Both of my Pannys (DMR-E85 and -E95) at different addresses on the same cable systm (Leisure World/Golden Rain 92637) both stopped downloading listings starting two day's ago. The first missing listing is for Thursday, Jan 12, 2006 and I have "No Listing" for everything from midnight Weds. nigh on. I have had no power outages (they are both on UPS's) and no errors on either machine during that time. Is anyone else experiencing similar problems or should I look to my cable provider? bob
From what I read.....Threshold has been cancelled. Starting a few days ago, I noticed too I was missing TVGOS data. Just yesterday (Thursday 01/05), when I turned the E85 on, TGOS presented me with two channel lineup choices. I chose the correct one and was then directed tot he TGOS. I am still missing data though beginning Tuesday next week going through Thursday. Robert Brentwood, TN Comcast Cable - no box
BOB, yes, the exact same thing happened to me starting about 3 days ago. Except for me, my unit gave me a U99 because of it. The unit was almost trash until I was able to get it to take the firmware upgrade. Then it was fine. But with the matter of TVGuide, I called the people in Elgin, Illinois (Panasonic's main video center of repair and whatnot) and a woman there told me that this is a very recent issue that many customers are experiencing. She told me that they are advising all customers to turn off the tvguide feature because it is causing U99s in some cases. She then told me that as a last option I could hold down the channel up and channel down buttoms simultaneously while the unit is on, wait for it to power off, power it on again and go through the tvguide setup. I just did that this morning and am going to wait until tomorrow to see if any listings come up. I am in your area (92675 San Juan Capistrano) and the same thing has happened to me, so you're not alone. Anyway, I'm going to see if tvguide can be contacted (we'll see) and I guess just wait and see if another upgrade is issued (doubt it.)
npasqua said: I just read that post and was going to ask if you had a DVD in the drive. This often causes problems and can sometimes be remedied at that stage by pushing the <EJECT> button while in stand-by. This powers the unit up and will usually open the drive *before* locking up. I wonder if "Very recent" to them includes the known (and removed) "Upgrade bug" from last Sept/Oct that TVGOS rolled back in Nov/Dec? The current problem is only *DAYS* old. Yeah. That's Panny's "Universal" work-around. I have one, below, they don't know about that works in most cases--for a while. That is only *HALF* the fix, and it isn't the last resort--it's the next to the last resort. Also, it is usually unnecessary, because you can almost always get the same results *without* losing *ANY* information by simply holding the front-panel power button down for about five seconds until all of the pael lights but the clock go out. [Note: Remove any disks from the DVD Drive *before* powering down. Many errors have been traced back to a disk in that drive in stand-by and especially during crash-recovery.] Once the unit is *completely* off (not stand-by), you *MUST* do the next step to minimize "Phantom Recordings" (i.e. the machine thinks it's recording--may even *say* it's recording--but no recording goes to disk): UNPLUG the unit for at least 30 seconds. I have a switched extension cord I bought at Big Lots for about $3.00, so I simply flip a switch and the lights go out. It is the *UNPLUGGING* that fixes most "Strange" behavior in Panasonic DVR's. My theory is, their software reset doesn't reset all of the necessary chips--only a true hardware (power off) reset will do that. Once or twice I have still gotten the old "Back-to-back" recording-loss problem, even after the above, (especially with "Regularly" sceduled shows) and have fixed it with one more item I'll add to my anti-crash protocol: Go to the "Schedule" menu, select each individual recording scheduled, and hit the <ENTER> key twice (the one you use to set "Start Early/End Late" time). This seems to rewrite the schedule and clears up flakiness. I've only had to do that twice--but it seems to work. Howdy, Neighbor! OT...Re Threshold: I was wondering the same thing a few days ago, Googled "Threshold cancelled" and found out it was cancelled the week it changed days; there are four more shows "in the can" but we may never see them. Does anyone have a copy of episode 3? I lost that on one of my "away" crashes. bob
I just downloaded and unzipped the upgrades for the e85h and the e95h. The site says: DMR-E85HP DVD Recorder Firmware Update [DMR-E85.EXE], 1095kb Version DL-103 Description Updates RAM / DVD drive and improves compatibility with the most recent 8X and 16X DVD media. Last Updated 4/12/2005 ----- DMR-E95HP DVD Recorder Firmware Update [DMR-E95.EXE], 876kb Version DR-067 Last Updated 4/12/2005 Description Updates RAM / DVD drive and improves compatibility with the most recent 8X and 16X DVD media. The "last updated" part must refer to the website, because the dates on *both* Pana_dvd.frm files was 3/28/05 (my installed one was 1/27/05 and 6,206kb). I see that I had also downloaded one a while back on 5/13/05 that said it was created 4/12/05 (!) and was 6,128KB. I also note that the size is nowhere *near* the 1095kb or 876kb, but is rather 6,206kb and 6,657kb, respectively. Do they just pull these figures out of thin air? Are thr rolling back updates, or just sloppy about which ones they put on-line? Also, the "Compressed installers" are actually *larger* that the file they hold! Why bother? bob
RX7Fan said: Actually, it won't. It requires control of the tuner to download (its major design flaw), so when you take control of the tuner by either powering the unit up or with a scheduled recording, it stops loading. IN fact, it's so stupid, it won't load even if you are on the right channel!. bob
drsparc said on November 2005 @ 13:33: and again on November 2005 @ 01:46: [and others later...] I had similar problems long ago. Most of the problems went away with switching to good quality media, but naming a DVD-R that is nearly full can crash it--especially if it is inferior quality or a smaller-capacity disk. Remember, DVDs vary in WRITABLE area, some exceeding the minimum (postd) standard (I forget the figures). The Panny will try to (and usually succeed) write more time than shown "available" and this seems to work fine *until* you try and add a name. Then it crashes. I solve this problem on DVD-R (it doesn't seem to happen on DVD-RAM) by titling the disk *BEFORE* dubbing. I have yet to lose a disk since I started doing this. I'm 250+ DVD-R's and 200+ DVD-RAM's (half 9.4's) without a single crash (well, I lost one DVD-RAM before I upgraded my firmware a year ago, and a couple of dozen DVD-R's before I got rid of junk media and started pre-titling my disks, but nothing since). I use T-Y DVD-R blanks I buy on-line for 30-40 cents each and various DVD-RAM. I'm currently using a batch of 4.7gb Panasonic DVD-RAM's I got in thin-jewel-case 5-packs from Best Buy for $2/disk and am awaiting delivery of 100 Panasonic 9.4gb Type IV cartiges (used once and reformatted--only 9,999 uses left) that cost me about $2 each, delivered, from eBay. [BTW, when the DVD crashes, you will have nothing but grief until you do a 30-second unplug. Some DVD crashes can and will destroy all setup data. Even READING a crashed DVD can crash the system (and leaving one in the drive can cause crash-loops where you can't boot).] bob
Coyote24 said on November 2005 @ 15:40 Power ouages will not hurt if the machine is OFF--after all, we do this all the time to reset the circuit board. Just be sure to hold the front panel power switch long enough to be sure you aren't in stand-by mode. Power outages are worst when the machine is recording. One comment: My machines come back up to OFF (not Stand-By) after a power outage. I don't see how putting the machine on a power timer (as suggested earlier) could work--especially since the time isn't correctd until power-up. How do they get back into Stand-By on their own? bob
I have a problem that I haven't seen reported. Occasionally, I hit open to change a DVD and it hangs. The disk drive won't open at all. The only way I have found to fix it is to pull the plug and reset power. Thanks, Ron
V. Bob ~ I have been having the 'no listing' condition "recently" -- i.e., since my reported week-ago problem having "Tuesday" (last) be populated. Since I have been tracking the "next download" time info. as a curiosity I have some possibly-relevant information. Background: Until last week I was getting populated listings (per the 'next' time) -- sometimes I would hit the download and sometimes I would miss it (because of machine use). But things were generally working as expected. Then, without any evident problems (outages, etc.) or any unusual use on my end, the "next DL" turned to N/A. Once that happened it stayed that way for days, and the Tues. population was missed. I did one of your complete 'soft resets' (hold down power off/unplug), which (of course) left me still with N/A for that setting. But very quickly it restored a date/time and began the list population. Just yesterday, I noticed that my "next DL" was once again back to showing N/A -- and I've had no listing updates over several typical download periods. My machine was in standby most of yesterday, so it had plenty of opportunity. FWIW, I have never left a DVD in the drive. (I don't understand why someone would leave a disk in the machine -- I only put in a DVD while dubbing and quickly remove it to safety when done.) A couple of other notes: I have an E85 here in Hawaii and an E95 in WA. The E95 often had the failure on back-to-back recordings; the E85 has never had that failure. Both machines have failed to catch a manually-scheduled program, and the most typical case is the same program -- the CBS "Sunday AM" show which starts early Sunday morning (which are at different local times, in the 2 timezones). Keri
Update from OKC (73034; Cox Cable). I have been using the 1/27/05 FW upgrade and have not seen any U99s or other glitches on my E85H since the "OKC fix" took effect at my house with listing updates starting on 10/16/05. I am wondering whether the “fix” ever got rolled out to all of the country. I operate with a UPS and never leave a DVD in the drive unless I am dubbing. I always record to the hard drive in “high speed mode”, and then dub to DVD in SP mode. I have made more than 100 dubbings with no problems, although I hardly ever put a title on the DVD. Early on, I did learn the hard way that it is a very bad idea to try to interrupt the dubbing process, and the only way I could recover from that was to unplug for 30 seconds or so. The hard drive has been within a couple of hours of being completely full, and it caused no problems. I have divided titles, shortened titles, and changed title names with the hard drive fairly full with no problems. So far, I have been using only 4X DVDs, but am about to run out of them. VideoBob … You mention that you downloaded the 3/28/05 FW upgrade, but I am wondering whether you or anyone else has actually installed it and tested that it actually “improves compatibility with the most recent 8X and 16X DVD media”. I am about to start using 8X DVDs, and can’t decide whether to upgrade or to use the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” rule. It irritates me no end that a Panasonic support person told me (several months after 3/28) that the E85H would handle 8X and that there was no upgrade available. (After that, they posted the 1/27 upgrade but not the 3/38 upgrade. Let’s hope that the delay was due to really thorough beta testing, but you would think that people on this forum would be good beta testers!) Re the comments from VideoBob and others about recently missing listings – here in OKC I have seen no problems with missing listings, and currently have listings through the eighth day. The only time I ever miss them is when I record late at night, and then they eventually fill in before the day of viewing. Again, I am wondering whether the “fix” ever got rolled out to all of the country. One final gripe…. Why can’t the listings handle shows that start and stop at hh:01 instead of exactly on fifteen minute intervals? We are forced to record the follow-on show in order to get the extra minute and the “pause gap” in between sometimes misses something important. It wouldn’t be exactly rocket science to do it right!
About DVD Drive and Media-related Problems: mr899: You did't say whether your unit was on or off (Standby) when you hit the button or, if it was on, was the unit doing anything at the time (such as recording or in the dubbing menu cycle). (The drive won't open when you are in the selection menu of the dubbing process.) Also, you didn't mention whether you were in HDD or DVD mode (or RAM, for the E95) when you pushed the button. Nor did you mention whether you had any scheduled recordings set for the DVD (intended or otherwise--check them all). That said, try following the following suggestions rigorously and see if the problem persists: [Note: I am not implying that anyone is doing any or all of the recommended-against practices, nor am I saying that you can't violate *all* of these suggestions without having problems. However, I *AM* suggeting that if any of you are having drive or media problems, it would save you vast quantities of time and frustration to follow them *ALL* rigorously for a few days and see if your problems go away. If they do, you can always break them one at a time until your system fails again. ] 1. Make sure that the unit is in the HDD mode and the DVD empty before powering down or going into standby. This *SHOULDN'T* be necessary, but the units are sensitive to DVD errors--especially with writable media. 2. Reset the system (including 30-second unplug) after *ANY* error--including failed recordings. 3. Don't try to squeeze in the last few mb of DVD space. Leave it a little breathng room to compensate for relocating bad tracks. 4. Never try to title a FULL DVD-R. If it doesn't have at least 100 MB left, leave it blank. Better yet, title it *before* dubbing. 5. DO NOT use cheap blanks. They may be cheap, but they are *NOT* inexpensive. Quality disks don't have to be expensive and can be widely found under 40 cents a disk. How much is your time and lost data worth? bob
keri: I also found my download channel set to N/A and stil have nolistings on either unit, although they have both been off overnight. Taking the DVD out of the drive has made most of my crash problems go away. When I forget and leave a writable one in, I usually crash within three days. I haven't any information on whether on DVD-Videos cause failures, since I use a player for those, so my Pannys can stay off (a major design flaw!) and I usually remove them immediately after finalizing. acmetoyz: No, I haven't installed the update and don't plan to until I have a problem that appears related to the DVD drive (like media incompatability). I don't expect any of those soon, as I still have a couple of hundred DVD-R blanks and 250 DVD-RAM surfaces (Including the 9.4s) of known good varieties to go before I have to buy any more media. I agree completely. And while we're at it, why do networks like ABC, BBCA, TNT, and some PBS stations have to run that 1-5 minutes over/under and *THEN* run the shows back-to-back to eliminate the "Safe" zone for switching recordings? What ever happened to dicipline? Remember when there were fiveminutes of ads between shows, so you had a potty break? Every show I ever produced had to be within ONE SECOND of scheduled start/stop times, including ad breaks. The only thing I can think of is that they are doing it *DELIBERATELY* to foil the "Time-Shift" market. If I record "Desperate Housewives" on ABC and Schedule "Crossing Jordan" to follow on NBC, Jordan gets skipped because DH always runs a minute over. (BTW, this may account for some of the skipped shows many are reporting--especially when it's the same show every time). Similarly "Sex and he City" on TNT runs two shows back-to-back and either show can be anywhere from 25-35 minutes long, with the transition anywhere within a 5-minute window and the last show usually running overinto the next time slot. At least I know why this is: The shows ran 30 minutes on HBO *without* ads, and some shows are a lot raunchier than others (causing far more censorship cuts). Rather than padding those shows with more ads, they simply start overlap it with the other show and (sometines) cut less out of it. I can at least fix this with block recording--but they screw up the following show when they run over. BTW, I don't remember if my skipped shows were on my E85 or just on the E95. bob
OT: Since we've been discussing how the TVGOS system works (when it does) some of you may be interested in the original patents for the tschnology. Perhaps it will help understand how it is *supposed* to work. http://orbitnet.com/StarSight/ bob
mr899: You did't say whether your unit was on or off (Standby) when you hit the button or, if it was on, was the unit doing anything at the time (such as recording or in the dubbing menu cycle). (The drive won't open when you are in the selection menu of the dubbing process.) Unit was playing purchased DVD. This has happened when DVD is stopped. Once it hangs, it will not open until power is reset.
Can't help you, then. I never use it as a player. Yours sounds like one of the first ones I've heard of that may actually need repair. What model and firmware level are you running? bob
A question for npasqua (since you seemed to have the same problem)or anyone else who can answer this. My E85H unfortunately lost power while playing a DVD. Ever since, the U99 error is coming up. I tried rebooting the TV guide, but whenever the welcome screen appears (asks you to press enter to begin) it shuts down right away, U99 again. Ive downloaded the firmware update from the website, but I can't figure out for the life of me how to get it to download to the recorder since as soon as it powers up, it comes up U99. If anyone can help I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
Bob, Since I wrote, I took a closer look at the 'page 1' data. It shows that everything (useful) has been reset -- e.g., my Host Chan and Host ID (and lots of the others) are all back to their initial setting value. (Zip Code is, understandably, retained.) Also, I see that I have lost all the promos that had been downloaded (not that I missed 'em!). So, whatever this is (a 'silent' U99?), the downloads stopping seems to be a side-effect of that. This morning (before my round of news recording started), I did a soft reset. I'll leave it on standby the rest of the morning and see how things progress. BTW, I saw that in your latest set of notes you suggest a reset after failure of a recording to start. I had that Sun. AM (week ago) failure and, in hindsight, should have done a reset right after that. My first failed DL could have been related to that event. (But the second one had no visible event to link it to.) I don't know if it's related but, after a reset, my system seems to want to use the CBS channel (here, channel 7) as the Host. It pokes around with that for a bit and then figures out that it's PBS (channel 10 (or "A" in hex)). In Seattle, where I have two PSB choices, my E95 does not get confused. But here in Hawaii, the E85 (with fewer competing choices) has a harder time figuring things out. Keri
jedi11, in my case, it would indeed display a U99 before I could do anything. However, if the machine was off and I hit the eject button, it would turn on and open the disc drive. It would then display a U99 but at least the drawer was open. So I put the firmware cd I made off my computer in the unit and powered off the unit. When I turned it on again, it closed the drawer. I don't remember, but it may have U99ed on me again. Unplug the unit for 30 seconds, turn it on again and when mine loaded, right before it normally U99ed, it read the disc and did the firmware update for me. DON'T FORGET to go to panasonic's page and download the insturctions... there are a couple key things you must do to complete the upgrade. I suggest looking at the instructions before you put the cd in your unit. After that, all was solved. A few important notes. When you burn the "Pana_dvd.frm" file to a CD, you MUST burn it in the ISO-9660 format. Otherwise your unit will not recognize the disc. Also, if turning on the unit by pressing the eject button doesn't work, then while the unit is off, press and hold "Power", "Stop" and "Channel Up" on the unit for 5 seconds. That will open the drawer for sure. Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, my tvguide wasn't working after this all happened, though I finally had a functioning unit. I was told by a Panasonic lady in Elgin to do the following: While the unit is ON, push both the Channel Up and Channel Down buttons, and wait for the unit to power off. Wait 30 seconds and turn it on again and set up TVguide again. This actually worked for me as I now am getting my TVguide listings again. Hope this helped... can't tell you how frustrated I was a week ago to have this expensive unit near death lol
VideoBob wrote: My DMR E95HS comes up in standby after power off. It doesn't seem to even have an "off" state; it's either ON or in STANDBY. Holding the power button down for a few seconds doesn't do anything. As soon as the button is touched it toggles either to ON or STANDBY.
