U99 yesterday and this morning. No ads, mostly no listings. Sent screen shots that Cheryl requested (debug 1&2) this round along with some TVGOS screen shots showing no adds and no listings, etc. Will advise when I hear back from Cheryl.
PSU, no display at all in stby? ... check the date on the firmware you downloaded, teh .frm file, let us know what it was/is ?? I don't think they would do it, but blanking the display where the U99 show's up, would get rid of the u99 , now wouldn't it?!?! can you say ....... satan (sorry dana carvey flashbacks to the church lady. RX7 Fan
psujmatt, If you hit the Functions button and enter Setup, I believe one of the menu options permit you to adjust the display preferences. I think the options for the display preferences are: Bright, Automatic, and Dim (or something like that). I believe if you select "Bright", that the clock is displayed when the unit is in Standby, otherwise not. Try that and let us know - not at home right now.
Oh, hey gang, almost forgot this part!!! Talking to Cheryl yesterday reminded me of something I heard, and she confirmed it, ..... when you get the first batch of Listings it downloads days 1,2,3 and 8, sunday when I got some listings I got Sunday, Monday, and tuesday, and the next sunday, so the first batch got through, but something between it and the next batch, I'm assuming 4,5,6and 7 caused the problem, starting to sound more and more like the ads. They come in good once, the listings (first batch) show up, the next batch of listing come in, cause the U99, next batch of listings show, but we're already toast because of the U99, so they never update. Sounds good in theory, I'm sure Cheryl already knows this. RX7 Fan I think Vulcan just posted the setting in the menus, ... yep, that's right, forgot about that option, just looked, you can do that. It says you can turn the display off also in stdby.
BudinMA You said that you leave the recorder on to record your shows. I tried this but after the first timer recording the recorder turned itself off. Is there a setting to leave the recorder on after a timed recording? I also received a U99 last night around 6:00 when I got home. I checked the listing and they were blank. It showed the channel line up but no data. Keith
kossello, I thought I remembered that you could only set up the unit to remain on for a maximum of 8 hours when idle before it automatically entered Standby, but I must be mistaken if others have successfully left the unit on (i.e. not Standby) for a week. ???
Just looked, page 16 says you can turn off the "standby after 6 hours" , it's "off timer" in the setup menu, options 2hrs, 6hrs (default), or off. RX7 Fan
Has anyone dealt with their cable system yet? I am still looking for information concerning whether the cable box should be shut off time to time and not kept on all the time. Supposedly, the cable box (like the DMR) needs to be shut off to receive updates. Has anyone already addressed this?
I have Knology cable in Alabama and a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2100 cable box. I never turn it off, and the guide information on it is always current and correct. Mainly use it as a quick reference to see what is currently on. If it is off, I wouldn't receive the TVGOS listings as my E85H is connected to the 2100 and then to the cable.
another quick note: I don't have cable & only get CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, WB, PBS and a Religious station U99s still come through
Hi people, I've been reading this forum for a while but I've decided to add my experiences to the thread in case it helps anyone. I'm in Las Vegas, Nevada, Cox Cable is my TV provider. I've got a DMR-E85H connected to the Scientific Atlanta cable box via S-Video to the L3 input. I've configured it to drive the channel select on the cable box via the IR Blaster. Works really well. We don't use the TVGuide at all (for a while it seemed to be responsible for the dreaded Green Screen of Death), I do all programming via the manual timer record screen. I rely on the IR-Blaster to change the channel on the cable box which is about 95% reliable. For critical stuff I set a "VCR timer" on the cable box as well, as a backup. This system worked really well for about 5 months. We started getting the U99 errors some time in the middle of last month. It makes sense to me that it has to do with the TV Guide data because it only ever happens while in standby. Usually twice a day. I see it in the morning and again when I get home from work. A simple power toggle dismisses the "U99", then the "/// please wait ///", then again to power up. What a nuisance! I've been following the suggestions: patched the firmware, no change. Reset using the ch^ch buttons, no change. Tried telling the DMR that we had no cable box and/or no cable service but that either stopped the IR-Blaster from talking to the cable box, or prevented me from being able to set up manual timed recording! The reason I'm writing is that last night I tried re-configuring the TVGuide setup, entering a ZIP code of "00000". Seeing as we don't use the guide at all, I hoped it would try and find listings but not find any, and therefore not download any "bad" data that causes the U99. Well, this morning, for the first time in weeks, the DMR was still in standby and wasn't displaying "U99"! If it is still ok when I get back home tonight then I'm hopeful that this has worked around the problem, for us at least. I know it won't help those of you that rely on the TV listings. Anyway, thanks for listening.
[bold]UPDATE[/bold] The digital board replacement on my E95 did not fix the problem so we have that ruled out. The tech said he has a service bulletin that is dated Sept. 05 that has a firmware upgrade to resolve TVGuide related U99 errors. The problem is it that it has a serial number range listed on it and mine doesn't fall under it (my serial is newer.) The tech is going to call Panasonic and see if it's ok to flash mine anyway. The firmware he has may be the same one that Timdf got a hold of. I'll keep everyone posted. @
Gdoggy, please ask "your" tech if he can tell you the range of S/N's, .... if need be you might have to explain the situation (us all talking here in the forum) Thanks in advance RX7 Fan also, if he can, some reference to the bulletin, number, or something like that, we need more ammo. wait a second, you know what, that may be the upgrade to 970dl firmware, ... they were having problems back march april or may with TVGOS, Gemstar upgraded there firmware.
Posted earlier and forgot to include in my post that I DO NOT have a cable box at all, so it's not a cable box issue. I'm in Charlotte NC and have Time Warner cable. I've had my TV Guide feature disabled for 3-4 weeks now and no problems at all. I'm really hoping a firmware update can resolve this.
Update from Cheryl: Thank you for the information. If you notice any patterns or something changes, please let us know and grab screen shots. I'll let you know what we find. To which I responded: Just a quick synopsis to date. On Wed 10/5 I did a L1-diagnostics on my DVR to return it to factory settings. After that was complete, I did the 653214741 reset on the TVGOS. I then setup zip/cable info. On Fri 10/7 I turned on unit, it was asking for zip/cable info. I set it. On Sat 10/8 I turned on unit, it was asking for the TV lineup. I set it. It had some programming and some advertising. On Sun 10/9 I received U99. Advertising was now gone, listings were incomplete. I have received U99 everyday since. No advertising since, listings remain incomplete. **** Well, guys, I'm starting to lose hope. Unless your input to her has been more productive.
For those who want to turn off the TV Guide Onscreen and just make manual recordings until this is taken care of I found these instructions on the avsforum. It was posted by Kelson I believe. I tried it yesterday and it worked for me but then I reset it because I really don't want to give up the TVGOS if I don't have to. It has had so many U99's lately that it has been worthless though. I've been working with Cheryl also and hopefully they will get this thing worked out. When you give the unit a hard reset to wipe out the EPG and go back to the out-of-box state, you have to set up the EPG upon turn on. You give it a zip code and say cable or OTA and boom you now have an EPG waiting for data. Now here's the EPG on/off switch in the E-85. Right after setup while the unit is on and it has not downloaded any EPG data, you go to the setup menus and make the selection for manual channel setup (and eventually manual clock setup). When you do so, the E-85 flashes up a warning screen telling you that if you continue with a manual channel setup you will disable the EPG and it will not download any data. This is the key to disabling the EPG on the E-85 -- just continue on with a manual channel setup. If you have turned off the unit after your initial setup. Once the unit downloads some EPG data, the selection buttons for manual channel/clock setup are grayed out and deactivated. You would have to reset the unit to wipe out the EPG and start over again.
Gdoggy, I was thinking seriously about taking mine in and see if the digital board replacement would help so thanks for saving me and others the time and expense. I would be interested in knowing if the firmware works. Thanks again!
AKNewbie : Huh?? I've never heard of that number combination before, is that on an e85? I'm guessign it's a reset from the "Messages" page on the TVGOS?? RX7 Fan
[bold]RX7Fan:[/bold] My RCA TV was produced in 1999. I have full listings on that (2 days max) and no ads, just the Guide+ stuff in the left panels, and there was never a tab for "promotions" like the Panny. My friend has a newer RCA TV bought 3(?) years ago with a NEWER version of Guide+, which DOES have a "promotions" tab, and DOES have ads in the left boxes currently. I don't EVER remember the old RCA having ads at all (or maybe just the number of them) anywere near what the new TVGOS gets. Thanks for the RCA Guide+ troubleshooting--add a "2" to the string, works on mine. If you want any info from those pages, let me know, but I'm thinking ads may no longer be supported on this old version of Guide+. EDIT on 10/15: This isn't true, as I now have Guide+ ads, they just took a few days to d/l even though the listings were fully populated. I think I read in some newsgroup that Gemstar was no longer supporting Guide+ as of 2004 (?) but it still works fine. Apparently that info was false, as the newer version of RCA Guide+ is still getting ads. [bold]psujmatt[/bold]: Did you fix your "no display in standby" problem? To my knowledge, there is NO way to turn the clock to off in standby. The "dim" setting just dims the display so it's not right in your face if it's in your bedroom; it doesn't turn it off. (related to above) I flashed my firmware on October 6 with firmware dowloaded from the panny website the same day (I guess we still don't know if Panny "changed" the firmware on Oct 6, but anyway...) I had *ONE* U99 since the firmware flash, and that was anywhere between 5 minutes after installing it and 8 hours, as I went to work after the flash. I have not experienced any firmware problems. [bold]Bonus2:[/bold] I don't see how the U99 can be related to "old data" as you and I both had a U99 shortly after a reset (although mine was reset due to the firmware upgrade). CURRENTLY: I last did the chup/chdown reset on Friday afternoon, Oct 7. I have not had a U99 since (yet). I have fully populated listings EXCEPT for Friday, which is spotty, but mostly "no listing" from 12AM-11:30PM. I have ads, but not nearly as many as used to be there before the reset (old ads whose subscription ran out?). There are five that my friend has on his RCA Guide+ that I don't. All the others compare. I know I used to have some of these before the reset, especially the first one (Arkansas placed a nationwide ad for tourism?!). The "old" ads that he has I don't have are: Arkansas Tourism Down's Financial Inc. Bowflex Treadmill Climber (I *do* have the ad that's just "Bowflex") Bose Quiet Comfort (have the "Bose" only ad) American Express Maybe this will be helpful *shrug* At least we know it's not the cable companies "tweaking" the TVGOS signal, as it's happening with broadcast (antenna) downloads of the guide, too. If it were one ad with bad code that's causing this, I wonder if their contract with TVGOS would have lasted a month? I guess we'll know if it suddenly stops happening with no action on Cheryl's part, whenever the "bad" ad expires. I also wonder if the diagnostics pages would reveal if an ad had bad code. [bold]timdf:[/bold] Thanks for offering up the firmware, but you and I have gone ALMOST as long with no U99 (your last one was 10/5, mine was 10/6-7). Looking back through the posts, I noticed that [bold]TForce1[/bold] in S. Cent. Texas was seeing them mostly on the weekends. This is when my last two happened the last two weeks, on Thursday/Friday. Which leads me to wonder if Gemstar has a timetable of inserting "new" ads...do the ad companies' "subscriptions" start on the weekends? I'll be anxious to see if timdf and I get through this coming weekend with no U99s.
RX7 Yep, another secret code which "resets the firmware" (my words) of TVGOS to factory. You lose the second set of version numbers, so instead of reading 07.01.26/07.06.11/..., it goes to 07.01.26/00.00.00/... TVGOS has the ability to download newer firmware to your E85 (as I understand it). After a couple of days, it went back to having both codes. Here's the link where I found this info: www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6222003&highlight=753159852#post6222003 Why would I do this? Cause I'm desperate to get this U99 behind me. Edited to add: This code is entered from the the messages screen (just like the 753... code). Do a search on that code over at the avsforum for more (though I think I've related the jist of it). later.
