Sony SVR HDT500

[jackierichards]

Hi

Just purchased this a couple of days ago. Was previously using a DVD recorder to record anything on my Freeview TV. Have always had a good signal for Digital but now I have a problem with playing back anything I record on the SVR HDT500. The signal is still good when I just watch TV it is only when I watch back a recording. The picture is shaky and jerking, it sticks and flicks from the picture of the programme to a blue screen saying no signal then flicks back to the programme again, this can happen up to 10 times in a half hour show !

I'm totally at a loss as to whats causing this, obviously it can't be the signal as it only happens on recordings. Please can anyone help ?

[gordlow]

I think Sony's x2 on this box is a bit of an exaggeration. More like 1.5x at the most. Mind you it is great to have Dolby Digital over HDMI which has allowed me to remove the coax cable I had to use before. Wish you could get sound with a x2 picture that's not HD thought.

[pepitoe]

I hadn't realised that only applied to hd, explains why it didn't work on the recording I tried!  Definetly they should fix that for SD too in a future update, its quite strange having it only for hd.

[satking1]

The fault that was shown earlier =

During playback picture blanks for a few moments.

Picture and sound out of sync.

Picture breaks up and blanks out.

My machine is doing the thing was the fault rectified.

[tcdandelion]

satking1 wrote:
The fault that was shown earlier =
During playback picture blanks for a few moments.
Picture and sound out of sync.
Picture breaks up and blanks out.
My machine is doing the thing was the fault rectified.

This is exactly the same symptoms my machine is showing . Rather annoying as I bought it last November and it has performed well up to a couple of weeks ago . Have contacted Sony and am now waiting for a reply . Hopefully I can get it sorted before the warranty runs out .

[ValBird]

Hi - bought our SVR-HDT1000 in March this year and all was fine until a few weeks ago when it started turning itself on and off first thing in the morning - always around 4.00am - one for a few seconds and then off again, then on again etc, etc.  Also had problems with playback sound out of synch and jittery pictures.  Have tried the format disk and repair disk options a couple of times now, seemed to work OK the first time and was fine for a couple of weeks but it has started doing it again now - have run the repair disk option again but it hasn't worked this time - has anyone got any resolution to this please?

[dogzbody]

Hello, I too am experiencing major troubles with my SVR- HDT500. I was recording the F1 yesterday and came home to see the recorder was still recording, Way past the programes sceduled timing. It seemed the system had crashed. So I turned the box off and re-sarted it. Only to find all my hard drive memory had been wiped all 87% of it. As you can imagine I was really annoyed. Since then I have discovered its been a common problem from various forums. I have tried to "repair disc" as promted, but it doesn't seem to do anything. I also tried to "Format disc" and get as far as entering a password, then that seems to seize to proceed. And usually freezes the box completely. I think its had it. Not sure what step to take next. appart from sending it back and buying a different model. Which I dont want to do, as all my other gear is Sony too. Any suggestions please???

Nightmare!!!!

[Catmambo]

Have you updated the box with the latest firmware - available here?

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/SVR-HDT500/downloads/svr_8585

If not, this should help with matters

Thanks

[dogzbody]

Been trying to upload this. But box freezes everytime I stick USB in. Its a Kingston 2gb, so shouldn't be a problem.

Do you know if there is anyway of overiding this by going straight from computer to box via Usb cable. Any help very much appreciated.

May just chuck it out the window if not

Thankyou.

[pauleagleton]

I have the same problem.  Get the data error message and when I try either repair disk or format disk nothing happens.  Tryed the reset to factory settings and all that does is lights flash across the front of the box. After an hour of it I turned the thing before it ended up out the window. Any ideas what I can try now ?? Apart from going out and buying a decent Panasonic box

[pmclaughlin]

I bought this product a few months back (just for the four hd channels to replace the excellent PlayTV which is only DVB-T).  The unit has occasionally locked up or corrupted a recording, even on the latest firmware(4.21.r8585). But because we delete most things straight after we watch them it seems to work relatively well under those light usage conditions.

I am still somewhat shocked by just how bad the interface design and search capabilities are in this device compared to PlayTV. Not to mention how slow and buggy the device feels. Trying to use the external media types (such as pictures or music) on a USB device is a guaranteed lock up, even with just a few mp3 or jpeg files on the external storage.

The main reason for me writing this on Sony's forum, is to ask if Sony have internally compared the functionality and user experience of PlayTV to this premium HD PVR device? And ask what conclusion/s you came to.

I personally think the SVR-HDT500 looks very sleek, is very quiet and has excellent picture quality in HD, and am happy with the ability to dual channel HD record. But in actual operation the user experience falls massively short of the excellent Sony products we've bought in the past, and the SD upscaling isn't very good, unlike PlayTV.

I'm still hopeful you will release PlayTV 2 in the DVB-T2 regions soon, so I can return to a much better PVR viewing experience. Or consider getting the PlayTV software team to completely rewrite the user interface for this device, and add in the ability to use it as a DVB-T2 tuner( and storage device) for PlayTV on the Playstation 3.