years, so if yours doesn’t match exactly, look for the nearest equivalent word.

Other brands, and Saorview boxes. Look under Menu → Installation, Setup or Channel search for an automatic or full scan on the terrestrial (DVB-T) tuner. Saorview has how-to videos on its help pages, and its helpline is 0818 21 22 21, staffed 9am to 5pm daily.

One quirk. Saorview says Sky News is on 23, but some TVs and boxes list it on 27. Same channel, different numbering.

No signal: the ladder

Work down this list in order. Each step is cheaper and quicker than the one after it. Saorview’s own help page covers the first three.

1. Is the TV on the right input? If you use a Saorview box, the TV needs to be on the HDMI input the box is plugged into. Press Source or Input.
2. Turn it off and on again. Properly. Unplug the TV and the box at the wall, wait about 30 seconds, plug back in.
3. Re-scan. As above.
4. Is it the transmitter, not you? 2rn, which runs the masts, posts planned work on its service updates page. In the week we wrote this, it listed a planned break of up to nine hours at the Monaghan transmitter. If your area is on the list, wait it out.
5. Check every lead you can reach. The fly lead from the wall socket to the TV, both ends. Any splitter or old video recorder in the chain; take it out and connect the aerial straight to the TV. A cheap fly lead that’s been kinked behind the unit for ten years is a classic.
6. Is it all channels, or some? Saorview sends its channels in two bundles on two frequencies. If RTÉ One, Virgin Media Three, Challenge and Sky News vanish together while RTÉ2 and TG4 are fine, or the other way round, your aerial is getting one frequency and not the other. That’s a signal problem. The groupings are on the channel list page.
7. Did anything change outside? A storm, a new extension next door, a tree in full leaf, scaffolding. Look at the aerial. If it’s pointing a different way from the neighbours’, you have your answer.
8. Check what you should be getting. Put your address into Saorview’s coverage checker. 2rn’s guidance is to check both which direction the aerial should point and which polarisation it needs, meaning whether the rods should be horizontal or vertical. Saorview says the result is indicative only.

If step 5 turned up a tired lead, replace it with proper coax rather than the thinnest one on the shelf. And if you’re splitting one aerial to several TVs, that’s the one job an amplifier is for: a distribution amplifier where the aerial cable comes in, not a booster behind the telly (more on that below).

If you’ve climbed all eight rungs and the screen still says no signal, stop. It isn’t you.

When it’s the aerial, not you

These are the signs the problem is on the roof, not in the living room:

• the scan finds nothing, on a TV that’s worked before, with good leads;
• the same group of channels keeps dropping out;
• the picture freezes or breaks into blocks when it rains or blows;
• it all went wrong after a storm;
• the aerial is from the analogue era and nobody knows where it’s pointed.

Don’t buy a booster. It’s the first thing a shop will sell you and usually the wrong one. 2rn’s Saorview FAQ says an amplifier placed near the TV is “more or less pointless in the vast majority of applications”, because it amplifies the noise along with the signal. Their phrase is “rubbish in, rubbish out”. The same FAQ says a higher-gain, better aerial is the best way to improve reception.

Don’t go up the ladder either. 2rn recommends that only competent, trained and experienced people install or adjust aerials, because working at height is dangerous and a dropped tool can crack a slate you won’t notice until the ceiling does. An installer realigning an existing aerial is a small job; Dublin installers list it at around €75. What else costs what is in aerial installation costs.

Watch for the door-knock. Saorview says neither it nor RTÉ sends anyone to check your TV or aerial, and it doesn’t endorse door-to-door sales. There’s also no such thing as a “Saorview Approved installer”. Anyone who says otherwise on your doorstep is selling something.

After the retune

• Count the channels: 16 TV, with 1, 2 and 4 in HD. Anything less, go back to the ladder.
• Rebuild your favourites if the scan wiped them. It’s tedious, but you only do it once.
• Want the UK channels too? They’re free by satellite with a dish and a combo box.

A working aerial and one scan, and every Irish channel is yours for the price of the licence. Not a subscription in sight.