I bought one of these for my dad for ease of recording the Formula 1 programs. I thought it quite good so got a 790 for myself.

On Saturday I used the digital EPG to set mine up to record the F1 season starting next Saturday morning by selecting the listing and changing the series recording field from no to yes (EPG link is on).

I then phoned my dad to talk him through the same procedure and was surprised to find that the series recording field was set to ------ and could not be changed.

Looking on my unit I noticed that mine showed ------ if the program was a one off. I also saw that if you press the info button in the EPG screen then if the program is part of a series then you are given the option of pressing the yellow button to see the series links (there is no yellow button option for a one off).

On my father's 890 there is no yellow button option in the info screen for ANY program on ANY channel so no series recording can be set on any program. I have checked all the settings in system setup to make sure they are the same as mine.

It is as if there is no series recording data being received by my father's unit. I receive my signal from Emley Moor. My father get his from Crystal Palace but I cannot believe that they are not transmitting the data. He also has channels numbers in the 800's from other transmitters (Anglia, etc) which he can select and see the EPG for but none of these has any series recording data either.

Any ideas?

Sorted.

The series recordings I tried to set up were on the channels that had duplicates from other transmitters. By setting the channel numbers above 800 to "skip" then switching the unit off then on again resolved the problem.

There were timer issues with the 770, 870, 970, 1070 models. The bug can be fixed from the Sony website. Check this:

# Check the Recorder firmware version:

* Power on the television and make sure it is tuned to the inputs to which the DVD Recorder is connected.
* Power on the DVD Recorder.
* On the remote control, press the SYSTEM MENU button.
* Select Initial Setup.
* Press the ENTER button.
* Select Audio Out.
* Press the ENTER button.
* Select Dolby Digital Output.
* Press the ENTER button.
* Highlight Dolby Digital and press the ANGLE button.
* The firmware version currently installed on the DVD Recorder will be listed on the television screen as VERSION:. If the version number is 1.65 or higher, your DVD Recorder does not need to be updated.
* To exit, press the SYSTEM MENU button.

If your version needs correcting, download it from the Sony website, then onto a CD-R and follow the instructions.