Share your experience!
Friday 23rd May approx 19:00 attempted to turn on DVD recorder RDR-HXD995. Seemed reluctant to power on from remote (and when pressing power on on unit itself) as in UPDATE mode. Finally after switching power off at the wall a few times, managed to get it to respond. However when a channel is selected, it displays for a short while and then the screen goes blank. Also, a programme which was set to record, has not recorded.
Is anyone else experiencing this problem - is this July all over again or is it just me?
Any help/advise would be appreciated.
Thanks
Solved! Go to Solution.
Hi linwilso3
Reading through what you have wrote, im shrugging my shoulders on this one - I don't know to be honest. I think you are right though about the EPG - pure coincidence I think. It could be a remote control failure, or even a IR port failure on the RDR unit itself. My advice is to persist in contacting Sony Support - If you still having problems, post back and Ill see what I can do.
Good luck with everything.
Cheers.
I don't think it applies, since you seems to have other problems, but be aware that the remote may be configured to use 3 different channel to command your unit. Default is DVD3 (since you reset it it should be that way). to be sure your remote in is DVD3 too, you should press ENTER and while holding ENTER press number 3 for at least 3 seconds
Not sure how many are still following this thread and are still interested in the issue but anyway .....
The latest EPG fiasco last weekend really irked me when it happened for third time in less than a year so I set about trying to find out which organisations are involved in the EPG process.
I filled in a feedback form on the 'Digital UK' website, selecting 'Missing Channels' in the subject line (though I think 'Complaint' might also have been more appropriate!)
http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/email-us
Much to my surprise I did actually get a reply today which is reproduced below in case anyone is interested.
*****
Thank you for your email regarding EPG problems with your Sony PVR which has been escalated to me for response.
As you know in the past weeks there have been two instances where formatting errors, in part of the EPG data supplied by channels, temporarily caused some models of Sony DVD recorders to malfunction. As soon as we became aware of the issue it was corrected. Viewers affected were advised by our contact centre to power their recorders off and on which returned the DVD recorders to normal operation.
Digital UK handles day-to-day technical management of the Freeview Electronic Programme Guide. Issues of this nature are, thankfully, infrequent and mechanisms are in place to correct them as soon as possible should they occur. This fault was due to a recent update for software used by some channels to upload their EPG data centrally and has now been resolved. I am sorry for the inconvenience this has caused, we are working to ensure these types of problems are prevented in the future.
Yours sincerely,
*****
Why bother posting this? Well, I suspect there is little chance that the issue will be solved by Sony due to the age of the equipment involved. I guess the only way the equipment will continue to work reliably will be if Digital UK stay on top of the EPG content and ensure the formatting errors do not occur in the first place.
Perhaps weight of numbers reporting the issue might make Digital UK aware that this is a significant problem for Sony users each time it occurs, so if anyone feels inclined to also make a report, the link above seemed to get through to someone who knew what it was about!
Cheers
Hi ccarmock
I think you might be hoping against hope that Sony will do any more to fix the problem (but it would be really nice if they did).
At the same time as I contacted Digital UK (above), I also emailed Sony support about the issue. It took them just short of a week to reply and I have reproduced their response below.
Whilst an email reply from an individual operative in an overseas support centre doesn't represent the corporate response of Sony in the UK, the fact that the content of the reply was so far removed from the actual issue suggests that this isn't a matter which Sony have any great interest in dealing with at all (since they clearly haven't shared the issue with their own support agents).
Anyway, I laughed out loud when I read the reply. Hopefully others might see the funny side of it too.
(Copied an pasted verbatim)
*****
Thank you for your e-mail.
In responce to your quiry about the Sony PVRs experienced problems in tuning and recieving the EPG.
Kindly be informed that the devices don't need a firmware update to resolve un-expected issue, The issue basically because of 4G mobile networks launching nationally this year have the potential to cause interference with Freeview reception for a minority of households.
This is not an issue with the device it self, and it will remain unlikely to replace the device or to buy another product because of this issue,
Should you have any further questions, please feel free to reply to this e-mail or contact us via the numbers below.
Yours sincerely
*****
Incidentally, the current range of Panasonic hard disk recorders look quite interesting and some include a feature for recording two channels at the same time using a dual tuner feature.
The next time the EPG goes down I think I shall be looking into buying a new Panasonic!
Hi everyone - sorry to bump this thread again.
I'm from Lancashire, and only now having trouble with my HXD870.
It lost everything completely during a freeview update a few weeks ago, and now I cant get anything on it at all.
I've done everything so far on all the forum threads - including "France", and all the intermediate upgrades from 1.65 to 1.70.
The problem is, the machine just wont recognise the updates on the CD, and so its still on version 1.63 with no obvious way of updating it.
I appreciate you've all probably seen all of this before, but any help would be greatly appreciated.
I called Sony themselves about 3 weeks ago, who promised me a solution by email - but it never came. I feel a bit short changed by them to be honest. And there's no way I can just go out and buy a new unit. Why should I?
Thanks for letting me rant. Please help.
In order for your HXD870 manage the problem you have to have the 1.70 version installed. You have to ask to the call center to send you a preinstalled CD (not an email) in order to solve the problem, In the mean while you may try to check better the way to produce your own CD via a PC. I'm aware that many people using MS Win7 standard utilities are not able to create the right format of the CD itself, you may want to try a different product (such as Nero) that works (setting the parameter suggested in the downolad section of the support page for RDR HXD870)