SVR-HDT500 won't turn on when a programme is recording

[ricperry2]

My Sony SVR-HDT500 usually turns on fine.  My habit is to press 'Title list' if I want to watch something previously recorded, or 'Guide' if I want to watch a TV programme that is on now, and my Bravia TV automatically turns on and switches to receive the input from the SVR-HDT500.  After several months using this machine, a new problem has recently turned up.  When I try to turn the SVR-HDT500 on, the 'on' light shows on the machine (the horizontal white light) but the TV remains a blank black screen.  This only happens when the SVR-HDT500 is recording a TV programme using a timer setting, i.e it started recording whilst the machine was in standby.  At other times the SVR-HDT500 turns on as normal.  If I press the 'reset' button on the front panel briefly then the picture re-appears.  This didn't used to happen and the software hasn't been changed recently.  Anyone have any ideas what has happened, and how I can fix it?

[rose_of_york]

Mine is doing the same.  Pressing the reset button doesn't seem to so anything.  Once it has finished recording I have to turn it off and turn it back on to get the picture to come back on and enable the Title List or Guide options.

It is impossible to view previously recorded programmes whilst recording something currently.

[ricperry2]

OK.  Is yours a Sony Bravia TV?  The reason I ask is that I had wondered whether this could be something to do with the relationship between the TV and the SVR rather than an SVR problem per se (although this does seem unlikely as turning off the synch relationship between the two doesn't seem to make any difference).  I am sorry to hear that your problem is more severe than mine.  It may be worth you doing a factory reset.  You don't lose any recordings when you do this, although you do lose all of your settings and of course the box re-scans so you have to go through and delete all of the channels that you don't want again.  If mine gets as bad as you describe then I'll probably do this although I am reluctant as I have done it quite recently.

Good luck!  Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can help us out.

[rose_of_york]

Thank you for this and I think it's sorted.  You are right it was the communication between the SVR and the Sony Bravia TV.

I took the recorder back to Currys where it came from.  They tested it on two teles and it worked absolutely fine and they were just as flummoxed as me as to why it was behaving badly at home. Just as I was about to leave with it the guy said "how old is your HD cable" - I told him I'd had it 5 or 6 years so he said that might be the problem, and he gave me the one that he had used to test the recorder with the TVs in the shop.

I swapped the cables, it's only been one day, but it seems to be working fine now.  Thanks for your suggestion.

[cdavey2006]

Great that you got yours sorted but we still have this problem.

I have a Sony Bravia TV do you turn the communication off on the tv or is there a setting on the hdt500 box to disable this?

many thanks

[ricperry2]

I wonder whether you ever made any progress with this.  My HD cable seems to be fine.  I have tried doing a factory re-set.  All to no avail so far.  What is strange is that this fault seems to take quite a time to develop.  As with other users, my machine worked perfectly well for many months before this happened.

Any advice gratefully received.

[rose_of_york · Accepted solution]

It seems to be fine now. I changed the HD cable to a newer one and it's worked ever since. It's not the quckest of machines to warm up but otherwise can't really complain.

[ricperry2]

Thank you for such a speedy response.  Helpful to know that your solution has proved to be a durable one.  I have fiddled about with the cables that we have but will order a brand new one and see whether this makes any difference.  I was wondering whether CDavey2006 had had any success.