Ok while we are clutching at straws heres my go. my 710 locks up every couple of months or so which i have learned to live with. but this month i have had problems with recorded programs showing the channel name not the shows name. and recording not stopping. I think the latest batch of problems started when they did a software update for the newer models on november 4th. maybe it had an effect on the 710s
Is there a smilie icon for clutching at straws? mayby

sadly, these aren't new problems; others have documented them quite fully on this thead. welcome to the club.

as long as we're adding names, though, let me add mine. My 710 has been locking up as described -- intermittently -- weeks or months without one, then all of a sudden four or five in a day.

I have been victim only once (last week, in fact) to the un-ending recording.

and the titling problem -- channel name, rather than title name -- has happened to me intermittently since I've had the machine. But recently -- last few weeks -- it's now happening to the tune of 95% of the time. sometimes a shutdown will fix it for the first programme or so -- or for a test recording -- but then it invariably reverts back to its wicked ways till I have the time / energy to play about with it again!

It's that last one that really bugs me. I really wouldn't mind the occasional glitch. But in the last few weeks, it's been happening all the time; one day out of the blue the titling error just went from the rare weird thing to the standard operating procedure, for no obvious reason, and d*mned if I can figure out why.

Wish I *did* know what that was about! Unfortuantely, it doesn't seem to be what you've suggested, as my machine is on software version 1.00.00; so I suppose it's never been updated. Would very much like to see an update, though, that made it all all-right.
Last edited by texas.veggie : 28-11-2006 at 14:42

Well my 'fix' of missing titles with no signal recordings only lasted a day.

Had an overrun with Crimewatch Update last night, stopped by EPG recording of Film 2006 which also overran well into next program before I used REC STOP. Both titles blank!

Test recordings titles this morning started ok but BBC1, terrestrials and later the others like abc1 all disappeared.

Should have known better I suppose.

Glad that Sony are now acknowledging this as a known problem (as indicated on the ' Programme Titles on 710' thread)

So frustrating that it can't be fixed yet!

Clutching at the shadow of a straw, didn't EPG updates come at 5 am until recently, but my last one was at 4am!

ie at the same time in GMT.

Could this have implications for the downloads?

Think I'll give up on the speculation, soft reset once a day and use my aged VCRs for SKY and terrestial channels and keep the Sony on standby in the evenings, not exactly what I would hope for but will have to do.

John Lewis' repair agents took my 710 away last week. Fortunately I was able to demonstrate the title problem whilst they were at my house, so there is no disputing the fact that there is a fault. They said they may need to keep it for up to 3 weeks!

Phoned John Lewis up and moaned about losing my 6 month old £500 PVR for three weeks. Next day, they delivered a new Panasonic DMREX85 on loan until the crappy Sony comes back.

Only had the Panasonic for a few days but already found out that it lacks some of the features that the 710 had......locking up, no programme titles, system menus grinding to a halt, that sort of thing. But I suppose i can live without them.......

I had a call today from the shop repairing my 310 - it's been away for nearly 4 weeks now. The answerphone message said that the repair agents were waiting for a part for my recorder's hard drive. Very strange, given that the 310 is a DVD recorder ..... not very promising .....


Clem

Still no joy with Sony, so have posted a plea to watchdog for them to intervene, and have copied the URL to these forums. Let's hope someone takes an intrerest, as Sony's seems to be rather limited.

No call from Jonathan White as promised. Call me an idiot but I really believed that I would get a call and an apology and a solution or something. How stupid and "conditioned" we are to have ever believed that Sony gives a monkeys about its loyal customers... Called my dealer today... the HXD 710 is not back from the "agent" yet... but as soon as it is its going to be rejected as unfit... I have all the Trading Standards blurb supporting this action...... God only knows I bored and worn out thinking about it all really! What is really worrying about the whole thing is that the 710 and 910 don't seem to be scheduled an OTA upgrade... whereas the 860 and others do... its as if Sony have completely given up on us and put any lessons they've learnt through this farce into more recent models.


My local radio station (Consumer Programme) has invited me in next week to talk about my experience with the 710. Hopefully it will gee my dealer up a bit, the bad publicity generated will I imagine hit Sony sales in the run up to xmas.

Sweet jesus... what a total farce...

I have just contacted Watchdog and would strongly urge others to take the 5 minutes required to do the same...

contact watchdog here

I entered my submission in the computers and communication -> hardware section

That's my submission to Watchdog gone in.............

Hi there,

Just had this email from SONY. Thought you might be interested.

Dear Mr Young

Thank you for your recent email, which has been passed to me for a reply to be sent.

I am sorry to read of the problems you have experienced with our RDRHXD710 and also your unhappiness with Sony.

Having reviewed the issues you are reporting, I do suspect that your unit may well have some type of hardware problem which could be rectified by a Sony Authorised Repair Centre under the terms of the supplied warranty. However, I do note that you are insisting on a refund from your dealer so recognise that this may not be a solution that is acceptable to you.

Hardware failure may explain the crashes you are reporting, especially as you are saying it has been like this since purchase. We are currently also looking at the software within the unit as this may need updating but I doubt if this would explain all of the issues you have raised as the issues that relate to the software, recording overruns for instance, have only recently started to happen. This relates to missing information within the EPG but this issue has only arisen within the last month so would not explain the problems you say you have experienced since purchase.

I would like to offer my assurance that Sony is not knowingly marketing a faulty product. This model has been available from us for a long time now and we have sold several thousand of these units. However, we have only recently started to receive a large number of complaints and the majority of these may be explained by software issues that have only arisen in the last month. We are still investigating these and I will let you know the outcome of this as soon as I have some definite information.

I hope this is helpful.

Yours sincerely

Richard Stephens

For and on behalf of
Sony United Kingdom Limited

All ready have weeks ago--heard nowt though!
still the more and more of us writing to WD can only help so people,get wrighting

Hello everyone. I will be joining the club.

I bought a 910 just over 12 months ago and until recently it has been borderline acceptable. My warranty expired and then.........

two weeks ago it totally went haywire in exactly the same way as described by others here. The machine is recording showing the correct programme title WHILST it is recording. At the end of the recording it is substituting a title made up of the channel and time.

I have also had recordings that massively overrun (resulting in 40Gb recordings of 8 hours etc). I strongly suspect that these two problems are connected ie the same fault in interrpretting the EPG is casuing both problems.

I have also had lock-outs but that has become less frequent.

As far as I am concerned the machine is near-useless without recorded programme titles. If you have 35 recordings then how do you know which one is "only fools and horses" from 2 weeks ago?

ACTIONS

1 - Called the sony helpline on 28th and 29th Nov. They have promised to call me back on each occasion

2 - I will be contacting Watchdog as recommended here.

3 - I will be composing a standard "review" of the machine to post to every online retailer in the UK.


at more than 600 quid I had to dig deep to buy this machine. I was 99% satisfied with it when it was working but without recorded program titles I am 5% happy with it. I want refund or repair.
I do not think that this can be fixed with a screwdriver. It looks like a software fault to me.

Submitted mine under House & Home, sub section TV / Video

Has anyone else noticed that our recent title problems,
that Sony indicate may be down to the broadcasters,
coincides with the "Freeview Playback" branded range of Digital TV Recorders (DTR) compliance testing.

More info at the PVR UK site:- link below

http://www.pvruk.co.uk/freeview_playback.cfm

QI?

Well, had a call from John Lewis' repair agents today. They claim to have fixed my 710 by installing a new power supply. I am trying very hard to keep an open mind even though every part of me is shouting "it won't have made any difference."

I still have the Panasonic DMREX85 held as a hostage though. I will not be returning the Pany to Lewis' until the 710 works flawlessly!

And another "lockup" tonight ...it obviously knows it is going to the dealer tomorrow. This is the "lockup" where it takes about 2 minutes to respond to any command. Situation prior? Recording to HDD yet the DVD light/button was lit on the front panel (no idea why). Pressed HDD, it turned blue, as did the air shortly afterwards Yep, nada mas afterwards, well until 5 minutes after each press. I'm still watching it all like a slideshow. Now, I would love those guys from the 860 forum (who are saying us 710 chaps don't know how to drive these boxes) to tell me that that was user error and I obviously pressed the wrong button at the wrong time. Mmmmm right; well back to my software engineering training days - you control the environment as the "programmer"; if the user can do something crass, it's because you let them...not the other way around. So, if select "HDD" vice "DVD" is wrong, I humbly apologise, but the machine is still cr*p if that's if it hangs when you select THAT button. Let's see what tomorrow brings whilst Sony struggle to understand some fundamental failings in their own products - I suppose it matches their management, technical and customer care skills really....so no surprise really. Wonder if they want any skilled software types? Only joking, of course they don't.
Last edited by grn : 30-11-2006 at 19:03

The fault with mine is a cable that connects to the HD. Its a specific SONY part so it seems to be a "definate" thing then..? I've got a horrible feeling i've heard of this "cable" being changed before though elswhere on this forum.... However Sony did call and say it was all in hand.... but oddly admited that the 8 hr recordings and the titling issues WON'T be resolved until God only knows when. Seems they are also aware of the TUTV issue. Aware is one thing of course doing anything about it is entirely another.

Seems to me that it doesnt matter who's "fault" it is... if these boxes can't read the EPG they are unfit for purpose... anyway we'll see what happens... this box is only getting one chance.. if it doesnt work .. its curtains..... and going back with a possible small claims court claim against the dealer... I think there is enough evidence now to take Sony on.

The EPG data does work because the Panasonic that I have on load is reading it and correctly storing the programmes that I record. It is just that the shite Sony equipment has a FAULT which is preventing it from working as advertised. They can't hide behind this idea that it is the broadcasters fault. Other manufacturers don't have a problem with it.

Yes I see what you mean....... if other manafacturers can manage it... why can't Sony......... Bugger me..... why didn't I think of that when I had Sony on the phone earlier...

Sod it.

This refers to the RECORDING TITLES problem and probably also the RECORDING OVERRUNS problem. I do not believe that the LOCK-OUT problem is addressed by the firmware upgrade – that is probably a different matter.

I was called back by Will Wilson, a Customer Service Manager at Sony.

I was told:- The problem has arisen because the broadcasters have changed the format of the EPG signal in recent weeks (that would coincide with the start of my RECORDING TITLES problem) . He tells me that Sony did not have advance notification of the change and are now reacting by modifying the firmware and that the firmware modification will be broadcast by the DTG in the slot allocated to the machine. He would not commit to how long this will take and the best I could get out of him was “about two weeks”.

So – if this is true (and I believe that it is) then no amount of factory resets, trips to the repair shop or turning off at the mains will cure the problem. This refers to the RECORDING TITLES problem and probably also the RECORDING OVERRUNS problem. I do not believe that the LOCK-OUT problem is addressed by the firmware upgrade – that is probably a different matter.

I believe that I will write to Sony and complain because even if they do issue a working firmware upgrade in two weeks then I will have lost the most important layer of functionality in my machine for 4 weeks. And that is crap.

1) why where they unable to anticipate the EPG format change?
2) what steps are they taking to ensure that this does not happen again?
3) how will they compensate me for 1 month’s loss of function?

Hope this helps other people – please feel free to add to / correct what I have said.

Very useful Rob; seems to suggest we were right all along as to the whys and wherefores. Strongly suspect the lockup is a frimware bug too. Perhaps that may be cured by coincidence in any update? But as you suggest pi** poor planning to need to re-write firmware RETROSPECTIVELY where other manufacturers coped (as far as we know!).

Enjoying my loan 560 care of my superb local dealer that the cust serv desk operatives couldn't / wouldnt refer me to - this is being taken up elsewhere in Sony UK as I type this, by a very good senior man - names no pack drill
Last edited by grn : 01-12-2006 at 12:34

That is very interesting re the firmware thing.

Mine's in service now. Has anyone here had the lock-up issue fixed by a replacement unit/components? Having a look through the thread I couldn't find anyone 100% positive on this and it looks like the lock-ups have been put down to all manner of things, internal cabling, power supply, mpeg card etc... smells fishy to me!

I guess maybe people stop posting once they get their problems fixed but it would be nice to know that there are some units out there that have never locked up...

"I guess maybe people stop posting once they get their problems fixed but it would be nice to know that there are some units out there that have never locked up..."

Ahh yes, the curse of the forums, ceasing to post when all is okay Mine is in with the engineers now; expecting it back in about one week. Will post either way (better or not).... will also observe the 560 (on loan) in action and compare and contrast. In any event, I hope there are no fishy smells when it returns
Last edited by grn : 01-12-2006 at 16:20

if this is so, may I ask -- just to confirm for my own sake -- and also to instruct anyone else who might need the info ...

what, exactly, is the procedure for receiving OADs?

My understanding is that I just make sure the OAD options is set to 'on' in Setup ---> DTV ---> Technical Information , and then leave the box on a Multiplex 1 channel overnight (say, BBC1). The rest should be automatic. Am I correct about this?

I'm doing this currently, whilst the Sony OADs listed here are being played -- just in case ... . I assume nothing will happen, though. And it hasn't yet.

Don't want to miss any possible 710 update, however, should it really happen in "about two weeks", as you say.