Cal, a couple of points, where I can contribute. I have had that a couple of times -- thought I was 'not paying attention'. But it seems to be happening more (or, I am paying closer attention). I haven't observed this enough to draw conclusions -- e.g., is it happening only to the 'manual' patterns I set up, or does it happen to the schedule-set items? I have a mix of both. As I recall it has only occurred for the "Weekly" (not the Daily/Regular) items. But (thank goodness) I have never had it happen on Lost -- maybe because I have Lost set (a) manually and (b) to start 5 minutes before the hour, just to be sure. In the last two days, though, I have observed a possibly-related phenom.: I check my schedule and see that I do NOT have a show appear there (but it used to be 'memorized'). Then I go to the TVGOS (which happens to be populated now) and go to set it to 'record' the show. However, the option there only has 'cancel record'. I go back and check my schedule -- there is NOTHING for that timeslot on the schedule -- for ANY channel, anywhere NEAR that timeslot. I go back to the TVGOS listing -- it still only offers "cancel record". So I go ahead and "cancel" and then say to "record". Checking the schedule it now appears. And the show does record just fine. In 42 pages of messages, this 'how-to' is easily lost. But it is now my favorite hobby -- checking the 'secret stuff' that only the Panny knows. You can find this information (and many many more items of information that some long-ago messages discusssed in detail, back when folks were photographing screens to send to Cheryl). So if you want more detail that the thumbnail I'll give here, you can find it back ... somewhere. Go to your 'Guide' screen and across to the 'Messages' (in the top bar). When you are there, press ENTER. You will then see ID: <bunch o' numbers>. With this ID data displayed, using your remote key in: 7 5 3 1 5 9 8 5 2. (This may seem like a random string of numbers but if you observe the pattern on the keypad you'll find it's actually quite easy to remember.) That brings up "page 1", which shows your Host ID, Host Channel, Next DL, and a whole array of other tidbits. It is there that I have been observing my "host ID" hunt around until it settles on PBS (channel 10 - or "A" in hex). Oh, yes - and your firmware info. is also lurking up at the top of this screen (I believe). This is also where I now take my clue that it is time to do a 'soft reset' -- i.e., when my machine has 'lost its mind' and the Host ID reads OxO and the Next DL reads N/A, I do Bob's soft reset procedure BEFORE I lose stable operation. ~ Keri
Bob I was confused with "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 " Is the latest firmware for DMR-EH85 still 0970DL ? Thanks Bonus2
DMR-E85H Firmware I just answered my own question by downloading the Ver DL-103 4-12-2005 update. I burned to CD and it did upgrade, so there is something different about this firmware for the DMR-E85H. However going into service mode I fould the firmware to be the same 9070DL. It may however now support 16X and 8X DVDs. However before this firmware upgrade I was already using Maxell 8X DVD R- to record to without issuse. Has anyone tried 16X DVDs? Also I am sure that even though it may recognize 8X and 16X DVDs it will probably still only burn at 4X (anyone have experience with burn speeds on DMR-E85H?) So after the upgrade I now in service mode have Region 1 Main= 9070DL TimeRO 110DC Drive= J132 and Rom=000 Thanks Bonus2
Hi Keri, Thanks for the help. I did a "power down and un-plug for 30" last night and was pleasantly surprised that my TVGO list wase still there. (I did something similar when I first got the unit and lost everything.) One odd thing, when the unit powered back up the little quote marks started running across the bottom of the display (like it does when you come out of standby) only it went on and on. After about 30 minutes I decided it had had enough time and pressed the power buttom on the front. The unit powered right up and works fine. Any idea what's going on? When "Lost" gets lost, I don't have the same symptom you report. It's just like someone went in and canceled the record from the listing screen. I can put it right back (for all the good it usually does me). Up till now I have been using the TVGO "Record Regularly" feature for all my weekly and daily shows. "Lost" is the only one I have real problems with. I'm trying scheduling it manually now and will report back. The only other TVGO issue is it not always recognizing shows that have been off for a week or so when they come back. Perhaps the description or whatever TVGO uses to recognize a "Regular" show has changed enough that there is no match? Oh, and there is the problem of it snoozing through a scheduled record. As reported by others, powering up during the period causes it to start recording immediately. This seems to happen a lot during "ER", also "Scrubs". Interesting... "ER" and "Scrubs" are both on NBC; I'll have to pay more attention to which networks have what problem. So far most problems seem to be confined to ABC, NBC and PBS shows. I've never had a problem on WB, for example. Is it safe to upgrade firmware with content on the hard drive. That is, am I likely to loose everything on the drive? I don't find an obvious way to search just within this thread or any way to specify this thread in the search dialog. Am I missing something? Thanks! Cal 8571x
Cal, I had something similar happen once. No, that is not typical. Perhaps Bob (or one of the other Experts) can help on this one. You are much more patient that I am -- I wouldn't have waited for 30 minutes! My 'regular' and 'weekly' shows were extremely [bold]IRREGULAR[/bold] during the weeks around the New Year. In the lineup, some were skipped; some ran longer or had varying start/stop times. So, yes, that could have added to the mix of variables. I'll be watching more closely now that scheduling is back to a more stable pattern. I haven't tried to do anything with my firmware. (For me this falls in the "it ain't broke" category.) Eventually, though, I will need to, which leads in to your next question... Sorry. Again I can't help here. But I would like to hear the reply. Since this is my main/only resource for my two units, the size of this thread (and the ability of my brain to hold all the history in my 'local' memory) is reaching upper bounds! ~ Keri
Even though the U99 has gone away, sometimes stuff still doesn't record. I have stuff set manually incase the TVGOS doesn't update, but still...24 didn't record tonight, I woke up with a premonition and started recording it about half an hour in. Why isn't it working? Is there a way to fix this problem?
Someone stated a hypothesis a while back that even though the obvious U99s are (mostly) gone, the downloading of the TVGOS can still cause havoc in insidious ways. It was proposed that the machine can get somehow "stuck" during a download, and will then fail to record anything after that unless you manually turn the machine on, which apparently causes the faulty download to abort. I have made it a habit (at least when I'm not on vacation) to turn the machine on everyday (either in the morning or when I get home from work) if I know I will be recording something later that day. So far that has seemed to work. The only other work around that has been mentioned on this board is to disable the TV Guide altogether (by entering 00000 as a ZIP code, for example).
Last night I had one program (a 'weekly' manual scheduled item) set to record. Just before its start time, I checked the 'messages pg. 1' and noted that the Next DL was to be 11pm (our time). The recording was to end at 9pm. I put the machine in standby and watched to ensure the recording started & progressed. (It did.) However, this morning the machine appeared to be 'stuck' on the channel that had last recorded (Ch. 9). The display showed the channel number but no clock. I held down the power button (for a soft reset). The machine acted like it was wanting to power on (start of 'little dancing lines'), but I continued to hold, to complete the soft-reset (then unplug for 30 sec). Unfortunately, I had not checked to see the machine's state after last night's program recording ended. I am guessing that it would have shown the "Ch 9 - no clock' state, meaning it never made it to the 11pm DL. But I suppose (alternative scenario) it could have had the failure occur during the DL and that 'Ch 9' was simply displaying the last/current channel. Something more to watch for. ~ Keri
Keri, I think it's from recordings that crash (my money's on power failures--I haven't had one since I stated using a UPS), leaving the drive Table of Contents corrupt so that the segmented files contain one or more pointers to undefined areas of the drive. A Reset/Power-Off cycle seems to clean up the confusion--but any shows recorded during the confused state may still retain corrupt data. What causes the crashes in dubbing isn't the extraneous video segments, but the "rough edges" where the binary code isn't clean. I wish I could give you more details, but it's been months since I've had this problem. I do remember that what was a momentary flash going forward could be expanded by a combination of forward/reverse and slow-mo/frame advance. I don't remember whether just going in reverse around them worked or not right now. When this error occurred, it didn't *seem* to harm the DVD-R, but it *did* eat up the usable space by the amount used before the "glitch." Repeated tries just continued to reduce the DVD space availability. However, I no longer trust these disks with my permanent archives, so I scrap them and use another. DVD-RAM on the other hand can be formatted to recover lost space. bob
Re Phantom and Skipped Recordings... I have the advantage of having an E85, an E95, and an RCA 7000N which uses the old 3-Day TVGOS system. I'm on discussion groups for both brands, and so it's pretty easy for me to parse Panasonic problems from TVGOS problems--if it happens on both the Pannys and the RCA, it's pretty much a universal (TVGOS) problem. Also, when it happens on only one machine, it is usually related to what has been happening on *that* machine and not TVGOS or my local cable provider. When it happens on all three, the problem is just as certainly an upstream problem. The RCA responds to the 30-second unplug fix, just like the Pannys, so I'm pretty sure that its the TVGOS registers that need to be cleared. There was a long thread a while ago about the "Back-to-back recording" failures in both manufacturers' machines--a problem that was related to TVGOS data and that the latest Panny update was supposed to have helped. Lately, my REGULAR recordings were failing when the unit was in stand-by and they immediately followed another recording on a different channel. Sometimes these involved shows that were "overridden" by a one-time recording--but I don't know what the actual percentage may be as I wasn't paying that much attention. I do know that changing from one "REGULAR" to multiple "WEEKLY" recordings seems to have fixed this problem. I also noticed that stepping through my schedule and hittnig SELECT twice (i.e. make a "0 minute" adjustment in start/stop time seems to refresh scheduled recordings that weren't actually recording. Even so, some shows still fail and I still get the <CANCEL RECODING> indicator on a listing that doesn't show in the schedule (but used to). I tink these are related to the ones that show, but don't record (as if the two halves got separated). All in all it's very puzzling. As for searching threads, apparently AfterDawn doesn't facilitate that, but you can search this forum (DVD recorders), and then pick this thread before clicking on the returned hits. It's an extra step--but it has the same result. bob
Some insight into StarSight, Guide+, and Download Channels: Here's part of an ongoing discussion from my RCA-PVR discussion list. The RCA uses 3-Day Guide+ programming. Quoted from the KCTS website at: http://www.kcts.org/inside/techreport/faq/index.asp#STAR Now, granted, this is an old webpage and technology changes, but in addition to the above quote, I recently got this message from my own provider: Just what "Older" and "Newer" really mean is anybody's guess, but my guess is, they are the 3-day and the 8-day guides. My two Panasonics have recently lost their 8-day guide, but are still updating with the 3-day version. I just moved my channels around to reflect the above, so I'll see if I get the 8-day guide back. bob
Keri posted: I noted the same thing with the "disappearing listings;" they still appeared in the guide listings as if they were to be recorded, but had disappeared from the "scheduled recordings" page. What's with this bug?! I haven't noticed it lately but haven't been paying too much attention. [bold]VideoBob:[/bold] A question about the "defrag" of the hard drive after massive deletions: sorry for asking, but please re-define a "soft reset," and also, does unplugging afterwards erase your TVGOS listings and scheduled recordings or do they stay? Apologies for asking for a re-post of this, but thanks!!
Bob and Keri, I just wanted to report back to you on the progress that I was able to make at your recent suggestion. I'm happy to report that through the reset, firmware upgrade, and some patience, my 85H seems to be back to normal. Being the curious type I did take a few manual shots at trying to identify the bad section of the title that wouldn't dub to no avail, so ulimately decided to spend one more DVD-R (didn't have a DVD-RAM, and as Bob mentioned, the space from the failed dub is lost) to try to narrow in on the bad spot. This worked like a champ - using the completion percentage (31%) and the total title length (125 mins) I was able to conservatively "dial in" to the problem section to within one minute. Using the Shorten Title editor, I was able to find and eliminate the bad frames (+/- 1 seconds worth) within a few minutes. If you happen to catch the completion percentage at the point of a failed dub, this method should work well. It's just too bad that at the time of the error the messasge (and completion percentage) clears off the screen relatively quickly. Had the message been left on the screen it may have sped the recovery process and perhaps saved some discs/space. I can't imagine too many people setting up a dubbing list and watching it through to completion.... As for the possible cause of this frame mixup, I'm relatively certain that there were no power issues while the problem title was being recorded or for that matter during the time that it was sitting on the HDD. I suspect at this point that the trouble may have been introduced with the other problems that I had (perhaps after the multi title delete problem). I still need to follow up on the TVGOS listing for my area, but for now, I want to say, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, particularly for the detailed responses delivered so quickly! You two (and others in this forum) are providing a great service here. To follow up on several "current issues" I'd like to point out that just tonight I did experience another disappearing TVG schedule item, in this case the title was Boston Legal on CBS. I will begin looking for repeating characteristics here and will be certain to be more aware of checking my listings at least for the time being (bummer). One last question, I can only admit to have scanned much of the early portion of this forum and recall posts where communications with Pana. were documented, but has anyone ever tried sending a link to it to them? I'd imagine the right person there would be impressed with the dedication that their customers have shown to the product and very interested in some of the other themes that have pervaded this thread. Until next time, thanks again. B.
Re: disappearing listings I know a number of us had drawn a possible link between disappearing weekly programmed recordings AFTER a week when the show was not on (a week where ??/?? was shown on the schedules page and it was grayed out). Does anyone have data to support/refute this connection? Btw, [bold]barkerb[/bold], I also tape Boston Legal weekly and had no issues as it recorded without problem this week.
I have had scheduled entries dissappear after shows were off for a week (grayed out). You'd think it would be the grayed out shows that go away, but this last time it was an active entry. Doesn't seem to be any kind of pattern. My E85 didn't record Lost last night till I turned it on. So far I've only had problems recording on channel 15, which is ABC for me. It also happens to be my host channel, which I find to be interesting.
Coyote24: 1) Hold down the power button (on the machine, not the remote) until the machine's display shows only the time (no HDD, no little red clock). Hold it down long enough -- i.e., if it was off and starts to turn on, keep your finger down on the button until it is really 'off'. 2) Unplug for 30 seconds. It does NOT erase the listings that have downloaded; it does not lose scheduled recording settings. (It does not lose programs recorded.) What it does lose is come of the 'data' that displays on the 30pages of info behind the MESSAGES panel -- e.g., next DL time, your host ID, etc. However, it does retain your settings such as your zip code (etc.). ~ Keri
Thanks, Keri. It's been so long since I've unplugged that I knew SOMETHING was lost in TVGOS, but it's just the ads and the download data, not the downloaded listings or programs scheduled to record. Thanks. Re: Disappearing listings. I record a bunch of stuff every day, including Lost and Medium weekly. I found it odd last night when I was checking to see if Lost would record that a grayed-out Medium (Next Monday hasn't downloaded yet)was listed right AFTER Lost, not down among next Monday's scheduled recordings as it should be. Why did it jump up to the wrong day while it's grayed out?! None of the other Monday grayed-out programs did. The first time I've seen this happen, although it's in keeping with the "disappearing listings" bug. Hmph. Usually grayed-out weekly programs stay chronologically in the day where they would normally redord. VERY odd. I canceled that one, just in case, and will just re-schedule it after the listings for Monday download. coyote24 Zip 15207 (Pittsburgh, PA) Comcast analog cable/no box DMR-E85H
Hi, It was suggested that I post this here, though I don't have any U99 error problems: Hi all, I've owned this unit for over a year now, with very little problems. Sometimes it would do a weird thing or two, but usually would revert to normal after a while. I record massive amounts of movies all the time, and have recorded over 400 DVD's easily in this time frame. Suddenly the unit won't read any of the same DVD media that it read before, including DVD's that I've finalized with this unit. (Note: all my DVD's are DVD-R) It won't read blank ones, ones that have recordings on them but not finalized, and ones that I've finalized. I have always alternated between TDK, Maxell, and JVC media, with no problems in the past. The unit WILL read any DVD's which were purchased already recorded--such as off the shelf movies, etc. So I can watch those, but cannot watch any of my own library, nor burn anything from my hard drive to DVD. Very frustrating! Just says cannot read disc when I try now. The unit works fine in all other respects. Plays store-bought pre-burned DVD's. Timer works fine, will record anything from TV or VCR. I've never had the U99 error or anything like that. Once in a while it would suddenly decide to run a self-check test, but only once in a while, and when it came back up, always worked fine. Things I've tried: Powering off and unplugging for a while. No effect. Downloading and installing latest firmware for the unit--successful, but no effect. Purchased a disk unit cleaner, but the unit would NOT read the disc cleaner!!! Finally, though I was reluctant to do it, I formatted the drive. After I did this, suddenly everything worked fine again. I watched one of my finalized DVD's just fine. I put in several blank media and they all read fine. That was last night. Overnight I recorded some movies from TV. This morning, when I tried the drive again, it acted inconsistently. It wouldn't read blank media. At first, it did read media I've finalized on this unit, but I tried to fix the problem as I did last night, and so formatted the HD again. After I did that, it went back to not reading anything but store-bought pre-made DVD's again. This is VERY frustrating. I can record all the stuff I want, but can't burn any of it to DVD. Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you very much!
Does anyone know the key sequence for performing a FACTORY reset on the DMR E95HS (not a soft or hard reset - these are covered in the manual). I do not currently need to do one, just want to know for future reference). The HARD reset (up & down arrow) is fine for fixing most things, but it still doesn't allow you to re-select the manual channel lineup or manual clock setting, etc.) Tim
