[bold]Skatter21, RX7Fan, others:[/bold] Hey again. I've been away from the thread for quite a while, and have seen no more download problems EXCEPT the disappearing listings. In fact, when I got up tonight to go to work, I noted that LOST was NOT recording, (no biggie, it's a repeat) BUT it confirms that I'm STILL having problems with "disappearing scheduled recordings." RX7Fan: I had noted the same thing with Primetime several times, and last month when you posted about it, I also think it was due to the fact that sometimes Primetime and Dateline, etc. are TWO hours instead of one. Perhaps this confuses the unit. I only record to the HDD and never leave a CD or DVD in the unit. Anyone else still noticing disappearing recordings? Do we HAVE to use TIMER recordings only instead of scheduling directly from TVGOS?! Does this even prevent the problem? Do we need to move "disappearing listings" to a new thread? Any new updates with this issue? Thanks! Btw, I received a call yesterday to buy an extended warranty for my E85 as the original year warranty has expired. AS IF! I'd rather use the $150 or whatever towards another product than repair this buggy Panny.
I have noticed that some programs, especially the ones that I have scheduled, i.e., Commander In Chief, when they are not on for the week I get the ?? Commander In Chief ?? and then in a week it disappears from the schedule. Luckily, I'll put up with it as long as the TV Guide continues to download and no 99's. To think that we expected NO BUGS when we bought the unit.
Well, mine's been working more or less like this for the past 3 to 4 weeks: No U99s, consistent TV Guide update, USUALLY the timer recordings work (only missed 1 out of about 60 tries), but programming via the TVGOS is still very dicey (works maybe 80% of the time). It REALLY bothers me that even the timer recording is not 100% successful. I've heard earlier on this board that if you want perfectly consistent timer recordings then you have to disable the download of the TV Guide altogether.
Although I haven't disabled the TV Guide, I do most of my timers manually. The only timer malfunction I've ever had outside of getting an inopportune U99 was when I attempted to set my timer for back to back programs through the TV Guide. The second program failed to fire. I, too, have been U99 free for a month or so. Zip-21784
New user here. I just read the 39+ pages concerning the U99 errors, but never had one. What brought me here is the "didn't record a program" problem, which I see others are now having. We used the E85 since May with no recording problems or U99 errors. Starting on 11/18, my wifes soap wouldn't record at 1pm. btw I have this regular recoding set to start 1 minute early, and go 5 minutes after. For the last month, it's been hit or miss with that recording, but about 14 other entries we have in the schedular have recorded fine. Last night Lost didn't record, so it's getting worse. If I turn on the unit, the recording will start up, just as others have mentioned. Thought I could fool the unit and have it record the soap in front of her's and maybe it would stay on long enough to record the 1pm soap. Checked the listing and it recorded "All my Children" at 12pm, but did not record "One life to live" at 1pm. Grrrrrr AND we noticed that in the navigator listing, the 12pm recording showed channel 27, but these programs are really on channel 15!!!! The show was actually recorded on 15, but just the navigator listing shows 27. Strange..... I did notice a lack of listing data a few weeks ago, usually a day or two, instead of 8. Replaced an old cable booster that had a modulated add-on input with a regular cable booster from Radio Shack. Now we have a full listing (with adds btw) but continue to have recording startup problems. I've done the reboot (hold power for 5 seconds). I've done the factory reset (Chl up and Chl Dwn for several seconds). but did not pull the AC plug. I might try that next, but since others also starting having this problem around 11/18, I suspect it won't help. I'll have to see what firmware I have, the E85 was purchased around 5/05. I'm in Phoenix, AZ, Cox cable analog, with no cable box. My thoughts are something is keeping the unit in standby mode, which could only be TVGOS downloads. Once you turn on the unit, it stops trying to download data, looks at the clock and goes "whoops I should be recording" and starts up. I think something has changed with the TVGOS stream that confuses the E85 (continous download retry?) and it doesn't get back to checking the timer functions. One other thought as mentioned by VideoBob. I called home and had the wife check the clock. The TVGOS clock and the front panel clock are off by 1 minute. Don't know if this is significant or not. I believe I set the clock manually after the last reboot, maybe it needs to be auto to stay in sync???
Well after 3 weeks of successful recording while I was away on my trip, I returned to still more strange experiences with my E95. In trying to get caught up with editing and burning DVDs, this "machine" has pretty consistently gone into "self-check" mode on every other disc I try to dub to! Of course, it does the "self-check" TWICE before it returns to normal. Sometimes it will repeat this whole thing again so it will do a "self-check" 4 times!! At that point I usually change the disc so you can see what a frustrating process dubbing these shows has been.....and lots of new "coasters" too. Then today I experienced what dksmall mentioned in the post. Set the timer manually to record 50 minutes on one channel and then to switch in 2 minutes to another channel (to record for 3 hours). Came home, turned on the machines and grrrrrrr.......nothing on the TV screen. After trying different things for 10 minutes on the TV, E95 and the cable DV recorder box, I called the cable company. They think I had a software failure on the cable box but after a reboot, we got it up and running! Then, time to check the Navigator! The first show recorded as was set BUT then although the navigator listed 82 as the channel it recorded, the program that was really recorded (for 3 hours) was on channel 2 instead! Guess I need to give credit for this failure to the cable box????????? Anyway, it just adds to the frustration of not knowing what will record or if it will record. What can I say....no U-99s for quite a while now but now can I get everything else to work correctly!
dksmall wrote: That's a possibility - that somehow the TV Guide update takes control of the unit and due to some bug, occasionally won't give control back to the recorder in time for a recording. The only other possible work-around I can come up with besides total disabling of the TVGOS function is to put my recorder on a timer (you know, the kind to turn lights on and off when you're on vacation) and have it reboot itself everyday (maybe early evening, right before prime time when I want it to record shows, thus not giving the TV Guide enough time to hose things up).
I need some help from any of you that have actually spoken to someone at TV Guide. As most of you know, I have spent countless hours on the phone with panasonic about why my DMR-E95H will not receive the TV Guide signal. They continually blame it on TV Guide and/or Adelphia my cable company. I have recently tried to call TV Guide tech support directly to no avail. I have left messages for Cheryl and the others at TV Guide and no one is willing to return my calls. I'm at my wits end and don't know what else to do. Can any one help me?
Hi katchoo, I have never spoken to TV Guide staff but have spent gazillion hours ont he phone wiht Panasonic for various reasons! Initially I had problems downloading TV Guide to my E95 but the error was mine and when I did what Panasonic told me to do, it worked (can't recall what the specific problem was). With the U-99 problem, the E95 was not downloading but it seems to be okay now and the Guide is always there but I don't even use it anymore as I trust the manual more...although it is a pain at times to change the timed programs. I would suggest that if your cable company makes trouble calls for free, then you ask them to come in and look. I have had the cable guys come twice but it was also due to reception problems I was having. First time he changed all the cables I had to a higher grade type and also connected all the machines in a better sequence since what I had set up was not too good. When I had to change my cable box, another guy came in and checked everything again. It's about time to call them again as I have lots of problems on 2 channels only and I think I need their assist. But like I said, this company comes in for free (since it's reception problems) and then the guys will always "help out" with other problems. But then I live in the aloha state....Hawaii. You can always "create" a reception problem and call them! good luck...... ps, quirks continue to happen....yesterday I was sitting and watching/recording a show. ZAP, the E95 shut down, flashed BYE and was off. Why, I have no idea. I had to react quickly and get it back on but forgot to press RECORD so lost the 2nd half of the program! ha, ha
I have the panasonic DMR-E95H, and Adelphia cable with a motorola digital box. I have been having problems for several months now, have spent many hours with Panasonic. My problem is getting the TV guide listings. I also live in Yorba Linda (Southern Cal). I think there were a few issues affecting me, but recently Panasonic sent me a firmware upgrade (took a month to get this). Also recently, Adelphia in my area updated their system to have a new listings feature. Note that Panasonic said this upgrade fixes the problem of adjacent channel recordings causing one of the recordings to not occur, also, they claim it fixes a tv guide compatibility problem with a change TV guide made recently. Before this upgrade, I couldnt get the listings any way I connected to the cable. Now, I can get the TV guide download if I connect my E95H directly to the cable antenna, but not through the box. I finally talked to a person at Panasonic who seems to know something. She believes that Adelphia's recent software change for the new listings format is causing the TVguide info to be lost. She said several people have called with the same problem. She did bring up the issue with the New York people who's cable company went all digital and cant get the TV guide listings when connected to the cable directly, and indicated this was an issue TV guide was working with the cable company, and claims this will be resolved in 2 weeks. However, with my problem (and maybe the same as Katchoo's), is that I can get the TV guide to work directly with the cable antenna, but not through the box (so I cant get any of the digital stations this way). I too cant get TV guide to return my calls or Cheryl to return my calls. In fact, Panasonic has escalated the issue with TV guide twice, and they wont return Panasonic's calls. Panasonic feels that TV guide feels its a cable company problem. I would need to someone contact someone at the cable company who understands this problem, good luck with that. Panasonic offered a temporary solution to use a splitter and run cable signal into the cable box and into the E95H. I can use the TV guide for normal channels, and use the timer for the cable box (of course, I have to manaually tune the cable box to the channel I want to record and select one of the other inputs to the E95H). I rather not do this. Has anyone else have this problem and got a hold of Adelphia and know if they are working on a solution to this? My problem appears to be an Adelphia Southern Cal problem due to the recent change they made to their programming. Thanks, Ira
Ira, Your situatioin sounds rather similar to mine, and I am in NYC, under Time Warner (digital cable). Since the problems with the TVGOS started in Aug. or Sept., I reset the machine several times and have reinstalled what I believe to be the latest firmware from the Painasonic website, but still cannot get any TBGOS. To add insult to injury, timer recordings are occasionally failing, too. So this machine (E85) has been a joy for a few months, and a nuisance ever since. A good old fashin VCR all of a sudden looks rather appealing, as long as it is not Painasonic and has no TVGOS...;-(
Faure, In your case, you may be lucky as the Panasonic rep said that TVguide is working with the cable provider in NY, as they went all digital and the TVguide signal rides on a analog station, and that a solution was about 2 weeks away. In your case, you cant get the Panasonic to work at all connecting directly to the cable antenna (not box). In my case, I still get analog signal and it works fine if I connect the Panasonic to the cable antenna, just not through the box, so my cable box is filtering out the TVguide signal. Ira
Thanks, Ira. That's promising information, although whenever I hear TWO WEEKS I remember the movie The Money Pit, where Two Weeks always meant: Never ;-) Time Warner told me a year ago that they are working with Panasonic to correct incompatibilities between them. I am still waiting.
I can't believe people are still having problems with the TVGUIDE still. I didn't have any problems after they officially said that they fixed it. I am assuming that since I had regular cable, not digital, that that might be a reason why mine worked fine for me. Now it doesn't make a difference since I went to satellite. All I can say is make sure that you have the latest firmware and that you do a factory reset to clear out the junk in memory. On a personal note, I think, I won't be buying anymore Panasonic named electronics in the near or foreseeable future. This TVGOS crap and the lack of customer support has left a really dry taste in my mouth. If I could get my money back for my dmr-e500 I probably would but now it's too late. I wish everyone the best of luck and hope this is all resolved soon!
Kinda off-topic but soju's post reminded me of something I have been wondering. I have a tv, dvd-recorder 7 vcr all hookedup together. My DVD-Recorder is not as clear as the tv. I have spliter...3 way. Am I spliting it wrong or do I need some kind of booster?
Rockstar, a booster never hurts, a splitter typically drops the signal by 3-5 db, every 3 db drop cuts the signal in half(power-wise) that is. If you go thru one splitter, then into another one, you could be cutting the power to about 15-25% what is coming into the house!
Hi RX7fan.... My case has been escalated to TV Guide from Panasonic, but they have not heard back from TV Guide. Here's the problem (in a nutshell). I bought my DMR-E95H in April and have it hooked up to a Scientific American 3100 cable box and I have Adelphia digital cable. Everything is hooked up per Panasonics requirements. I was never able to get any TV Guide downloads until Septemebr when all of a sudden they were there. Everything was fine until about two weeks later and I started getting the dreaded U99 error. I had the send my DVR in to Panasonic to take care of the problem and ever since I received it back (beginning of November), I haven't been able to get any TV Guide downloads. Panasonic says its a TV Guide and Adelphia problem. I was hoping to troubleshoot this with someone from TV Guide so I could isolate the problem. I have never been able to get a live person at TV Guide and have left about a dozen messages. Nobody there returns my calls.
