Yesterday when I went to watch some previously recorded shows and they were all gone except one that recorded the night before. I may have let my hard drive get too full - I was pushing it - maybe 20 hrs left (~10 pages). I didn't get any error messages and it has picked up with recording what was programed to record but now they are program no. 1, 2, 3, etc. Back in May 2007, Video Bob had asked if anyone knew if the procedure to prevent reformat was actually successful or if anyone knew of software for reading the drive off-unit. I've read almost everything since then but could never find out it Video Bob was able to recover his programs (I too want to see the ending episodes of several series). He had said he might have to write software to read the drive off-unit himself but I could find no further info. I have not found this exact problem on the forum but am new to it so apologize if I have somehow overlooked it. I have been following the saga of the DMR-E85H for years and like others, love it when it works - just wish I could trust it to be 100% of the time! Would appreciate any advice on what to do next.
This is a weird symptom. It sounds like the volume directory was reset, but if the unit reformatted itself, there should have been error messages. The fact that it records now, and has recorded more show, may well have overwritten whatever data was still there. I would try shutting the machine down completely, turning off the timer record. It's been a while since I've done any work on this unit, but if I remember correctly, you just hold the power button down for about five seconds until the red timer light goes out. Let it sit for a minute and then power back up. This will *not* reset your programming timer, nor lose your guide. If the same shows are missing, repeat the above power-down and then unplug the unit for a couple of minutes. It will do a full scan and *maybe* restore the lost programming. You will know right away, in either case. This method will not reset your timer programming, but it *will* clear out your guide, and you'll have to wait for it to reload before the show-based programming is functional again. However, time-based (VCR-Style) programming will continue to work as usual. If this doesn't work, try doing Hard Reset.(WARNING: This *might* destroy all programming. I don't remember, but it should be in my other thread.) If that doesn't work, try the Factory Reset. (WARNING: This *will* destroy all programming.) It will also delete any updates you might have installed. However, if you did, you will have them on a CD and can re-install them.) Both are described in detail in the "Error 99" thread. If none of that works, you are probably screwed. Most likely, the unit overheated. Make sure that it has good airflow. Unvented media centers with doors or solid backs are death on these machines. The have four capacitors in the power supply that are heat (and age) sensitive and experience tells me that these are the cause of 90% of all failures in these machines. I keep my machine elevated to allow more air flow underneath. I used to set them on Vienna sausage cans, but now use the tops of medicine bottles as feet. more... I never got around to it--but I had different symptoms. Mine died completely--probably the power supply capacitors. I'm an engineer, and could easily replace them--if I ever get around to buying the parts. However, I have four Replay TV units networked together and another four computers running DVArchive and VLC, so I can watch any show from any unit on any unit. Over the last year and a half, most of the show I was saving have been re-run and I've saved them to DVD. I miss having an internal DVD recorder, and someday I may actually replace the capacitors on the two DMR-Ex5's. At least DVArchive can stream them to one of the computer, where I can then burn a multi-show DVD all in one step. My real warning to you is if it did it once, it will probably do it again. Get a spindle of DVD-R's and record the shows as they accumulate. I just bought a half-dozen spindles of 50 at my local (going out of business) Circuit City for $9.95 each (that's 20-cents per disk or a little over 3 cents per show in 6-hour mode). That Circuit City closes Sunday, for good. You can find good deals on DVD-Ram cartridges on-line. I've bought 4.7 Gb disks for a dollar and 9.4 Gb ones for two. Sadly, I never got around to that, but may still do so. Yours is the second time I've heard of such thing and the first got his shows back by walking down the reset sequence I've described above. I forget which one worked--just do them in order to minimize loss of data. *NONE* of them should lose recorded shows, as I remember--except possibly the Factory Reset. I'd backup the recorded programs anyway, just to be safe. 100% ain't gonna happen. They will never fix the power supply problem nor the software that causes such glitches. However, if you stay away from the "Edit | Divide Title" feature, they work *most* of the time. Good Luck and keep us posted how this works. Videobob p.s. I really should update my signature.
No luck so far - I tried all the resets, including the factory reset, and the "old" saved programs still do not show up. It seems my only alternative would be to pull the drive and try to recover the files with a PC or "get a life and quit watching so much TV." That's a tough choice...
Sorry to hear that. From everything I've heard, pulling the drive *guarantees* that it will be reformatted next time you plug it in. However, everyone who was so bitten had installed a different drive first, and when they went back to the original, the Panny reformatted it. bob
If you need to get data off of a Panasonic HD that is permanently stuck in error mode and needs a reformat, I have found a way to do it. Here are links to posts I made last year. You have to be pretty good with math to do it, and it could take weeks, but maybe someone will use my method to write a program. http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/72/143317#3885923 http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/72/143317#3885923 I finally broke down and added a 500 GB HD to my PC so I could finish what I started over a year ago. In a matter of weeks, I have now recovered most of what I had on the panny HD and only have a little bit to go. I have also made the following observations: Data fragments always start with HEX addresses ending in 0000 and the fifth to the last digit is always a 0, 4, 8 or C. Whenever a new recording is started, the DMR will scan the drive for blank contiguous spaces of at least 384 MB in size, and begin in 384 MB fragments. ( An empty drive may use larger fragments, or just record the whole title on one huge chunk ) If none exist, it will then try 192 MB ( half the size each time ). All programming will start out in either 384 MB, 192 MB, 96 MB, 48 MB, 24 MB, 12 MB, 6 MB, 3 MB, or 2.25 MB fragments depending on what is the largest size of the empty spaces on the drive. The fragments are always recorded sequentially from the beginning of the drive to the end, and are always the same size, until the end of the drive is reached. It will them go back to the start, and record the next set of fragments at half the original size. This process will continue until the recording is ended or the drive runs out of 2.25 MB spaces, in which case it will stop and show a "drive is full" error. Of course the final fragment will be smaller as it depends on when the recording is stopped. I had one 30 min. show that started out in 6 MB fragments and ended up in 2.25 MB fragments, and I had to locate and rejoin 168 fragments in all! Note: My unit is a DMR-EH50, but the 85 probably works the same way. Wade
Video Bob, if you are looking for capacitors for any Panasonic dvd recorder, go to Panasonic official website for parts. The lik is: http://www.pstc.panasonic.com/Epartr/PartsListChoice.asp And typed your model number, choose Part description, and based on your needs, look for E.capacitor with specific V and UF info. If for any reason you have any problem to locate correct capacitor (sometimes, description is not enough or do not include V and UF info), just send e-mail to Panasonic using feedback form or call National Parts Center at 800-332-5368. You need to know the position for capacitor on the board (such as C1620, and specification 10V, 680uF for each capacitor.) They usually reply with the exact part number for your needs (either by e-mail or phone within 24 hours.) I placed order for replacement capacitors twice. You pay approx. $6 for shipping (based on the volume of your order.) The price is between $1.90 to $3.80 for capacitor). You will receive exactly the same capacitors, (usually made in Japan.) Or if you want to save money on shipping, you can go to www.digikey.com, put some info about capacitors 10V 68ouF, and you receive many results. You can see Live Online chat to speed up the process of selction. Guys are very helful. I used them for replacement capacitors to computer motherboard. They have shipping around $3, and prices even lower than Panasonic. Most of their brand "Panasonic" capacitors are made in Malaysia, but I did not see any big difference yet in my child computer until now. I am not a man, and I was able to do replace, solder, etc. not only Panasonic DVD recorder "blown" capacitor, but also "blown" capacitors on old Compaq PC motherboard. For something under $15 in parts (depends how much you need, U usually buy everything twice), you can get your dvd recorder with HD back to life.
VideoBob: Do you know if there is a way to reset the clock manually on the DMR E85H? also are there any tvguides still working?
Thanks, Wade. I'll try this when I get some time--probably July. If it looks like it might work for me, I'll probably write a program to do it automatically. Good Work! bob
Thanks, I'm afraid I might have been a little unclear about what I wanted. I'm a computer engineer, so replacing caps is child's play for me. Thanks for the Panasonic link--I can use it for other needs. However, it isn't any good for me for the capacitors because the problem with them is not THAT they fail, but WHY they fail. Panasonic under-engineered them, so their voltage rating is too low for the circuits they are in. As they start to deteriorate naturally from age and heat, they fall below the minimum voltage rating required to survive so they blow up. The two fastest ways to blow up an electrolytic capacitor is to over-voltage them or reverse polarity. I've worked on machines where caps blew with the sound and concussion of a cherry bomb--full of hot oil. Replacing them with the same wrong parts just postpones the recurrence of the inevitable for a couple of more years (hopefully). However, you can replace C1260 and C1261 (10v) with replacements for C1270 and C1271 (16v) and you'll be fine. Just use higher voltage caps for C1270 and C1271. They filter a 12-13V power supply and have a tolerance of 20%. So a NEW 16v capacitor could legitimately only be a 12.8v capacitor right out of the box, and still meet spec--but already be at it's maximum capacity before the unit is even turned on, let alone aged in intense heat. Doubling the max voltage encountered and then rounding up to the next universal size is the *standard* way to spec capacitors to give adequate safety margins under all normal and most extreme operating conditions. Thus a 12v line is fine with a 25v cap, but a 13v line is right at the maximum end of the SAFETY window (but should work fine in this environment). I was looking for (and found) the posting that included the replacement values I wanted (1000 MFD, 35-Volt, radial-lead). Some were using axial-lead caps, but I wanted the original can-type radials. I found them on-line at Radio Shack, got the part number (272-1032), checked stock at my local store, and found six. I had him put them on hold and I dropped by and picked them up along with my Digital Converter box--saving shipping on both. By buying six, I got a quantity discount and they only cost me $1.43 each. You can also get 1000MFD-25V caps here for 85-cents: http://www.oselectronics.com/ose_p93.htm Thanks again, bob
Some are--it all depends on your local TVGOS data carrier and your local cable provider, if any. A lot have been losing their signals during the changeover, and don't know (or care) about them until they are harassed by enough PANASONIC owners to go through the effort to getting them back on line. As for the clock, you should be able to do that from the Settings menu you bring up with your remote (bottom left side). If the option is grayed out on-screen, you may have to cold boot the machine to clear out the auto-time function, the implementation of which usually disables manual time settings. There are other discussions here that covered that a while back. You really don't want to cold boot, however, if you don't have to--because you will lose everything personalized about your system including channel and programming data (but not the programs themselves). Hope this helps. bob
I've only just found and joined this forum. I have two DMR-E85H machines -- one used for field production to record switched video and provide a rough DVD; the other used at home for recording off-air programs and to make family DVDs. Both machines are used with a U.P.S. (Uninteruptable power supply) This is in reply to Kathy2's original post. My home machine gets quite a bit of use so I'm always pleased that it seems to be so reliable. A couple of times recently I've experienced a problem similar to Kathy2's description. When I went to look at the contents of the hard drive, there were no listings at all. The drive capaity indicated that my programs were still being recognized by some pasrt of the system. I powered down the machine for a few minutes. When it was powered back up, the drive listings appeared and everything worked normally. I blew dust out of the side vents by way of thanks and continued using it. It sounds like you've already powered down the machine and powered it back up without any success. I seem to recall it took me two or three tries the first time. I hope you're been able to recover your files, -- Tron Troll 27 June 2009
