Just found this , just in case ya might need it (anybody) link to a PDF version of the manual, ... http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/DMRE85H.PDF RX7 Fan
RXT Fan Thanks for the information on the PDF for the Owners Manual. I had looked all over the internet when I bought the unit and could not find the PDF file. I like to keep it on the computer at home and at work. In my case I have better filling practices on the computer than in the filing cabinet. Plus I can then print out needed pages when needed. Keith
Amen Brother, can't find the desk, but I can find the mouse or keyboard!! or at least that's what the wife tells me. Been researching here, .... Has anyone tried looking at the closed captioning feed? (I'm on a pretty steep learning curve) looks to me like the data is on a "VBI data stream" this is where the cable company usually sends the closed caption info also, probably no relation, one might have a problem, and the other not, but it's worth a look. This would not rule out a problem there, but if they were both having problems, it would be a place to start, also closed caption would be a function of the TV, not the E85H, so, a whole nother can of worms there. Sheesh, the more I look, the more questions I find, ARGH. Oh, FYI, VBI, is Vertical Blanking Interval, it is kind of like the carriage return on a typewriter, they feed data in the "dead spot" where no data is being sent to the screen, ... works both for interlaced, and non-interlaced. RX7 Fan
O.K., I have worked Tech Support household name Internet Service Provider, won't name them, but I understand how tech support should work, but Panny's ...... Panny's not gonna be any help here apparently. RX7Fan
I got off the phone with Panasonic about an hour ago. After a 20 minute wait to speak with someone and two holds while someone else was consulted, I was told to take it to my local Panasonic service center for repair. "The problem is with the E85H" I was told. I tried to convince them that the TV Guide download seemed to trigger the U99 error, but . . . My one year warranty runs out in early November. I'm not sure what to do.
IMPORTANT!!! Just got off the phone with a local guy, (TV REpair) he's going to get me some info in bout an hour, will upload it the, but it appears (acording to him) it is a panny problem, more details when I get home in an hour, ...... daughn, .... unless you're really computer literate, can flash rom, burn cd's comfortably, go with what they said, it's apparently a known issue, like I said more details in an hour or so, depending on the tech I spoke to. RX7Fan
O.K. just got home, still waiting for e-mail from the tech, .. but what he told me (abridged of course) PAnny was one of the first touse the TVGOS for auto recording, and Gemstar set up the data format, .. RCA, and others were having a few problems with the format, so. .... majority rule .... Gemstar "tweeked" the data format, leaving Panasonic in the cold, .... now my guess is that Panny knows this, and are willing to bite the bullet on the hardware replace (digital board in the E85H, if need be), but don't want to do a recall on the thing, 'cause it works otherwise. I'm guessing what the tech is going to send me is a firware flash for the TVGOS firmware, ... hopefully, he says if this doesn't fix it, it's digital board replacement time. If he sends me a firmware upgrade for the TVGOS, you'll get it here as soon as I can, if it's a procedure, ditto, if it's a board replace, I'll post the info on that also. (I hope) keep your fingers crossed, (if my wife hears about this, she'll bring up the "asking for directions thing again, ya know how that goes!! ) RX7 Fan
daughn, In My Humble Opinion, you'll be wasting your time and $$ (gas or shipping) to submit your DVR to Panasonic for surgery. Panasonic is in denial about these problems. Perhaps I am more stoic about the TV Guide problems because I knew when I bought my machine that there was a very good chance I would opt not to use the TV Guide due to the problems I read here and elsewhere. I do not use the TV Guide. Yes, the machine is not very user friendly to begin with and is less so without the TV Guide functions, but I accepted that going in. If you only found out about these problems after the fact, and perhaps only bought the machine primarily based on having an EPG that did not require you to hook the unit up to a F$*@#$&% phone line or subscribe to a service like TIVO, I can understand why you might consider surgery.
I really do appreciate your help and opinions on this matter, RX7Fan and vulcanusa. I'm going to wait on any info you get, RX7Fan, before I do anything further. Sending the unit in to Birmingham, AL, for repair will be my last option, and then only "just in time" to be covered under the warranty. In the meantime, I'm manually scheduling any recordings. Eagerly awaiting further info!!
Well my luck finally ran out. It's been a little over 2 weeks but I finally got another U99 tonight. I guess the reset didn't work.
Teusday morning update, sorry it took so long to get back, tech called last thing last night, spent about an hour on the phone with him. no good news here, but read on. After checking the firmware version I had, and assuring me that errors in the flashing process (firware updating precess) would cause the unit to require hardware replacement. (I used to work in electronics manufacturing for a while, ... I've trashed a few eeprom in my day) we then took a look at the TVGOS diagnostic screens, .... IMPORTANT STUFF on the first screen of the TVGOS Diag. the second or third(usually) line down is a sequence of numbers, min read: [bold]07.01.26/07.06.11[/bold] he told me that they were looking at the second set of numbers, they are dates, if I remember right, he said June, So, I'm guessing June 7, the "11" is the revision number I guess, he was looking for "9", when he heard "11" he said, "they must have made 2 updates since the service bulletin came out". Again, .... This all boiled down to "you've done all you can do, there is no hardware fix to this problem, unless you get U99's while powered up, that could mean a bad digital board. Recap of his troubleshooting steps : 1. Flash latest firmware 970DL 2. Check for latest TVGOS "Patch" 07.06.09(or better) on the first screen of the TVGOS Diag. Screen. 3. Sit back, wait for downloads. looks like we gotta either jump all over TVG (Gemstar) to fix there data, or learn to use the VCR+ codes.
It's after 8am, and I had no U99 this morning. In fact, I turned the E85H on and was asked to choose between 2 lineups -- hadn't seen that for a LONG, LONG time. To my surprise, I had a filled out TV listing, although I didn't check for the days ahead. Also, I checked the dignostic screen and I had exactly the same numbers you have, RX7Fan. Some time ago I had checked the firmware number and is was 970DL. So, as you say, I guess I'll just wait and see what happens. If it is like Sunday, I'll get the U99 between 9am and noon. But, be positive!! - maybe it won't appear. By the way, I'm usually at home since I work at home as a computer software consultant.
daughn, Did you have the channel line up, and no listing for a while, and new data today? Have you reset the TVGOS recently? What I'm getting at is that they may have changed the data, like we are hoping for, what you're seeing, if you haven't made any changes is the new data format. Software consultant, .. hmmm, could you make anithing out of the Diagnostics pages? ... other than info about the database, no data, perse. RX7 Fan.
Got home last night around 6:00 pm and had a U99 on the display. Started the unit up went through the checks everything OK. Had the unit on until around 10:15. Turned it off and it was in standby mode. After about 10 minutes I looked at the screen and the U99 was back on the screen. Again started the unit and everything OK. Got up this morning 7:00 am and sure enough the U99 was their again. Up to this point I did not have any programs scheduled to record so there was no loss. I did set it to record this morning on the manual mode not from TV Guide. I will advise if the recording is OK or if I have another U99. Do they do major uploads the first of the week for TV Guide? Does this happen more on one day verses another? I'm now concerned that this has happened so often that if I set it up to record I will miss the show. By the way I only have around 10 hours recording on the hard drive at the LP setting.
Keith, Have you already checked you firmware version, and the TVGOS diagnostic data like I mentioned earlier. other words, is your 85 in the same state as mine, and still getting U99's, ... I haven't seen a U99 on mine since saturday morning. albeit, just a channel line-up and no data, but no more U99's for me since sat. RX7 Fan (Paul)
RX7 Fan I have installed the latest update that was downloaded through a link at this site. I have not done a TV Guide reset or anything like that. As far as I can tell the TV Guide listing is there and everfything looks good. Keith
Just checked the TV Guide Screen again. Today and tomorrow's data seems to all be loaded, but nothing from Thursday and later yet. On the promotions page, there were nots of choices to look at. I don't remember seeing all those before, but never really intentionally looked for them. So far, so good, but I really would not be surprised to see a U99 before the day is over (pessimist!). I reset the TVGOS yesterday noon, and did some manual programming after that -- those worked fine yesterday eve. They are still listed in the schedule. My expertise is in programming application software, so the diagnostic data didn't mean anything to me either. Also, before bedtime last eve, there was nothing on the TVGOS, not even a channel lineup. This morning, 2 days worth were there.
On a second note I have purchased some Panny DVD-RAM discs from Best Buy. The first 5 pack and 10 pack I bought, the discs themself are gold on the front side and the transfer rate to write to these RAM disc's is good. The last 10 pack I bought were on closeout and they are Panny and everything on the outside looked the same but the discs themself are white on the front side. When I transfer video to the later white face discs the transfer time is about twice as long. The gold take about 20 minutes and the white disc's are over 40 minutes. I have not done an exact time calculation but this it was it appears to be. Is anyone aware of a difference in these DVD-RAM discs? On the discs the gold say they are 2~3x Speed and the white do not. There is a bar code of 0-37988-01340-1 on the gold pakage. My guess is that the white discs are older style and do not have the faster transfer rate. Other than the transfer time the disc's seem to work OK. Also since I did do the firmware update I'm now able to use DRD-R 8x discs that I could not use before. Before the update I had to use DVD-R's that said 1x - 8x and were getting harder to find. Sorry for the rambling I hope that this will help someone else buying discs at close out prices. Keith
I am so glad I found you all! I bought a Panasonic DMR-E85 in May of this year. I read all about it but still liked Panasonic. All was well. Got all the TV channels, didn't expect to like the TVGuide but I ended up loving it and using it often. Never had a problem until around August 15th. I went away for the week and came back and none of my programs were recorded. At the time I still had the channels but no information on the programs (no data available). I called Panasonic and was told to reset the whole thing. I did that and I ended up with "no data available" not even the channels. I called Panasonic again and was told to download some updates. Did that. Then I started getting the U99 error. Called panasonic again. They told me to have it serviced. I have Comcast Cable in Boston, MA I bought it at Best Buy and got the extended warranty, however, I'm afraid they won't be able to fix it. Sometimes I go a whole week without a U99 error and other times (like last night) I get it in the evening, turn it on and it goes back to the last channel recorded and then when I get up in the morning its U99 again. I have noticed that it usually gets the U99 error after thumbing through the channels, i.e., starting at 2, 3...but it gets stuck on 98 or 99. I know things are better when it changes the box to 37 (that's the MSNBC channel that it used to update from when I first got it.) However, I still do not get any program listings in the TV Guide. I get their "promotions" but no information on the programs. All I get is the channel lineup. I'll keep posted to see how you all make out. It seems like this is a big problem for Panasonic and they are not addressing it.
Looks like I've joined the U99 club :-( Was having a trouble getting the EPG loaded, but no U99's. Did the firmware upgrade and got the EPG loaded ok, but now suffering from U99 errors every couple of days or so. Running on Time Warner digital cable connected to L3 input. I've been following all the threads and trying different ideas solutions but to know avail. I doubt it's a hardware / hard drive problem - more likely a nasty sw bug between Panasonic and TV guide provider. It's a shame as it's a great box and one of the reasons we bought it was for the EPG and ease of recording....
