Progress
First the good news. Using the 4.43 firmware, by selecting "Lock" on the recording-event set-up menu when you set up the recording, you can make the receiver preserve that recording so it won't record over it in the future. Lets say your first program in the sequence is named "PBS-W" on the HD. (It uses the name of the channel you recorded if from as the name of the recording.) When you record the next day's installment, instead of naming it "PBS-W" again and over-writing the original on the HD, it will record the new program as "PBS-W_01". The next recording from that channel will be named, "PBS-W_02", then the following one will be "PBS-W_03", and so on. That way, nothing gets recorded over. Of course, you have to figure out which one is which from these unhelpful names. (See below).
Also, it is now possible (again using the 4.43 firmware) to change the name of a recording on the HD without crashing the box and losing everything on the hard disk. (With the 2.57 firmware, trying to do this inevitably crashed the box and wiped the HD.) So you can rename all those "PBS-W_01", 02, etc. to something meaningful, but only AFTER they are recorded.
Now the not so good news: Yes, you can change the default name of the recording to be scheduled (the default being the channel name--e.g., "PBS-W") to a more descriptive name, e.g., "Mr. Rogers" when you set up the recording event. However, when it comes recording time, guess what, the box merrily ignores your new name and uses the old default channel name anyway (e.g., "PBS-W"). Of course, after it is recorded, you can change it to whatever your heart desires (although I suspect there is a length limitation on the new name).
Well, I'm 95% happy, I won't lose any more recordings and it is sure nice to be able to set up a daily or weekday or weekly recurring recording event and have it work, even if you have to put up with cryptic file names. On the other hand, what a small task it would be for SonicView to fix this sort of stuff and have a product that even the non-experimenter type could love.
I'm still futzing with trying to get the tuner to find all the UHF signals from my transmitter site, all of 1.6 miles away. I tried adjusting the DTV scan step size--apparently can't be done--it is set at 6 Mhz and there is no way I can find to change it. I also tried incrementing the starting frequency by one Mhz each time. No joy on this either so far. Tomorrow I'll try the preamp and see if it amps the signal up enough to get through to the tuner--I must have gotten the first generation one, it sure isn't nearly as sensitive as the one in my 2 year old Phillips LCD.
I'll report back my results.
Again, the bottom line for new SonicView 8000HD owners--run, don't walk, away from the current factory firmware 2.57. It will drive you crazy. 4.43 is far, far better, and only a little crazy-making.