Page 1 of Problem recording encoded signal from TV on to Samsung DVD-VCR Combo

Hi All,
I`m new to this whole thing so any help would be appreciated with this one.

Here in South Africa we have a "pay to view" channel called MNET which you recieve via a decoder, my problem is that when I record from this station the video playback cycles from poor to good every second or so. The Audio is 100% and if I record from any other source (UHF/VHF) then everything is 100%. I have found that if I force the Colour setup on the DVD-VCR to PAL then for that session the Video recording will be OK but that the player seems to default back to `auto` because if I record using the timer then the playback is once again crappy. The OSD shows that the player hunts between PAL and MESCAM.

Is there a workaround for this? Is the player confusing this RF input as a Macrovision signal perhaps?

there are no AV outputs on the MNET decoder only RF.

The DVD-VCR unit is still under warranty.

If anyone has had a similar experience please help.

Regards
Simon

The problem does sound like a macrovison problem or a tv standards problem when you record from the decoder and you preview the siganal via the video recorder do the symptons show? Most pay per view broadcasts encode the macrovison signal.

Hi Ravi,
Thanks for the reply. if I preview during a normal recording session (i.e. I do not make use of the timer) and call up the OSD then the colour format display on the screen cycles between PAL & MESCAM all the time but the picture quality does not vary, only on playback does the quality vary. I`ve spoken to the agents locally (they are getting equipment together to simulate the problem) and they suggest that the `auto` sensing of the colour format is very sensitive and that I should try adjusting my antenna (I receive MNET via normal RF not via satalite). I`m not buying this answer altough I will climb on to the roof and see what can be done as my signal quality is very good with no apparent ghosting or white noise.

Do you think it could be signal related?

My TV is an LG `golden-eye` that supports NTSC and PAL (or converts NTSC to PAL?) it`s about two years old.

Thanks.

Simon