Thanks japitts for a very interesting and helpful reply.
I have sorted out item 1 OK so thanks for that.
I have set up links to to record the new series of Vera and Death in Paradise and the eventual result was a list of about 30 shows going back from the current series 12 all the way back to series 1. At the moment only about 2 or 3 shows should have been recorded. Most of the entries mention either BBC IPlayer or ITVX implying that they are catch-up and not a recording.
I have found that when viewing my shows pressing the blue button 0n the remote will change the display to only recorded programs show only the recorded programs. When I do this all entries disappear implying that nothing has been recorded and yet in the past I recorded dozens of shows from several of the series.
My questions are
1. Why have my recorded shows disappeared?
2. How can I set viewing only recorded shows as the default?
I have tried using BBC IPlayer and ITVX but I have found then to be extremely user unfriendly as they continually asked for email address and password and often send me an email to confirm my email address.
Does every one have to jump through so many hoops just to watch a stream show when using a free service?
All I want is to turn on the TV, press a few buttons and watch the show so is there anyway to stop having to log-in every time?
Just as a note I get the same problem using BBC IPlayer on my computer