Hi All! I have been going through the U99 error thread for the past one hour now without finding a solution to my problem... Please help I have a DMR-E85H. I recorded some sessions through a camera onto the hard disk. There are two sessions of 3 hours each. I now want to transfer these onto a DVD for archiving. However the largest size of the DVD available is 4.7GB and this may not be enough to record the entire content. My reseller has also told me if i try recording the DVR automatically deletes these sessions and in case there is a problem I will not be able to get them back. Since these sessions are invaluable and cannot be replicated I am wary of trying any experiments with the recording. If anyone can help me with any options it'll be of a great help. I want to know is it a) possible to record these two session independantly without erasing either one of them and HOW b) possible to split these individual sessions so they can be accomodated on the DVD Any help will be hugely appreciated!
Pranav06 .... The E85 does not delete the recordings after dubbing, the reseller doesn't know what they are talking about. Don't worry about that. You can redord 1,2,4 and 6 or 8 hours of video on a DVD-R, depending on what speed you set it to record at, bear in mind that the slower the speed (more recording time) the lower your picture quality goes. From you post I'd say recording home movies at LP (4 hour mode) would probably work pretty well. You wouldn't loose a lot of quality, and you'd be able to fit it on the disk. Or you might try "Flex Recording" (I haven't used it, but if I understand, it will set the recording speed so the file fits the disk, somewhere between the 2 and 4 hour mode..... (If it works for you, let me know, I might use it sometime in the future) You can also divide the recordings into smaller blocks ,hit "Direct Navigator" find the recordings, hit "sub menu" go to "edit" hit enter (I think), then hit "Divide Title" this will bring up a screen that will start playing the recording, when it gets to the point you want to split the recording at, hit enter, it should split it into 2 seperate recordings that you can put on a DVD-R and not loose any quality, I'd stick with 2 hour mode on the DVD-r, that way you'd have 3 DVD's, (2 times 3 hours = 6 hours, on 3 dvd's at 2 hours per DVD)or 2 dvd's at 3 hours per, the quality difference probably wouldn't be noticable. I hope this helps you. Please let us know if it works.
Pranav, Using your dubbing feature you can create a dub list and see exactly how big these recordings are. If they are too big for a single disc, the display will tell you. If one is too big for a single disc, use your divide feature to break it up into smaller sections. You may want to find out if you have up to date firmware since the divide feature used to be a trigger for U99 problems before Panny upgraded the firmware. I dub from the HDD to DVD-R and RAM all the time and the programs don't delete from the HDD. BTW, check your manual for more detailed directions on all this stuff. I'm emailing from work and don't have everything in front of me right now. Oh, I just saw RX beat me to the punch. He's right on target. I've used the HDD to transfer analog VHS-C recordings to DVD and the LP speed is ideal for home movie quality. I've never tried the flex recording feature, either.
Pranav, I just thought I'd mention that the DVR will automatically erase HDD programs if you burn them to a DVD when those programs are copy protected. However, as Rx7FAN pointed out, that case does not apply to you since you recorded those programs to the HDD from your personal camera. This is covered in the manual. Perhaps your reseller really didn't know what he was talking about or perhaps he misunderstood your question, but probably the former.
howie, Not sure. I haven't run into it yet. I procured my DVR's in August and I thought I might run into the copy protection encoding for some of the newer shows in the fall. I don't record many TV shows to DVD. I have a few DMR-E85H's and I sometimes dub a show from a DVR in one room to DVD-RAM so that my wife and I can watch it on our main TV in the living room from another DMR-E85H. I have successfully dubbed Night Stalker (ABC - cancelled), Supernatural (WB), Smallville (WB), Alias (ABC - now lost all interest). That is a pretty small sample set from which to draw any conclusions. I have extremely basic cable (i.e. essentially the standard broadcast channels + TBS + WGN), so I am probably a poor test case. Perhaps someone else has encountered the copy protection encoding from a broadcast program and would care to comment?
Vulcan, I think the movies on HBO are broadcast with the flag that allows one copy, but I don't have a premium movie channel, either. My guess is those types of things would erase from the HDD. All the TV shows I record allow me to transfer them to DVD-R and RAM without incident. Interestingly, the RAM discs I dub and later watch on my computer cause the WIN DVD program to give me a warning that the disc is CRPM protected, but the program still allows me to play the disc. I can't rip those programs to my computer HD, and I think that has something to do with the file system the Panny uses for DVD-RAM and the HDD, but I'm not sure.
It's hard to believe this thread is still going. I posted, initially, on page one last year with a problem on my e85 and I'm happy to report that after the firmware upgrade it's been working fine for almost a year. I was wondering if anyone tested the recording quality between regular lp mode and hi speed dub lp mode. I recorded the superbowl in lp hi speed dub mode and when recorded to dvd it seems to have a little compression artifacts. I would prefer to record in sp mode but the game is quite long.
I just got the U99 error after having the 85H unit run flawlessly for over 2 years. I did a soft reset on the unit (held down the power button until only the time was shown} and then pulled the plug out of the wall socket for 1 minute. When I plugged it back in everything is working again fine. I had powered down and rebooted the machine 5 or 6 times before (but for only a few seconds before turning it back on) and consistently got the U99 error. Who knows?
jpoe I record in the hi speed dub mode all of the time. I have it set up for sp so that 4 hours recording time will fit on a DVD-R. Even though most of my recordings are watched from the hard drive and then erased, I found that the recording time to dub to either a DVD-Ram disk or DVD-R was very long if not in the hi speed mode. Panny reccomends that you keep the hi speed recording mode off for better picture quality but IMHO I find the difference to be very minimal and would scarafice spped for quality. If I was going to archive something important than I would turn it off (hi speed) and go for the standard 2 hours recording time and probably record straight to a DVD-R disk.
After a year of working well my Panasonic DMR-E85HS stopped updating the tv guide listings. I have loaded the firmware upgrades, and done both soft and hard resets with unplugging the unit. Now it won't even set the clock. All I get is a message that the unit failed to find the data and to check the cables. The cables must be ok since I can see all the channels coming through the unit. I may be the cause of the clock not updating, in a previous posting it was suggested to manully set the clock to a certain time and turn the unit off for 20 minutes and the clock will return. I tried that without result and maybe that has the clock stuck on manual. Does anyone have any ideas for me to try to get the guide and clock back? - thanks
I was involved with the postings earlier when the change in the TV guide feed caused U99 errors. Still happy about that getting resolved. I have had "No Listing" on all of the channels for about 2 weeks now, but no U99. My clock works fine. I performed a soft reset three days ago and the unit has been on standby every night (11PM-11PM). I have been looking at the thread, but no one seems to have the same problem. I looked at my ID data this morning: Host ID: 0x0 Host ch: 0x0 VBI ch: 0x29000003 lineup: 0x382E Next DL: N/A VBI Info and Stats pages are all zeros Firmware: 07.01.26/07.06.11/00.00.00/00.00.00/00016100/64/0000 Then I did a hard reset (|<<,TS,O/C) It stopped with the unit displaying "TEST *L1" I turned off the unit after about 5 minutes. Now, I have the cable working OK, except that the listing page has a black screen with "No data for this screen" across it. Time: 12:00 flashing my ID: all zeros VBI ch: 0x1 Lineup: 0x0 firmware: 07.01.26/00.00.00/ everything else looks the same. Seems like I went downhill doing the hard reset... Any thoughts? Thanks!
I find it intersting that two users (and probably more that don't post here) suddenly don't get guide data. It may have nothing to do with your machines, maybe something upstream stopped working??
I suppose that could be possible that the problem is at the source. I get my cable from Comcast in Charleston.
Since the U99 error problem I had back in September 2005, I haven't been able to get any TV Guide listings. I have Adelphia cable and use a cable box. If I run the cable directly to my E95 I can get the listings. But not through my cable box. Adelphia has been absolutely no help. They know less than me. So if I only want local stations, I'm fine with the guide, but if I want the premium channels, I'm out of luck. Thank you TV Guide and Adelphia!!!! Blah!@!!!!@!@!@@
It is apparent to anyone who has read the entire thread that there are several posters who are quite knowledgeable at the TV Guide algorithm/status/idiosyncrasies. I have TV Guide download disabled, so I am not one of them. The postings to this thread slowed down quite a bit in the last couple of months. Some of you who need help might consider a kind private message to one of the experts to prompt their renewed participation. Just a thought.
hey people, [bold] is it me, or is my system playing up[/bold] hey my dmr85h has been running great up untill tonight, when i was watching a show, from the hard drive, all of a sudden, it froze and i couldnt do nothing, so i held the power button for a hard reset, and it turned off, then i turned it back on again, but it was just saying, self check, on the screen, anyhow i waited and waited and then thort that maybe it needs to have the power plug removed, while i was doing that i noticed its very very very hot!!!, so i thort lets see if the back fan is operational, so i turned it on and waited .. same message came up, self check, but still the back fan did not operate, ... question, does the back fan always operate or does it come on when it feels like it? ... so i put a portable fan on the outside of the caseing faceing the air holes, so it can cool down the system, once done,i waited 15minutes with the self check displayed, then it went back to normal, but i dont see the internal fan operating? so can someone tell me if my fan is **** or if it comes on only sometimes? so i know weather to do something about that, which could of caused overheation, instead of corrupt data hard drive (more typical)
Volcan, I still monitor this thread to see if anyone has managed to get TVGOS from Time Warner in NYC through digital cable. My suspicion is that since Time Warner is now selling its own PVR service, they are blocking the TVGOS, but it's just a hypothesis.
[bold]dmr85h:[/bold] From what you described, it sounds to me that either your fan or the thermostat (presumably it has one) that controls it is dead. The self-check should not last THAT long, and coupled with the fact that a portable fan helped it would lead me to believe that your unit needs to be serviced. vulcanusa: It's true that the forum postings have slowed. I haven't looked at them for a month, myself. Maybe that's a good thing, as quite possibly it means fewer people are having problems--? Personally, I haven't seen any issues lately except for the "disappearing scheduled recordings," especially after a "grayed-out" week when the program isn't on. I think programs like Primetime also tend to make the machine lose its listing after a week where the program runs two hours instead of one. I'll have to try the "enter-enter" suggestion on scheduled recordings (to bring up the start early-end late page and then go back) to see if it helps. Otherwise I was just removing a scheduled record and then scheduling it again if I suspected that it *might* disappear. No U99 since October here, although I have seen the "lock-up" (remote fails to function at all) twice in this time, most recently a month ago. faure: You're probably right about TimeWarner digital. They either stopped carrying the VBI signal for TVGOS, or they have no clue about it. Good luck getting any answer from THEM. I'm considering dumping Comcast analog for a dish, but know that would make my TVGOS useless.
There's a slight difference in the "Welcome" screen's user's input requirements once I had my recorder professionally repaired. It was so slight I did not notice it at first. Obviously absent was the last screen asking what you want to do next. Now it only says to keep unit off 24 hours. What prompted me to finally give up my "home repair" attempt and seek professional repair was when I too kept getting the "unable to download information" and the digital display wouldn't update from 12 o"clock. Now, don't get offended but some of you have to stop beating the dead horse and expect it to get up and walk away. In other words, you're not going to get a proper TV Guide update if you are recording shows 20 out of 24 hours a day especially if those shows are in the wee hours of the morning. If you turn your unit on and the eigth day doesn't have a complete listing SHUT OFF YOUR MACHINE NOW and stop letting your curiousity get the best of you. When you close the drawer with a blank inside for god's sake wait until the machine finishes reading the disc before pressing anymore buttons. Wow, doesn't lock up anymore does it? Have a good day.
