Hi, all I haven't had a u99 in ages, but my unit has another annoying habit of being incapable of recording LOST on ABC. I've tried deleting the listing and re-entering it, timer only, etc. Is there a no record bit sent out for LOST or something? It's the only show this ever happens on and it's week after week... I sort of have to be in class a that exact time!
Carol called ONE TIME and promised she would return my call if I needed further assistance. I took her up on her offer, I left about 4 messages. No call. As far as I'm concerned these recorders weren't designed to record and view what was recorded unless you're careful to use the machine during a small window of opportunity, least you upset the four or five downloads necessary to update the TVGuide. Will the next generation HD recorders be better? We'll have to wait and see. I know I won't twist myself into a knot for customer service. It either works like it should or it goes back in the box and back to the store. Absolutely no online purchases of this nature for me ever again.
This is not quite the forum for this problem but don't know where else to post it. Recently, I rewatched some DVDs that I had edited about a week before and burned to DVDs. Can't believe what happens when playing back on another DVD player. At certain spots where editing occurred, the DVD actually will skip over a whole section of the show - like 10 minutes and it will even do it more than once during an hour-long show. Was watching a show and all of a sudden, the DVD ended - cut the last 15 min. off. Went back to watch again (on 3 different copies of the same dubbed programs) and it did the same thing. Have tried recording on different brands/different speeds and all the same on certain programs that were edited. Inconsistent with edited shows as some play back fine. This is quite frustrating as I have been editing foreign dramas for about 1 year now and did not realize how bad this may be since I usually just store the finished DVDs. If I play them back on the Panny DVD recorder, they are fine but on 2 other DVD players, I get this terribly shortened playback - all at spots where an edit (commercial cut) was done. Again, playback on the Panny is fine but on other players it is a total loss as far as I am concerned! Sharing recored/edited DVDs may end up being senseless now.
Mark_d Better ?!?! ... I've got a Scietific Atlanta 8300HD from the cable company, now... other than not having a DVD recorder built in, and not owning it .... this recorder is true HiDef, surround sound, 2 tuners (record 2 shows at once) + watch another at the same time. Pannasonic is good for what it is, ... I've seen hidef dvr's out there in the neighborhood of $1000.00 give or take. But the Panny is pretty decent all things considered.
Soju, Yep, ya can copy ... the 8300 has a "record to VCR" function (substitute DVD recorder) I think the one you have has the same function. The 8300 HD is pretty nice, 5.1 surround, true hidef picture, 1080i, if I remember right, component, HDMI, and S-video out. If you are a Techy Geek like I am, .... it will also allow you to connect an external SATA drive!!!!!! I bought an external enclosure and a new 80GB drive (Doubles what the 8300 has), .. never got to hook it up, .... might try tonight though, one of the guys I work with says he has, I believe him. .... I've got a brand new 200GB SATA, but not sure if I want to have to navigate though all that stuff saved on the drive!! Short version ... If I could actually buy an 8300hd, I'd do it in a second (other than the cost would probably be pretty high)
TForce1, I have never had a problem recording Lost. However, I operate with the TVGuide disabled. According to some co-workers, no broadcasters are employing the copy protect flag yet. And when they do, it will begin with premium content (e.g. HBO). I can't vouch for the accuracy of this information. The broadcast copy protect flag is really a "one copy only flag", not a "prevent recording flag". For example, if you record a copy protected broadcast program, you should be able to burn it once to DVD, but then the DVR automatically erases it from the hard drive.
soju, Quite awhile back in this thread there were some posts about problems playing over an edited spot in a program. I don't recall the skip being as severe as you are reporting. There was a solution. I think it involved re-editing that section by a frame or two. I'll leave it to you to try and find those posts. I presume the DVD-R plays fine in the Panasonic recorder where you burned it. You might be able to re-record it to the hard-drive, re-edit those sections, and burn another copy. But I'd recommend finding those posts first and then perhaps e-mailing the author or posting to him here specifically. Good luck.
Capt57, Disable TVGuide Download: "Channel/Clock settings when TV Guide On Screen system is not used" (i.e. pg 43 of the manual). When you enter the Setup menu and navigate to and select the "Auto Channel Setting" option, you'll be prompted with a message that says something like: "TV Guide download will be disabled if you continue, do you wish to continue?". Select Yes. Channels will be scanned, then you'll be prompted to proceed and have the DVR automatically set the clock. Some have complained on this thread that the "Auto Channel Setting" option under the Setup menu is ghosted out. In that case, you have to return the unit back to factory preset condition (explained on pg 43 by using chan up/down buttons on the unit). At least one poster states that he could never get the "Auto Channel Setting" option to highlight. It's possible his problem had something to do with the fact he informs the unit he has a cable box attached. I'm not certain that is the reason, but I don't have a cable box, just basic cable. If you ever lose power to the DVR or return it back to factory preset, you'll have to go through the TV Guide download disable procedure again.
TForce1, Is Lost the only program on that channel, that you try to record? I've had problems recording anything on 15, which was my host channel. Have you tried leaving the unit on before Lost starts? This would insure the dvr isn't busy trying to do a guide download.
Hmm... acutally, yes. It IS the only show on that channel I ever TRY to record... I would have thought a timer recording would have taken care of it, but it didn't last night. I'll try the leaving it on thing, since I leave two hours before it airs and get back 15 mintues after it's over anyway.
Hi ALL, I have a Panasonic E85 and am in the UK. My unit seems to be in a "SELF CHECK" loop. Basically it powers up from stanby automatically does a "SELF CHECK", I hear the Hard Disk power up then the display completely dissapears and then the time appears and it goes into "SELF CHECK" again. It just keeps on doing that. The above started when I put in an original Firefly Series 1 first DVD in the drive. I have borrowed this DVD series from a mate and I can't seem to get the DVD out. I have looked through the forum and tried various key sequences, with no luck. I even disconnected the Hard Disk by opening the unit up and powered it up, but the unit did not eject the DVD and re-connected the Hard Disk and the unit is doind the loop again. My last resort is to get another 80GB Hard Disk and swap that over, but Im not sure if that would work. I would like to keep my existing Hard Disk files intact as Ive not watched a few programmes. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you very much for anyones quick response in advance.
Thanks RX7Fan for the info re the 8300HD recording tro the hard drive (instead of the VCR). this would still be a real time record but will try it one of these days with the 8300. still have to decide if I will pay ++$$ for the 8300HD! hmmmmm and thanks also to VulcanUSA re the info re older posts re my problem with edited spots not replaying well/skipping on other DVD players. Tried re-editing one I did today so will see what happens...and I'll go look up those old posts too. Appreciate all the input!! soju
well I just had a good one. Left at 6pm with manual timer set to record at 6:40pm. just got home and nothing recorded! Also lost all previously set timer recordings earlier today but carefully reset tonight's. No TV Guide either...and yes, the machine is always looking to download. TEsting it now and you know it is recording every channel I am testing it on with the TV off....but let me go out and whamo, it will not record!!! So what is the easiest way to disable TV Guide without any secondary problems??? I have had it!
I think the sky must be falling..... I woke up this morning and for the first time since last fall and the infamous U99 error I did not get the normal listing failed message. I actually had a screen that said there were 3 lineups available and I had to choose one. You can imagine my hysteria. I had no idea what to do, so I just pushed the enter key and magically a lineup appeared. Now before we all get too excited, each channel listed indicated "no listing" so it was absolutely no help. But the fact remains it thought it downloaded something. I checked the secret screens and saw that it actually had information there, I have no idea what it all means but maybe, just maybe, something is working correctly. (Or we are on the verge of another U99 error situation.) Now that something is appearing, is there anyone that can help me understand what to do? Is there some way of actually getting a real channel listing? Can I change the available lineup selection? Wow....I don't know where to begin.....
