Looking through the forums here I can only find one or two old references to radio recordings skipping (chunks being missed
out on playback). Then it was put down to a software problem
but since the only references I could find were three years
old that must have been fixed by now? Is this a known problem?
Although it's infrequent it's beginning to annoy me and I can't detect any kind of pattern to its occurrence.

Hi

On my PVR80, I do get about 4-6 jumps/hour in playback; these are fractions of a second-long interruptions. Whether the explanation for these is a fundamental weakness in the hardware or firmware I couldn't say.

Another possibility, if you find that you have the same jumps in live reception, is that it's simply impulse interference. Psychologically, it's more irritating to experience these glitches during playback because the source of the interference isn't apparent within the homestead, as it is for live viewing. e.g. a loved-one has opened the fridge door, entered the bathroom or is boiling the kettle for a nice cup of tea . The answer to impulse interference is of course to use exclusively double-screened aerial cabling and leads (e.g. WF100/PF100 cable).

For me, on Sandy Heath transmitter, the BBC Mux B which carries the BBC radio stations is the most readily lost due to weather conditions - so vulnerability to interference would, I expect go hand in hand.

If the cause is "bad sectors" on the hard disc (due to "shock" whilst spinning), I suppose it's only possible to ascertain that by connecting-up to a PC and doing a "Thorough" ScanDisk.

Regards

Thanks for the reply, StoppingService.

I think that I may be able to answer my own question since posting the thread. For the last few months only BBC radio has been affected but yesterday I had a complete loss of service for BBC radio and BBC4. Today I've got a partial service where I get lots of 'cut-outs'. This is obviously due to weak signal strength. When I record this kind of reception it playbacks with the cut-outs themselves cut out ( if that makes any sense to you). This by now familiar skipping and the old posts I dug up made me think it was a software/HDD problem.
Why some channels on the same Mux are entirely unaffected is still a mystery, but it seems it's all down to marginal signal strength.

I don't think the "skipping" issue on the Vestel PVRs is necessarily related to low signal strength. I have a strong signal but I have occasionally at random intervals had skipping during live TV and gaps in recordings on all four Vestel T816 and T825 PVRs I have owned. I think it is just a feature of the software or maybe even the hardware. For me it has never been a serious problem.

Colin