If anyone's Sony DVD recorders stopped working last night

SuzieSue

There are some solutions on here:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/blu-ray-dvd-recorders/1795677-sony-870-all-sony-hxd-dvd-recorders-no-freeview.html

See posts 42 & 43

HoofeHearted

Thanks for that. Just checked my recorder and it is screwed as indicated in the article. I will try the 'french fix' tomorrow.

Thanks again :money:

mrschaucer

Thanks, SuzieSue. I can stop looking for a replacement machine now and concentrate on sending bad vibes to Sony until we get a fix ...

tberry6686

Can't understand why the people on that forum appear to be blaming Sony.

It was an update to Freeview that has caused the issue. Looks like the update wasn't tested properly before being launched, easiest fix would be for the freeview update to be withdrawn until it is fixed and tested correctly.

securityguy

A pretty standard dictum in the software industry is "be liberal in what you accept, strict in what you generate". Freeview EPG data should remain within spec. Devices that read the EPG shouldn't fall over if the data is out of spec.

SuzieSue

mrschaucer wrote: »

Thanks, SuzieSue. I can stop looking for a replacement machine now and concentrate on sending bad vibes to Sony until we get a fix ...

Yes, I started doing that yesterday morning until I saw all the posts on the internet.

SuzieSue

mrschaucer wrote: »

Thanks, SuzieSue. I can stop looking for a replacement machine now and concentrate on sending bad vibes to Sony until we get a fix ...

Just out of interest, did you decide on a replacement (for when the Sony does eventually breakdown?) The cheaper ones at John Lewis from Panasonic don't have a dvd player which I need and I'm not sure about LG?

SnowMan

BBC website are covering the story now

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23395516

HoofeHearted

The BBC article has got is all wrong, saying that it was a Sony firmware update that screwed everything.
It was a routine EPG update that caused problem because the EPG update had data errors in it that the Sony machines could not cope with.

Looking on some other forums now suggest that the problem has been resolved. My machine is working fine now. :money:

alltrustgone

Slightly off topic, but re SuzieSue's question, just bought a Panasonic ex773 multi region hdd/dvd recorder from Richer Sounds for about £170. This will replace old Sony DVD/HDD unit. From the Panny manual it seems to have all the functions familiar from the Sony units, with a few extra bells and whistles.

On topic, it seems our Sony HXD860 also fell victim to whatever was going on with Sony/EPG over the weekend. Didn't realise when discovered this morning that this was a wider issue, just put it down to a temperamental freeze, disconnected power then reconnected and all has seemed ok since.
ATG

JayWalker

Our Sony HXD1095 has been problematic for a long time. Not just in respect of EPG. It completely blacked out on Friday, wouldn't even boot up. Wouldn't display programme guide, fell over if we tried to list contents of its disc. We took this latest failure as a hint and bought a replacement.

Once he'd heard of the problem, we updated the firmware and it's now kind of working. Don't trust it an inch, though.

We don't care whose "fault" it is. It was a known fault at Sony and they haven't resolved it, even though third party fixes were available on the internet. We do know that this particular model wasn't made by Sony - they contracted out the building (to Pioneer) and that isn't clear until you do a lot of research.

One major rule in all technology industries that has been forgotten - don't change anything when you're out of the office for two days! This is the 21st Century, there should be some level of support, even if all they can do is post a notice on their website telling customers how to seek third party fixes.