"Device failed to lock a signal"

[Joram]

Everything still working.

The fact that power-cycling the two devices seems to take care of the problem at least temporarily, suggests that it could be a hardware issue where the splitter or the HDPVR, or both, has developed some durability-related fault. (After all, like a DVR they are left turned on 24/7 for maximum flexibility in recording.) Does this hypothesis sound plausible?

[mvallevand]

My original HDPVR was online 7/24 for a decade with Windows and Linux on v5+, it outlasted several ac adapters. On Windows it would need a power cycle every 3 weeks or so, the picture would start pixelating.

martin

[Joram]

Thanks, that's a good vote of confidence in the HDPVR. And it leaves the splitter as the prime suspect.

It also means that, for one-off TV events that are unlikely to be shown again whole, redundant recording (on more than one device) is prudent. Once the recording is known to be complete, then the backup recording (say, on the DVR which has limited storage capacity) can be deleted.