Hi All

I am having trouble with my Sony svr s500 just as (it seems) everyone else is!

my old ferguson box blew up after 5 years of sterling service and I found this model on ebay and bought it. I can't believe how slow the response is, the pic quality on an Ep recording is bad and the epg has flaws but to me I can live with these and for £90 its not bad (different story for £230!!).

What I can't live with is that I cannot scroll through now and next on other channels while watching the current channel. I am talking about the little rectangular box that appears at the bottom of the screen with details (or at least program name and start/end times) similar to an NTl or sky box. I have to go to the guide (which cuts the current channel) and scroll through that.

I cannot find this feature in the manual but I have seen other adverts for this box with a screenshot of the box offering this and I've seen comparisons against other PVRs where this feature is ticked. I assumed all freeview boxes had this.

Does this feature exist on this model? Does anyone else have it? Is it a software or hardware version issue? I refuse to believe at the minute that this feature doesn't exist on this box Why put all this functionality in and leave out an essential (to me anyway) thing

I may have to concede defeat and accept that this doesn't exist but if it doesn't this box will be back on sale and the sky+ box will be arriving sooner rather than later which is a shame because I've had a taste of the freeview PVR world now at it tastes good

Any help is much appreciated, I will stop going on now, thanks.

I don't have a Sony, but on the Fusion box which it is closely related to (it's effectively a rebadged Digifusion FVRT200 with custom software) scrolling through the channel listings "in vision" is simply a case of pressing OK on the remote, to get the box up, and then left or right to move through the other channels. Does nothing like that work on the Sony?

That is exactly what I expected and i have tried this but it doesn't do anything. The press is registered as the light on the unit flashes but nothing happens. Pressing info just brings up a thin display at the top and displays the (not very useful) channel number and the channel name.

If I press left or right it switches from playback to tv, if i'm not playing anything back these buttons just bring up the not allowed symbol in the top right (similar to that on most dvd players).

I've tried all manner of button combinations to no avail but they are all registered as button presses. Pressing display just brings up the HD usage. Its very frustrating.

I have used the Sony firmware on my Digifusion and found that it doesn't have that feature. The only way you can get it is to load the Digifusion 0.1.1 firmware on it. You will lose the 'hard disc power off when out of use' feature but will gain in every other respect.

You can put the firmware on the hard disc and/or in flash memory if the Sony has an RS232 socket.

Go here for details:

http://technonotice1.googlepages.com/themes.html

Thank you Providence!

Thats what I feared! Does anyone else have one of these boxes?

Is there any way of backing up the current firmware in case anything goes wrong with the upgrade? Thanks.

I forgot to mention you will not be able to use the Sony remote control. You will need to use a One For All that is able to download codes or something similar. Or acquire a Digifusion remote, here's one:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/remote-control...QQcmdZViewItem

If you remove the hard disc and check it using Syphon (mentioned in the link I provided) you should find the run.bin file and be able to copy it. If there isn't one, I can send you one.

A couple of us on the Digifusion forum have loaded the Sony firmware on to our Digifusions with no problems (in my case on the flash and the disc). I cannot offer any experience of loading the Digifusion firmware on the Sony but I am assuming that it will work the other way.

Proceed at your own risk!

I've just checked the Sony manual and seen that it has an RS232 socket. The quickest thing to do would be to load the Digifusion 0.1.1 firmware using this socket and a null modem cable. If it works you should be able to do basic operations using the front panel. If you PM me I can send you the Sony run.bin to reload and then you can decide what to do about the remote. I would use the Digifusion remote, it's not brilliant but it is small and any universal would not have all the key labelling necessary.

PM Sent, thanks!

If you follow the link below and scroll down to Other Features in the EPG section it has a screen shot of exactly what I'm looking for only my box doesn't do that, in fact the GUI looks nothing like it and it doesn't have any of the info shown in the screen shot. Does anyone get this interface? Is it a real interface from this model? Does it depend on hardware version? I believe I have the latest SW version (1.58 from memory) so I don't think its that.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SONY-SVRS500-8...QQcmdZViewItem

leicesterboy,

I have sent your run.bin.