I had an old DTR80 PVR that came out of my parents' house when it was sold a couple of years ago and I passed it (the PVR, not the house) on to friends recently.

However, when they tried to set it up they encountered a problem: either using the buttons on the front or the remote, it stops responding at certain points in the menu. They can get into Setup (the bottom option on the main menu anyway, I think that's what it's called) and the next step is OK too: selecting either auto scan, manual scan or first time installation. But once in auto scan or installation it just stops responding to button presses, excepting only that you can hold in the standby button on the front for a while and force it to reboot. In manual scan it seems to stop responding too but I'm not clear about that, and can't very easily check right now.

Any suggestions?

Hmmm... how far does it get when selecting the "first time installation" option? Does it get past the widescreen/normal selection part, or does it stop responding then before even asking if you want to autoscan? The first thing I would recommend is a first time installation, but that's not a lot of help if that is freezing, obviously .

Possibly could be some kind of hardware failure. Where was it stored when not in use for the last couple of years? Just thinking if extreme temperatures could be a factor, such as storing it in a loft, for example.

Can't remember the details and can't easily check right now but I'm fairly sure that clicking OK on first time installation works, but the next stage, whatever that is, doesn't.

It wasn't in the loft, but the house was empty and unheated during some of the coldest spells of the last couple of years, so I don't suppose that did it a lot of good!

I've got the same problem with my Warefdale model. The remote arrow keys don't work at all and the keys on the actual box only work down to a certain level in menus eg I cannot delete anything as when I get to the "are you sure yes, no" bit I can't move across to the yes bit. At this point the only thing to do is reboot the box. It only seems to have happened since the anaolgue signal was switched off here.
My box has been in use ever since I bought it so storage shouldn't be a cause.
I would have thought it was a software issue as keys do work until a certain level is reached in the menu system.
I can't delete anything, reformat the disk or do a first time installlation.
Any ideas certainly appreciated!

I doubt it is related to digital switchover, but you could test that by removing the aerial cables and switching the power off/on. Then see if you can delete a recording, for example.

I sounds like either the remote is faulty or some kind of hardware failure in the box. I don't remember if the yes/no is selectable via the buttons on the front of the box. Are you not able to select "no"? Ideally, if you know somebody else with a Vestel-made box, you could try borrowing their remote to see if it helps.

I can't get to the yes, and the OK button on the remote or the box doesn't work at this point, although both do up to there. It just seems to be when you've got right down into a menu. At that point the only option is to reboot.
The remote works up to a point (apart from arrow keys) and box keys do up to a point which is why I felt is was software.
I've fitted ane arial a couple of weeks ago and no difference at all

Do the left/right buttons on the remote work in other situations, such as during playback (should fast forward or rewind, or skip forward/back), or elsewhere in the menus to change various settings?

On the remote all the buttons work except for the left/right/up/down either side of the OK button.
On the box everything works apart from the arrow keys when you get down to the last level in a menu ie the arrow keys work at a top level but then when you get to a menu with a yes/no option or record series they don't work and the only option is to reboot (back doesn't work).
Really frsutrating as I can't delete anything, retune, reset etc.
The HD is now nearly full but it's deleting the old stuff if I add new but I'd love to be able to delete all the oldd stuff from the library.

My hunch would still initially be that the remote is faulty. However, I wouldn't be so confident of that to buy a new remote, which are relatively expensive on ebay. Ideally, try the remote on somebody else box, or vice versa. This same remote will work on all the boxes listed at http://www.vestelpvr.futaura.co.uk/allmodels.php.

Do you remember if it was ever possible to access the yes/no via the front panel buttons, or was it a case that you only found that out because the remote didn't work? It may possibly be that the software has never been able to handle the front panel buttons for those operations (I don't have one handy to check).

I have the same symptoms, except that, where the box buttons work, the remote buttons also work. Seems to me that brumeddy has two issues, one in the box, which is the same as mine, and one in the remote.

I must admit I didn't try the box buttons until I had this problem so don't know if they ever worked with the OK option. I think I'll just have to continue as I am until I get really fed up with it and buy myself something new. What's the current recommendation?

Problem solved. I've just been to the Argos outlet and bought a refurbished Hitachi for £29.99, with an identical remote. Tried that and it works OK on the Wharfedale (well, they are the same). So it was the remote - but still can't understand why the buttons on the box seem to have the same problem that the original control had.
By the way, is there any way of accessing the hard drive to, say copy files from it?

Which model is the Hitachi? If it's an older one, the hard drive can be swapped over. The newer ones have SATA drives, unlike your Digihome's IDE drive. The files can be copied via a PC with suitable software to read partitions using the ext2 filesystem.

Glad you've found a solution anyway. Probably the front panel buttons are not programmed for left/right and only up/down.