I spoke with Sony Support today. Two items of Good News.

1.  A fix for the disasterous Youview set crippler

2. A help guide for your TV so you can see how to use it (ie, not just the silly set up pamphlet).

OK here goes - as advised straight from the SONY horse's mouth - it worked for me!

1.  To regain my satelite and terrestrial channels without Youview and with the EPGs for both intact, I was told to reset the factory setting via Home/Settings / "Storage and Reset".  I just reset the whole box. It went through a switch off and restart/reboot sequence then I was able to re-setup the digital terrestrial and satellite channels as originally provided.

WARNING.  Later in the process the deadly YouView appears and asks if you want to select it.  There is no option but to click NEXT (clicking BACK just keeps you in the setup loop). After clicking next just keep selecting the options that say no no no.  It is quite persistent in its belief that you probably want it but just keep telling it to go away and it will eventualy stop asking.  Result!!

The only minor issue is that Youview remains as an icon, in the home area, ready to taunt you into installing it again sometime.  KEEP WELL CLEAR!  🙂

2.  The Help Manual

This is unhelpfully called a help manual when what it really is is a guide to what the set does and how to use it.  Just go here and insert you set's model number then select the HTML Help Guide for your set. It tells you how to use the darn thing!  The "User Guide" in pdf format is just the stupind start up pamphlet. Result again!!

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/hub/prd-tvhc-tv

Happy viewing everyone

PA