Tech geeks – time to fire up your PVR, and set your series link to record the bytes transmitted by Channel 4 on the 25 of June 2010.

Series 4 of the cult comedy The IT Crowd, charting the day-to-day IT challenges facing the Roy and Moss, the basement-dwelling IT support nerds, that introduced the phrase “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” to a wider audience.

Series 4 of the IT Crowd goes out on Friday the 25th of June at 10pm on Channel 4.

A box set of Series 1, 2 and 3 of the IT are available for the daft price of £13 from Amazon

The Lost saga is nearly at an end. The penultimate epsiode of the final series was aired on Sky tonight, and the mysteries are finally being tied up.

On Monday 24 May 2010, after six seasons and 121 episodes, the series that has provoked more theories, debates and analysis than any other, will reach its final hours on Sky 1 HD and Sky 1.

Along with fans in six other countries outside of the US (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Turkey and Canada), UK viewers will be able to enjoy LOST’s thrilling conclusion as Sky1 HD air a live simulcast of the US transmission.

The double bill finale, aptly entitled The End, will bring to a close the many unanswered mysteries that show producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have teased viewers with since 2004. It will be aired on Monday 24 May at 5am – a two and a half hour special. The finale will then be repeated on Tuesday 25 May at 9pm.

On Monday 24 May at 5am, catch the live simulcast of LOST: The End, a two and a half hour unmissable landmark event in television history. The finale will then be repeated on Tuesday 25 May at 9pm.

Today sees the launch of another HD channel on Sky, bringing the total to 37 HD channels.

This new movies channel features a back catalogue of MGM movies that have been re-mastered into the HD format. The channel runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

MGM HD launched on Sky channel 345 today, the 14th December 2009.

To watch MGM HD, you will need to subscribe to both Sky Movies and Sky HD. If you don’t want to sign to Sky Movies, you can get MGM HD as a premium service for £5 a month.

See the updated Sky HD Channel Lineup.

Our November 2009 podcast is out now.

FrequencyCast Show 45 takes a look at TV listings magazines and services. We also get hands-on with a new portable voice recorder, discuss the latest digital TV news, and answer your TV and Tech questions. Catch Carl and Pete as they chew the cud for 30 minutes.

If you’ve not tried FrequencyCast yet, please have a listen – shows are free!

Listen online or download our show from www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html.

Got iTunes? Get our latest show from FrequencyCast Podcast page on iTunes.

We’re getting a number of reports that Freeview viewers in North West of England have lost their regional programmes after rescanning their set-top boxes. BBC North West has been replaced with Welsh regional programmes.

We’ve had messages from Freeview viewers in the Liverpool and Manchester area, and it seems that those in range of the Winter Hill transmitter are being affected.

We’ve found the reason for this – at the end of October, the North Wales TV region completed part of the Digital Switchover, meaning that the power from the Welsh Moel-y-Parc transmitter is now stronger than the Winter Hill Transmitter for some viewers.

Viewers in the North West that have been affected, may find that their regional channels have been shifted to a set of channels reserved for regional “duplicate channels”. If you’ve lost your regional programmes, take a look at channels starting with number 801 – your missing regional channels should be hiding there. As an example, one viewer tells us that BBC1 North West has moved from Freeview Channel 1 to Channel 805.

Our tech team has the following advice for affected users:

If your Freeview box or Freeview TV allow it, manually retune BBC-A and D3-4 (the two multiplexes that carry BBC and ITV programmes) to the UHF channel numbers for your local transmitter. Here’s how to find the UHF channel numbers:

1. Go to http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/ and enter your postcode into the postcode checker.
2. Click on the pink box labelled “Full reception forecast”
3. Select “How do I retune?”
4. There, you’ll find advice on how to do a manual retune, and also the UHF channel numbers for your nearest transmitter (see example below). “Group 1″ is the BBC multiplex and “Group 2″ is the ITV multiplex.

By doing a manual retune, you should be able to get your local regional programmes back to their rightful place in the Freeview channel lineup. There’s a handy page instructions on how to retune at digitaluk.co.uk/retuning

If you need help with retuning, please ask in our Freeview Help Forum, or if you need help over the phone, call Digital UK’s helpline on 08456 505050.

Affected by this issue? Please let us know in our comments section.

Originally posted 29 Oct 09. Updated 16 Dec 09

Sky has just announced details of a new offer for those looking to sign up to the satellite TV service.

Sign up to any Sky Digital package before the 17th of December 2009, and get a £50 Marks and Spencer voucher. The voucher will be sent within 30 days of your Sky service being activated.

To take advantage, go to http://packages.sky.com/offers/skytv/

Fans of the BBC Red Button service using Freeview may notice that something’s missing.

By pressing the red button on your Freeview receiver, it was possible to access the BBC News Multiscreen service – mini streams with different news and weather feeds… that was until Tuesday the 27th October.

Sadly, the service has had to be removed from Freeview, in readiness for the upcoming launch of Freeview HD. The space taken up by the multiscreen video streams is needed for the new high definition TV service.

BBC News Multiscreen continues from those little red buttons on Sky and Virgin remote controls up and down the land.

Sky has launched its tenth HD Movies channel.

Sky Indie HD is now available on Sky Channel 334.

More: Sky HD

On the 16th of November, some of the Zone TV channels will be re-branded as CBS channels.

Zone Reality becomes CBS Reality
Zone Romantica becomes CBS Drama
Zone Thriller becomes CBS Action

Zone Horror remains unchanged – presumably because CBS Horror just sounds wrong…

Zone channels can be found on Sky, Virgin and Freesat.

We’ve previously reported that ITV’s text service Teletext was to close in 2010. It seems that the plan to shut down Teletext has been advanced, and ITV’s Teletext service is set to cease in two months.

Teletext Page 139 on analogue and digital is reporting the following:

“Teletext’s news and information service is switching off in December 2009. Owner Associated Newspapers confirmed the decision, saying the service had been loss-making in recent years and no viable business model could be found.”

Teletext Holidays, presumably still able to generate some revenue, is set to continue beyond December 2009.

This Saturday, the 10th October, England play Ukraine as part of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

So, which TV service do you need to watch the match? BBC? ITV? Sky Sports? ESPN?

Answer – None of the above.

Setanta Sports had originally bought the rights for this England away match, but after Setanta’s collapse, the rights were up for grabs again. Rights agency Kentaro now hold the rights, and couldn’t come to an agreement with any of the UK broadcasters to show the match on UK.

The upshot – this Saturday’s match won’t be on any UK TV service, or available in pubs. Instead, the Rights holders will be offering the match on the Internet only, complete with analysis from Sven-Goran Eriksson.

To watch the match, you’ll need to pay a one-off £4.99 for a live stream of the match. To get Saturday’s match, go to www.ukrainevengland.com

Classic radio station comedy, WKRP in Cincinnati is finally available to own in the UK. Series 1 is now available for download from the Apple iTunes Store. Download WKRP Series 1.

More on WKRP on our WKRP in Cincinnati Remembered page.

Premier Christian Radio has today gone national. The London-based station has today joined Absolute Radio, Talk Sport, Planet Rock, Amazing Radio, Classic FM and Kids Radio on the National DAB Multiplex.

Those with a DAB radio looking to get Premier Christian Radio may need to rescan for channels to get the new station.

More on DAB Radio.

A new podcast update is live on the wires now.

The 16 minute audio update covers the upcoming Freeview HD testing, BT Vision software, Quest TV on Freeview, Sky’s HD EPG rollout, plus iPhone news and details of a major mobile phone merger.

Get the 16 minute update now at www.frequencycast.co.uk/update.html

Catch us online or add us to iTunes for your regular tantalising take on UK Tech.

Sky’s announced a green change to the “auto standby” setting used by their set-top boxes.

Currently, Sky’s boxes will go into standby overnight between 11pm and 3:30am if there has been inactivity for 2 hours.

In the coming weeks, Sky will be rolling out a new version of software to Sky+ boxes that changes this behaviour. Soon, Sky+ boxes will go into standby after 4 hours of inactivity regardless of the time of day. There is an option to disable this feature if needed, via the Services button.

Sky reports that this change will save their customers a potential £12m from their combined electricity bills.

The DTG (the industry association for UK digital TV) will be officially launching the test regime for Freeview HD receivers on the 11th of September, with testing set to start in October.

The first Freeview HD broadcasts are set to start in the Granada TV region at the start of December 2009, and having boxes that work correctly in the market by launch is vital.

Testing HD receivers and ensuring conformance is key to the rollout of DVB-T2/MPEG-4 services in the UK. DTG’s Director General, Richard Lindsay-Davies say “The introduction of high definition services to the Freeview platform is one of the most significant milestones in the history of UK broadcasting and I am intensely proud of the role the DTG is playing.”

More details: Freeview HD

Radio and Telly’s favourite film of the year, The Boat That Rocked, is out on DVD today.

If you missed the film, The Boat That Rocked is a Richard Curtis British comedy about a fictitious pirate radio station moored off the UK coast in the 1960s. With a cast of top comedy talent, this film is a hoot, and gets full marks from the lads and lasses here.

The DVD contains 11 deleted scenes, plus a commentary with Richard Curtis, producer Hilary Bevan Jones, and actors Nick Frost and Chris O’Dowd.

The DVD is out today – Available now for under £12 from Amazon.co.uk or Play.com (with free P&P).

If you have a Sky+ HD box, you either have the old-style light-blue electronic programme guide, or the new-look guide that lets you watch TV while you’re browsing the guide (see picture).

Those with the old-style guide are eager to get their hands on the new-style guide, but the roll-out has been staggered by manufacturer.

Those with a Sky+ HD box made by Thomson or Pace should have the new guide by now, and it seems that those with a Samsung box are likely to get the long-awaited upgrade in the next few weeks.

No news as yet for those with a Sky+ HD box made by Amstrad – we assume Sky is still testing this prior to release.

Fans of Asian music, dance and film will be pleased to hear that a new Bollywood TV service will be launching in the UK at the end of September.

“Bollywood and Beyond” will be available as a video-on-demand service on BT Vision. Content will be provided by Shemaroo Entertainment, and will initially include 200 hours of music and movies from Bollywood and South Asia.

BT Vision chief executive Marc Watson said: “Bollywood fans can now choose from an extensive library of TV and film and watch what they want, when they want it. This is a great addition to what is already the UK’s biggest on-demand service for TV, film, kids, music and replay programmes.”

Sky, ever keen to get you to sign up to their TV service, are offering a £50 if you sign up to Sky Sports, Sky Movies or Sky+ HD online.

The £50 voucher offer is only available until 30th September 2009. For details of Sky’s top three offers, see our Sky Digital Offers section.