Usually, you will find that an info screen or missing signal screen came up when the timer tried to go to the selected item, but won't show on attempted playback. HBO is a big offender. I've had the best luck with checking the input (we use TV2 most of the time to record) to be sure it is on and ready well ahead of time. If the indicator light on the front panel doesn't show that the receiver is on, more times than not it will not fire the timer correctly. I do know that L2.53 didn't fix it!