Answered Series Link problems Sony RDR-HXD770

jenningsp

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This is an old piece of kit but I would love to know what is going on. Recently the digital EPG seems to have lost the ability to show the series link option when recording BBC programs. The series link option for other broadcasters still seems to work fine. I have two identical recorders and they are both behaving in the same way. The firmware is I believe the latest for this machine (now obsolete in the eyes of Sony) Version 1.70, H/W 435 Software 1.29. A separate Youview box we have can see the series link for BBC programs where appropriate (for example Holby City) but the Sony boxes can no longer see it. The aerial bringing the signal into the house provides the feed for all the devices which are all tuned using the same broadcast channels from The Wrekin. It sort of appears that the format of the series link data broadcast by the BBC is no longer compatible with the EPG on the old Sony devices. Please can anyone who knows about these things throw some light on the problem. I did ring Sony but the customer service person was completely unable to even understand the problem. Thank you.
 
Hmmm. Odd. What have you tried, so far in an attempt to fix things and narrow down what is happening?

What channel are you tuned to when entering the EPG to set recordings? (i.e. is it the same when tuned to BBC and ITV?)

Are you sure you are tuned to The Wrekin for all muxes and no other transmitters? {Things go wrong when there's a mix of different transmitters - especially if the other is cross-border.}

Have you tried:
A retune? (making note of your recording schedule in case it is lost in retuning).
A manual retune to ensure only The Wrekin is stored?
A 'factory reset' of the device?
A hard power reset? (Mains removed for a decent period of time... 5-10 mins+)

If, after all that, and the symptoms remain, you could try contacting the BBC's Reception Advice team; who - if you can get past the front office call centre staff to the 'back office experts' - would be able to find out if there have been any changes (unlikely IMO as other devices would likely be upset, too).

PS If you decide to write to them. Try to add some paragraph breaks into your text to improve its readability.
 
Thanks very much for the message. The only thing I have not done is the factory reset- Sony say it erases all recordings on the hard drive which I do not want to do. Conflicting info says it does not. I have rung Freeview and the BBC but did not get past the front-line. The agent did not seem to understand that series link info is broadcast by the BBC in this case. They said ring Sony- useless last time. I have read that it works by the broadcaster allocating a program ID and as a long shot wonder if this number is now so large it is blowing my ancient EPG . The series link option normally says ON / OFF but the BBC one's are all showing - - - - -. Who knows - thank you very much for your help. I will continue to try and solve the problem.
 
I suggest trying Rodders53 fourth suggestion first ( Power disconnection for minimum of 10 minutes)

This will clearout the EPG data and force a complete refresh.
 
Have tonight performed a factory reset on both the Sony RDR-HXD770 boxes and the BBC series link options have now returned with no loss of recordings from the HDD. Difficult to believe (or is it?) that Sony said such an action would lose all the existing recordings. The agent actually said it is like a phone - returning to factory settings loses all the data including existing recordings!!!! Thank goodness for Forums.

Thanks very much to Rodders53 and Gavtech for their interest and supplying the solution. If it happens again my aging memory bank can hopefully recall the solution!!!

:clap::clap::clap:
 

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