Originally Posted by altis

You keep firing away peck. If we can spend pages discussing Avril then we can certainly spare one or two for this topic

I can't find much info on your DVD recorder - only this press release:
http://www.umax.co.uk/WebNew_UK/Pres...VR-8000_UK.pdf
... which doesn't reveal much!

Let's put your problem 1 to the side for the moment as there are a number of solutions. I'll come back to this once we sort problem 2: 'goes all b&w with greeny bars'.

It could be any of the solutions listed above. To test out the Macrovision idea you could try recording something ordinary, like the news, from BBC1. Unless I'm mistaken, this won't have any Macrovision protection. If you still have probs then it must be something else and my money would be on the configuration of the two scart sockets connecting the STB with the DVD recorder. Each scart can carry 3 different types of video signal: RGB, composite and S-video. Unfortunately, S-video was a late addition to the party and so it shares pins with composite video and the red component of RGB. For more details check out the following AV FAQs page ('scart pinout' is a long way down the LHS):
http://www.bnoack.de/

I have a suspicion that the STB is pumping out composite and RGB whilst the DVD recorder thinks it is looking at S-video. You'll need to hunt through the manuals and then flick through the configuration pages to make sure that they are sending and receiving in the same format. For the best signal choose RGB. If one or other doesn't support this then try S-video and finally composite.

If that doesn't solve it then we need to determine if it's the recording or the playback process is going awry. Can you try playing a recording in a different player? Alternatively, try rewiring the scart leads temporarily so that the DVD recorder is connected directly to the TV. Do you still see the aberations?