I can't tape a satellite channel when TV is off - Am I being thick ?

[Kayleigh]

We have freeview, and we have a video recorder.

If I set the video to tape a Freeview (satellite) channel while the TV is on it tapes ok. The channel I need to use on the video is "Line 1"

But when I set it all up, leave the TV turned to the channel I want to tape (in this case it was BBC3), but turn the TV off - I end up with blank tape.

Anyone got any bright ideas ?

Have you routed the box through the video or direct to the tv ?

oh no, too technical
how do I know ? did it ages ago - have had the freeview box well over a year .

Where does the lead from the freeview box go - to the tv or vcr ? If it goes direct to tv then maybe it needs that to be on to record ? Just a guess !!

ok, sounds reasonable. will go check .............

the lead from the freeview box goes direct to the TV. If we are feeling brave at weekend we might try and route through the vcr and see what happens. I'm a bit loathe to fiddle around though as i remember it took ages to get it all sorted when we first got it.