I've got a Sony recorder with series link capability. I have set Big Brother to record tonight and went into the timers list to modify it to record 'series'. But now I have timer conflicts even when I dont have another recordings set up for around that time. Hoping someone can help me out here.

EDIT:
I had Countdown in my timers list already for Ch4 1530-1615 today and though Big Brother was selected from the EPG (tonight on Ch4 at 2100) it seems to have put the timer as Big Brothers Little Brother on E4 at 1555-1625

I expect C4 has linked ALL BB shows on ALL channels as a "Series". very annoying

Thanks. Its a bit of a joke really. Went straight to football afterwork and coming back this is what I have in my Title lists:

Big Brother E4 1755
Big Brothers Little Brother E4 1929
And its currently recording Big Brothers Big Mouth E4

Did it record what I selected - tonights Big Brother show at 2100 on Ch4? Did it heck!

I would suggest Ch4 should apply seporate Series Link CRIDs for Big Brother, Big Brother: On the Couch, Big Brother Big Mouth, Big Brothers Little Brother, Big Brother Live. For example I would like to set a series link for just the nightly Big Brother shows on Ch4 and a seporate series link for Sundays 'On the Couch programme perhaps. If Channel 4 realy want consumers to take all their output - at the most they should make use of the 'recommendation/related link thats part of Freeview Playback for their other spin off channels. Then at least they are still bring to the attention of their viewers these other programmes without forcing it to get downloaded onto PVRs.

If the machine would even record the regular show this evening at 2100 at least for now I can keep deleting all the other types of Big Brother shows there are. I think I will try and speak to someone at Channel 4 about this and see if I can bring it to their attention. I doubt I will get anywhere but I guess its a good idea.

By the way, its recording E4 at the moment but I cant seem to get into the EPG to set a few things up before I turn in. Is there anything I can do about this while the machine is recording?

Sometimes I've noticed that when I switch the machine on it decides to start to record by itself. At the moment, having not long switched it on, its recording another Big Brother on E4+1 . However, that programme is on from 1355-1455 and I switched the box on from standby at about 1447. If it due to a series link timer, why dont they fire when the machine is in standby at the correct start time instead of waiting for the machine to be on? I am a new with this product so would appreciate any advice as I cant seem to see anything similar after a search.

One more. Also, I have found after stopping a recording sometimes they just go and start right back up again as soon as I am out of the room. Spooky.

Mine does this too. If I timer record a show on E4 and stop it, it will automatically record the show on E4+1 an hr later. This is very annoying, as I suspect if I cancel my original recording to record say something on Film4, it's going to get interrrupted.

With regards to Big Brother, I record the 9pm C4 show as a one-off (NOT series), yet it still records the repeated show early next morning.

These machines are getting so sophisticated these days they are starting to have a mind of their own lol. I cant say I am very happy with the performance of the machine really. It does need a bit more work from Sony. Does anyone have any contacts with the right people at Sony who might be interested to know what bits need tweaking?

Just tried setting series record for Hollyoaks on Ch4 for 6:30-7pm, but when I look in my Timer list, it's listed the E4 show instead.
Tried deleting, and re-setting, but getting same results. Also noticed lately, they my machine intermittently records future shows that I've record as a one off.
Seems to have amind of it's own.

Something I have observed with the machine using series link also is that sometimes I come in to find the unit is not recording when it is supposed to. So I switch it on from standby and then it will start recording whatever is left of the programme automatically. Is this something particular to the 870 or do other Sony series linking machine have the same problem?

Another issue to document, in case the Sony engineers check out these boards for extra info...

This morning I see in my timers list Big Brother at the top is recording and it says E4 1755-1900 - the time was 0843!

It was also causing my T4: Friends series link timer which was next to clash with 'overlap' marked on the timer. Even though that is set for 0950-1025.

I go to my recordings list and the machine is recording Big Brother on Channel 4 in fact, since 0800. That programme finishes at 0900.

I stop the currently recording programme and it then starts recording it again even though I just stopped it - oh brother Anyway this has had the effect of sorting out the ugged up timers list so hopefully everything will pan out OK on its won for the rest of the day.

I cant help feeling its channel 4 and their channels that are making the machine struggle like this with series link. Either that or the box needs a software update to cope with what the broadcasters are going to be doing going forward.

I also find this immensely annoying. Is this just a symptom of Sony machines, or do other PVR's handle Series Link any better? I'm currently musing over which of the 4 recorded versions of Deal or No Deal to watch.

What's worse, is that there's no repeat facility on manual timer recordings, which would have been a way round the series link problems.

I also found that the digital EPG is the same as in my old Pioneer Freeview STB, which I was surprised about, and it's really annoying that you can't scroll from day to day without going through the whole 'Jump' process.

My GXD-360 also suffers from unwanted extra recordings, which, when recording onto a limited space DVD-RW is more of a problem. I have missed several programmes, because the damned thing recorded something twice, and therefore ran out of disc space prematurely.

These areas really need some attention from Sony, as I have not been impressed with the current batch of products from them.

1) I believe this is a problem with the TV Broadcst (C4) and not the Sony equipment.

2) I have the 860 and you can certainly program a repeat function (page 47 of the manual)

3) Must have different EPGs, I don't understand the "jump" thing.

4) If by "unwanted extra recordings" you mean the onse created by the "series link" problem, then again I don't think this is Sony's fault.

OK, I'll buy that to a degree, but the machine should be able to differentiate between channels. If the series link feature stuck to one channel, there wouldn't be a problem, but recording something on C4 seems to automatically set timers for More4.


Mine is the 870, apparently a poor cousin, and it has no repeat facility that I can find, other than for playback.


Indeed, this is definitely the one from the Pioneer STBs


No, these are with "Series Link" switched off. If I record EastEnders on BBC1, it will often also record the BBC3 repeat, and the same with Coronation Street. Record on ITV1, and get the ITV2 repeat as well.

Simon, from what I understand about "series link", as part of the EPG info, the broadcaster should have a "tag" of some sort identifying that program as part of a series and should also contain information if it is a repeat, the software should then scan the EPG for that "tag" and select the program for recording. In the case of C4, I would suspect that they have left off the "repeat" part on their broadcasts on E4, E4+1, More4 etc. resulting in mltiple episodes being recorded. (I did have a problem with C4 a few months ago whilst recording "Brothers and Sisters". It recorded the original prog from C4 then recorded the next episode from E4 then the same episode from E4+1) If the "tags" were coded correctly you should only get the original program. The information from the "Freeview Playback" site, is that, if for example the BBC moved a "series linked" program to BBC2 from BBC1 because of "scheduling issues", the Sony should still record it. Some of the plans and expectations are documented at http://www.pvruk.co.uk/freeview_playback.cfm

I've had a look at the manual for the 870 and page 54 section 3 would imply you can have daily or weekly repeats of programs. and the figure on page 60 has the first program as Mon-Sat 22:00 - 22:15.
(I can see why you think the 870 is the "poor cousin", when I bring up the "Timer List" on the 860, it shows the Program Title as well as date and time and if it is part of a series link).

Im afraid I haven't a clue about the "extra programs". Perhaps someone who has the 870 might have experienced something like that.

Hope this helps

Dave McG

I have the 870 and one of the first things that struck me about the machine is the above average picture quality it manages to produce. I think its just suffering from bugs some of which need to be ironed out. I am new to Sony DVD recorders and have no idea about Sonys policy on bug fixing or track record. Perhaps someone can comment?

I have experienced missed recordings with series link timers but how much is down to the product or the broadcasters is difficult to tell. This is something Sony must at least investigate in case it is a problem with the recorder. Having said that, on freeview, recorders will have an implementation of the basic Freeview Playback version by the looks of it. Thats not sophisticated enough to manage everything for you when broadcasters allocate series link meta data in a sloppy way, as Channel 4 does for its collection of Freeview channels. The BBCs methodology seems to just work and perhaps the other broadcasters should go round and pay them a visit if only to get some best practice going out there.

The other problem I've seen on the recorder is runaway recordings because the machine failed to stop the timer. This will stop all other recordings until the next time you are at the machine and see whats going on. In the mean time disk space is being eaten up. Freeview Playback minimum specs should detail that recorders will have the intelligence to deal with runaway recordings; it recommends a recording of a programme that has over run should be stopped 2 hours after its billed stop time. So hopefully this is something that can be fixed as its quite important, especially on non-dual recording PVRs.

I've also noticed on various occasions now that a timer that has already been stopped will kick in again on its own accord. This is quite anoying, especially as it can and will stop your other timers from recording.

Sorry to go on but this is just misc observations on what, really is a piece of kit with a lot more pluses than minuses going for it:

The machine seems to have great difficulty keeping most of its populated EPG when standby is thrown into the mix. I think this is something that can be fixed relatively easily given it has the capability. Perhaps some of the changes in the way this recorder now has to manage accurate recording and series link data etc is having an impact?

The user interface can be at times very slow or awkward to navigate around. This is especially noticed when in the Freeview EPG. This makes calling up the jump interface to get around the EPG a necessity. The 'on screen' side of the user interface is in places command line like and at others a more normal graphical/CE equipment like one, which is a bit odd. Not something I would complain about to be honest as if the machine is the business who cares.

Oh, well spotted! That was well hidden wasn't it? I'm a lot happier now, as I can record just one episode of DoND at a time!

I'll have a look at that 'pvruk' link as well.


Just to clarify, this isn't with the 870, this is with my GXD360 DVDR. I'm sure it's also a 'tag' thing, as it doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, it's bloody annoying!


Indeed, it did - thanks Dave!

Can't comment on bug fixing, but I have to agree, the PQ is outstanding, and easily gives my Denon DVD a run for it's money.


Yes, yesterday I only got 5 seconds of Deal or No Deal, but it recorded the More4 repeat of a show from last week perfectly!


Not experienced that, but I wonder if it could be due to a less than exemplary Freeview signal? Just one breakup and the wrong time, might cause the recorded to 'miss' a tag - perhaps?


Series link?


Given that it seems to be the EPG from the old Pioneer Freeview boxes, it certainly loads a lot quicker than the Pio box ever did, but I still notice gaps in the population.


Yes, why put 'Day+/-' on the remote, when it doesn't function?

I've only ever seen this happen on 2 or 3 occasions since we got the machine but its more like a few minutes rather than a few seconds.

There is a bug where the machine can start recording not long after you have just told it to stop a recording. In what could be a variation of this, I had a problem where a series timer got deleted, but after noticing later the machine was recording, I found the timer entry went back in the timers list. A power cycle managed to do the trick.

So you say the jump buttons dont work then? I thought so - was going to check the manual in case I wasnt using them right. I have fed all the comments back to Sonys contact centre, and gave details of the forum just in case.