I doubt it's that simple. For one thing, the TVGOS comes in on an analog channel. For another, part of what the machine does is convert from analog to digital for recording, so you'd be affecting that, too.
I have heard a story..that if you use one of these.. DTVPal Digital to Analog TV Converter DTV Pal that therer is a chance of receiving the tvguide listings again..any truth?
We should probably raise hell with our congressional reps ... that this changeover unfairly harms a class of citizens, and then require that the analog signal be continued at least for tv guide, heheh.
My TVG hasn't worked for months now, even with analog style cable (no cable box). My fan started making an unsettling sound the other day. I never understood why I would only hear the fan kick on when the unit was sitting there idle, never really when it was on. The sound has gone, but I am not naive enough to think it will stay that way... is there a drop in replacement fan for this unit? If yes, is it easy to replace?
After months of no TV Guide data... and calling Comcast... and trying every reboot/reset technique listed here... and giving up... my TV Guide data just started showing up again! I haven't touched it in weeks. This is going though a digital converter too. So if you are in Northern CA, there is hope that yours may be working now too! Yippee!
TVGOS is back in it's complete form in the Mojave Desert. I don't know who did what, it's been many months with no service, but it came back. So ... my guess is if it was a problem with the analog to digital changeover, it is likely that either TVGOS' head corporation or the local channels, are making the necessary adjustments. I was astounded last night when I noticed titles on my recorded blocks for the first time in months. Terrific! K
For those who want a similar product to our beloved Panny's that no longer work right, J and R has a supply of refurb Philips HDD DVD recorders with ATSC tuner for sale. Likely these will go fast. I have 2 Philips units and while they dont have the guide, do not record to DVD-RAM, and the editting isnt great, they do a good job recording digital tv, editting and dubbing to DVD-RW. http://www.jr.com/philips/pe/PHI_DVDR3576_hy_RB/
Kassel, Thats interesting, I tried using the Comcast DTA months ago, it didnt' work. I only get TVGOS using an older compatible cable box (DCT-2000), and I have to pay monthly for it's lease. Maybe it'll work now in my (Seattle) area. What digital converter are you using? The DTA (Digital Transport Adapter) Comcast provides, or a third party converter? I think I recall you are also a Comcast customer. Also, my unit sometimes displays the lock icon in TVGOS (indicating it is recording) however, it isnt really recording when I look at direct navigator. The machine is fully on, not in standby. Weird....
The lock icon doesn't indicate you're recording, it indicates the PIP window is locked to the current channel being viewed/recorded, and won't change as you scroll through the guide data.
I have charter cable, and I don't use any box at all. I use just a cable to pana to tv hookup. TV guide is still working fine. I bet if you took the box out of the lineup you would probably get tvgos too in some locations. PS .. my lock remains unlocked when I am recording, as usual. K
My DMR-E85H had been behaving itself since my replacement of the C1270 and C1271 capacitors a couple of years ago (ref 11 Aug 2007 post on page 62--quoted below), but last summer it failed again. Hard. As in, no display at all. While I suspected the cause, I didn't have time to look into it until yesterday. It was, as I suspected, two more capacitors on the power supply board--C1260 and C1261. They had obviously failed--bulged and, as my son put it, 'chocolatey.' Fortunately, when I had ordered capacitors to replace C1270 and C1271, I bought two extra. The only difference between the two sets is the voltage rating--and the 1270s are higher rated (16v) than the 1260s (10v). this is a good thing, given the generally underrated values that Panasonic used. Better to use 25v or 35v (or higher) rated capacitors for both sets. Given that both the 1270s and the 1260s have been noted by many to fail in these units, I strongly recommend that if you go in to replace one set, replace the other set at the same time. You will cut down the mean time between failures at the expense of a couple of dollars. Also, make sure your air flow is unobstructed and the fan is still functioning-- and don't seal it up in a cabinet.
Hi all, I was hoping I wouldn't have to write into this forum again since the only problems I had experienced with the panasonic 85h was the TVGOS not getting listings. That was until yesterday... I just bought an HDTV since my usual TV died a few weeks ago so I hadn't been using the machine at all for about 4 weeks. On Monday I installed the new HDTV and rewired all my components. I started to notice that when I would put the DVR on, it would take a long time to start up and I would get the rolling bars. Finally a channel would appear in the display then the machine would go off. I would restart it and it would start up but a message would appear on screen that would say "error" and I had to press the middle button on the remote. But it still worked, it just took a long time to boot up. Then last night, after waiting for a long time for it to boot up and getting the "error" message I finally shut it off but it didn't go off. All I got was the "please wait" message on the display and then I started thinking of this forum. Now the question is do I bring it in to be fixed or try to fix it myself. I bought the unit in May '05 and got the extended warranty, I also bought the warranty again when it expired. The question is whether the warranty is still valid. I have a lot of shows on the machine and I don't want to lose them (like lots of people here said) so I am concerned if I bring it in they will reformat the drive. Any suggestions?
"Please wait" on the display is usually the sign of bad capacitors. I had this message twice on my display, exchanging capacitors twice. Unit works perfectly after every replacement of capacitors. If you never replaced any of them until now; it's almost 99% chance that this is what causes the problem. I have my Panasonic dvd recorders hooked up to HDTV for years without any problem. Your change of Tv is probably only coincidence. Replacing capacitors (usually C1260 and C1261) solves the problem. I already replaced capacitors in one of my dvd recorder twice. Of course, everytime they are in a different position, but they going out one after another after prolonged period of use. They are rated for max. hours, and with the age of your unit and number of hours of being used, it is not a surprise. I did it by myself, ordering parts from www.digi-key.com They have great prices, ship small quantities, and you can use chat with a guy online to find the correct capacitor for your instead of browsing their whole selection of capacitors. It might cost you something over $5 including shipping. I did it by myself mostly because I was scared to loose my recordings on HDD, if I send the unit to Panasonic. If you have repair shop (the one that provides your extented warranty) close to you, you can go there and ask them to open the unit and check for bad capacitors (if you do not want to it yourself.) Or you can open the unit (if it will not breach your extended warranty,) check for capacitors with brown substanse or any other bulge on top of capacitors and order parts. Many people go to the close TV repair shop, and technician there can do it for them in 10 minutes for $5-10 fee.
Over the years, mine has gone in for service a couple of times. The first time, a local shop serviced it, and he reformatted the hard drive. Later, it went back to the Panasonic repair center under the extended warranty. They fixed it without reformatting the drive, and all the programs left on the drive were still there when I got it back. So, if you opt to get the warranty service, there's at least a chance you won't lose your recordings.
Thanks to those who responded. I just checked with Best Buy and my warranty is still valid until March 2012 so I plan to bring it there. I think Best Buy has a replacement service so if they can't fix it they will replace it however, I want this machine back since I've really liked the way it works. I plan on bringing a copy of the information from this forum about the capacitors and another note saying NOT to reformat the drive or to contact me before they do that.
When you press the record button to record for 30 minutes, One hour, 2hours, ect., the dvr automatically turns off when it is done recording. I have to have the dvr on to watch tv, so I was wondering if there is a way to turn this auto-shutdown feature off.
Budin, if it were me, I would just hook the pana to another tv to make sure the error occurs from the pana rather than from a mixup in your configuration with that new HDTV. To the person who gets tired of the 30 min shutoff etc. You don't have to select a timer recording, just press record, and your pana will record til you tell it to stop. Meanwhile, you can watch tv just by pushing the input select button on your tv so it will show what you want to view on the tv's tuner, while the pana is still recording.
Well, I brought the machine into BestBuy since that is where my extended warranty is. However, I also printed out the instruction on here about the capacitors and told them I did not want them to reformat the hard drive. Here's hoping that it will work. I know my next issue is going to be when and if I bring it home because I had to replace my cable box too since the one I had before couldn't get the HD channels. I wondering if the DVR will still be able to receive the TVGOS. The back of the cable box doesn't have a coaxial output but does have the RCA jacks which is what I used with the other digital cable box I had. Of course, now with HD it's getting harder and harder to watch the "regular" programs too. Does anyone make a HD DVR with DVD disc burning?
Well, here I am again. A couple days ago my unit DMRE85h started with the please wait...please change the disk...open DVD tray...loop. This has happened a few times before. So I reset to factory defaults, looked for more bad caps (I have replaced 5 previously) didn't see any obvious blown ones. Reseated the drive cables. Once I saw the test *L1, again did a hard reset. Then back to the format screen. Now The machine wants to reformat the drive (insistently). I have seen previously on this thread that this can happen after removing and reinstalling the HD, however I have removed reinstalled the HD numerous times without getting the format screen. I have tried to trick the machine into thinking it has been reformatted etc per a previous post on page 1, but after I plug the HD back in and turn it on I always get the format screen with no options. I have tested the voltages at the HD power connector. they all seem good and stable (with a cheap VOM). Anyone experienced this? I really don't want to reformat the drive. I don't think it will work anyhow, I think something else is up. The HD is spinning up just fine. Fan is good. Maybe the data became corrupt? I have had this unit for about 5 years. I wonder if the caps have just dried out, showing no outward signs of being blown? Any ideas? Any known (bad) cap locations that cause this insistent format requirement? I have previously updated the firmware in 2006, is there a newer version? Thanks to all for all the good ideas over the years, I really like this unit. I also use a Comcast DVR, this Panny is superior, so I'd really like to rescue it again.... Bruce G
