I have an old SHARP VC-A588, and I just got cable back again after a few months without it. My problem is the VCR only went up to channel 25, so I couldn't record some of the programs I wanted.
I went to the channel setup and selected "Add" instead of "Erase" on all the channels availible, but whenever a cahnnel over 25 or Under 01 is on the VCR, it's just a blue screen.
There may be an option on your VCR's tuner for different kinds of cable signals such as STD, HRC, or IRC. This setting may be accessible through your onscreen menu, is automatically detected, or you may have to set the option manually through a selector switch typically located behind the VCR.
Typically, this should be set to STD, but try the other modes until it works. - Reinhart