Hitachi PVR won't work with remote control

[Danny]

I've had a Hitachi HDR255 for a few months, and was delighted with it until a week or so ago when I could no longer get it to work with the remote control.

I can turn the PVR on with the remote, but not change channels or access the programme guide. At first this was an intermittent problem, but now the device is stuck on one channel.

I've changed batteries three times just in case they had run out, but this has made no difference. I have also repeatedly turned the power on and off on the PVR.

Has anyone got any clues about what might be going wrong?

And is there any way of telling whether the problem is with the PVR or the remote, or both?

 

[the_mikey]

The only thing I can suggest: Does the remote have options to control other devices, like tv, dvd, audio, etc, Maybe you've selected one of these inadvertently?

 

[potsy]

My mims pvr did this the other week,the remote had a button to press so it could control a compatible TV,she had pressed this button so the normal functions stopped working,fixed by pressing the button to switch it back to operating the pvr.

 

[ColinJ]

Funnily enough, I had a problem with one of mum's devices too!

It turned out that the remote control itself had 'crashed' and got its eKnickers in a twist. Taking the batteries out and putting them back in again didn't do the trick because it had a capacitor holding enough charge to keep the voltage up while the batteries were out.

The answer was to leave them out for a few minutes rather than replacing them immediately. When it happened again, I just shorted out the battery terminals with a paperclip, then replaced the batteries and  the remote came back to life straight away.

 

[swee'pea99]

Some good tips there. Another basic one - rather than just 'turn it off and on again', unplug it for an hour.  Probably won't work, but what have you got to lose...

 

[Danny]

Funnily enough, I had a problem with one of mum's devices too!

It turned out that the remote control itself had 'crashed' and got its eKnickers in a twist. Taking the batteries out and putting them back in again didn't do the trick because it had a capacitor holding enough charge to keep the voltage up while the batteries were out.

The answer was to leave them out for a few minutes rather than replacing them immediately. When it happened again, I just shorted out the battery terminals with a paperclip, then replaced the batteries and the remote came back to life straight away.

OK. I left the batteries out for 18 hours just to make sure

After putting them back into the remote nothing seemed to have changed, but then after turning the PVR unit on and off a few times it started communicating with the remote again.

As I said in my OP this was initially an intermittent problem, so I will need to give it a couple of days before I am certain the problem has gone away.

Thanks for all the advice.

 

[Danny]

It seems I may have been premature in thinking it was working. Turned off the PVR a couple of hours ago, and now find it won't interact with the remote again

 

[Chickc78]

On my Hitachi PVR this problem was caused by inadvertently pressing the 'AUX' button - pressing it again resets things to normal.

 

[Danny]

On my Hitachi PVR this problem was caused by inadvertently pressing the 'AUX' button - pressing it again resets things to normal.

I think I've tried that - but I'll try it again.

 

[potsy]

My mums pvr has just broken down,seems like it';s getting no signal from the aeriel,have tried her old freeview box and that works
OK.
I bought it her for Christmas last year so now I've got to dig out the receipt,if I've not thrown it away

 

[Danny]

My mums pvr has just broken down,seems like it';s getting no signal from the aeriel,have tried her old freeview box and that works
OK.
I bought it her for Christmas last year so now I've got to dig out the receipt,if I've not thrown it away

Compared to my old standalone Freeview box, I found that my PVR was much less tolerant of poor reception and on occasions would not pick up a signal at all.

It was also less tolerant of poor connections, and I could only get it to work at all when I refitted the co-axial (?) plug at the end of my aerial lead so had a better connection with the wiring. I am sure there is a knack to fitting these things so they don't come loose, but I haven't mastered it yet.

 

[potsy]

Compared to my old standalone Freeview box, I found that my PVR was much less tolerant of poor reception and on occasions would not pick up a signal at all.

It was also less tolerant of poor connections, and I could only get it to work at all when I refitted the co-axial (?) plug at the end of my aerial lead so had a better connection with the wiring. I am sure there is a knack to fitting these things so they don't come loose, but I haven't mastered it yet.

This one is getting no signal at all after working fine for 7 months,tried rescanning the channels but nothing.
Have brought it to mine and will have a play with it over the weekend,if not I've managed to print out my credit card bill which I'm hoping will be enough as proof of purchase.
Should have gone for a Humax in hindsight,they always seem to be well regarded.

 

[fossyant]

Potsy, might be worth pressing the 'factory system reset' option - this clears it back to shipping condition - might be able to re-tune.


My Topfield died a few weeks back - still in warranty and has gone back to Superfi in Stockport - didn't need my receipt as it was on their system. The HD has gone kaput ! Worked fine, but you couldn't record, or access the HD.....

Problem with the Toppy's is they run hot, and only have passive cooling. When it comes back, I'll open it up and shove a PC fan in there..

 

[potsy]

Cheers Fossy I'll try that,if not it's back to Argos on Monday.
When I bought it her she wouldn't or couldn't use it,technology was too much for her.Now after a few days of not having it she's missing it like mad

I have a Panasonic freeview/dvd recorder which has been flawless for 3 years now,only problem is it only has a single tuner so can only record 1 thing at a time.

 

[potsy]

Right,just broke my back trying to connect it all up to my TV,but it's all good and worked perfectly straight away.
So now am a bit confused why it didn't work earlier at mums,only thing I can suggest is it just needed the old unplug plug back in again trick that all modern equipment seems to need at times