Curiousity and lack of self trust seems to be the bane of these recorders. I can't guarantee the results but if you'd like to recreate a lost scheduled recording (a program that was supposed to record but somehow never did)highlight a program, schedule it to record and then move your curser up and over to the schedule events page. Highlight the program, make a start time change (maybe a minute sooner)and press enter at that point. Back out of the Guide and then go back in the Guide and keep readjusting the program that you scheduled by pressing enter like you did before. Do it enough times until you finally believe you did it "right". By now the recorder is so freakin confused but doesn't want to let on that it is. Have a good day.
Hmmm... That still wouldn't explain (or fix) the problem I've had consistently for 4-5 weeks now. I have a *manually* specified weekly program, set to run from 5am-6:30am, Channel 7 (CBS), every Sunday. Yes, I have gone into the Schedule and re-entered (updated) the spec. -- e.g., by giving it some extra minutes before/after, cycling through the frequency, etc. And, for this one program the DVR does not 'wake up' to begin recording at 5am Sunday morning. How do I know? For the past 4 weeks I have been 'waking up' at 4:50am. I watch it sleep through until 5:01am and then I power the DVR on. The recording begins immediately. I have, on average, 4 programs a day in my Schedule. Some are daily/regular and some are weekly, with a of the few 'once' variety. I also have a mix (about 50/50) of schedule items that use TVGOS vs. those that are manually specified. Only this one that falls early Sunday morning (when the 'Tech Elves' do their best work?!?!) has this odd problem. And, no, I don't have any blank disks in the drive. FWIW, I do a 'soft reset' about once a week (maybe a bit more often). I monitor the 'messages' data and do a reset for sure when the first page of messages tells me that it is time to do a reset. ~ Keri
Keri, does your channel lineup include channels you manually "turned on". If so, are the channels you turned on have the correct station identification? For example, say you normally recieve channel 3 but it wasn't in the lineup or any lineup. So you turned on channel 3. Next, say channel 3 was a CBS station WBBB but there wasn't a CBS WBBB so you chose CBS WXXX instead. It can cause problems. I have two channels that are available but their station call letters are outdated and it's been like this for a year now. I've called my cable provider and I've called Gemstar and nobody gives a hoot. If I "turned on" those channels so they show in the Guide, sooner or later I'll have problems again.
keriah, Your problem is similar to mine. One thing I've notice is that the only channel I have "missed" recordings on is 15, which also happens to be my host channel. By some chance is your host channel 7? And is that the only channel you have problems with? Manual recording won't be any different then guide based. I went down that path and didn't make a difference, the recordings were still missed. Now here's a workaround I've been using and we got recordings for 2 straight weeks (daily show). We simply place the dvr's tuner on 15 before we turn off the dvr (standby mode). You might try it with 7. I've notified Cheryl at TVGOS and she has me trying a few other things, but they don't have any solutions yet.
Thanks for both these replies. I'll take the last first since it seems to nail some key points. dksmall wrote: Bingo! Yes to the first question. Originally our PBS channel (channel 10, or "0xA" in the settings) was our host channel. But for some time now (hmmm... could it be since this problem has been occurring???) our CBS channel (channel 7 or "0x7") has been showing up as the HostChan (Messages, pg. 1). Now this, in itself, is kinda, sorta odd because this is the general sequence I've been observing: (1) do a soft reset; the HostCh is reset to 'null'; (2) after some time in standby, it shows as "0x7"; (3) eventually (days later) it changes to PBS (0xA). Note that sometimes it never gets to step-3 because of my procedure to do frequent (weekly) soft resets. However, my Schedule populates just fine, regardless of which indicates as the 'HostCh'. And, yes, to your second question. This is the only channel I have this problem with ... because it is the only instance of the problem -- so not a very broad sample. However, I forgot to mention that I do have another "5am" item (channel 3/Fox) that is set for M-F and it has never failed. So I have ruled out the 'early morning hour' as being the cause. I will try your suggestion to leave the machine on channel 7 when shutting down Sat. night. I'm sure I've never left it on 7. (And, yes, it happened again yesterday morning.) mark_d wrote: Per guidance given here, I have turned OFF many (most) of the channels from the lineup, and I have moved the PBS entry to the top of the list, now followed immediately by the CBS channel (since I noted it's playing a role in the hosting). I wonder ... maybe it's time to move CBS to the TOP of the list... I have only a dozen (or less) turned on. I understand what you mean about turning one on that is a mis-match, but I don't have any of those here. There is one case where the graphic 'logo' is a bit odd (reads UPN) but the text station call letters are correctly shown ("KIKU") and the lineup is correct in TVGOS. Since this is the station we record most often I can vouch for its successful operation with our DVR. Thanks for the 'heads up' on this, as I think I have a couple of these cases set on my 'mainland' machine. This could explain some of its difficulties. I'll check into it. regards, Keri
I posted last week that my panny has been working fine for almost a year and today I noticed my tv guide is almost empty. I still have todays listing but that's it. I live in Lancaster, pa and have comcast as my cable co. Is anyone close and having the same problem? I reset the machine and will monitor it but was wondering if this might be a comcast issue. Don't think I'll post anything more if it's working good - the luck I have would put a smile on Al Bundy's face.
Hi Loads of thanks to howie14w and Vulcanusa and RX.. I was able to divide the recording without a hitch. Unfortunately I have run into a new problem. When I transferred this recording onto a DVD-R I was able to replay the recording in the DVR. But the DVD is unrecognisable in any DVD player. Also, when I put this DVD into a computer DVD drive, the DVD shows up as blank. I have already wasted 4/5 DVDs on this with experiments! Any help appreciated!! Regards!
Pranav, You must "finalize" the DVD-R to permit it to be played in non-Panasonic machines (like a computer's DVD drive or a standard DVD player). Hit the Functions button on the remote. The Finalize operation is under the Disk Settings menu (i.e. lower right). No more content may be added once the DVD-R has been finalized.
Welcome the newest newbie to this awesome thread. My E85H is 10 months old and got the dreaded u99 lockup. I stumbled on this post AFTER I have dropped off the unit for warranty repair. The tech is ordering a "main" board. Did not see any reference to this component. Saw much verbiage on the latest firmware is critical. Do not know how adept this Panny repair center is but sure like to coach them since there are less than 2 months left in the warranty. Can any provide the latest firmware rev and any other advice? I also do rely on the TV guide update but can live without is it is a fatal flaw. -Thanks.
jpoe I also have Comcast for my cable provider. I'm in Charleston. I lost my TV Guide listings four weeks ago and now after a hard reset I can't even get it to set the clock. I keep getting the message that the search failed and I should check me connections. I talked to a panasonic tech two days ago and he said that I have done all I can do and was passing it along to their tv guide specialist. I'm not holding out much hope.
jpoe, I noticed last Friday that I didn't have full guide data (some scheduled entries were gray). Hit the guide button and was prompted with a channel lineup question. I told it what lineup was correct and there was the same guide data. Still didn't have Thursday or anything after. Monday morning I noticed the red clock icon was out, no scheduled data at all. Turning on the machine I saw the "welcome to TVGOS" screen, I was hit with a complete reset!!! Filled in the zipcode etc. and waited. That night I was prompted for my lineup and had 3 days of guide data. Still don't have it fully populated. I'm on Cox Cable in Phoenix,AZ.
Sounds like it's a tv guide issue. I've been falling asleep while the unit is on - in the past, it wouldn't download with the power on. I depend on the tv guide heavily for recording the stuff I like and hope they iron the problem out soon. I guess in another year or so I'll have to upgrade to a HD unit. I'll bet these hardware manufacturers are loving that.
[bold]jpoe:[/bold] I have Comcast analog in Pittsburgh, PA. I noticed this week that I have fewer listings than normal (next Monday and Tuesday currently have no listing, but next Wednesday is populated). Since I do occasionally record some late-night programming at 1 or 2AM and knowing the update schedule of TVGOS (day 1, 2, 3, and 8), I'm not as concerned about it and rarely check ahead. The only time I'd be concerned is if I don't have the next TWO days of listings from the current day. I was probably watching programs late last Sunday night (preventing next Monday's download), although next Tuesday should have populated on Monday, Feb 20. However, I'm sure Monday and Tuesday will populate by Sunday night. If they don't, THEN I'll be concerned. The fact that the guide doesn't always fully populate "day 8" and keep up with listings is annoying, sure, but I just rely on pen and paper to remind myself to program something if the listings aren't there yet, or just program the recording manually. Falling asleep with the unit on will definitely prevent downloads, as they tend to occur most frequently in the 1-6AM hours (I seem to remember that there are usually two attempts at downloads in this timeframe), and the unit DOES need to be in standby (power off) to receive the TV Guide Onscreen updates. Don't expect TVGOS to EVER make plans to have the guide update while the unit is ON--it needs the host channel (i.e., it needs to access the tuner) to do so, and unless models start providing a dual tuner in the hardware, it's impossible for TVGOS to update while the machine is on or recording, even if you happen to be tuned into the host channel at the time. That's not bloody likely either, as even TVs only ever include a dual tuner to make picture-in-picture possible. [bold]dksmall:[/bold] Sounds like TVGOS had an update in your area, but usually this doesn't cause a loss of listings. It can take quite a while to repopulate fully after losing them, but as I stated earler, just be concerned if you don't have the next day or two of listings filled in. [bold]thiesd:[/bold] Sounds like a problem with Comcast in your area to me. If you are brave and have the time to be on hold forever, I'd try to contact THEM and make them check to see if they have a problem with their VBI signal that provides the TVGOS data, as you're not even getting a time signal from them. Make sure you talk to a supervisor, not some minimum-wage customer support person.
Is ANYONE receiving TVGOS in the NYC area? I have Time Warner digital cable service, and I have not been able to get any program listing on my DMR E85 since last September, although it worked fine until then.
To those of you having problems with the TVGOS schedule filling in... Have you checked page 1 of your MESSAGES screen? Does it show N/A for your next download time? If so, have you done a soft reset (including unplugging for 30 seconds)? And then put your unit into standby for some duration. I noticed my schedule had left a blank for Monday & Tues. and when I checked last night I saw that my next DL date/time had reverted to 'null' (N/A) -- also my Host channel had lost its Ox7 value. So I did a soft reset before I shut down for the night and this morning when I checked, the Host channel and the next DL values were once again populated, and the schedule had started filling in. This may not be THE problem you're having, but it doesn't hurt to check, and those setting values may reveal some additional clues.... ~ Keri
thecowe - did you get the u99 after a Divide Title ? the firmware will fix that problem. But it can only be used when the unit is working ! The U99 can also occur for other reasons, such as TVGOS problems. By now the service centers / panasonic should know how to clear the U99 error after a divide title, since it's been all over these boards. All you need to do is put in a new hard drive and let it format it. The put your original back, and format it too. You will lose all your programs. Then make sure you upgrade the firmware.
E85H – The u99 appeared on power up, and then would not clear. Never had a problem with divide, so feel fortunate. The unit is still in warranty and just got it back yesterday. The repair center replaced a DIG Board (Panny part number REP3774G) but made no reference to firmware level on the ticket. They must have formatted the drive, as all old programs are lost. What is the latest rev of reliable firmware? And now that it is working how do I check the rev’s.
Coyote24, A fellow burgh'er! Thanks to the e85 I have all but one of the Steelers playoff romping recorded. I bought it to record the Pens but, ah, this season? not really worth recording - saving to dvd anyway. I did get most of Mario's last games. I was home over the w/e in Uniontown visiting my folks so the panny was off all weekend. I got all but Tues and Wed on my tv guide. Judging from the posts here recently tv guide must of had a bug in the system.
Haven't had my recorder on or set to record for a week. Suddenly there's no listings beyond Wednesday (tomorrow). I also discovered there is two channel 3 in my channel lineup. The extra one has no listings at all but ironically it's the proper one I should have been using all along if it had been available. I guess I wasn't careful what I wished for. I used to have only 3 channel lineups to choose from in the setup and discovered now there are 5, and the stations mentioned to help you decide what lineup to choose have been changed. Sadly, I guess when all is corrected and working fine again it will be time to unplug this analog tuner recorder.
