connecting TNT integrated TV to DVD

question for you clever technical minded types. i have recently bought a brand new tv here in france to replace the one i bought when i was in portugal. i have it connected to a french purchased dvd recorder, but cannot get it it to timer record when i am out of the house. if i hit record when i am watching tv no problem, i can even timer record should should i want to nip out for 10 minutes and leave the set on, but when it comes to recording a program when we're out, ie set left on standby, its no way jose, all we get is a blank screen for the number of minutes that were set. the set is full hd tnt integree connected to an aerial on the roof (no satellite) and the dvd will record only the channel you're watching (which we know is ok because we were told that before hand). i am getting right confused as to what scart goes where, how many scarts even, what av input ( 1or 2) should be selected, when viewing or recording, i don't even know what functions they have.

so if anybody out there has a similar set up, hd tnt integrated tv plus simple dvd recorder, connected to an aerial, and can get it to timer record can they point me in the right direction.

before anybody says try the shop we have and its the classic case of "that'll be 50 euros callout charge", and the manufacturer says call the hotline at 40 cents a minute and leaves you listening to mozart played on a xylophone for 10 minutes. the manuals are as much use as a chocolate fireguard, with the original set we called the shop out ,the technician took one look and said that we'd connected it exactly as per the manual, bearing in mind we had to use a tnt tuner because of the portuguese tv, promptly removed one scart cable, switched the aerial connectors around, switched over to a different av input, and then laughed when he saw my face and explained that nobody had ever yet managed to fathom out the manuals, or even to get them to work, and that he had to sort similar problems out all the time when visiting british clients. and yes i have copied the set up exactly as it was before as i took the precaution of writing it all down, and no it still won't work.

HELP