Michigan Czar,
Welcome to the site !
When you look to record the program are you finding the program in the guide and hitting record, such as "Your Game is at 9pm" and your setting it up say a day earlier or even earlier in the day. Make sure you are advancing the guide to the correct time and then Record.
I'm not explaining this very well, it's probably recording a blank screen.
OK, I got an example.
Say you want to record the NFL game for next week, you go to the guide find the game and hit Record. This WILL NOT work... You need to move the guide to the actual TIME of the game, advance the guide to Sunday at 1 pm and find the game that way, then hit record.
I don't know if that pertains to what you may be doing or not ... But I know if you try to record the game without going to the actual game time it will record a blank picture at the time you actually hit the record for.
Hope this helps.
Jimbo