Connecting it the way you are doing means that you can only get a conventional TV (Freeview) station via the DVD recorder. To do that you have to select (on your TV) the SCART input that the DVD is plugged into. (you may have more than 1 SCART socket on your TV, called eg, AV1, AV2 etc). To check that the connection is good, play a DVD - no picture, bad connection.
You then need to go into the DVD recorder setup menu and get it to tune in your Freeview stations. Once this is done you should be able to change station on the DVD recorder and the picture on the TV will change. The DVD recorder will need to be powered on all the time when you want to watch TV.
There should also be an RF out socket on the back of the DVD recorder. If you buy a male to female RF lead you will be able to connect the RF out socket on the DVD recorder to the aerial socket on your TV. You will then be able to watch TV completely independent of whether your DVD recorder is powered on or not.