HXD870 guide / display problem

Ericthelobster

01-07-2009

Am currently visiting my mum, who has just asked me if i can sort out her HXD870 for her. I'm afraid I know nothing about this kit really, but apparently it's been working fine up till yesterday, when she found she couldn't get the EPG on screen - if you press the "GUIDE" button on the remote there's just a small message saying this function is not available. Everything else apparently is working fine.

The other oddity which I suspect might be related, is that the front panel displays the clock time on the left, and on the right it shows "D - - -" which looks to me like it's expecting me to enter a channel name or something. However nothing I can do affects this display. I can't find anything at all about it in the manual, either.

Any assistance before I leave tomorrow would be much appreciated!!

Nigel Goodwin

01-07-2009

The 870 is a combined Freeview/analogue recorder - and can use either the analogue GuidePlus EPG, or the Freeview digital one (if available). If she's in a Freeview area, then set it to use the far superior Freeview EPG - otherwise, you have to use the GuidePlus analogue EPG - this downloads overnight, but ONLY if the unit is switched to Standby, if it's turned ON, it won't download the EPG.

The units themselves are EXTREMELY reliable, I've only ever seen one faulty one (and that was just an HDD failure) - but we get loads of complaints about the GuidePlus EPG.

Ericthelobster

01-07-2009

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin:
“If she's in a Freeview area, then set it to use the far superior Freeview EPG - otherwise, you have to use the GuidePlus analogue EPG - this downloads overnight, but ONLY if the unit is switched to Standby, if it's turned ON, it won't download the EPG.”

Thanks for that. Have just been and checked, and it's set to the digital EPG option.

So are you saying that it's simply a possibility that the unit's not been left on standby (I don't think that's the case TBH) so the downloaded EPG is completely "empty"? Would that really account for the black screen and the "D - - -" on the display?

I'll make sure it's definitely left on standby overnight, anyway...

Nigel Goodwin

03-07-2009

Originally Posted by Ericthelobster:
“Thanks for that. Have just been and checked, and it's set to the digital EPG option.

So are you saying that it's simply a possibility that the unit's not been left on standby (I don't think that's the case TBH) so the downloaded EPG is completely "empty"? Would that really account for the black screen and the "D - - -" on the display? ”

That only applies if you're using the GuidePlus EPG - can you view Freeview channels through the unit?.

soulboy77

03-07-2009

Sounds as if you need to do a re-scan as you don't appear to have any digital channels saved. The rightside of the panel display should be showing some digits after the D for example D001 = the assigned digital channel number or an actual channel name (only where the name has 5 or less characters for example ITV1).

- System Menu/Initial Setup/Digital Tuner/Replace Channels