hardware keeps losing the date

Not sure which Forum to ask for help. I have a Philips analogue tv & am still in my area on analogue signal it not being yet switched off. The tv can receive teletext which shows the current date. A video cassette VHS-tape recorder connected by scart to the tv accepts the current date which is sourced automatically (I believe from the teletext signal?) and the recorder clock at first setup shows the correct time & date which is saved automatically on using the menu to exit.

Leave it be for a day, maybe less, and the date will become 27th March 2011. Of course any tv programme entered into the prog-timer function then is corrupt. OK, then the replacement Toshiba VCR is bust? er, doubt it. Because the discarded VCR (also a Toshiba) did the same. So did an LG VCR connected in (all by scart btw). And the date always soon reverts to 27th March

So is it the Philips tv? Something is generating a wrong-date signal. Any help welcomed. Thanx.

Edited by deleted (Sun 01-May-11 11:27:24)

I think you may find that it is the RF tuner that the date and time arederived from and not via the scart lead, try to connect the RF via the VCR then to the TV. Otherwise it is reset if unplugged or it has a backup batterythat needs replacing.

John
TTUK

The TV has nothing to do with the VCR's time. The VCR gets its time from a radio signal picked up by the aerial.

You need both the aerial and Scart connected to VCR for proper operation. RTFM!

Edited by XRaySpeX (Sun 01-May-11 12:09:54)

Being age 82 am not too sure of the tek stuff. My Toshiba VCR manual says quote "....the date & time are set automatically from the broadcast signal but this function will not operate if there is no teletext signal" unquote

I am appreciative of your interest but baffled as to what I can do next.

Perhaps I ought to add that in all cases the aerial co-ax enters the VCR & a short length of co-ax then leaves the VCR to enter the tv. The tv is connected to the VCR by a scart lead into the bottom (AV-1) skt of the VCR. As the manual demands. Which I believe is the standard way of doing it?

In reply to a post by Littleseen:

Being age 82 am not too sure of the tek stuff. My Toshiba VCR manual says quote "....the date & time are set automatically from the broadcast signal but this function will not operate if there is no teletext signal" unquote

I am appreciative of your interest but baffled as to what I can do next.

Same problem reported here http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1456275

Sorry, you have indeed read the manual. You do have the VCR wired correctly.

Looks like you need to switch VCR clock to Manual as there appears to be a deficiency in the soon-to-be-switched-off analogue signal.

While the user manual is freshly in your mind change the VCR setting that the time is set manually and not from Teletext. That way when the analogue TV signal is turned off, as it is due to be, the VCR will keep the date and time correctly albeit it may drift so will need adjusting occasionally, hopefully no more frequently than when the clocks go forward or back.

Of course when the analogue TV signal is turned off then you will not be able to record anything using the VCR unless you connect a Freeview set tot box (STB) to it which can be had cheaply from your local supermarket. Or, for more money, you may wish to consider replacing it with a Personal Video Recorder (PVR) which does not need tapes or discs but records to its own hard disk and is so much less of a faff.

Edited by gomezz (Sun 01-May-11 18:14:15)

Thankyou all. Have followed links & find a raft of peeps suffering as I do, nearly all on the 27th March date. The suggestion is that we turn off the auto-date feature, insert correct time & date, and save this as a manual time/date.

Good idea! But my Toshiba VCR does not allow the time/date to be saved manually. True you can enter the current time & date and then all you can do is exit on the menu button (which I suspect is an auto-save?) and it will then follow same automatically, including clock change from GMT to BST --- which would be fine if only it was accessing a non-rogue broadcast signal.

Since this VCR will only time/date itself from a broadcast signal & that signal is corrupt I am stuffed? Thanx all.