Sony centre can have a multi-region 710 for Friday, so not sure what's going on with RGB.

Sony are discontinuing the 910 so its not sounding good for the Divx file playback upgrade ive been waiting for since dec

Yes. I had this a few months back and someone else at the time mentioned they'd experience it. Happened about twice to me, then nothing for several months and then earlier this week it happened again.

It doesn't appear to be anything to worry about. I wonder if it could be related to the clocks going forward?

Stuart
http://www.radox.freeserve.co.uk/

Yep. I've had the same problem. Sometimes it seems as though nothing is going to happen at all except display Sony DVD on the front display. The tv screen remains blank.
However on other occasions it works properly.
I was beginning to worry. However it now looks like a "design feature".
Has anyone taken a 710 back for repair of this fault?

I have tried a few things like a reset (hold down the standby button for 10 seconds), disconnecting other equipment, but no success.

Then I discovered that if the 710 input select had been on Line 1, 2 or 3 (etc) when put on standby, then it came out of standby quickly. If you then tried immediately to change the input to freeview, then it sat there for a minute.

So, I tried an "auto tune" from the system settings menu and the problem went away. Coincidence?

My box is doing it more than a couple of times now.

I had a thought this morning whether this slow startup is the reason why the unit gets ready to record upto 2 minutes before the start of a timer recording.

My best guess is that it's doing some sort of essential disk maintenance in the same way as you sometimes defragment a PC's hard disk. About 50% of my 710's disk is normally used storing approx 70 programmes. I do occasionally use the A-B erase feature which might cause more fragments. What do other people who experience this problem have on their hard disk?

Stuart
http://www.radox.freeserve.co.uk

I purchased my 710 from Argos on Tuesday and have noticed in the past two days that it is slow coming out of standby compared to other pvr's I have owned.

Gultronics have just told me they are not taking any more orders for the HXD710 either! What gives?

Has this thread seen both the birth and the death of Sony's first Freeview HDD recorders?

I have wanted to buy a top of the range DVD HDD Recorder for the past couple of years but I have never had sufficient confidence in the manufacturers or products available to be able to pass my 500 quid across the counter. Any likelyhood of this situation changing in the near future

Never seen this problem reported previously.

Are you using SCART cable? This looks like a common problem where one of the colours is missing because the pin connection is not correct. Could be the cable or one of the sockets in which case you have a faulty unit (either Recorder or TV).

- Check the plugs are correctly seated in the sockets
- Check there are no bent pins in the plugs
- Try to wiggle the scart plug at the TV and Recorder and see if there is a fault in the TV/Recorder soldering.

- It could be a problem with the recorder or TV though, in which case you should still be under warranty.

Hi Thanks for response.

Fortunately the problem has not come back but I did try to re-adjust the scart plug at the time with no success

Your other comments will be taken up if required. (If there a problem with the unit itself I would prefer it to show itself now so that I would be covered by gtee, but there you go.)
Cheers
David

My Sony RDR HXD 710 has been ultra-reliable... until last week.

It recorded ER on E4 on Thursday 9-10pm OK but it then recorded BBC News 24 for an hour (twice) and labelled them both as ER. This then filled the disc and Hustle failed to record on Friday.

I find auto chapering better on some channels than others - I guess it depends how they do the lead-ins etc. ITV 3 (Quantum Leap!) is very reliable at coming in just right after the adverts.
(ITV1 is more variable.)

Also recording off ITV3 and E4 is more reliable using the EPG as they actually seem to run to time (shock horror!)

I've had no problem with Datasafe 16x, 8x discs or Infiniti (unknown speed).

Single tuner hasn't been a problem, but I have just been tempted by a Dazzle Video Collector 2006 PCI card for my PC - 32 quid (inc postage) from savastore.com, and it does Digital and Analogue.

I've not been on the forum for a bit having delighted in the use of the 710 since I purchased it in the first week it was available. HOWEVER over the last few weeks I've had this same freezing problem and couldn't see what might be causing it. I ended up disconnecting it from the mains and then rebooting. Caused no problems and everything was fine. Eventually it seems to be related to the use of the line inputs just like Eldy. Without using the line inputs I have no problem whatsoever so there does seem to be a connection. Making sure you're not on line input when going into standby does seem to help. There was one occasion when my wife experienced the problem but she said she had not been using the line inputs at the time - trouble is once reset you can't tell what the state of play was at the time. Any other feedback on this would be most welcome.

However it doesn't stop me thinking it's an absolutely brilliant bit of kit.

I agree it's a great piece of kit, however when will someone get to grips with keeping the EPG up to date on Freeview? I set it to record "Essex Boys" a few nights ago and we watched all the way until the recording stopped at 1h.55m! Successfully cutting off the end!
Not the kit, but anoying all the same!!!

It seems that for all the praise we have given Sony for the 710 and 910 machines, a software revision is needed to cure the annoying and disapointing problem with these machines not communicating with the FREEVIEW EPG.
When a timer recording is selected from the EPG the Sony boxes dutifully record from the appropriate channel for the period it takes from the EPG when the timer recording is set.
The MAJOR problem with this is that when a programme time is altered by the broadcaster the Sony machine does not amend the period during which it is set to record. Thus we have regular cut offs for Dr Who and many others, not just on BBC but on all channels. I set the recorder for the film "Essex Boys" on ITV4 recently and after 1hr 55mins the recording ended. Just as the film was coming to its' conclusion!!!
It seems that although the EPG is not always kept up to date, there is the problem that within the Sony kit the Timer Record function is not programmed to be told of and EPG change and then change the timer settings.
Come on SONY - Let's have a Software Update to put this right

I emailed Sony for some comment on the problem of losing the end of programmes and this is their reply:-

I can advise that the RDR-HXD710 uses EPG timer auto extend to provide the feature you are referring to. EPG timer auto extend (ETAE) is a new feature that has been designed to help prevent a premature ending of a timer event recording. The concept is similar to PDC but is technically different, as it will only operate via the Freeview EPG.

Like PDC, the broadcaster is in control of the system's operation, by providing an electronic ID control tag. The ID tag is transmitted with the TV programme and has the ability to remotely control the RDR product. Only the BBC provide this service at the moment however other Freeview channels such as ITV C4 etc should have this feature later in the year. As a final note, If the broadcaster has temporary problems transmitting ID tags, the fixed times on the EPG will be used as back up.

So now we know that the BBC is working OK and as usual the commercial channels are lagging behind.
However it doesn't explain the mystery concerning the problems with recording Dr Who. Perhaps the Time Lord can help us out?

Very interesting, thanks! That explains why some of my recordings are odd lengths.

Any idea if it works on a weekly timer setting (as the programme name then disappears from the timer menu)?

Hi, I would like to record from my VCR to my Sony 710 HD via scart, but how? I have a lot of tapes and would like to back them up on DVD/HD but I'm at a loss of how to do it.
Thanks for any help.

With some channels still incapable of transmitting ordinary EPG info on a regular basis I would be doubtful about relying on them producing anything more sophisticated for a while yet. The capability of the box is only one element of this kind of system working.
That is assuming this ETAE (which does not google by the way) is not just an automatic time padding feature.
Anyway here's hoping the EPG data does start outputting the kind of markers needed on a regular basis.

Richard

I have done this. You connect the scart to the output of your VCR and then into the input on the 710. You then need to select the appropriate input, I think it is no. 4. To change the input selection you need your remote control. Slide the cover down at the bottom of the control and it reveals some extra buttons. The bottom LH corner you will see input select. Set the tape playing and then toggle through the inputs until you see it displayed on the TV.

Use the record control to start recording to your hard disc. Works a treat.

It would be nice if they issued a software update to add this feature to the older models.

Chris

And nice if the BBC transmitted the needed signals accurately!
Also lets see how long it takes the commercial channels to get around to providing the signals. I've a feeling it will be some time before the kit we have is given the proper transmissions it needs.

Doverrog,
Set your timer to kick in 2 minutes before your program starts. The 710 picks up the title of the recorded prgram at near enough 3 minutes into the recording. I promise it works every time !

Oops my mistake. Getting carried away. I thought you were asking about the title of a recording.
I'll get my coat.

I was wondering if anyone can help me with the mysteries of high speed dubbing?
I was trying to record some episodes of 'Strictly Dance Fever' for a friend in Norway (don't ask!), and I'd recorded them in LSP mode on the HDD, but when I tried to copy them to DVD, it refused to do it in high speed mode, only at 1 speed.

I know that high speed doesn't work if you try to squeeze too much on, but even 1 episode of 40 minutes wouldn't go over at high speed.

I noticed then that in the book it talks about high speed not working if 'remnants of editted titles may remain on the disc' ?? I HAD removed a few minutes of rubbish from the start of the program on the HDD...is this what it means?

Thanks for any help

Vince

Vinceds,
The 710 is very annoying when dubbing in high speed. Sometimes it will and other times it won't do high speed. Usually I find if a program/adverts flicks between broadcasted aspect ration of 4:3 and widescreen it makes it worse. Perfect example of this is Friends. Basically if you don't delete ALL of the widescreen advert and the widescreen broadcasted before and after the show the 710 will not allow a high speed dub. But in your case the program you recorded was on BBC1 and all the broadcast before and after should have been ALL widescreen. I can only guess it may be because you recorded in LSP. Generally I record everything in SP and don't get to many problems.
Remnants of edited titles may remain, means that when you edit a title, remnants of the deleted parts will be dubbed to your disc if dubbed in high speed. I can tell you this is also quite annoying. The only way I have found is to set you’re A point at ten frames back from where you think it should be and your B point 18 frames forward of where you think it should be. Only for High speed dubbing though.
Takes a while but if you’re going to high speed dub it’s the only way you won’t get remnants of your deleted scenes AND by doing this you more than likely will be deleting a different aspect ratio if I said it’s something like friends above.
However if you do a normal speed dub you can set points A and B exactly where you want and it will dub to disc as it is on the HDD.
Also if you do a high speed dub the disc will pause slightly at edited points. This doesn't happen if you dub at normal speed. And high speed dubbed discs when played back on my pioneer DVD player pause slightly AND show the play symbol at edited points.
Hope that helps a little.