Sony RDR-GX300 DVD Recorder can't record channels 200+?

[showmi]

I have a Sony RDR-GX300 DVD Recorder and I wanted to record a show on a specific channel. But when I entered the number on the DVD recorder, it always turns out to be only 2-digits. But my tv is HD, so it CAN watch that channel. Does anyone know this problem? Are you suppose to set it in a way?

[DVWannaB]

I am assuming that your Sony has a QAM Tuner and it is tuning the unencrypted channels from you cable/satellite provider. If so, then I believe it scan from channel 1 - 125 digital channels, but then assigns a 2 digit number for the scanned channels. So lets say TBS-HD is channel 230 on your receiver. The Sony may assign it as channel 81 or 81.1, for example. If your Sony allows you, go into your set-up menu and name the individual channels if it has not already done it for you. So long story to say that the channel numbers will not match one-for-one on your Sony to the cable/sat box.

[wabjxo]

Your HDTV should be showing in its initial display when you change channels what cable/RF channel it's 2-digit channel represents. Like on my Vizio LCD, I get 83-205 and 83-754. 205 and 754 are the channels my cableco is sending thru their cable box, but my TV maps those to 83-205 and 83-754 and my Philips DVDR maps them to 83.3 and 83.4... so in my case, same major number but diff. subchannel numbers, and both diff. from the "pure" cable box numbers.

Some people report their cable channels don't "map" nicely to a major number like mine do. That's how I discovered the 83.3 and 83.4 channels in my DVDR... I saw them in the TV channels but they didn't auto-scan in on my Philips DVDR cuz 83.1 and 83.2 were Scrambled and my DVDR skips any channel group that doesn't have a prime channel (83.1) unscrambled. I was able to manually enter those channels in memory, however, just by entering ch. 83.3 from my remote and, when it tuned in, I went into my DVDR's manual channel preset menu and added it to memory. Once I added that channel, the other tunable channels in that group, even 83.1 and 83.2 which now tune as "Scrambled." also were memorized cuz my DVDR adds and deletes entire channel groups, not individual digital channels like most TVs do.

My Philips DVDRs have 1-125 analog channels and 1-135 digital channels, and I think that's the std for consumer DVDRs today.