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Panasonic DMR-E85H error U99
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VideoBob
Member
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6. January 2006 @ 13:27 |
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Both of my Pannys (DMR-E85 and -E95) at different addresses on the same cable systm (Leisure World/Golden Rain 92637) both stopped downloading listings starting two day's ago. The first missing listing is for Thursday, Jan 12, 2006 and I have "No Listing" for everything from midnight Weds. nigh on.
I have had no power outages (they are both on UPS's) and no errors on either machine during that time.
Is anyone else experiencing similar problems or should I look to my cable provider?
bob
Bob, Laguna Woods, CA 92637; Leisure World Analog Cable; No box
Panasonic DMR-E85HS (1 Year) and DMR-E95HS (6 Months) [TVGOS]
RCA DRS-7000N [3-day TVGOS]
ReplayTV 5504 (Monthly$ 14-Day ReplayTV)
Panny ShowStopper 1000 (ReplayTV 2000) [7-Day Free ReplayTV]
2 x Sony 1000 (Not currently hooked up) [Free TiVo]
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xclratn
Newbie
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6. January 2006 @ 15:29 |
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From what I read.....Threshold has been cancelled.
Starting a few days ago, I noticed too I was missing TVGOS data. Just yesterday (Thursday 01/05), when I turned the E85 on, TGOS presented me with two channel lineup choices. I chose the correct one and was then directed tot he TGOS. I am still missing data though beginning Tuesday next week going through Thursday.
Robert
Brentwood, TN
Comcast Cable - no box
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npasqua
Newbie
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6. January 2006 @ 16:35 |
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BOB,
yes, the exact same thing happened to me starting about 3 days ago. Except for me, my unit gave me a U99 because of it. The unit was almost trash until I was able to get it to take the firmware upgrade. Then it was fine. But with the matter of TVGuide, I called the people in Elgin, Illinois (Panasonic's main video center of repair and whatnot) and a woman there told me that this is a very recent issue that many customers are experiencing. She told me that they are advising all customers to turn off the tvguide feature because it is causing U99s in some cases. She then told me that as a last option I could hold down the channel up and channel down buttoms simultaneously while the unit is on, wait for it to power off, power it on again and go through the tvguide setup. I just did that this morning and am going to wait until tomorrow to see if any listings come up. I am in your area (92675 San Juan Capistrano) and the same thing has happened to me, so you're not alone.
Anyway, I'm going to see if tvguide can be contacted (we'll see) and I guess just wait and see if another upgrade is issued (doubt it.)
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VideoBob
Member
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6. January 2006 @ 16:59 |
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npasqua said:
Quote:
yes, the exact same thing happened to me starting about 3 days ago. Except for me, my unit gave me a U99 because of it. The unit was almost trash until I was able to get it to take the firmware upgrade. Then it was fine.
I just read that post and was going to ask if you had a DVD in the drive. This often causes problems and can sometimes be remedied at that stage by pushing the <EJECT> button while in stand-by. This powers the unit up and will usually open the drive *before* locking up.
Quote:
But with the matter of TVGuide, I called the people in Elgin, Illinois (Panasonic's main video center of repair and whatnot) and a woman there told me that this is a very recent issue that many customers are experiencing.
I wonder if "Very recent" to them includes the known (and removed) "Upgrade bug" from last Sept/Oct that TVGOS rolled back in Nov/Dec?
The current problem is only *DAYS* old.
Quote:
She told me that they are advising all customers to turn off the tvguide feature because it is causing U99s in some cases.
Yeah. That's Panny's "Universal" work-around. I have one, below, they don't know about that works in most cases--for a while.
Quote:
She then told me that as a last option I could hold down the channel up and channel down buttoms simultaneously while the unit is on, wait for it to power off, power it on again and go through the tvguide setup.
That is only *HALF* the fix, and it isn't the last resort--it's the next to the last resort. Also, it is usually unnecessary, because you can almost always get the same results *without* losing *ANY* information by simply holding the front-panel power button down for about five seconds until all of the pael lights but the clock go out.
[Note: Remove any disks from the DVD Drive *before* powering down. Many errors have been traced back to a disk in that drive in stand-by and especially during crash-recovery.]
Once the unit is *completely* off (not stand-by), you *MUST* do the next step to minimize "Phantom Recordings" (i.e. the machine thinks it's recording--may even *say* it's recording--but no recording goes to disk):
UNPLUG the unit for at least 30 seconds. I have a switched extension cord I bought at Big Lots for about $3.00, so I simply flip a switch and the lights go out.
It is the *UNPLUGGING* that fixes most "Strange" behavior in Panasonic DVR's. My theory is, their software reset doesn't reset all of the necessary chips--only a true hardware (power off) reset will do that.
Once or twice I have still gotten the old "Back-to-back" recording-loss problem, even after the above, (especially with "Regularly" sceduled shows) and have fixed it with one more item I'll add to my anti-crash protocol:
Go to the "Schedule" menu, select each individual recording scheduled, and hit the <ENTER> key twice (the one you use to set "Start Early/End Late" time). This seems to rewrite the schedule and clears up flakiness. I've only had to do that twice--but it seems to work.
Quote:
I just did that this morning and am going to wait until tomorrow to see if any listings come up. I am in your area (92675 San Juan Capistrano) and the same thing has happened to me, so you're not alone.
Howdy, Neighbor! ;)
OT...Re Threshold: I was wondering the same thing a few days ago, Googled "Threshold cancelled" and found out it was cancelled the week it changed days; there are four more shows "in the can" but we may never see them.
Does anyone have a copy of episode 3? I lost that on one of my "away" crashes.
bob
Bob, Laguna Woods, CA 92637; Leisure World Analog Cable; No box
Panasonic DMR-E85HS (1 Year) and DMR-E95HS (6 Months) [TVGOS]
RCA DRS-7000N [3-day TVGOS]
ReplayTV 5504 (Monthly$ 14-Day ReplayTV)
Panny ShowStopper 1000 (ReplayTV 2000) [7-Day Free ReplayTV]
2 x Sony 1000 (Not currently hooked up) [Free TiVo]
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 6. January 2006 @ 17:06
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VideoBob
Member
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6. January 2006 @ 17:24 |
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Quote:
FYI, Panasonic has re-done their website (in November, as I remember), and now the DATE of the firmware version is listed, but at least for the E85, it still says "4/2005." This is the firmware date Panny lists on the download page, NOT the actual date on the download, so who knows if they keep it updated/if it is correct? Kind of disheartening, but par for the course after our interactions with this company.
I just downloaded and unzipped the upgrades for the e85h and the e95h. The site says:
DMR-E85HP DVD Recorder Firmware Update
[DMR-E85.EXE], 1095kb
Version DL-103
Description Updates RAM / DVD drive and improves compatibility with the most recent 8X and 16X DVD media.
Last Updated 4/12/2005
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DMR-E95HP DVD Recorder Firmware Update
[DMR-E95.EXE], 876kb
Version DR-067
Last Updated 4/12/2005
Description Updates RAM / DVD drive and improves compatibility with the most recent 8X and 16X DVD media.
The "last updated" part must refer to the website, because the dates on *both* Pana_dvd.frm files was 3/28/05 (my installed one was 1/27/05 and 6,206kb).
I see that I had also downloaded one a while back on 5/13/05 that said it was created 4/12/05 (!) and was 6,128KB.
I also note that the size is nowhere *near* the 1095kb or 876kb, but is rather 6,206kb and 6,657kb, respectively.
Do they just pull these figures out of thin air?
Are thr rolling back updates, or just sloppy about which ones they put on-line?
Also, the "Compressed installers" are actually *larger* that the file they hold! Why bother?
bob
Bob, Laguna Woods, CA 92637; Leisure World Analog Cable; No box
Panasonic DMR-E85HS (1 Year) and DMR-E95HS (6 Months) [TVGOS]
RCA DRS-7000N [3-day TVGOS]
ReplayTV 5504 (Monthly$ 14-Day ReplayTV)
Panny ShowStopper 1000 (ReplayTV 2000) [7-Day Free ReplayTV]
2 x Sony 1000 (Not currently hooked up) [Free TiVo]
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VideoBob
Member
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6. January 2006 @ 17:29 |
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RX7Fan said:
Quote:
If I remember right, from one of my talks with Cheryl, the downloads last about 2 1/2 to 3 hours each, ... I believe (this is my sort of educated guess on the rest) that it starts during standby, and the runs, if a scheduled recording starts up during it's download, ... I believe (this is the guess part) it will continue to download.
Actually, it won't. It requires control of the tuner to download (its major design flaw), so when you take control of the tuner by either powering the unit up or with a scheduled recording, it stops loading.
IN fact, it's so stupid, it won't load even if you are on the right channel!.
bob
Bob, Laguna Woods, CA 92637; Leisure World Analog Cable; No box
Panasonic DMR-E85HS (1 Year) and DMR-E95HS (6 Months) [TVGOS]
RCA DRS-7000N [3-day TVGOS]
ReplayTV 5504 (Monthly$ 14-Day ReplayTV)
Panny ShowStopper 1000 (ReplayTV 2000) [7-Day Free ReplayTV]
2 x Sony 1000 (Not currently hooked up) [Free TiVo]
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 6. January 2006 @ 17:30
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VideoBob
Member
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6. January 2006 @ 17:53 |
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drsparc said on November 2005 @ 13:33:
Quote:
I have been having another problem that could have put my system into a weird state. Since recording on my current batch of DVD-R disks from TDK, the system crashes if I try and add a name to the disk. I don't know how the disk would matter, but I can see how the system state could be screwed up after a crash.
and again on November 2005 @ 01:46:
Quote:
My crashes only happen when naming the disks. Although it has been since the whole U99 thing started (and ended), it also happened along with a new batch of disks. Perhaps it was just one bad batch. I donno. Funny that it was selective on what function confused it. I just stopped naming them... no major loss.
[and others later...]
I had similar problems long ago. Most of the problems went away with switching to good quality media, but naming a DVD-R that is nearly full can crash it--especially if it is inferior quality or a smaller-capacity disk. Remember, DVDs vary in WRITABLE area, some exceeding the minimum (postd) standard (I forget the figures). The Panny will try to (and usually succeed) write more time than shown "available" and this seems to work fine *until* you try and add a name. Then it crashes.
I solve this problem on DVD-R (it doesn't seem to happen on DVD-RAM) by titling the disk *BEFORE* dubbing. I have yet to lose a disk since I started doing this.
I'm 250+ DVD-R's and 200+ DVD-RAM's (half 9.4's) without a single crash (well, I lost one DVD-RAM before I upgraded my firmware a year ago, and a couple of dozen DVD-R's before I got rid of junk media and started pre-titling my disks, but nothing since). I use T-Y DVD-R blanks I buy on-line for 30-40 cents each and various DVD-RAM.
I'm currently using a batch of 4.7gb Panasonic DVD-RAM's I got in thin-jewel-case 5-packs from Best Buy for $2/disk and am awaiting delivery of 100 Panasonic 9.4gb Type IV cartiges (used once and reformatted--only 9,999 uses left) that cost me about $2 each, delivered, from eBay.
[BTW, when the DVD crashes, you will have nothing but grief until you do a 30-second unplug. Some DVD crashes can and will destroy all setup data. Even READING a crashed DVD can crash the system (and leaving one in the drive can cause crash-loops where you can't boot).]
bob
Bob, Laguna Woods, CA 92637; Leisure World Analog Cable; No box
Panasonic DMR-E85HS (1 Year) and DMR-E95HS (6 Months) [TVGOS]
RCA DRS-7000N [3-day TVGOS]
ReplayTV 5504 (Monthly$ 14-Day ReplayTV)
Panny ShowStopper 1000 (ReplayTV 2000) [7-Day Free ReplayTV]
2 x Sony 1000 (Not currently hooked up) [Free TiVo]
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VideoBob
Member
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6. January 2006 @ 18:02 |
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Coyote24 said on November 2005 @ 15:40
Quote:
shaolin00: Power outages do have an adverse effect on the TVGOS a lot of the time. However, about a week or 2 before my first U99, there was a four hour outage and it recovered eventually without resetting/having to re-do setup, but this might be a rarity.
UPS systems are great, except for having to unplug for two seconds to get it from the wall to the UPS. You'll lose ads and it will take FOREVER (5 days) to get the listings back up to speed. I think this is due to re-searching for the host channel and dealing with downloading lost ads which takes away from time when it COULD be dowloading listings instead.
Power ouages will not hurt if the machine is OFF--after all, we do this all the time to reset the circuit board. ;)
Just be sure to hold the front panel power switch long enough to be sure you aren't in stand-by mode.
Power outages are worst when the machine is recording.
One comment: My machines come back up to OFF (not Stand-By) after a power outage. I don't see how putting the machine on a power timer (as suggested earlier) could work--especially since the time isn't correctd until power-up. How do they get back into Stand-By on their own?
bob
Bob, Laguna Woods, CA 92637; Leisure World Analog Cable; No box
Panasonic DMR-E85HS (1 Year) and DMR-E95HS (6 Months) [TVGOS]
RCA DRS-7000N [3-day TVGOS]
ReplayTV 5504 (Monthly$ 14-Day ReplayTV)
Panny ShowStopper 1000 (ReplayTV 2000) [7-Day Free ReplayTV]
2 x Sony 1000 (Not currently hooked up) [Free TiVo]
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mr899
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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7. January 2006 @ 05:04 |
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I have a problem that I haven't seen reported. Occasionally, I hit open to change a DVD and it hangs. The disk drive won't open at all. The only way I have found to fix it is to pull the plug and reset power.
Thanks,
Ron
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keriah
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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7. January 2006 @ 06:58 |
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V. Bob ~
I have been having the 'no listing' condition "recently" -- i.e., since my reported week-ago problem having "Tuesday" (last) be populated. Since I have been tracking the "next download" time info. as a curiosity I have some possibly-relevant information.
Background: Until last week I was getting populated listings (per the 'next' time) -- sometimes I would hit the download and sometimes I would miss it (because of machine use). But things were generally working as expected.
Then, without any evident problems (outages, etc.) or any unusual use on my end, the "next DL" turned to N/A. Once that happened it stayed that way for days, and the Tues. population was missed.
I did one of your complete 'soft resets' (hold down power off/unplug), which (of course) left me still with N/A for that setting. But very quickly it restored a date/time and began the list population.
Just yesterday, I noticed that my "next DL" was once again back to showing N/A -- and I've had no listing updates over several typical download periods. My machine was in standby most of yesterday, so it had plenty of opportunity.
FWIW, I have never left a DVD in the drive. (I don't understand why someone would leave a disk in the machine -- I only put in a DVD while dubbing and quickly remove it to safety when done.)
A couple of other notes:
I have an E85 here in Hawaii and an E95 in WA. The E95 often had the failure on back-to-back recordings; the E85 has never had that failure.
Both machines have failed to catch a manually-scheduled program, and the most typical case is the same program -- the CBS "Sunday AM" show which starts early Sunday morning (which are at different local times, in the 2 timezones).
Keri
~ Keri
zip 98110 (Bainbridge Island, WA ~ Seattle area)
DMR-E95HS / Comcast cable / no cable box
zip 96815 (Honolulu, HI)
CMR-E85 / Oceanic cable / no cable box
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acmetoyz
Newbie
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7. January 2006 @ 07:25 |
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Update from OKC (73034; Cox Cable). I have been using the 1/27/05 FW upgrade and have not seen any U99s or other glitches on my E85H since the "OKC fix" took effect at my house with listing updates starting on 10/16/05. I am wondering whether the ?fix? ever got rolled out to all of the country.
I operate with a UPS and never leave a DVD in the drive unless I am dubbing. I always record to the hard drive in ?high speed mode?, and then dub to DVD in SP mode. I have made more than 100 dubbings with no problems, although I hardly ever put a title on the DVD. Early on, I did learn the hard way that it is a very bad idea to try to interrupt the dubbing process, and the only way I could recover from that was to unplug for 30 seconds or so. The hard drive has been within a couple of hours of being completely full, and it caused no problems. I have divided titles, shortened titles, and changed title names with the hard drive fairly full with no problems.
So far, I have been using only 4X DVDs, but am about to run out of them.
VideoBob ? You mention that you downloaded the 3/28/05 FW upgrade, but I am wondering whether you or anyone else has actually installed it and tested that it actually ?improves compatibility with the most recent 8X and 16X DVD media?. I am about to start using 8X DVDs, and can?t decide whether to upgrade or to use the ?if it ain?t broke don?t fix it? rule. It irritates me no end that a Panasonic support person told me (several months after 3/28) that the E85H would handle 8X and that there was no upgrade available. (After that, they posted the 1/27 upgrade but not the 3/38 upgrade. Let?s hope that the delay was due to really thorough beta testing, but you would think that people on this forum would be good beta testers!)
Re the comments from VideoBob and others about recently missing listings ? here in OKC I have seen no problems with missing listings, and currently have listings through the eighth day. The only time I ever miss them is when I record late at night, and then they eventually fill in before the day of viewing. Again, I am wondering whether the ?fix? ever got rolled out to all of the country.
One final gripe?. Why can?t the listings handle shows that start and stop at hh:01 instead of exactly on fifteen minute intervals? We are forced to record the follow-on show in order to get the extra minute and the ?pause gap? in between sometimes misses something important. It wouldn?t be exactly rocket science to do it right!
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VideoBob
Member
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7. January 2006 @ 17:48 |
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About DVD Drive and Media-related Problems:
mr899: You did't say whether your unit was on or off (Standby) when you hit the button or, if it was on, was the unit doing anything at the time (such as recording or in the dubbing menu cycle). (The drive won't open when you are in the selection menu of the dubbing process.)
Also, you didn't mention whether you were in HDD or DVD mode (or RAM, for the E95) when you pushed the button.
Nor did you mention whether you had any scheduled recordings set for the DVD (intended or otherwise--check them all).
That said, try following the following suggestions rigorously and see if the problem persists:
[Note: I am not implying that anyone is doing any or all of the recommended-against practices, nor am I saying that you can't violate *all* of these suggestions without having problems. However, I *AM* suggeting that if any of you are having drive or media problems, it would save you vast quantities of time and frustration to follow them *ALL* rigorously for a few days and see if your problems go away. If they do, you can always break them one at a time until your system fails again. ;)]
1. Make sure that the unit is in the HDD mode and the DVD empty before powering down or going into standby. This *SHOULDN'T* be necessary, but the units are sensitive to DVD errors--especially with writable media.
2. Reset the system (including 30-second unplug) after *ANY* error--including failed recordings.
3. Don't try to squeeze in the last few mb of DVD space. Leave it a little breathng room to compensate for relocating bad tracks.
4. Never try to title a FULL DVD-R. If it doesn't have at least 100 MB left, leave it blank. Better yet, title it *before* dubbing.
5. DO NOT use cheap blanks. They may be cheap, but they are *NOT* inexpensive. Quality disks don't have to be expensive and can be widely found under 40 cents a disk. How much is your time and lost data worth?
bob
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VideoBob
Member
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7. January 2006 @ 18:23 |
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keri:
I also found my download channel set to N/A and stil have nolistings on either unit, although they have both been off overnight.
Taking the DVD out of the drive has made most of my crash problems go away. When I forget and leave a writable one in, I usually crash within three days. I haven't any information on whether on DVD-Videos cause failures, since I use a player for those, so my Pannys can stay off (a major design flaw!) and I usually remove them immediately after finalizing.
acmetoyz:
No, I haven't installed the update and don't plan to until I have a problem that appears related to the DVD drive (like media incompatability). I don't expect any of those soon, as I still have a couple of hundred DVD-R blanks and 250 DVD-RAM surfaces (Including the 9.4s) of known good varieties to go before I have to buy any more media.
Quote:
One final gripe?. Why can?t the listings handle shows that start and stop at hh:01 instead of exactly on fifteen minute intervals? We are forced to record the follow-on show in order to get the extra minute and the ?pause gap? in between sometimes misses something important. It wouldn?t be exactly rocket science to do it right!
I agree completely. And while we're at it, why do networks like ABC, BBCA, TNT, and some PBS stations have to run that 1-5 minutes over/under and *THEN* run the shows back-to-back to eliminate the "Safe" zone for switching recordings? What ever happened to dicipline? Remember when there were fiveminutes of ads between shows, so you had a potty break? ;)
Every show I ever produced had to be within ONE SECOND of scheduled start/stop times, including ad breaks. The only thing I can think of is that they are doing it *DELIBERATELY* to foil the "Time-Shift" market.
If I record "Desperate Housewives" on ABC and Schedule "Crossing Jordan" to follow on NBC, Jordan gets skipped because DH always runs a minute over. (BTW, this may account for some of the skipped shows many are reporting--especially when it's the same show every time).
Similarly "Sex and he City" on TNT runs two shows back-to-back and either show can be anywhere from 25-35 minutes long, with the transition anywhere within a 5-minute window and the last show usually running overinto the next time slot. At least I know why this is: The shows ran 30 minutes on HBO *without* ads, and some shows are a lot raunchier than others (causing far more censorship cuts). Rather than padding those shows with more ads, they simply start overlap it with the other show and (sometines) cut less out of it.
I can at least fix this with block recording--but they screw up the following show when they run over.
BTW, I don't remember if my skipped shows were on my E85 or just on the E95.
bob
Bob, Laguna Woods, CA 92637; Leisure World Analog Cable; No box
Panasonic DMR-E85HS (1 Year) and DMR-E95HS (6 Months) [TVGOS]
RCA DRS-7000N [3-day TVGOS]
ReplayTV 5504 (Monthly$ 14-Day ReplayTV)
Panny ShowStopper 1000 (ReplayTV 2000) [7-Day Free ReplayTV]
2 x Sony 1000 (Not currently hooked up) [Free TiVo]
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 7. January 2006 @ 18:46
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VideoBob
Member
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7. January 2006 @ 19:08 |
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OT: Since we've been discussing how the TVGOS system works (when it does) some of you may be interested in the original patents for the tschnology. Perhaps it will help understand how it is *supposed* to work.
http://orbitnet.com/StarSight/
bob
Bob, Laguna Woods, CA 92637; Leisure World Analog Cable; No box
Panasonic DMR-E85HS (1 Year) and DMR-E95HS (6 Months) [TVGOS]
RCA DRS-7000N [3-day TVGOS]
ReplayTV 5504 (Monthly$ 14-Day ReplayTV)
Panny ShowStopper 1000 (ReplayTV 2000) [7-Day Free ReplayTV]
2 x Sony 1000 (Not currently hooked up) [Free TiVo]
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mr899
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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7. January 2006 @ 19:19 |
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mr899: You did't say whether your unit was on or off (Standby) when you hit the button or, if it was on, was the unit doing anything at the time (such as recording or in the dubbing menu cycle). (The drive won't open when you are in the selection menu of the dubbing process.)
Unit was playing purchased DVD. This has happened when DVD is stopped. Once it hangs, it will not open until power is reset.
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VideoBob
Member
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7. January 2006 @ 19:56 |
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Quote:
Unit was playing purchased DVD. This has happened when DVD is stopped. Once it hangs, it will not open until power is reset.
Can't help you, then. I never use it as a player.
Yours sounds like one of the first ones I've heard of that may actually need repair. What model and firmware level are you running?
bob
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 7. January 2006 @ 19:57
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jedi11
Newbie
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8. January 2006 @ 17:40 |
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A question for npasqua (since you seemed to have the same problem)or anyone else who can answer this. My E85H unfortunately lost power while playing a DVD. Ever since, the U99 error is coming up. I tried rebooting the TV guide, but whenever the welcome screen appears (asks you to press enter to begin) it shuts down right away, U99 again. Ive downloaded the firmware update from the website, but I can't figure out for the life of me how to get it to download to the recorder since as soon as it powers up, it comes up U99. If anyone can help I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
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keriah
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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9. January 2006 @ 05:53 |
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Bob,
Quote:
I also found my download channel set to N/A and stil have nolistings on either unit, although they have both been off overnight.
Since I wrote, I took a closer look at the 'page 1' data. It shows that everything (useful) has been reset -- e.g., my Host Chan and Host ID (and lots of the others) are all back to their initial setting value. (Zip Code is, understandably, retained.) Also, I see that I have lost all the promos that had been downloaded (not that I missed 'em!). So, whatever this is (a 'silent' U99?), the downloads stopping seems to be a side-effect of that. This morning (before my round of news recording started), I did a soft reset. I'll leave it on standby the rest of the morning and see how things progress.
BTW, I saw that in your latest set of notes you suggest a reset after failure of a recording to start. I had that Sun. AM (week ago) failure and, in hindsight, should have done a reset right after that. My first failed DL could have been related to that event. (But the second one had no visible event to link it to.)
I don't know if it's related but, after a reset, my system seems to want to use the CBS channel (here, channel 7) as the Host. It pokes around with that for a bit and then figures out that it's PBS (channel 10 (or "A" in hex)). In Seattle, where I have two PSB choices, my E95 does not get confused. But here in Hawaii, the E85 (with fewer competing choices) has a harder time figuring things out.
Keri
~ Keri
zip 98110 (Bainbridge Island, WA ~ Seattle area)
DMR-E95HS / Comcast cable / no cable box
zip 96815 (Honolulu, HI)
CMR-E85 / Oceanic cable / no cable box
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npasqua
Newbie
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9. January 2006 @ 10:04 |
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jedi11,
in my case, it would indeed display a U99 before I could do anything. However, if the machine was off and I hit the eject button, it would turn on and open the disc drive. It would then display a U99 but at least the drawer was open. So I put the firmware cd I made off my computer in the unit and powered off the unit. When I turned it on again, it closed the drawer. I don't remember, but it may have U99ed on me again. Unplug the unit for 30 seconds, turn it on again and when mine loaded, right before it normally U99ed, it read the disc and did the firmware update for me. DON'T FORGET to go to panasonic's page and download the insturctions... there are a couple key things you must do to complete the upgrade. I suggest looking at the instructions before you put the cd in your unit. After that, all was solved.
A few important notes. When you burn the "Pana_dvd.frm" file to a CD, you MUST burn it in the ISO-9660 format. Otherwise your unit will not recognize the disc. Also, if turning on the unit by pressing the eject button doesn't work, then while the unit is off, press and hold "Power", "Stop" and "Channel Up" on the unit for 5 seconds. That will open the drawer for sure.
Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, my tvguide wasn't working after this all happened, though I finally had a functioning unit. I was told by a Panasonic lady in Elgin to do the following: While the unit is ON, push both the Channel Up and Channel Down buttons, and wait for the unit to power off. Wait 30 seconds and turn it on again and set up TVguide again. This actually worked for me as I now am getting my TVguide listings again.
Hope this helped... can't tell you how frustrated I was a week ago to have this expensive unit near death lol
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 9. January 2006 @ 10:08
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toconnor
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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10. January 2006 @ 05:20 |
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VideoBob wrote:
Quote:
One comment: My machines come back up to OFF (not Stand-By) after a power outage. I don't see how putting the machine on a power timer (as suggested earlier) could work--especially since the time isn't correctd until power-up. How do they get back into Stand-By on their own?
My DMR E95HS comes up in standby after power off. It doesn't seem to even have an "off" state; it's either ON or in STANDBY. Holding the power button down for a few seconds doesn't do anything. As soon as the button is touched it toggles either to ON or STANDBY.
Tim O'Connor
DMR-E95HS
Columbus, OH
no cable
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xclratn
Newbie
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10. January 2006 @ 17:15 |
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I now have a fully populated TVGOS. Not sure what they sent out last week to reset mine, but it seems to be functioning again.
Robert
Brentwood, TN 37027
Comcast Cable - no box.
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katchoo
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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11. January 2006 @ 03:24 |
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We may have gone through this before but please bear with me and let me know if you can help.
I hooked my cable directly to my E95 and received the TVGO fine. I really like the convenience of recording from the TVGO. However, when I connect the cable to my cable box (scientific Atlanta 3100) I don't receive the TVGO. I need the cable box to get the higher digital channels. Does anyone know why the cable box would block the TVGO and is there anything I can do to get around this? Does anyone know if Adelphia has a different cable box that would work? I've tried calling Adelphia but they are about as helpful as Panasonic and nobody really knows anything or cares! Thanks for listening.
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ifeldman
Newbie
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11. January 2006 @ 05:22 |
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Katchoo,
I have the E95, but an older digital (non HD) Adelphia box. The TVGuide just doesnt pass through and havent found the right person yet.
I split the antenna and one input goes to E95, the other to the cable box, and cable box output goes into L1 inputon E95. All analog channels and TV listings work fine on E95. The Adelphia box lets me set it up to program a show, and it will switch to that show and turn on the box. Then I go into the E95 and use the timer to select L1 input at the corresponding time. This is a work around and has worked fine for a couple of weeks.
Interesting thing happened a couple of days ago. I went on vacation, and when I came back, my guide completely went away. I mean, nothing happens when I pressed the guide button. I had to unplugged the unit and reprogram the E95. Since I had to do this, I tried again to use the Adelphia box, but after waiting a day, no download. So I switched back to the same configuration above and will check tonight. I expect I should have the analog listings again. This works for me, as 90% of my viewing is with the analog channels.
Ira
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howie14w
Junior Member
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11. January 2006 @ 06:06 |
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I receive my listings from OTA antenna at zip 21784 (Maryland) and while I'm still getting the listings, I haven't seen an ad recently. Does anyone know why?
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Advertisement
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barkerb
Newbie
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11. January 2006 @ 19:02 |
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I would first like to thank everyone that has posted what appears to be the only real available support information on this e85h TVGOS issues. I've gone through most (ok many) of the postings here, and am convinced that my situation is related, but am not 100% sure that it is exactly the same, so I figured I post it to see.
I have a DMR-E85H that I purchased new in 12/2004, which has a serial number with characters 3-4 of 4C. I had primarily been using the unit without issue since it was I purchased it as a VCR replacement and only started dubbing to DVD-R's within the last few months. During the last month or so, I'd note that the HDD did creep up to a near full condition and that for the shows I was dubbing, I was shortening the titles (to elimate commercials, etc).
All was well until yesterday, when I was trying to dub some titles over to a DVD-R using the high speed transfer option, where the dub failed twice. Although I suspected a bad batch of DVD-R's, I later found that the issue appeared to be related to one particular title which had some substantial shortening of small sections. After several additional dubs which excluded the problem title, five titles that had been dubbed were selected and erased as one group to free HDD space. When this was completed, I tried to bring up the TVGOS menu to set up a new entry for recording and found that the machine was not responding to the TVGUIDE button. No errors were observered being displayed, and the obvious things like dead remote batteries and problems with the function of the remote were ruled out through battery swap and excercises of other system functions through the remote. I also confirmed that I was unable to access the TVGOS function or the Manual Timer Record options through the Function menu (the Function and Direct Navigator options did respond however). Finally, I did notice that the channel through which we normally SEE the TVGuide information from our non-digital TimeWarner (Hudson Valley - north of NYC) cable feed had coincidentally been found to not be displaying TVGuide info, but rather sports and infomercials. (Call to TW indicated that this was done outside of their control and through an agreement between TVG and a local sports channel). After reading this forum, I followed the Factory Default (^v combo) reset procedure (to no avail), and finally the Power OFF (hold button 5-10 seconds), unplug (30+ seconds) procedure, and finally got the TVGuide setup to launch. It appears I may be back in business, but of course at this point, I am waiting for the listings to be populated.
I think that covers all of the details, and for those still reading, my apologies for the detail and thanks for sticking with me. I'd appreciate any feedback on any of the questions that all of this raised or any other comments on this experience.
1. Has anyone seen this symptom with TVGOS, where the TVGUIDE button functions to not trigger and no error messages or other oddities are observed?
2. Should I upgrade the Firmware or would this be for some other issue? If so, could someone point me to the correct upgrade process?
3. Is the commercial removal title shortening a problem process?
4. Are there any HDD defrag functions that should be performed on any regular basis as titles are added and removed?
5. Is there a recommended HDD utilization threshold that should not be surpassed?
6. The TVGuide listing for my cable feed has never been reflective of our real lineup... is there any hope or mechanism that can be followed to request the correct listing to be added (while we're getting greedy and looking for our purchased products to function as expected).
I really like the unit, but must say that the detail here has been on the issues as well as the available support from the three involved companies has been unsettling. Any information I could get would certainly help.
Thanks again.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 11. January 2006 @ 19:07
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