diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS b/CONTRIBUTORS
index 523af25b..52b01b33 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS
@@ -163,6 +163,7 @@ Stefan Huelswitt <huels@iname.com>
  encrypted channel
  for reporting a problem with timers when channel IDs have a 'source' that is 0
  for reporting a new/delete malloc/free mismatch in ringbuffer.c
+ for reporting a crash in case the index file can't be accessed any more during replay
 
 Ulrich Röder <roeder@efr-net.de>
  for pointing out that there are channels that have a symbol rate higher than
diff --git a/HISTORY b/HISTORY
index 8dfda45e..57246178 100644
--- a/HISTORY
+++ b/HISTORY
@@ -2008,3 +2008,5 @@ Video Disk Recorder Revision History
   Werner Fink).
 - Further increased the timeout until an index file is considerd no longer to be
   written.
+- Fixed a crash in case the index file can't be accessed any more during replay
+  (thanks to Stefan Huelswitt for reporting this one).
diff --git a/recording.c b/recording.c
index e6fe2a1d..38ad0c85 100644
--- a/recording.c
+++ b/recording.c
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  * See the main source file 'vdr.c' for copyright information and
  * how to reach the author.
  *
- * $Id: recording.c 1.73 2003/03/30 13:07:03 kls Exp $
+ * $Id: recording.c 1.74 2003/03/30 13:26:20 kls Exp $
  */
 
 #include "recording.h"
@@ -848,6 +848,7 @@ cIndexFile::~cIndexFile()
 
 bool cIndexFile::CatchUp(int Index)
 {
+  // returns true unless something really goes wrong, so that 'index' becomes NULL
   if (index && f >= 0) {
      for (int i = 0; i <= MAXINDEXCATCHUP && (Index < 0 || Index >= last); i++) {
          struct stat buf;
@@ -856,7 +857,7 @@ bool cIndexFile::CatchUp(int Index)
                // apparently the index file is not being written any more
                close(f);
                f = -1;
-               return false;
+               break;
                }
             int newLast = buf.st_size / sizeof(tIndex) - 1;
             if (newLast > last) {
@@ -889,13 +890,12 @@ bool cIndexFile::CatchUp(int Index)
             }
          else
             LOG_ERROR_STR(fileName);
-         if (Index >= last)
-            sleep(1);
-         else
-            return true;
+         if (Index < last)
+            break;
+         sleep(1);
          }
      }
-  return false;
+  return index != NULL;
 }
 
 bool cIndexFile::Write(uchar PictureType, uchar FileNumber, int FileOffset)
@@ -915,8 +915,7 @@ bool cIndexFile::Write(uchar PictureType, uchar FileNumber, int FileOffset)
 
 bool cIndexFile::Get(int Index, uchar *FileNumber, int *FileOffset, uchar *PictureType, int *Length)
 {
-  if (index) {
-     CatchUp(Index);
+  if (CatchUp(Index)) {
      if (Index >= 0 && Index < last) {
         *FileNumber = index[Index].number;
         *FileOffset = index[Index].offset;
@@ -938,8 +937,7 @@ bool cIndexFile::Get(int Index, uchar *FileNumber, int *FileOffset, uchar *Pictu
 
 int cIndexFile::GetNextIFrame(int Index, bool Forward, uchar *FileNumber, int *FileOffset, int *Length, bool StayOffEnd)
 {
-  if (index) {
-     CatchUp();
+  if (CatchUp()) {
      int d = Forward ? 1 : -1;
      for (;;) {
          Index += d;
@@ -976,8 +974,7 @@ int cIndexFile::GetNextIFrame(int Index, bool Forward, uchar *FileNumber, int *F
 
 int cIndexFile::Get(uchar FileNumber, int FileOffset)
 {
-  if (index) {
-     CatchUp();
+  if (CatchUp()) {
      //TODO implement binary search!
      int i;
      for (i = 0; i < last; i++) {