Page 1 of Pioneer DVR630HS problems

I recently bought this Pioneer 250gb HD/DVD recorder, which from reviews read seems a good buy. Had problems setting it up, but by Thursday this week thought we`d got it sussed. It`s configured by SCART cables to our Panasonic Vieira plasma TV and NTL cable box and was working fine on AV2/L1. All well and good.

Cut to Friday evening and we`re happily sitting on the sofa recording one programme to HDD while watching something else. Without warning or buttons being pressed, everything on the DVD display (by which I include cable and analogue channels, DVD discs, menu displays, the whole shebang) turned fuzzy, as if slightly detuned.

Naturally, all the settings are exactly as configured and were previously working fine, so I tried a process of elimination. The TV and cable display via AV1 were just fine, so only the DVD unit is affected. I tried pushing in the SCART cables more and replacing them with ones known to work fine but to no avail, then tried the manual suggestion to change the line input by pressing Stop and Open/Close simultaneously - though that didn`t improve matters either.

So finally I went through the DVD setup menu and reviewed every video input option, including changing the automatically selected progressive scan back to interlaced. None made the slightest odds to the problem, so I even looked at the TV settings for AV channels but found nothing mysterious.

In short, I`m stumped. Is the DVD faulty and in need of a replacement under warranty, or am I missing something blindingly obvious?

Thanks!

Andy

If it happened while you were viewing and nobody touched anything it seems obvious that a fault developed.
It sounds as if the output scart socket has gone wrong if dvd playback is also a problem.
I would use the same setup connected to another input on your tv to check its the recorder first.
If the problem remains change the output to boring old "video" to see if that removes the problem.
But it seems likely a fault has developed.
Return it to the retailer

Have you tried resetting the receiver (with recorder on press and hold stop button and then press the standby/on button) and then do the initial setup all over again. I had a problem with my DVR-530H-S and spoke to someone at the Pioneer Technical Dept. who advised me to reset the receiver and it worked for me.

Thanks for the reply, guys. Eventually traced the fault - seems I`d inadvertently tuned to AV2S rather than AV2, and the TV doesn`t actually tell you that until you switch around the AV channels. Wasn`t even aware of the difference beforehand, but it made all the difference. One to watch out for.

Andy

All the Panasonic tv`s I have ever owned and seen all clearly show AV2S in the corner when its on that input.
Although a touch of the green button changes it to simple AV2

Easy when you know how. If you`re not aware of the difference or how to skip between them, it`s frustratingly elusive!! ;-)

Andy