I did a ch up/down reset yesterday around 8pm and then loaded the new firmware from this group (my 85's serial was in that range). New firmware got my display back in standby mode...so that's good--thanks for it! Left the TVGOS active because didn't have anything to record before today. It was fine at 3AM but at 11am I had a U99. Will go back to deactive TVGOS now! Repeat info: Atlanta 30308, Comcast analog, no cable box.
sfstan, When you are on the screen where you turn the channels on or off, go to the channel that you want to move and push the left button to move to the left and you will see the info box change. If you push the blue button, you will move that channel up. How do you add a channel? Thanks
More on greyed out auto channel setup When I just tried to deactivate TVGOS using auto channel setup, I had the problem again with greyout auto channel setup option. I did a few ch up/down resets and determined that on my E85H unit with its current firmware, I need to complete auto channel setup BEFORE setting up TVGOS, then setup TVGOS, then I can run auto channel setup again.
Since you have figured out how to organize your channels, I'll just comment that I have moved all of my PBS up to the top and this morning added MSNBC and FOXNews and put them up there too. Hopefully, this will lead to better and faster downloads. The PVR only can hold so much information. The fewer channels it has to load, the faster it loads and the more data you have per show. Thus I reccommend deleting any pay channels you don't subscribe to, and any special interest channels you don't watch, (i.e. foreign language, shopping, religion, etc.--the list varies by family). My only caveat is, be careful *not* to delete your download channels! bob
Afternoon Update from RX7 Fan, In the north : cold, In the south : warm, under the clouds : rain. ooops, wrong update. GOOD NEWS : I told you all I figured there was a 2or3 PM d/l of the TVGOS data, ... I just proved myself correct, this morning I had data up till about midnight tonight, just now checked, and I have data thru midnight Monday, and Next saturday is filled in mostly, a few scatted here and there thru the week also, bad news, gee darn, no promos Gonna keep an eye on it tonight, and in the AM, I'm guessing, and hoping tomorrow should fill in a few more days or so, and maybe by monday have a full line-up. Yeah, Yeah, I know, watch out for the Jinx, ... I don't worry about it, my middle name is Jinx, and a few others I can't list here (political correctness and all that). O.K., gonna go do errands, hopefully more good news tomorrow morning! Keep your collective fingers crossed!!
timothyg: I am assuming that you currently get the channel. To *watch* the channel, simply pick *any* unused station in your area, change it to the number for DIY, and turn it on. You can then watch it and set up timer recordings *however* it will be "No Listing" (If you picked a channel not available in your area) *OR* Will populate with bogus data that matches the station you selceted (if it IS in your area). Before you do that, however, I recommend that you first call your provider and see if the DIY channel is listed under any other name. I couldn't find KCOP locally, until I discovered it was listed under UPN. Some of my news and sprts stations are listed in the Guide differently than in the Cable Provider's card. Better yet, go to TVguide.com and find out what that channel is listed as in your area. Then search *ALL* the greyed out selections for anything like one of the possibilities, and turn *that* one on in your PVR. Remember, you are searching the NAMEs--not the numbers. If TVGuide.com doesn't show it--and you still get it--try choosing another service (on-line) in your zip code or a neighboring zip code until you find it. Pick the line-up that is closest to the one you are using. Sometimes going to a digital cable guide when you have analog will give you more selections. Remember, changing providers *WILL* reset your current channels, so be prepared for a lot of reprogramming and waiting for reloads. bob
[bold]timothyg:[/bold] When you first enter the Channel Change screen (or if you hit the Sub Menu button on the remote) you get the instrictions for the whole process. Once you scroll down into the chanel lineup, you only get directions for the side you are on (Left=position; Right=ON/OFF and Channel Number). A word of WARNING: If you hit the Blue button while in the right side of the screen, it Resets *ALL* of your changes! To avoid this *VERY* frustrating event (or at least minimize the damage done) every dozen changes or so, I hit the "Sub Menu" button, and then move to the right ("Messages," I think) and then back again. This saves the changes. Hitting the "Guide" button will too--but it takes a lot longer to get back in. TIP: BTW, when you are in the *LEFT* side, you can send a channel to an ABSOLUTE listing position. Since I have only about 50 channels turned on when I'm done, I start at the top and send all greyed out channels to "111" (I can do that with my left thumb, while moving down with my right). This bunches my active channels at the top and makes for *much* faster reorganization of the ones I want to watch. I send all PBS channels and those listed here and in my diagnostic screen as potential download channels to "1" and reorganize them later. bob
[bold]VideoBob[/bold]: Thanks for all your tips and info! I've actually experienced the "recording when it isn't" in the past, so it's good to know the workarounds/avoidance maneuvers. [bold]Bonus2[/bold]: I think you may be onto something regarding "two download stations giving conflicting information." I don't have a cable box, so I never considered that it was searching more than just PBS. What do you think, [bold]VideoBob[/bold]? Previously, I didn't prune channels, and since I have, (leaving PBS on and MSNBC, FoxNews, etc. OFF), I have had no U99, but the downloads seem slower. I'll move PBS to the top. VideoBob, you said that even with the "download" channels turned OFF, the unit still downloads listings, so it may not matter as far as the d/l is concerned whether the channel is "on" or "off." I agree that "a simple block diagram of their program download algorythm " would be IMMENSELY helpful in troubleshooting. I wonder if anyone in contact with Cheryl could persuade her to give up info on what, when, and from which station(s) it downloads without giving away Gemstar "trade secrets."
Well it's been 14 days for me now with no U99s. Unforunately, I haven't done ANYTHING different then a normal user would: no resets, no unplugging, and I havn't changed my viewing or recording habits. I have never had a problem with the schedule being populated, but sometimes the ads disappear... I have no idea what changed for my area: San Antonio, TX, 78154, Time Warner Cable. I have eliminated a lot of the "useless" channels, but that was long before the U99 problems started showing up. (I still think the root cause is related to the ads somehow.)
You guys are great and I want to thank you! I wish that had found this forum a lot sooner. I purchased a Panasonic DMR-E85HP in December 2004 and began having “garbled screen” problems around April 2005. I fixed those by installing a UPS to prevent power glitches because my new subdivision has some outages. I had no success from talking to Panasonic support. The first time I submitted an online request it ended up at an Australian support center and they were giving me the wrong advice until they finally figured out that I live in the USA. I live in the Oklahoma City metro area, apparently not far from RX7Fan. My zip code is 73013 and I have Cox Cable. From day one, I could not get the TV Guide unless I used a neighboring zip code (73034), but I figure that is because I am in a new subdivision and Cox didn’t have things configured correctly. I started seeing U99 errors around mid-September. I recently installed the Panasonic FW update. Thanks for all the good advice in this forum on how to do it (first unzipping the file). I noticed that the update in the zip file has a 1/27/05 datecode, so it probably doesn’t have many fixes that we all need. I think it is probably the same datecode as the update Roger posted earlier, but I am not for sure. Hopefully this forum will encourage Panasonic to give a newer FW update with fixes for ALL the U99 errors. I believe that the only U99 error that I have are due to the TV Guide problem that you appear to have fixed as of today. I have been leaving my unit powered on to avoid U99, but after seeing your recent forum entries I tried to get a TV Guide update overnight Friday and again Saturday. I didn’t see anything until this morning, Sunday Oct 16. I now appear to have about 48 hours of programming in the TV Guide. Many thanks to all of you who have helped to fix the problem. Hopefully you have helped a bunch of people like me who found this forum through a Google search.
report from Seattle -- recap: last DL I'd received had covered Wed. Oct. 12 lineup; had a U99 early Friday (Oct 14) After reading the threads (deciding my situation wasn't as dire as most), yesterday (Sat.) I checked my settings ('last DL' on pg. 1 read "N/A"). I pruned my channels, moved MSNBC closer to the top of the list (2 PBS stations were already at the top); did the 'soft reset' (per Bob's instructions), and placed on standby from 11pm through 7am this morning. When I turned on the DVR this morning I still had "No listing" on all days. But then I noticed that I had ads (quite a variety of ads)!! Now that I've seen what an ad looks like, I'm fairly sure I've never had ads before this. I checked "page 1" and I now have a value in 'next download' date/time. So this is progress (of a sort). Of course I would prefer to have program data over ads but at least I'm in communication and I also have a way to check status. In the fuzz of the 30 pages of setting/status values, I believe I picked out a code for the firmware and it has an '11', which I understand to mean that I have the latest firmware for a DMR95. Does that sound right? Thanks to all who've contributed such detailed/helpful information.
Having problems in San Diego with same error (U99). Use Cox as cable provider. Awaiting TV guide to provide solution.
More from Oklahoma City. I reported this morning that I was now getting TV Guide programming. After leaving the Panasonic turned off all day, I now have another 18 hours of programming, up through midnight Tuesday. I forgot to mention earlier that I now have the promo/ads showing up, and I had never seen those before today. Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to this effort for all your help.
You can also get free listings from clicktv.com or tvguide.com .... My manual states to leave the unit off for 24 hours..... Funny you get promotions but they don't give you a nbr onscreen you can call if you have programming questions.....sigh
O,.K. gang quick update, no u99's since thursday, my listing are filled in thru wed, and have sat and sunday there, along with a good hanful of promos, gonna call cheryl today and tell her, looks like they found the fix!!!
below is an e-mail i sent to cheryl to update her on my data this morning. morning cheryl, hope you had a good weekend away from this u99 madness. here is my info to date. friday had several u99 errors. reset the machine a few times (ch up/ch dn and power unplug). starting saturday morning, i got the listing screen back with "no listing" for info on channels. did have ads though on the left bottom. the ads were one full ad below the tvgos box. started getting listings over saturday and sunday. had listings through tuesday by sunday afternoon. ads rotate. maybe 4 or 5 ads in total? ads seem to change when you scroll down in the listings every nine clicks. ads are commercial as opposed to advertising programs i think. don't know if tvgos has done anything different in my area to date. the u99 has been so inconsistent that it is hard to know whether a change has been implemented by tvgos or i have just been lucky for a couple of days. u99 errors could happen to me separated by as little as an hour or days in the past. will keep you updated on my specific findings. if you look at the forum, there doesn't seem to be any consistent scenarios (to me at any rate). people point to possibility of cd's remaining in machine, quickness using guide functions, etc., they are trying to find any possible reasons for u99's. there is some consistency in the belief that the ads have something to do with that error. is that correct? Panasonic E85H hooked directly to cable (no box) use 94111 as my zip. comcast cable. san francisco
HI All, here's my news from Boston, MA. I was away for the weekend but when I got home yesterday there was a U99 on the E85. I started it up, did the Up/down power off (ended up leaving it off for about an hour) and restarted. I had to put in all the info, i.e., zip, cable box, etc... and shut it off. Went back in a couple hours later and it was U99 again. Reset it again and shut it off for the night. Woke up this morning, no U99 however when I turned it on I never got the "Check the channel lineup" screen which asks you to check the correct channels. However, I did have pages of Ads on every TV screen.
In OKC. No U99 since Thursday morning. Have ads, some listings (missing Wed,Thur, Fri). Hope this fix stays. I wonder what the root cause of this TVGOS problem was?
Quickie update (Maryland, Comcast digital, E500): No U99's since last week, but I also don't get my listings filled in very well - as of this morning, Day 1, day 2 thru 8PM, Day 3,4,5. Promos seem to come and go. Yesterday afternoon there were 13, I've seen up to 20, this morning there were 7. The soft reset seems to prompt dropping all promos, I think. I also noticed that the soft reset takes away the "channel lock" for the mini-display in the Guide panels (not a biggy by any means). RX7Fan, I'm looking forward to that Gemstar magic going global - but don't send it our way unless you're really convinced it works.
Can someone give me an email address or phone number for this person Cheryl from TVGOS so that I can an update on the fix from TV guide (i.e. a time frame for expected fix, etc)? I spoke to a representative from Panasonic tech support yesterday who was less than helpful and basically washed Panasonic's hands of any responsibility or willingness to aid me in recovery of the machine. I updated the firmware in my E85H and reset the machine (Ch buttons simultaneously) but noted a U99 error again before the day was over Sunday. Cox, the cable provider, does not have anything helpful to offer but did indicate that they stopped carrying the TV guide themselves recently.
