I was wondering whether Rosey has tried to unplug and replug the hard drive yet to the main board? Also whether Rosey has tried to hijack the power supply from some other computer even for a minute or two, just to see if the HDD will come back to life when it gets its lifeblood from the powersupply of a next door computer. I think it made a big difference for my machine. I only needed to let it run off the computer once for a minute or two, and then when I reconnected it to its own original power supply, it seemed to take a hint to get off it's butt and get to work.
Vulcanusa, Thanks for the procedure to disable the TV Guide downloading. My set is connected to the Time Warner DVR by the S-Video cables and therefore needs to be configured to use the L3 connection, NOT the coax cable. The only way I have found to tell the unit to record through the S-Video cablels is by the TV Guide setup. When I disable the TV Guide, it will not view the channels through the S-Video. Any solution for this or am I doing something wrong? I'd like to use the TV Guide feature, but it died over a year ago. Jim In ohio
Actually this is my second Philips machine with similar pn. It has digital SD tuner so HD programs are stored as 720 x 480 and use same space as SD. The editing software isn't as good as the Panny and it doesn't feature fit-to-disc dubbing, and no DVD-RAM support (a biggy), but it is available and new, and the price is decent.
jhaninger, I don't have a cable box. However, I don't understand why disabling the TV Guide feature affects what input you record from when setting the programming timer manually. If you use L3 from your cable box, I presume you followed the directions on page 11 of the manual when configuring the unit. You tell the unit you have a cable box connected and then it permits you to specify what channel the cable box transmits on (e.g. Ch2, Ch3, Ch4, or L3). Note you can tell the unit to receive from the cable box using L3. I would have thought that all manual timer recordings would apply to L3 at that point and that the IR blaster would be used to change the cable box channel appropriately for timer triggered program recording. But if not, perhaps you can simply set the Input Select (e.g. using the remote) to L3. Someone with a cable box might have more insight. I'm also not certain what you mean by the TV Guide feature having died - unless you mean your service provider is blocking it or the channel on which it was being broadcast changed and you are no longer set up correctly to receive it. There is much information on the thread concerning fine tuning your set up for TV Guide download.
Jhan ... if you want to bring the tv guide back to life, maybe you should change the zip code to a neighboring town with similar channel lineups. I had to do that for about six months, apparently because the tv guide download to my zip code was not functioning correctly.
I have had the E85H for several years..I like the tv guide function..Here lately I had to unpug it and lost the tv guide listing..I have tried several zip codes local..and all I get is the station icons on the left..and no listings..my unit isnt conected to a cable box..the cable is coming straight into the E85H..is there a chance I need a cable converter box now to receive the listings..?
I don't think you need the converter box, in fact that would probably NOT help. Read through the TVGO posts on pages 58 to 60. Try the power down and unplug for 30 seconds proc originated by VideoBob (make sure you read and follow the instructions). Go to the 753159852 screens and look for the host channel and next download time. The machine may need to be off of 24 hours in a row to find the new host channel. Cal
I may be missing something, but there are no directions on page 11 other than directions to set up the the channel by means of the TV Guide setup. If you bypass the TV Guide setup, the Channel Blaster also does not work to change channels. Nothing in the Setup Menu allows you to select input channel. Anyone else know how to select the input channel after bypassing the TV Guide setup?
jhaninger, I'm sorry. Yes, the procedure I cited is in the section titled: "Setting Up The TV Guide On Screen System". You must perform that procedure even if you then proceed to disable the "download" of the electronic TV Guide by performing an Auto Channel Scan. Are you saying you perform the instructions on page 11 of the manual and select L3 as your input, then you disable the TV Guide "download" by performing a manual Auto Channel Scan through the SetUp menu, and then when you manually enter a timer program, the DVR won't drive the IR blaster and won't use the input (i.e. L3) you selected when you followed the instructions on page 11 of the manual? If so, I'm surprised the designers tied the ability to select other than an antenna input and use of the IR blaster to DOWNLOADING the electronic TV Guide. There is no reason I can think of why downloading the TV Guide should be related to the ability of a manual timer program to trigger the use of the IR blaster and then automatically switch to the input you selected in the procedure on page 11. Please note this statement on page 10 of the instruction manual: "Even if you do not want to use the TV Guide On Screen system, complete the setup. You cannot use timer recording unless the setup is completed."
Also note that TVG is turned off in the summer for a couple of weeks. This happens every summer to me. I think it has something to do with so many messages we are getting about these machines. Anyone know what happens to TVG when the new digital law occurs in Feb. 2009? Is it going to be continued?
Vulcanusa, When I do a full reset of the machine so that all settings are available and do a manual channel scan, after the complete scan that stops at channel 125, the only channel that works is channel 3. My guess is that the channel scanning is only showing what is perceived throught the coax cable, not the S-VHS cable (L3). I can choose another channel with the remote and the TV screen shows that another channel is chosen (box in top right corner of screen) but only a blue screen appears with no program. The channel does NOT change on the DVR so the Blaster must not be controlling it. That's probably because you have to tell the Blaster in TV Guide Setup which DVR you have. The only way to get the Blaster to work is to setup the TV Guide and all is functioning again. I want to turn off the TV Guide searching for programming, but with the TV Guide setup, it will not stop. Once you do the TV Guide Setup, the option to do manual channel setup is grayed out and cannot be selected.
jhaninger, Occasionally, I've had a problem where the Auto Channel Scan is grayed out -- and I don't even have a cable box. You cannot skip setting up the TV Guide function, even if you intend to disable it after the fact. This is my suggestion: 1) Reset the machine to factory defaults 2) Power on 3) Complete the initial configuration of the TV Guide set up. Enter all zeros for the ZIP code. You're not going to use the TV Guide anyway, so it doesn't matter that you enter all zeros. 4) Enter that you have a cable box and select L3 as the input. Complete the TV Guide set up. 5) Navigate to the Auto Channel Scan function in the normal manner. 6) Is it grayed out? 7) If yes, repeat 1 thru 6 - believe it or not, sometimes the reset and set up process has to be repeated in order to un-gray the Auto Channel Scan option. Others on the thread have experienced this also. 8) If the Auto Channel Scan can now be activated, then auto scan the channels. If you repeat this process a couple of times and you can never get the Auto Channel Scan option activated, then I guess you're out of luck. If you are successful, then perform the Auto Channel Scan and see if the DVR drives the IR Blaster while doing so. Let us know what happens.
jhaninger, I'm speculating here. Since you're using L3 as your input, the only reason for performing the Auto Channel scan is to disable the TV Guide download. You're not performing an Auto Channel Scan to actually scan channels into the DVR, right? The cable box is only going to select a single channel to transmit to L3. What I'm trying to say is you might not care if the DVR drives the IR blaster while performing the Auto Channel Scan. All you care about is that when you set up a manual timer program to a certain channel number, that the DVR activates at the correct time, it uses the IR blaster to drive the cable box to that channel, and the input remains selected as L3. When you're watching TV using L3 as your input, it's not like you're using the DVR remote to change channels. You're using your cable box remote to change the channel being transmitted into L3 on the DVR. I re-read your post and I think you're under the impression that the cable box transmits all incoming channels out its non-coax output to L3 on the DVR. I very highly doubt that. The cable box is only going to transmit a (i.e. one) channel out its non-coax output to L3 on the DVR (i.e. DMR-E85H). That's the channel you've tuned to using your cable box remote. You must use the cable box remote to change channels, not the DVR remote. Comments are welcome from anyone experienced with the functionality of cable boxes which have discrete audio/video outputs in addition to a 75 Ohm coax cable output.
Vulcanusa, I reset the DVR 4 more times with no luck. The Manual channel scan option stayed grayed out. You are correct that during the Auto Channel scan, it is only scanning through the one channel that the cable box is tuned to. The channel blaster is not changing the channels during this function so no channels will be found other than the one tuned in at that moment. My main goal was to stop the channel changing as the DVR tries to download programming. Your suggestion to set the Zipcode to all zeros did the trick! No more channel changing when the DVR is off. My guess is that Time Warner is not allowing TV Guide programming to download thruough their new digital service. The TV Guide functionality has been blocked. Thanks again for your help.
jhaninger, If you set up a manual timer program, when the timer pops and the machine activates, does the IR blaster change the channel on the cable box and does the input select on the DVR remain L3? Just curious....
If you have no analog service, then TVGO won't work. My cable system has both analog and digital signals so TVGO still works. Every few months Cox does something to interrupt the TVGO signal. I call in and complain and it shows back up in a day or so. I usually check with the local PBS and ABC stations to make sure they are still passing the TVGO feed on before I call Cox. Cal
Vulcanusa, When my timed recording starts, the DVR changes channels and all it shows on the TV in the top right hand corner is the channel it is recording from. It is recording the right channel, but I am just assuming it is recording from L3. Is there some way to definitively know it is recording from L3?
I give no guarantees that this is your problem, or that there is a solution to what you're seeing, but this is the situation we have in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC: Comcast Cable switched to a fully digital lineup a couple years ago. They made allowance for TVGOS by continuing to transmit the PBS station on a high channel (94) in analog. However, someone screwed up somewhere and made it so the signal on channel 94 contains the wrong call letters. That means that whenever there's a change to the lineup or if I reset my unit, I have to both select the right lineup (there are 5 listed) and afterwards edit my channels to attach channel 94 to the right call letters. THEN I get listings. It's possible that some disconnect like this has happened between your cable company and TVGOS - if so, TV Guide On Screen support (CE_Customer_Support@tvguide.com) is your best bet for tracking it down and finding a solution. (The cable company's tech support didn't even know that there was an analog channel out there, let alone what it was for.) (By the way, I finally got TVGOS support to recognize the disconnect earlier this week; we'll see if they manage to do anything about it. But at least I have a workaround solution.) I might also recommend a couple of things on the hardware side: If you have signal splitters in your setup, open ports can "leak" and degrade the signal to the endpoints; you can buy coax caps at Radio Shack to close them off. You could also try buying/installing a signal booster to improve the signal quality in from the street.
