I have bought the Panasonic E85H and it was built April 04 S/N 2693. I tried to check the version of the software by going into the service mode but the recorder would not accept the comands it would just start up as normal. I have downloaded and put the updated software on a CD-R but have not performed to update. Should I just go ahead and do the update even though I'm not sure what version of the software the unit is currently using. Thank you for your help. Keith
Hi I am just reporting my experiences after 10 days with my DMR-E85H. I wanted to thank all who helped me with advice. My TV-Guide has been working fine and unit is quite nice. I have used it for DVD watching, and hard drive recording. This weekend I plan on trying transferring some digital video tapes to DVD. Only minor nag so far is that I would prefer to see real clock time on display rather than remaining time to record. I am sure that is an option, but I haven't found it yet. I must commend Crutchfield support. They were patient and very good. Thanks Ron
Well, glad to report, that the error that i described earlier in this thread has been completely taken care of by panasonic. Everything works fine again and they even left all the stuff on my HD untouched... !! Panasonic support rocks - thanks guys... (talking about the german branch and Mediamarkt (reseller) customer service) Bernhard
hello everyone, we have tried EVERYTHING listed to unlock the dreaded U99 and our machine refuses to let go. any suggestions? Or are we doomed to service center hell!
This is only if the error occurred during a "Divide Title" operation. If the two service mode methods do not work (and they didn't when I tried them on my units), then you can temporarily change the hard drive. You will lose all recorded shows because it will insist on formatting the drive. And then do the update as soon as possible, before doing any Divide Title operations.
I read somewhere that, if you cut the write enable line in the IDE cable, that you can re-initialize and save all of your old programs. I haven't tried it and don't remember where I read it, but it will at the least require a second IDE cable (and the ability to pick the right line). Keith said: It can't hurt anything. If it's the wrong verion--or aready updated--the unit simply ignores it. No harm, no foul. However, if yo can't get int service mode, you simply aren't doing it right. The four most common reasons for failure: 1. The unit is not OFF when you start. 2. The unit is in Standby mode, with a recording scheduled. 3. You are not pushing the right buttons, simultaneously, and holding them. 4. You do not hold them *LONG* enough to override initial power-up sequence. Hold them continuously until you get Service Mode (At *least* 10 seconds). If you do it right, it will work. bob
Are you able to use 1x-8x DVD-Rs in the DMR-E85H, the manual says this unit is compatible with 1x-4x recording speed discs. I have been afraid to try using 1x-8x, but the 1x-4x discs are becoming harder to locate.
I haven't tried and I'm not going to until Panny officially acknowledges that a firmware update has enabled it. Unfortunately, using a later product on an earlier drive *can* destroy the drive. This was particularly true on 1-2x drives, but I'm not taking any chances, as I had to repplace two computer drives before I found this out. I haven't had any problem at all finding quality DVD-r's in te 30-cent range. bob
I've found that Staple's is the place to buy dvd-r's. These guys, if you keep an eye in their weekly fliers, have great deals. The last ones I bought were like 10 bucks for 30 with a 10 dollar mail in rebate. Basically 30 for the cost of tax and a stamp. I you don't burn alot...no biggie. If you do, try staples. Got word on the fried e85h early this week. Looks like the surge did come in through the power connection. I filed a claim with belkin so we'll see how great their insurance policy really is ($10,000). The guys at the repair shop said that if lightning strikes close enough, there's nothing that's going to stop it...I believe it.
Iv'e been using 8x media (TDK, Verbatim) and 16x (Verbatim) for a while and have had no problems. Before the update I had trouble with certain brands and speeds, when finalizing or writing disc name. No troubles now. So I believe that the update also addressed media.
You guys all seem to know what you are talking about, so I am going to jump in and ask a question. On this unit (or any Panasonic recorder), which board is the digital board? How do I ID it? I have a unit at home that needs one, and I managed to get two that have other problems hoping to salvage one. Please, any help would be appreciated. The people at Panasonic and at the service center I took it to don't seem to want to give away this "secret". Thanks!
Thank you video bob. I was able to get into the service mode and I do have the old software. I will update it tonight. I did have the recorder off but I was using the the stop and time slip on the remote control and only pushing the open/close on the unit. After re-thinking the procedure and realizing that there was a time slip button on the unit I figured out my mistake. After pushing all three buttons on the unit it put it in service mode. It did do a self check and I thought for sure that I was going to loose all my TV Guide settings but everything was OK. I still have not tried to do a divide but I will when I update the software. With reference to using 8x DVD-R discs. I did try to use a TDK that I use on the computer to transfer some video from the hard drive to disc. It did start to do a dubbing and then it stopped after around 2 minutes and said it was a bad disk. This caused the recorder to do a complete restart and setup. All the TV Guide listing were removed and I did have to go throught the setup and 24 hour wait again. The video that was saved to the hard disk was left intact with no problems. I have now bought a package of 1x to 8x disks and will again try after the update. Some people (myself included) can make things more complicated than they really are.
Just clarifying (maybe) some information to people with U99 errors. [bold]The firmware upgrade (from the Panasonic website) CAN work even if the recorder has the U99 error.[/bold] After reading through this thread, I tried some techniques (short of replacing the hard drive), but nothing worked. However, after a while on Panasonic customer support, a service rep described that the firmware upgrade should work even with a u99 system. My e85h went into u99 after a power outage where I was watching a program on the hard drive, so this might not work for those with the u99 resulting from divide title (but I would think that it should still work). After downloading the firmware onto a cd-r, I followed most of the instructions despite the "freeze" (no buttons able to be pressed except power) after 5 secs after system goes through self-check. The key thing is being able to open the dvd drive before the system goes into u99. I was able to press drive select and open/close to open the dvd tray (after 2-3 attempts...went into u99 too quick). I placed the cd-r on the tray, but the system already went into u99 mode. However, I simply powered the e85 off and then on again and while it went through self-check the dvd tray closed again. After that point, the firmware was noticed (I think the dvd recorder might have automatically said "BYE" and then restarted) and started the upgrade. After that, the steps can be followed with the instructions on the panny website: These steps worked for me without having to replace the hard drive and lose all the stored shows. Sorry for the long post, but I hope it clarifies some info to add on to this informative thread.
Ranman88: Thanks for that info. I'll probably never get to try it, since I have upgraded all the units I have here. Originally, I was told by Panasonic techs that the upgrade CD was totally useless with a unit that was stuck in a "U99" error. The technician told me the only way was to replace the controller board first. I found changing the hard drive worked for me, and it was much cheaper too (the controller card is something like $250!). So, I've never tried to "force" the upgrade the way you outlined. Sure wish I could have recovered the files I've lost! I still have two hard drives with video files on them - but if I put them into a unit, it only wants to format them. There should be some way to tell the unit to re-build the directory of files from the data on the hard drive. If there is, I don't know the magic yet. Your method is sure good news for anyone who hasn't upgraded their unit yet and gets stuck with the dreaded "U99" error. Thanks! Roger
Hello all, this is my first post here I have been fortunate enough never to get the U99 error on my machine, although I have certainly had my share of odd behavior from the 85 since I bought it soon after it came out, a reset, or several of them, has always seemed to do the trick. Lucky me. But I'm very glad to know, thanks to y'all, what to do about this issue! I would like to ask about a different problem... perhaps this question is not appropriate to this forum, but having scanned all the posts this seemed at least like the right group of people to ask. Here's the deal. I haven't used my box in a few months, due to travel and then moving. It was just sitting around. I finally got around to hooking it up at my new place, and I started by just playing a regular DVD-Video from Netflix. Everythings boots fine, plays fine, but then I notice I am getting this very strange effect where the image brightness is pulsing from dark (saturated) to light (washed out) on about a ten second cycle, and the effect is growing more and more pronounced as play continues (dark getting darker, light getting lighter). OK, I do all the basic troubleshooting. I try my own DVD that I know is legit. Same thing happens to the picture. I swap cabling. Same thing. I swap output ports on the back of the box. Same thing. I play a video tape using the VCR that's also hooked up to the TV, to make sure it's not the TV (even though I've been watching TV and playing games on it for weeks with no such phenomenon)... no problem with that, image is normal, so it's not the TV. I reset the 85 and reinitialize the settings. Doesn't help. I fiddle with all the different video, aspect ratio, and every other set of video settings covered in the manual systematically. Problem remains. As I'm doing all this menu stuff on the machine, I notice that the pulsating brightness problem doesn't affect them... it only affects the actual DVD video playback. At this point I'd like to try something from the HDD and see if I get the same effect but I wiped it before moving so I've got nothing to play back at the moment. I've used the 85 with three different TVs of various vintages before with absolutely nothing like this problem occurring, ever. I Googled trying to hunt down any similar experience posted anywhere on the web and came up empty.... this thread is about the closest I could get. Since I am by no means an A/V expert, perhaps I am overlooking something very elementary. If so, please tell me! I have a sort of nagging fear that something deep in the electronic bowels of the thing have gone wacky, and if so please tell me how I might confirm that. Based on comments here, and my own previous experience, I'm not feeling like calling Panasonic tech support is going to help me at all. So, please help me out, folks! Thanks in advance for any advice.
panbright: Yes, you may be overlooking a basic problem. If you use a VCR between the monitor and the DMR-E85, any DVD that has copy protection enabled will cycle the video level just as you describe. Try taking the output from the DMR-E85 directly in to your monitor and see if that fixes it. I know it's a pain, but they're trying to prevent you from using a vcr to record a copyrighted movie. You might have to add a switching unit to the input of your monitor to select either your vcr or your dvr. Good Luck! Roger.
I have been having similar problems with my 20-month old E80H. Several months ago, I was merely erasing a saved program, and the box crashed with U99. The support people were unhelpful, I finally reformatted the drive to get the unit working again. This morning, I was dividing a program, disk was more than half full, and it crashed out, this time more severely. It now hangs forever trying to start up. It doesn't go to U99, it doesn't respond to key presses other than holding down the power switch to force a shutdown. Everything on the machine appears lost to me. I'm giving up on this box, and on Panasonic hardware in general, and heading off to see what new box I can buy.
Panbright I've had this same thing happen on my e85h! If it is infact the same thing the fix is quite simple. Unfortunately, mine got hit with lightning almost 2 weeks ago and is in the shop being repaired. Hold on, I still have the owners manual...goto page 29 of your manual. You'll see under video menu/picture the different settings:Normal, soft, fine...Set this to Normal and see if it still does it. When I had it set to cinema it would change the brightness according to what was on screen and a certain sequence would cause an erratic flickering. Again, I set it to normal and it went away. It was very pronounced at the beginning of dvd's where the Walt disney, Warner Bros... logo's were displayed. Hope this helps and is correct, without actually having the unit here I'm going by memory. Jpoe
This site has been the most informative of all I've researched re: Panasonic DMR-E85 & its problems. Thx especially to Roger A. for his site, & update, which Panasonic finally made available on its own site. My situation is similar to the many stories read here. When the unit works, it's terrific. But before long, the problems creep in, starting w/ the green TV guide. Solved that by unplugging the unit, assuming that like a PC, it needed to be rebooted. Was able to upgrade my unit's firmware to 0970DL, which was built on 3/24/2004, w/ a download frm Panasonic's site. It didn't really seem to help much. I was hoping I could initialize back to factory defaults easier w/ this, but to no avail. Now however, the problem is a lock-up cycle I can't seem to get out of. When the unit is powered on, it locks on Ch. 1 (or any other). To escape, I power off, pressing "Power" (on unit) for some 14 seconds. That brings me to a flashing "12:00" clock. Then I can turn the unit back on, which brings me back to a lock-up on Ch. 1. Also tried to intitialize all parameters to factory defaults by pressing (w/ unit OFF) "Skip Rev (I<<)" + "Time Slip" + "Open/Close" for 5 seconds. This brings me to "TEST L1". Pressing "Power" off takes me to "Bye", then the flashing "12:00". Even unplugging it just puts me back into this cycle, which begins to feel a little like being lost in the Outer Limits or something. Once in awhile, I get to "Guide" & a Ch. 1, but this also seems to lock there, sometimes w/ the dvd tray open. In frustration, I'v tried holding the TV Guide on the remote, while pressing Channel UP/DOWN at the same time, + any number of combinations, which may or may not have resulted in this change. Only once have I been able to reach a reading of how much time is left to record on the hard drive, & then I also was able to access the set-up button, which allowed me to manually put in the correct time. But I haven't been able to reach that place again. Pressing the UP/DOWN Channels at length while unit is On does absolutely nothing either. This was Panasonic's suggestion, but it seems to be a useless one. No U99 problems, fortunately. After reviewing this thread, I wonder if I should try to take out the hard drive to reformat the unit OR what?!? Any suggestions are very much appreciated.
