I just got my newly acquired EH55 back from Panny in Illinois and I'm learning to adjust to the changes from my EH80 the video of which finally failed. I've made about 30 or 35 manual recordings since I installed the EH55 (I don't use TV Guide or the IR blaster, but have the ComCast STB set the correct channel at the appropriate time while I manually set up the recording to cover that time period. On the schedule screen, after scheduling a one-hour recording time on February 1 for "Meet the Press" on NBC, I see on the screen a scheduling "bullet" at the right of the scheduled program, but, for the first time, the bullet has a yellow diagonal line draw through it. I'm guessing that the recording will not go ahead as I've scheduled it; however, I've not got any "unable to record" warning messages, just that yellow line. Since the recording scheduled is completely unconnected from TV Guide and only uses the ComCast box to set the time and channel, can it be that somehow the Panny itself is programmed not to record from NBC on Superbowl Sunday? I'm not a particularly paranoid personality, but the manual does not cover this situation (not entirely surprising).

I just got my newly acquired EH55 back from Panny in Illinois and I'm learning to adjust to the changes from my EH80 the video of which finally failed. I've made about 30 or 35 manual recordings since I installed the EH55 (I don't use TV Guide or the IR blaster, but have the ComCast STB set the correct channel at the appropriate time while I manually set up the recording to cover that time period. On the schedule screen, after scheduling a one-hour recording time on February 1 for "Meet the Press" on NBC, I see on the screen a scheduling "bullet" at the right of the scheduled program, but, for the first time, the bullet has a yellow diagonal line draw through it. I'm guessing that the recording will not go ahead as I've scheduled it; however, I've not got any "unable to record" warning messages, just that yellow line. Since the recording scheduled is completely unconnected from TV Guide and only uses the ComCast box to set the time and channel, can it be that somehow the Panny itself is programmed not to record from NBC on Superbowl Sunday? I'm not a particularly paranoid personality, but the manual does not cover this situation (not entirely surprising).

Just guessing here. Do you have the scheduled recording set up for the input being fed by the STB? If, perhaps, a scheduled recording is set up to an input that does not have an active signal might the menu be giving this message? Perhaps Panasonic updated the firmware with a newer version that includes such a feature.

My scheduled recording set up for the S-video video input being and the composite left and right audio outputs fed by the STB as it has been since I reinstalled the Panny a couple of weeks ago. These had been the same inputs to the Panny and from the STB that I used on my Hi-def box when it was conected to my EH80. As I've written in an earlier post, when my EH80 failed, I went to Canada and purchased the current EH55. The manual recording function did not operate so I sent it to Panny in Illinois and Panny fixed it under warranty. I note your comment "If, perhaps, a scheduled recording is set up to an input that does not have an active signal might the menu be giving this message? Perhaps Panasonic updated the firmware with a newer version that includes such a feature."

I'll check today to see if I can set up additional recordings from the STB. I successfully set up a "24" episode from Monday, January 26 from analog Channel 13 in Seattle, two movies during the week from TCM which comes from the STB as "digital" channel 501, and Washington Week from PBS on Seattle's PBS affiliate analog Channel 9.

Not that this should be related in any way, I traded my Hi-def box (without DVR) for a Hi-def DVR box for the period during which the Panny was being repaired. When I'd got the Panny, back I traded back the hi-def DVR to ComnCast for a non-recording hi-def STB, which was an older model than the one I'd used previously.

As to the Panny repair, a major part was replaced and anote was added that the firmware had been updated.

Back to the fundamental issue that it makes no sense that the Panny could even "know" (sorry to attribute a human quality here) what channel I intended to record when I set the STB for the desired time and channel since I'm programmed a manually scheduled recording utterly unconnected with the TV Guide feature which I've never implemented. (In fact, that is the reason I sent the Panny to Illinois in the first place; it would not program manual recordings). It could have been any one of a couple hundred channels at least, most of which are analog when received by ComCast and all of which are passed on to me (prior to the digital conversion later this month) as analog signals.

Did they tell you in a notice that they will be turning off the extended basic analogs on Feb. 17th? If not, then I wouldn't expect that to happen right then, because the analog cutoff mandate only applies to OTA.

Jim,

Your yellow diagonal line is indicating that your recording frequency is set to "OFF". Also, be aware that Saturday and Sunday do not exist; they are not days in the daily recording. The E85 manual makes it clear that "DAILY" is Monday thru Friday, the EH55 manual does not make this clear.

Sounds like your machine is working AOkay; Congratulations.

I called Panasonic today and was told to delete the scheduled recording line and try it again. It worked. The Panny tech acknowledged that the manual doesn't cover the happening and that perhaps I did something wrong when I set up the recording in Schedule. Could be, although I didn't get the sort of error message that I've gotten, for example, when I wasn't paying close attention to my AMs and PMs and exceeded the time limit for hard drive recording. In any event, it did work.

I'm assuming that, with the digital switchover later this month, the ComCast STB will continue to deliver analog signals in the form of the composite/S-video signal to my Panny recorder and, at the same, as now, a hi-def signal through my component connection to my Panny plasma.

I called Panasonic today and was told to delete the scheduled recording line and try it again. It worked. The Panny tech acknowledged that the manual doesn't cover the happening and that perhaps I did something wrong when I set up the recording in Schedule. Could be, although I didn't get the sort of error message that I've gotten, for example, when I wasn't paying close attention to my AMs and PMs and exceeded the time limit for hard drive recording. In any event, it did work.

I'm assuming that, with the digital switchover later this month, the ComCast STB will continue to deliver analog signals in the form of the composite/S-video signal to my Panny recorder and, at the same, as now, a hi-def signal through my component connection to my Panny plasma.

If comcast were to do any type of complete digital switchover on 2/17 (which I doubt because as has been said before, this should only really affect OTA) it would ONLY affect users who have the wall cable plugged directly into their TV sets, VCRs, or DVD recorders and are using the analog tuners on those devices. Digital switchover should have absolutely no affect on analog line level outputs (either composite, S-video, OR component - which are all analog (FYI even the "hi def" component output to your Panny Plasma is analog - the only way to feed a digital signal into your Plasma would be via HDMI or DVI outpus from the digital cable box)) from your digital cable box.

Thanks for the confirmation of my general understanding. I've been very pleased with the 1080i component connection between my Panny plasma and the STB. I never attempted the HDMI connection because of the many posts about audio/video synchronization issues with the HDMI connection. I use the HDMI plasma input with my BD player's BD output and it works very well in 1080p for those few (expensive still) Blu-ray DVDs that I own and a couple I've tried from the video rental store, but the quality difference between most hi-def 1080i broadcasts and the bd player's performance onscreen seems hardly discernible to me; perhaps because I have only a 42" display.