Update from OKC (73034). As of Fri evening (11/04), still no U99s or other glitches on my E85H since the "OKC fix" took effect at my house with listing updates starting 19 days ago on 10/16. I have fully populated listings for the next 8 days plus promo ads. Have recorded several hours of programs per day & filled up the disc a couple of times to the point of needing to erase some things. Frequently watch one previously-recorded program while recording another simultaneously. Many programs are set up for “weekly” repeat, and have gone through this cycle once or twice without intervention and have all of them showing up to be recorded over the next 8 days (not grayed out). Often record things back-to-back (yes, it misses a few seconds at the end of one or the start of another, but works as described). Records correctly according to times shown in listings. (I wish that the listings could comprehend that some shows start at 1 minute after the hour, but oh well.) Have made several DVD-R dubbings, but have never left a disc in afterwards and have never recorded directly to DVD. Always have the unit protected by UPS and have gone through some short power outages. I think it is definitely time for Cheryl to declare this “test” a success and to roll it out nationwide. She could not have easily diagnosed the root cause without the help of many people on this forum.
VideoBob, The red clock is showing on the E85 display (indicating I programmed the dvr for timer recording). The machine is changing the channels. Is that considered StandBy? I have not gotten ANY TVGOS data for weeks, and the AutoClock and AutoChannel setup are grayed out.
After weeks of not having a U99, I ran into one on Friday during the day. This [bold]may[/bold] be unrelated as it behaved differently than before. Previously, when I had a U99, a power up and "self check" would clear up the problem until the next TVGOS update. This time, after the self check, it would stay on a PPS station for a a few minutes and then go to the TV-guide screen. And then in 10 minutes it would U99 agian... whith the system still running. I tried self checking a few times and it didn't clear up. One time it went thtough the initialization screens (what is your zip code, etc)... and then showed my full listings (i.e. didn't wait 24+ hours). So I did the up/down reset thing and unplugged the unit for a few minutes. It returned to factory settings and cleared up the problem. I have been having another problem that [bold]could[/bold] have put my system into a weird state. Since recording on my current batch of DVD-R disks from TDK, the system crashes if I try and add a name to the disk. I don't know how the disk would matter, but I can see how the system state could be screwed up after a crash. BTW, I wasn't recording on the DVD-R or even had one in the drive at the time of the U99 on Friday. The system was working OK on Thursday night. Recorded some shows properly on the HD on Friday morning. It happened in the afternoon on Friday. I'm not sure if I was scheduled to be recording then or not.
I was out of town last week. When I got back, I had full listings for 7 days, but my "Host Channel" was set to channel 0 and so far it hasn't been able to recover from that. (Since we have a lot of programs scheduled for through Thursday, I'm letting it ride for now.) On Sunday morning it got off to a bad start on a recording (even though it had already done one successful recording that morning); the red RECORD light just kept blinking in Stand-By but it never started to record. After a cancelling the non-recording (stop - enter) everything looked good. However, after putting it in standby, all the HDD recorded content disappeared out of the Direct Navigator. Then after a soft-reset (power button for 10 seconds) and unplugging for a couple minutes, everything showed up again. But no U99's throughout all of this.
Skatter21: I think this is a variant of the "phantom record" VideoBob and others mentioned previously. I've had the same thing happen months ago, with the disappearing HDD recordings and all. Seems to be a glitch with this machine. VideoBob brought up an interesting theory about the broadcast time-signal not synching with TVGOS and causing problems...perhaps this is what happened?
Coyote24, I think you're right. And I saw that the time was out of synch with Comcast by more than 1 minute yesterday. (I have checked my cable box from Comcast with Naval Observatory time in the past and it's right on every time.)
Hey everyone I just thought I would share some good news that I just got from Cheryl. Here's her message: I thought I would pass along the information I have regarding the U99 problem. You should no longer see this. Please let me know if the U99 pops up again. Panasonic recorders can display a U99 for a multitude of errors. In other words, it is a generic error displayed when the unit is unable to process anything, regardless of whether it is processing TV Guide data or doing something else. Therefore we cannot guarantee you will never see a U99 on your Panasonic unit in the future. However there was a software change that was deployed on our side a few weeks ago that would have caused your unit to have seen repetitive U99 errors. The software had various fixes to known issues on the equipment on our side, intended to improve our data delivery. Panasonic units did not exhibit any problem during the multi-month testing of our software in our labs. Once you and others started reporting this error as occurring repetitively, we had multiple senior engineers both from Panasonic and from TV Guide On Screen looking into what would cause this issue. We've identified the problem and as of 2 weeks ago and started rolling back our change nationwide. Most of the country had been rolled back as of Oct. 21st. We sincerely apologize for this major inconvenience. You should not see any new U99's as a result of our previous change. Thanks, Cheryl
drsparc, I encountered the same thing early Sunday morning (3am)......trying to Dub/finalize using Comp USA DVD-R, which in the past has been consistently the most reliable on this recorder. Crash after crash and finally gave up! When I got up and tried later - about 10am, it seemed like all was back to normal and I dubbed/finalized with no problems! In the meantime, my spindle of ruined DVDs continues to reach the 50 mark!!!
soju: FYI, there is some brief discussion about DVD brands and their relative success/failure rates at the very beginning of this thread (around page 6). Personally, I've used Memorex spindle DVD-Rs and Verbaitm Digital Movie DVD-Rs with no problems. Perhaps DVD-R compatibility with Panasonic units is/should be moved to a new thread? drsparc, soju: Just a suggestion: have you ever flashed the firmware on your unit? drsparc's DVD-R problem might be similar to the HDD divide software issue that was resolved with the new firmware. Usually new firmware also addresses DVD compatibilitiy issues too (at least on computer DVD drives), so...? Skatter21, VideoBob: I have a camera taking photos every minute of my VCR clock (updated by cable signal), a clock radio, and my Panasonic unit, and they have all stayed pretty much in synch with each other for the past 3 weeks, so if there's a time discrepancy with the Panny that causes a problem, hopefully I'll "catch" it. It would have been nice if Cheryl had given even a GENERAL description of the "problem" with their "software change" (of "a few weeks ago"?! I'd think it was deployed in Aug/Sept!)...but in the grand scheme of things, I suppose there's nothing the end user could do even with knowledge of the nature of the problem.
Well, patience paid off. Everything recovered gracefully. When I got home from work yesterday, time was in synch, day 8 listings were downloaded, and I had movies and sports listed for 2 of the 3 missing days. And BEST OF ALL I had promotions! ;-) (I dropped Cheryl a note asking for a more satisfying explanation of the debacle - I'll pass along any info she may provide.) [bold]This message has not been edited since posting.[/bold]
Cheryl's reply on behalf of TV-Guide and Gemstar only included the exact wording provided by mossler (see above). The only other little nugget she slipped in was that it was a hardware upgrade to the equipment that provides the TVGOS feed from Gemstar that was responsible for the problem. [bold]This message has not been edited since posting.[/bold]
I'm still having a problem recording the Late Show with David Letterman. The show starts here at 11:35PM and ends at around 12:40AM. The scheduled recordings shows the program set each night, but when I check what has been recorded, the Late Show isn't there. This went on for a couple of weeks. I tried the power button hold --no good. Last Friday I tried the Ch-Up Ch-Down, pull power for 30+ seconds and that night the program recorded. But this past Monday, it failed to record once again (although other shows record fine). I'm going to try recording the Tonight Show instead to see if it has something to do with the time of the show or if it is unique to the Late Show. Frustrating!
Mornin' Folks, ... been a while, I know, been busy with students, but I'm out of class for a few weeks now (some of the other guys just say "I have no class" .... I don't get it Anyway, haven't seen a U99 since Cheryl told me about the OK roll out about a month ago, however, ... I don't think I've had a complete 8 days of listings yet. I haven't been recording at night, .. but I have had a daily going at about 9 am, might be loosing some there, I might try turning that one off, and see what happens. Skatter21 (actually Cheryl's quote) ...... wondering if that has anything to do with either the change from VBI to HBI (see previous posts back about page 5-10, or if it was the attempted switch to digital/hi def broadcast in the future. Which makes me wonder , Cox Cable here in OKC offers Digital/Hi Def service, and they offer a DVR (scientific Atlanta I think), ... wonder if they still use the same old feed for data on that, I'm guessing, yes, but sometime in the future, they're going to have to go to digital broadcast... with the push for Hi def in the next few years. Anyway, that's my update for today
i have been clear of u99s and have had all listings and ads for over two weeks now. hopefully this mess is finally over. does anyone else think that cheryl's (gemstar) explanation/apology is a lot like a terrel owen's apology. or our distinguised administration in dc. sort of an apology and sort of not. take some blame and cast some. oh well, this is not the forum for politics or sports. good luck to all. comcast cable no box zip 84111
