My LG LRH-880 HDD/DVD recorder sometimes stops recording by itself, before the end of the programming and even if there is enough disk space left.

Did you try to contact LG support?

There may be plenty of space in the HDD but you can only set a certain number of timers. Delete a less important timer setting to make room.

I missed recordings when the house electric power even flickered.

I found that that a modest battery backup, like an APC brand unit for computers, solved most problems.

When the hard drive is nearly full, it seems to stop the recording sometimes. It does so, even if it appears that surplus space remains.

Good Luck!

LG HDD/DVD RECORDER RH399H

Insert an empty DVD + R. The system asks whether to format - Format.
Select a recording on the HDD to copy to DVD.
Enter
Select dubbing
with arrows select type of recording to make (XP, SP, EP etc)
The system show the duration you can copy to you DVD. If small enough the FAST option also appears.
If big copies while playing the orriginal (I.e. playback speed)

Have you changed brand of disks? Sometime different brands give different results.

Dear lost366,
The problem lies with micro IC (cpu IC) . This has to be replaced. Please contact authorised service centre.

Try inserting your DVD media into the PC and doing a 'quick format'. The LG is not seeing what it considers to be media that it can use. It is not seeing that you have inserted recordable media. Sometimes you can reformat the DVD or do a quick media erase, and the LG can then put on its blank "squares" that is uses for its menu selection. I think that it what it does when it 'initializes' a new media.
tom

Just wanted to let you know i tried to sign in but couldn't. You sent me an email with my nickname Klondyke. Yet signing in klondyke isn't any good. Password either.
I wrote everything down when i joined. Maybe you could answer this.??
Thanx.

you have to choos the sp mode which is over 2 hours in recording. i noticed that after you set it in sp mode and you press the record button on the recorder panel more than once, the recording time changes.

Had the same problem on my 6month old 3440H, its the degradation of the cheap Asatech Chinese DVD drive that is the source of the problem. . My 3440H HDD to DVD transfer sequentially degraded, It stopped recording DVD+ and -R's then on RW's it sometimes performed and some not.I gave up using cheap DVD's then with higher quality disks  it would frequently report task completed but then would not plaback or freeze in the way you describe. I bought the DVDR from the CO-OP Xmas 2006. Co-op no longer support electricals so when it went wrong Co-op gave me a service centre to take it to. Long story short Philips dont recognise the service centre and they declared my warrany void. Tried to re-engage with Philips but they basically were not interested in supporting their product..  
Not an elegant fix but since Phillips were useless,  I opened the box nothing ....to lose ..I now run it on a bare external Sony DVD drive using extended ribbon and power cables as its a bit tricky to find space in the box to mount the drive.
Regards
Murray