Grateful for any help on this one. Tried posting on alt.video.vcr and was
referred here. I guess I'm pinning my hopes on some 'magic' keystroke
combo on the remote that will force the SV-5000W into set-up mode.

I bought a SV-5000W when I was working in the USA some years ago and had
no setup or usage issues with it then. Having returned to the UK I'm now
in a position to try and use it here but it won't display a setup screen
for another 'first installation' on power up. I can get an OSD menu when
a tape is playing but rather suspiciously it will not allow entry to the
'installation' sub-menu (all other menu options are fully open) so I can
tune in to my cable box to allow TV recording (playback is fine). I
suspect Samsung have hard-wired these things to allow only one 'power-on
set-up'. Pity, as I found it quite a good piece of kit but it's only
partially useful just now.

Has anyone else any similar experience with this kit and found a
workaround?

Cheers
S.