We just purchased this and set it up to home theater . . can view VHS and DVDs . . .connected to home theater, tv, cable fine. Stereo sound is fine. When we first turned it on, the menu which asked for Language came up and when we chose English, it went to automatically tune channels. We don't have it set up like that . . we have a dvr player we use from cable company. Ever since then, the remote doesn't work . . we can't set it up, we can't change the time on the clock . . .Basically, we can watch VHS tapes and DVDs. The remote doesn't work well . . occassionally it will turn on the player, but not always, then the player will shut itself off. Any suggestions

As it's a new machine, I feel your remote has gone faulty. The bit that makes me suspicious is the turning it's self off. I had a new Sony VHS player where the very same thing happened, the input device had nothing to do with it, it was just a coincidence.

On the occasions the remote did work and switch the machine on, I hid it under a cushion, or the damn thing would turn it off again.

You may have another problem, but this seems most likely.