This may not be quite the right place to post this question, the EH55 would certainly fit my needs, but it appears to be outside my budget. I just recently got a decent HD flat screen TV and the ability to receive digital TV. Didn't think it was a big deal before, now it's all I want to watch :o I'm only on basic cable so I get the HD version of the OTA channels and a few other HD channels (including a couple of CineMax movie channels for some reason). My old VCR obviously isn't going to cut it anymore. I have no desire to pay for a cable box or a channel guide service like TiVo. So something that does TVGOS seems the way to go.

All I really want do do is record HDTV when I'm not home. A DVD burner is not an absolute necessity, but certainly a nice bonus. I'd be happy with some sort of HDD recorder with an HD tuner. Don't know why something like this isn't available, at least I haven't seen one. It's also not clear to me what units have true HD tuners because apparently not all units with digital tuners actually can receive HD.

Just looking for some advice what to get for say in the $200 range (used or refurbished). A DVD recorder is a possibility but they seem to have limited recording time at true HD quality. There's all kinds of Panny stuff on eBay but it's all soooo confusing what does what :confused: TIA

I just recently got a decent HD flat screen TV and the ability to receive digital TV. Didn't think it was a big deal before, now it's all I want to watch. I'm only on basic cable so I get the HD version of the OTA channels and a few other HD channels. I have no desire to pay for a cable box or a channel guide service like TiVo. So something that does TVGOS seems the way to go.

All I really want do do is record HDTV when I'm not home. A DVD burner is not an absolute necessity, but certainly a nice bonus. I'd be happy with some sort of HDD recorder with an HD tuner.

Just looking for some advice what to get for say in the $200 range (used or refurbished). A DVD recorder is a possibility but they seem to have limited recording time at true HD quality. There's all kinds of Panny stuff on eBay but it's all soooo confusing what does what.

Hi Rick ~

The EH-55 doesn't record in true HD (and I'm not sure if anything does yet, but certainly not in your price range) -- I went through that last year on this forum when my wife and I switched to DirecTV.

If you have to stick to cable, my recommendation would be to ask your cable company for an HD box with a 200GB or so HDD in it. The monthly charge should be an extra $10-20 but it's worth every penny. The one I had through BrightHouse worked a little like TiVo (without a lot of the extras) and a lot like what I have on the one I got from DirecTV.

Transferring to media in HD is still way out of my price range but I'm sure will come down in a few years, like all things electronic :)

Good luck!
~Gary

Thanks for the info guys :)

I have always had this problem with the EH55 (see post #666 in this thread). If you check the recording history it will probably indicate xHost for the recording status. I have never been able to prevent this problem, it just happens randomly. I have deleted all programs from the HD, updated the FW, and reset and rebooted, but nothing makes it go away. It is just a bug in the EH55 FW. My resolution is to record shows on multiple recorders from multiple stations. This provides backups for DVR failures and station screw ups.

I have since reformatted the hard drive (as suggested by someone on this thread) and am keeping my fingers crossed that this helps alleviate this problem (time will tell). I suspect that the EH55 has bad FW that doesn't deal well with hard drive fragmentation. So after the drive gets fragmented enough, the problem starts popping up. Reformatting may be a solution.

It may also help to not delete some recordings and leave others while continuing to record new programs. This practice will tend to fragment the hard drive. Even deleting all of the recordings doesn't seem to help, only reformatting (I hope).

I have a Panasonic DMR-ES35V DVD/VCR recorder and have a leaky capacitor and am getting U61
error. In this post you refer to photographs of this problem. Does this instruction refer to DMR-ES35V?
Please send me e-mail where I can get the post where these photographs are shown.

jozien

I have a Panasonic DMR-ES35V DVD/VCR recorder and have a leaky capacitor and am getting U61
error. In this post you refer to photographs of this problem. Does this instruction refer to DMR-ES35V?
Please send me e-mail where I can get the post where these photographs are shown.

jozien

In my posts in the below linked thread I attached some photos that I thought showed leakage of the largest electrolytic capacitor in the power supply section of a DMR-ES35V. Others pointed out that the material I thought was leakage was resin used in the manufacturing process to keep the capacitor in place. The capacitor discussions, including attached or linked photos are found in this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1055111

I have a different DMR-ES35V that did have substantial leakage from the largest power supply electrolytic capacitor (C11108). I replaced that capacitor but did not take photos at the time. (An after-the-fact photo of that cleaned-up capacitor is found attached to one of my posts in the above linked thread.) The DMR-ES35V that received a new C11108 capacitor displayed the U61 error before and after capacitor replacement.

Subsequent to the capacitor replacement I found that the U61 error may be related to a problem with the digital circuit board (found on a sub-platform under the DVD drive on a DMR-ES35V). This digital circuit board bears the number VEP79132. I have just revised an earlier post in the "DMR-ES15 and U61 Error" thread attaching a photo of that model's main board. I also give advice concerning parts machines. See this post:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13360104#post13360104

Today I added another post to that thread. That post expands upon the earlier posts and attaches photos showing top and bottom views of the VEP79132 board:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14762450#post14762450

In this post I mention the extent of parts swapping, adjustments and repairs with my DMR-ES35V and DMR-ES15 models:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13706919#post13706919

If there is no source for parts swapping one must consider whether it is feasible to use the $130 flat-rate repair offered by the corporate Panasonic Service Center in Elk Grove Village IL, or to purchase a new or "Refurbished by Panasonic" machine, see this post for more information concerning refurbished Panasonics:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14759445#post14759445

The following post describes the disadvantages of taking a Panasonic to a local "authorized" shop and the advantages of the Panasonic Service Center at Elk Grove Village:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1056657

In the case of high-end hard drive machines the only choice may be Elk Grove Village.

Like you Jay, I did the reformat re. the "early abort". Following Panasonic support, I also did a firmware update earlier, that never helped. It seems the reformat improved things some but not all that much. With the reformatted drive 90% empty, the "early abort" recording problem has started again. You get 5 to 10 seconds of a recording before it stops. In the thumbnail there is only a network label, not the name of the program.

Paul

I now see that falcon58 posted this on 04-02-08 re. aborted recording...

My eh55 kept stopping recording after 10 seconds and showed system error in the history for that show. Panasonic said it was a bad sector on the hard drive it needed to be replaced and I needed to update the software.

Update: I have been having some problems with IR blaster control of the Zenith due to the way my Panasonic DMR-EH55 sends the channel command twice. Sometimes it sends the second command so soon after the first that instead of 171 tuning to 17.1 and then 171 tuning again to17.1, the Zenith sees 171171 and interprets this as 17.11 followed by 7.1 !

It looks like the commands are spaced apart better if the DVR is OFF when the recording is scheduled. Most (or all?) of my shows have been recorded properly while the DVR was off and I wasn't watching, but when a recording started while I was watching a previously recorded program the tuner control problem surfaced. It looks like the problem happens when the DVR tries to automatically change channels when the DVR is currently on, but I wonder if it will also happen if I try to record two programs on different channels back to back. [update: it does.] I will continue to run experiments and report (I can't run more than one auto-tune experiment per half hour so this takes a while!)

I cannot find any way to turn off the double-channel-set behavior in the DVR settings, and none of the other numbering schemes I've tried work either. So, the way a DVR attempts to set the channel number remains a challenge for my own integration with a CECB and could certainly affect other people.
I'm using a Panasonic DMR-EH75V with a Zenith DTT-901 CECB. I've found that using all 4 digit numbers to work better for me. You use a 2 digit channel with a 2 digit sub channel thus 8.3 is 803 (unit actually sends 0803) and 44.2 would be 4402. So far this has worked perfectly for me but I've only been trying it for about a week so far.

Originally Posted by sggoodri
Update: I have been having some problems with IR blaster control of the Zenith due to the way my Panasonic DMR-EH55 sends the channel command twice. Sometimes it sends the second command so soon after the first that instead of 171 tuning to 17.1 and then 171 tuning again to17.1, the Zenith sees 171171 and interprets this as 17.11 followed by 7.1 !

It looks like the commands are spaced apart better if the DVR is OFF when the recording is scheduled. Most (or all?) of my shows have been recorded properly while the DVR was off and I wasn't watching, but when a recording started while I was watching a previously recorded program the tuner control problem surfaced. It looks like the problem happens when the DVR tries to automatically change channels when the DVR is currently on, but I wonder if it will also happen if I try to record two programs on different channels back to back.

Ditto - I posted this problem in January. Because of aborted recordings I sent my EH55 to Elk Grove but asked them to fix both problems. They say they put in a new HD, pcb & updated firmware - I'm still getting the double channel command ONLY on back-to-back recordings. sggoodri, tscheer, Essex502 have had the same problem, there is a systemic bug there that Panasonic hasn't addressed. Not point in sending it back until they root out the cause - I've got a month left under warranty.

I have a EH-55 and CM-7000 and so far I have a 100% success rate on probably 100 different events. Truth be told I don't think I ever have any back to back events and I believe my machine has been off probably 80% when the scheduled event starts.
I do get the double channel entry every time though under the following circumstances. That is if I channel surf on the DVDR and I hit next channel before the OSD has went away on my CM-7000, it probably takes 5 seconds to go away. For this reason and others I never channel surf through my EH-55/CM-7000.
I also have a Zenith 901 but have it hooked up to a ES-30v which doesn't have a IR blaster.
Maybe I'll do some experiments on B to B events and report back if I run into problems. Otherwise I'm 100% satisfied with my setup. I just hope everything continues to work post 2/09.

Why wouldn't it? If you mean the TVGOS, no, not without D/A conversion "help", of course - but the timer recording should still work OK. I don't use the TVGOS with my E85H/CM-7000, and it works fine. Don't see why it would be any different with the EH55.

If you're referring to the analog time going away, as long as you have manual time setting you should be OK, unless your units have problems keeping accurate time that way.

I know you don't use it that way much, but if you ever have problems with B to B settings with the ES-30v and the Zenith, just set it to record the two shows straight through consecutively, instead of splitting them up (as I know you mean recording from the same channel - since there's no way to change them on the Zenith in your setup).

(By the way, it's been reported in the CECB forum that one of the APEX boxes - I think maybe the 502 - can be set to change channels on it's own through the guide, similar to the way the Samsung DTB-H260F can. It hasn't been reported if it's at all dependable, though. We already know the Samsung isn't - because if the grid block says "No Information", you can't set it to change to it. Don't know if the Apex is the same. So that's at least 3 CECB's with the potential for changing channels on it's own, even though only one has proven to be dependable enough - the Zinwell. Forget about the DTVPal - it sucks all-around. Just thought I'd mention that for anyone who might be interested in this forum that doesn't really follow that stuff over there.)

Yes I was talking about the TVGOS working after 2/09. Of course I could still do manual events but I really like how the TVGOS auto titles the titles. As for the time I use auto set now and it works great but that too would be easy enough to do manually if I had to.
I just don't know what would be so magical about the DTVPal that it could convert the analog TVGOS to digital when something like my CM-7000 could not.
I guess if I had to I'd spend $40(to get a Pal) to keep my TVGOS working I would, but I'd still want to record from the CM. The Pal would only get me the TVGOS info. Not sure if that would work and if it wouldn't then I guess I'd just have to resort to manual events. From what I've read I don't think I'd be satisfied recording from the Pal.

Seem to have a solution for the back-to-back recording problem

With the help of an Ace at Panasonic support, it looks like I've got a solution to the problem of the EH55 tuning to the wrong channel on back-to-back recordings. Example - a command for ch24 will issue 242 (cable box will go to that wrong channel) then issue channel command 4. You land on ch4 instead of 24 because the EH55 issued the command twice without an "enter"

During the original set-up I selected change channels as "28 and enter" Yes the system should not be issuing the command (#'s) twice but the wrinkle would get resolved if it only issued a "enter" as instructed, but on back-to-back recordings it does not.

Now to revisit the set-up process, at a certain point during the set-up the EH55 knowing that I'm on Time-Warner with a Scientific Atlanta box defaults to remote code 009 - which turns out to be ok for regular channel changing but not the back-to-back recordings. So after the EH55 confirms with you its choice as 009 as the remote code you say "no" and it auto-increments up to the next valid Scientific Atlanta remote code, in this case 1878.

I tried this code 1878 (Scientific Atlanta) instead of default 009 and it works - still get the silly double command on back-to-back recordings BUT the Enter *works* and gets us to the right channel despite the channel command being issued twice.

tscheer, Essex502 and sggoodri also wrote up this problem, I hope they see this post.

Any idea on how to get the enter command for a CM-7000 CECB? Currently I'm using code 145 which is (Pioneer) and everything works great except B2B events don't work well, like you noted because of the lack of the enter command.

My DMR-EH55 started behaving badly last week. I ended up using the "hold channel UP and DOWN together for 7 seconds" to restore the unit and wipe it clean (power cycling did not help). One week later, it hung again with the exact same symptoms:

I cannot change channels.
I can watch recorded programs, but I cannot delete them.
When I power off the unit, there is no usual "click" sound when the HD spins down.

This time, I left it alone. About 7 hours later, I turned it on, and it was all well again, and I was able to delete the recordings.

The only thing in common with the previous failure and this one was that the DVR was tuned to the same channel (not the host channel). This channel does provide TVGOS data, though. I read in the Sony DHG-HDD250/500 AVS thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14897745&highlight=san+diego#post14897745) of others having similar bad behavior problems with their Sony recorders when tuned to this same station. I'm thinking perhaps there is something incompatible with the TVGOS data on this channel (which my DVR should not be using) and the FW version in my DVR (09.02.27/09.06.07/00.00.00/000/08000A00/73/0000).

Has anyone else seen this behavior?

I do not have the lockup problem with my EH55, but it does appear that DirecTV's TV Guide Channel (Channel 237, and my host Channel) is no longer carrying the analog TVGOS signal. Of course a call to DirecTV ("What's TVGOS?") was not helpful. A call to Panasonic was a bit more helpful, in that they said they'd had a lot of such calls recently.

My EH55 has Version 9 TVGOS firmware, so should be able to receive the digital version of TVGOS if and when Panasonic gives us all a new update to handle it. What we don't know, of course, is whether DirecTV will carry a CBS affiliate with TVGOS.

My DirecTV 10-300 receiver worked fine with the EH55 for 2 years, and the OTA route via antenna was never needed before, so I'm loath to hook up an antenna for 2-3 months just to get the analog signal a little longer.

What do you suppose will happen next?

Mine finally finished populating last night. It now goes out 7+ days. It did take 3 days to complete it but I'm glad I got it after reading the problems many are having with analog TVGOS. Mine's still coming from analog CBS.
Does anyone know in the case of Direct do they actually insert the TVGOS signal or is it just passed on from CBS? I might think Direct does because according the the manual Dish does not support TVGOS so if it was just passed on from CBS both should support TVGOS. Would it be the same with Comcast Cable, that is does each location need to manually insert TVGOS or is it again just passed on with the local CBS station?

AFAIK, the TVGOS EPG data is just passed along by the cable company with the station's signal. Since the EPG data is carried in the VBI signal (also carries closed captions), the cable company has to pass it along with the video signal.

I don't think that cable companies would be able to insert the EPG data since it requires special equipment that TVGOS provides to the host station.

By the way, my TVGOS data is currently carried by my local ABC station. In the past, it has been carried by the local CBS. FOX, PBS, and now ABC stations.

Hmmm... Let me guess, NO ONE wants it!

I've has this for2 years and the TVGOS have been working great. All of a sudden the TVGOS stopped down loading 2 weeks ago and it seems as though the unit cannot locate the host channel anymore. I have cablevision.
Anyone else having this problem??????

TVGOS problems are usually area dependent. Maybe if someone else from NYC is using it they'll chime in. It's possible your local TV channel that broadcasts TVGOS is having problems. It seems lately both analog and digital TVGOS is being carried by your local CBS station, some areas also report PBS for the analog.
You might want to try a reset of your machine to see that helps. That would be done by, after the machine is powered up, hold both the channel UP and DOWN buttons on the main unit for at least 10 seconds. The time should go back to 12:00 and you'll need to setup your machine again.
But you may as well get used to this, if you're OTA only analog TVGOS will be going away in 2 months anyway. After that all events will need to be set manually:( (unless they get the DTVPal CECB working)

My eh55 broke on nov 28 2008 so I sent it in for repairs, was using an RCA receiver to get direct tv for the past 2 years, was getting the EPG just fine the whole time.

In Dec we upgraded our Direct TV receiver to the opne made by Direct TV model D11.

Now on Jan 2 I got My eh55 back and have not been able to load the EPG.

I called CBS in Denver and s[poke with an engineer, he said they were still passing the EPG info stream in there broad casts, but if Direct tv wasnt passsing it on I would not get it.

I called Direct TV they said they were passing it on.

Any one else here using the receiver made by Direct TV?

Are you still getting the EPG?

I have read and reread posts here to see what I need to do.

All my connections and settings are just as before with the RCA receiver, but no guide.

I read one suggestion I will try tonight, that of using a zip code of another city, that is close by. so will see if that helps.

If anyone has been using the Direct TV model D11 receiver I would escpeccailly like to hear from you.

But I welcome suggestions from anyone. Thanks Bruce

Not sure if this is related but someone else using direct TV is also having TVGOS problems, though he lives in FL.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15461479#post15461479

Hey Jeff thanks for the reply, I had read that post and it was one of 2 that suggested trying a zip code located near the braodcasters area.

I did this after my last post, and my eh55 is changing channels for the first time since I got my unit back last week, if I get the guide up I will post back and let al know. Thanks Again!

I'm sorry to say after sending my EH55 in to have the hard drive replaced I still get aborted recordings (see my original below, followed by Jay's). I don't remember the post but that was suggested after I originally reformatted and reloaded firmware, without improvement. The abort doesn't happen *that* often so far. I'll just have to monitor to see if it becomes more frequent. If anyones has ideas about

It's becoming more common for my EH-55 to record (to HD) a scheduled pgm and abort after less than 10 seconds. I don't discern much of a pattern except that typically the thumbnails for the "aborts" do not show the program name - but might indicate the network. Please note that I've never filled the HD much past the 50% mark so it should not be terribly fragmented. I called Panansonic and they were not familiar with this problem and suggested a reformat.
Thanks,

Paul


jay214128
I have always had this problem with the EH55 (see post #666 in this thread). If you check the recording history it will probably indicate xHost for the recording status. I have never been able to prevent this problem, it just happens randomly. I have deleted all programs from the HD, updated the FW, and reset and rebooted, but nothing makes it go away. It is just a bug in the EH55 FW. My resolution is to record shows on multiple recorders from multiple stations. This provides backups for DVR failures and station screw ups.

I own the dmr-eh55, and during the bowl season where i resord every game and my unit is on most of the time, i lost my EPG, and i have had a DEVIL of a time reloading it back up, instead of cable without a box, i am trying using the ir blaster and my comcast cable box here in the detroit area

Has anyone else in detroit area had thier EPG "run out" and not been able to reload it?

One thing i know i have to do is give the unit the 24 straight hours of no touchy...its so hard to do for me,

Also, while i am at it, can i have cable without a box come in via my rf input and my cable with a box enter via the IN3 inpout

Thanks in advance for any info you guys may have for me.

One thing i know i have to do is give the unit the 24 straight hours of no touchy...its so hard to do for me,


I'm not a motor city guy so I can't answer your question but I don't really believe what they say about the 24hr. waiting.
I never turned mine off for more than overnight and my guide started populating. What I did notice if using the IR blaster was that when the unit was turned on it stopped scanning for channels. As soon as the unit was turned off it started back right where it left off. That is if it left off on channel 450 when you turned it back off it would continue on channel 451 and keep going up.
If left powered on it will never download TVGOS but personally I think overnight is sufficient to get the ball rolling. YMMV

I have an almost brand new DMR-EH55 bought as a demo (no IR blaster) a few months ago. Since I have 3 other Pioneer DVR's and the TVGOS doesn't work in my area, I am going to sell it. What is a reasonable price I can get for it and where is the best place to sell it? I was told Ebay and the prices range from $400 upwards. Is that reasonable?

I have an almost brand new DMR-EH55 bought as a demo (no IR blaster) a few months ago. Since I have 3 other Pioneer DVR's and the TVGOS doesn't work in my area, I am going to sell it. What is a reasonable price I can get for it and where is the best place to sell it? I was told Ebay and the prices range from $400 upwards. Is that reasonable?


I'll take it off your hands for $100!!!!

;):D

I bought a nice one a month ago on eBay for $410, no shipping because I picked it up at the store (pawn shop).

Yes I'd say in the current market >$400 for a used EH-55 seems reasonable. I guess I really got a steal on my EH-55 this summer. Future Shop in CND was clearancing them out for $299 but they were all sold out of new ones and only had the display. I got it for $269 and I don't think it had ever been powered on. It was missing the box/manual and IR blaster though. I would have preferred a new one but I sure wasn't turning it down.
I think NIB ones in the US currently go for ~$600. You might want to buy a IR blaster at Panasonic.com. When I did they were only $20 and it might sound better to a future buyer. Just a thought.

Oiler1, I have no info about $$$ for the model, but I am wondering about "TVGOS doesn't work in my area". When I got mine I couldn't get it to work and it was suggested that I try ajacent zip codes. It took me several days of trial and error (and my husband insisting that this didn't make any sense). I now have TVGOS and have had no problems for over a year. Judy

my tvgos worked for 3 years before ceasing functionality in late december, and still havent been able to get it to work

Hello everyone,

I have a question that I am certain I already know the answer to, but I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't at least ask you guys, who would know much more than I.
It's in relation to restoring deleted content from the HDD. In the manual, it makes it very clear that once you've deleted something, it's irretrievable. But I also know that when you do the same thing on a PC, there are programs you can get which can retrieve certain items within a certain timeframe. So I was curious if there was anything of the sort that would apply to this DVD recorder, or any method of retrieving old recorded items - like doing a 'System Restore' on the PC, where you can return it to a previous state from the past (and thus retrieve lost items)?
Like I said, I'm sure I'm out of luck on this one, but I had to at least ask in case anyone has found a way.
Thanks for taking the time to respond if you have any information!

James.

I've never read of a way. Your best chance would be to take the drive out of the machine and try various PC programs although I've only read one post of someone actually being able to find a PC program to read material recorded by a DVDR and I don't believe those files had been erased. It was quite complicated and time consuming and again I don't think they had been deleted, his DVDR had just died.
I'm sure the guys & gals on CSI could manage it with a few keystrokes:D buy my guess is your program is gone forever:(

I just sent this to the folks at TV Guide via their web site.

Lately the TCGOS channel (ch51) on my cable system is being pre-empted with ESPN by the cable operator Time-Warner (Manhattan South). This is playing havoc with my Panasonic HD recorder (EH-55) that relies on TVGOS for schedule information. I'm pretty upset about this and have not encountered this problem before in the last year of using the unit. Can you please do something about this? My Panasonic unit does not bounce back from these interruptions and it really compromises the integrity of your TVGOS service.

To this I'd add that the way the EH-55 is programmed might be exacerbating this*. It seems like every time the EH-55 "loses" the TVGOS it has to cycle through 999 channels to find it again. This instead of remembering that for 90+ percent of the time it should look to or go back to ch51. Even after doing the 999 channel cycle the EH-55 has yet to land back on TVG ch51 the way it used to. (Again I can't prove that TW wasn't mucking with the channel during its scan cycle.)

Paul


*In fairness I should add that the cable box from TW (Explorer 2000) has been turning itself off (a mystery) overnight for several nights lately, which is really exacerbating things!

Called Pannasonic about the TVGOS problem and they said they received lots of reports of such problems. Though I thought I've been "all digital" since I got the eh55, the cable co's (TW) switch to their version of "all digital" (aka end of analog) occurred midnight Tuesday 2/17/09. Anyone else run into this?

Paul

Looks like this is a widespread problem. My DMR-EH55 has data only to the end of Wednesday February 25, so it looks like it stopped downloading about February 18 - too much of a co-incidence with the termination of analog broadcasting in the US to be a co-incidence?

I'm on Rogers Cable in Southern Ontario (Grand River - Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge). I called Rogers and they knew nothing about it, though I did reach a supervisor who promised to investigate after I explained what TVGOS was and that the data was transmitted in the VBI and that TVGOS was used by many companies like Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, Pioneer (well, until they killed it mostly because of their own poor implementation).
I believe the TVGOS data in this area as either transmitted by A-Channel in London (analog cable channel 9 - now a CTV station), or WNED (PBS) in Buffalo (analog cable channel 61).

If you still have a local analog OTA host channel sending the guide data, you can attach an antenna and re-set up the TVGOS for "cable" and "antenna", and get the it OTA.

At least with the EH55 and EH75.

I got an offer of $500 Canadian ($400 US) for my slightly used EH-55. Is this a good price? I noticed on Ebay a new one was offered at $600 to $1000. I never used Ebay to sell so I wonder if it is a good idea to try it? How can I find the previous sold prices on Ebay?

Count me among the missing TVG EH-55 owners as well. I take it we are out of luck with no workaround, due to the digital transition?

Not if you're able to get a reliable OTA CBS digital channel in your area that broadcasts the digital TVGOS. This guy reported the Pal CECB will convert the digital to analog TVGOS.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15877902#post15877902
You can check this link to see if digital TVGOS is available in your area. Note the Pal only works for OTA and not cable or sat.
http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=tvgos

hi folks... i just registered and subscribed to the general thread. i'm using a mits LT-46244, panasonic dmr-e95, and waiting in the wings with a tr40 in case of tvg loss with the dtv switch... this may have been posted elsewhere, but my plan is to notch my cox cable channel 4 analog feed, and insert the tr40 rf into the channel 4 slot... prepping the tr40 and then switching it to tvgos mode should theoretically pass the tvgos data ( converted to analog that the panny can read ) ... note that assuming this works, the panny would NOT be programmed with dtvpal's bogus zip code. hopefully, the channel lineups will be there, with worst case scenario being manual edit of the operating channels ... the tr40 is an OTA box ( needs antenna, etc ) but it should grab the tvgos data stream and pass it transparently ( converted to analog ) to the panny on channel 4.... at least that's my hope... my local cox provider has gone thru some finegling during the past few weeks, and is apparently currently feeding tvgos on the analog pbs station's channel... can't really do a full test until that dies, though...

rg

I got an offer of $500 Canadian ($400 US) for my slightly used EH-55. Is this a good price? I noticed on Ebay a new one was offered at $600 to $1000. I never used Ebay to sell so I wonder if it is a good idea to try it? How can I find the previous sold prices on Ebay?

My first ebay sale ever was my Panny 2004/5 vintage DMR-E95H with 160gb hdd, it went for just over $400 within the past month (ironically I only paid $349 for it as a buy.com open box item in April 2005). So $500US sounds about right for the EH55 (I would say its a good ballpark starting point).

JJEF,

Thanks for that link. I should have been clearer, in that I am a Comcast Cable customer, and do not have OTA capability.

I guess there is no way to put the DTVPal downstream of the cable box, before the EH55 and have it convert the TVGOS info for the Panny?

hi benneyb.. the dtvpal only has an ota tuner, so unless you can receive a tvgos signal from an ota source, you are correct... if you CAN receive an ota station, you can do what i'm attempting ( notch channel 3 or 4 out of your catv signal and insert the dtvpal output into the feed...

On February 17th, the analog NTSC TVGOS host channel for my DMR EH55 switched to digital ATSC. It's now two weeks later, and I'm still getting full guide data. According to the 753159852 status menus, my TVGOS host channel is still the same analog channel. There are still two other analog TVGOS host channels available in my area, so I'm assuming that the DMR EH55 has switched to one of them. However, the status menu isn't showing this.

In my area the same station (CBS) carries both the analog and digital TVGOS. My EH-55 get the signal from it's analog broadcast(which will go away in June) and my newer Sony TV gets it's daily TVGOS from it's digital broadcast. Functionally the screens/guide info looks identical but going into the diag. screens clearly show the Panny as being channel 4 while the Sony gets it's from 4.1

My first ebay sale ever was my Panny 2004/5 vintage DMR-E95H with 160gb hdd, it went for just over $400 within the past month (ironically I only paid $349 for it as a buy.com open box item in April 2005). So $500US sounds about right for the EH55 (I would say its a good ballpark starting point).

It's $400 US (less today bc of the exchange rate). I guess I won;t get much more than that on Ebay so I may sell it.

hi folks... i just registered and subscribed to the general thread. i'm using a mits LT-46244, panasonic dmr-e95, and waiting in the wings with a tr40 in case of tvg loss with the dtv switch... this may have been posted elsewhere, but my plan is to notch my cox cable channel 4 analog feed, and insert the tr40 rf into the channel 4 slot... prepping the tr40 and then switching it to tvgos mode should theoretically pass the tvgos data ( converted to analog that the panny can read ) ... note that assuming this works, the panny would NOT be programmed with dtvpal's bogus zip code. hopefully, the channel lineups will be there, with worst case scenario being manual edit of the operating channels ... the tr40 is an OTA box ( needs antenna, etc ) but it should grab the tvgos data stream and pass it transparently ( converted to analog ) to the panny on channel 4.... at least that's my hope... my local cox provider has gone thru some finegling during the past few weeks, and is apparently currently feeding tvgos on the analog pbs station's channel... can't really do a full test until that dies, though...

rg

Are you using cable, DirecTV, etc?

Are you using cable, DirecTV, etc?
hi... i'm using cox cable in las vegas, nv... i also have OTA reception, but have yet to verify which OTA station is providing TVGOS ( if any at this point )... based on some scattered samplings of TVG diagnostic data in the mits, there were a couple of times where the tv locked up on the local cbs affiliate on a digital channel, but since feb 17, or shortly thereafter, the TV reverted to locking up on the local PBS analog feed. during that time, the panny had lost TVGOS updates, but after the mits had locked onto PBS analog, the panny ( after a reset ) locked back up on the PBS analog feed as well...

the sequence of events seems to indicate that the feed had begun to be sourced by the CBS affiliate, but shortly after feb 17 ( somewhat coincidental to the updated DTV schedule change ), either COX, or the PBS affiliate, restored TVGOS feed to the analog PBS channel... more tinkering to go i guess...

rg

In Las Vegas it used to be KLAS - not sure if that's still true.

Hi everyone, another long-term lurker here. :)

Since I'm a Dish customer, the on-screen guide is not an issue for me. I'm writing, though, to point out a small surprise (sorry if it's already noted here...I've never seen it).

I just upgraded to the VIP722 receiver, with a built-in DVR. I assumed that I had lost the use of the Panasonic for recording purposes. It had worked with an older Dish receiver as an external recording device (I thought by some type of built-in IR blasting), but I figured that since the new receiver already had its own recorder, it would not be able to communicate with the Panasonic.

To my pleasant surprise, it turns out you can connect the Dish receiver to the Panasonic via the composite ports--and if you enable the external recording feature on the Dish receiver--when you set up the timer on the Dish receiver it will send instructions via the component connection to start and stop the recording on the Panasonic!

This means I can set up the timer just using the Dish receiver and its corresponding (9-day) guide, and either (a) use the Panasonic as an alternative recorder to the Dish DVR, or (b) record something on the Dish receiver, and then transfer it to the Panasonic (e.g., if I want to make a copy on DVD). Very convenient! Another plus is that although everything recorded on the Panasonic is downconverted from digital HD to analog SD, if there's a digital copy-protection signal on the Dish side it appears to get dropped in the transfer.

-Matt

To my pleasant surprise, it turns out you can connect the Dish receiver to the Panasonic via the composite ports--and if you enable the external recording feature on the Dish receiver--when you set up the timer on the Dish receiver it will send instructions via the component connection to start and stop the recording on the Panasonic!Yep. I had been using my EH75V that way, but with a 322 through s-video, for the last couple of years, and it works great.

I like the way it even titles the recordings, too.

So I bought a brand new E55 off of ebay a couple of months back, because no matter what happens with the TVGOS situation, it should continue to work that way with my Dish service

I have had my EH55 for about two years now and never had a problem with the guide using Comcast cable (so far; knock on wood).

In Las Vegas it used to be KLAS - not sure if that's still true.
hi neil400... yes, the cbs affiliate in vegas is KLAS ( dig 8-1 ).. was just unusual that it had ' appeared ' that the mits was ( if only termporarily ) using the KLAS signal ( via cable ) for tvgos feed, then switched back to PBS ( analog ch 10 ) and stayed there...
this morning i've lost listings again, but was doing an experiment and had turned off analog 10 in the mits channel editor ( not tvguide editor )... looks like the mits channel editor is god and the tvgos tuner control can only tune what one has enabled in the mits tuner... very silly.. IMO the tvgos modules should always have their own independent tuners, period... today's tech level renders a tuner to actually cost no more than about 10 bucks in hardware, if that...oh well... more later... i'll advise results on restoring tvgos now that analog 10 is re-enabled...
rg

Hello!

I've owned the Panasonic DMR-EH55S since 2006, and have been quite happy with it. Now, I have two problems with it.

As with so many here, I haven't been able to receive the TVGOS listings since approximately the second week of last month. I subscribe to digital cable through a service called Astound, here in the S.F. Bay Area. I use a Motorola cable box.

With the TVGOS out, I was using the manual timer (like a vcr) for recording, But for the last week, the DMR-EH55S’s tuner won't record the station I want. It will only record the channel coming through the cable box. If I set the recorder's tuner manually to record say channel 5, it'll record, channel 7 instead, because that's what the cable box is on. I’ve only had this problem for about 10 days. The cables are all connected correctly. Does anyone have a suggestion to correct this? Could this possibly relate to the TVGOS situation?

I too, have contacted Panasonic on the TVGOS situation. I was told it would be 7 to 10 business days until Panasonic hears back from TV Guide. Today was the 7th day. They have a case number set for the tuner question also, but I haven’t heard on that, either.

Any suggestions on either or both of these situations would be helpful. You can contact me here, or send a PM.

Thanks in advance,
Marshall

With the TVGOS out, I was using the manual timer (like a vcr) for recording, But for the last week, the DMR-EH55S’s tuner won't record the station I want. It will only record the channel coming through the cable box. If I set the recorder's tuner manually to record say channel 5, it'll record, channel 7 instead, because that's what the cable box is on. I’ve only had this problem for about 10 days. The cables are all connected correctly. Does anyone have a suggestion to correct this? Could this possibly relate to the TVGOS situation?

So you've been using an IR blaster to change channels on the cable box and it stopped working? Could the IR blaster have been knocked out of position? Did you change remote codes on the cable box for some reason? Has your setup changed in any other way?

Now that I think about it, I believe my EH50 will use its IR blaster only if I set up TVGOS to work with a cable box. Did you redo your setup so that it no longer tries to use TVGOS? If so, then the IR blaster may no longer be active. Do you remember choosing a cable box type the last time you changed things?

Didn't some TV stations drop analog broadcasting in February even though the switchover date was pushed back? Many of them were complaining about the cost of broadcasting analog and digital at the same time.

If that's the case you might be stuck just recording via your cable box.

So you've been using an IR blaster to change channels on the cable box and it stopped working? Could the IR blaster have been knocked out of position? Did you change remote codes on the cable box for some reason? Has your setup changed in any other way?

Now that I think about it, I believe my EH50 will use its IR blaster only if I set up TVGOS to work with a cable box. Did you redo your setup so that it no longer tries to use TVGOS? If so, then the IR blaster may no longer be active. Do you remember choosing a cable box type the last time you changed things?

David,

Thanks for getting back to me. I do recall during one of my phone calls to Panasonic Tech Support (on 2/28), the woman had me press the recorder's two channel buttons together and then enter a code. I don't know if this affected anything or not.

I haven't redone the setup to no longer use TVGOS. I don't think the IR blaster is out of position. I've checked the general setup and TVGOS channel setup, and each time Motorola has been entered for the cable box.

As I mentioned, even after the TVGOS stopped functioning, the tuner did correctly record the channel entered via timer. So, I don't know what's caused that problem. Would going back to the default setup make a difference? As for the TVGOS, I'm still waiting to hear from Panasonic.

Marshall

I haven't redone the setup to no longer use TVGOS. I don't think the IR blaster is out of position. I've checked the general setup and TVGOS channel setup, and each time Motorola has been entered for the cable box.

As I mentioned, even after the TVGOS stopped functioning, the tuner did correctly record the channel entered via timer. So, I don't know what's caused that problem. Would going back to the default setup make a difference? As for the TVGOS, I'm still waiting to hear from Panasonic.

OK, maybe I'm confused about your setup. If you are using the IR blaster to control the cable box, then of course you always record whatever the box is tuned to, since all tuning is done by the box. Is that working? If (while just watching TV through the EH55) you enter a channel number on the EH55's number pad, does the cable box change to that channel?

But you originally said you "set the recorder's tuner manually to record" some other channel. Does that imply that you were not actually set up to use the IR blaster and cable box combination, but were instead using the EH55's internal analog tuner? As ti-triodes pointed out, many analog stations went away recently. Can you still tune all stations manually (without using a tuner in the TV)?

I'm not sure what "default setup" you mean, so I don't know how that would help.

Sorry to confuse you. When entering the channel on the EH-55S's remote's number pad, the cable box doesn't change to that channel. I can enter say 005 on the EH-55's remote number pad, but the cable box stays on 002 (just as an example). I change the channel with the cable box's remote to 009, but EH-55's display stays at 005. Up until a week ago. this wasn't the case.

Here's another example. On the DMR-EH55S, I press the TV Guide button, and a screen appears on my television. It (the screen)basically says the TVGOS wasn't able to locate the channels and programs to download. If I want to try again, I can do so. Another option mentioned on the screen is to use the manual timer setting to record a show, like a VCR's timer.

So, I use the manual timer setting to record a show at say 10:00 on channel 5. When the recording has finished, channel 5 wasn't recorded but channel 7 was instead. That was the channel the cable box was set to, and didn't change for the new recording.

Plus, the TVGOS won't update. :( It's frustrating.

Why are you entering "005" anyway? To get it to change to channel 5 on a cable box, shouldn't "5" be enough? Try using the actual channel number.

Also, I don't know why you're changing the channels on the box using the Panasonic remote. Use the cable box remote, and just leave the Panasonic on it's line input.

Either you don't have it hooked up right, or there's something in the setup you're not doing right. Their stopping the guide info should have no effect on the IR blaster now not working correctly. When you pressed both the channel up and channel down buttons on the unit, you reset the TVGOS completely.

it should be set up with the box going into a line input (preferably "L3"), and the TVGOS setup should be for "digital cable with a box" or "cable with a box".

They should tell you how to hook up the box using a line input in the Panny manual (not through coax, and not using the Panny's tuner). Then, even if you're not downloading the guide info, you should be able to set manual timers with no problem, and the IR blaster should change the channels fine (although you might have to wait a few days for it to stop searching for the TVGOS host channel).

Sorry to confuse you. When entering the channel on the EH-55S's remote's number pad, the cable box doesn't change to that channel. I can enter say 005 on the EH-55's remote number pad, but the cable box stays on 002 (just as an example). I change the channel with the cable box's remote to 009, but EH-55's display stays at 005. Up until a week ago. this wasn't the case.

Here's another example. On the DMR-EH55S, I press the TV Guide button, and a screen appears on my television. It (the screen)basically says the TVGOS wasn't able to locate the channels and programs to download. If I want to try again, I can do so. Another option mentioned on the screen is to use the manual timer setting to record a show, like a VCR's timer.

So, I use the manual timer setting to record a show at say 10:00 on channel 5. When the recording has finished, channel 5 wasn't recorded but channel 7 was instead. That was the channel the cable box was set to, and didn't change for the new recording.

Plus, the TVGOS won't update. :( It's frustrating.

Let me first note that I have an EH50, and I am assuming that the EH55 works similarly in every way relevant to this discussion.

I agree with almost everything Rammitinski said, except that the point of changing channels using the Panasonic remote is just to see if the IR blaster is working. If he's right about your resetting the EH55 (I couldn't find a reference for the use of chan-up + chan-dn), then you need to set it up again to tune with the cable box (if you haven't already).

If the cable box is connected to the EH55's IN3 input and the EH55 is set up to tune with the cable box, then the EH55's internal tuner isn't used for anything; instead the cable box becomes the tuner, and changing channels on the EH55 must change the channel on the cable box. If this isn't happening, then the IR blaster isn't working or the EH55's setup has been changed somehow. Make sure the IR blaster plug is secure. As a test, try setting it up to tune with another box, like a CECB.

My EH50 is set up to use a converter box (an Apex DT502) because that's the only way I could get it to use the IR blaster. When it's off, the EH50 continually changes channels on the converter box, searching for a TVGOS host channel. Of course it never finds one, and I never get any listings. If your EH55 is smart enough to stop looking after a while, maybe it also stops sending IR commands to your cable box, but I doubt it.

The only hope I have of ever getting TVGOS listings again is to use a DTVPal Plus with my EH50. Unfortunately 1) I'm having problems receiving my local CBS station and 2) my EH50 apparently can't change channels on a DTVPal Plus. Maybe your EH55 has later firmware. I think Kmart and Sears have the DTVPal Plus.

Let me first note that I have an EH50, and I am assuming that the EH55 works similarly in every way relevant to this discussion.

I agree with almost everything Rammitinski said, except that the point of changing channels using the Panasonic remote is just to see if the IR blaster is working. If he's right about your resetting the EH55 (I couldn't find a reference for the use of chan-up + chan-dn), then you need to set it up again to tune with the cable box (if you haven't already).
The CH up CH down is the universal Panasonic reset to factory defaults procedure.


If the cable box is connected to the EH55's IN3 input and the EH55 is set up to tune with the cable box, then the EH55's internal tuner isn't used for anything; instead the cable box becomes the tuner, and changing channels on the EH55 must change the channel on the cable box. If this isn't happening, then the IR blaster isn't working or the EH55's setup has been changed somehow. Make sure the IR blaster plug is secure. As a test, try setting it up to tune with another box, like a CECB.

My EH50 is set up to use a converter box (an Apex DT502) because that's the only way I could get it to use the IR blaster. When it's off, the EH50 continually changes channels on the converter box, searching for a TVGOS host channel. Of course it never finds one, and I never get any listings. If your EH55 is smart enough to stop looking after a while, maybe it also stops sending IR commands to your cable box, but I doubt it.

The only hope I have of ever getting TVGOS listings again is to use a DTVPal Plus with my EH50. Unfortunately 1) I'm having problems receiving my local CBS station and 2) my EH50 apparently can't change channels on a DTVPal Plus. Maybe your EH55 has later firmware. I think Kmart and Sears have the DTVPal Plus.

My EH-55 is setup with a CECB and I use my EH-55's remote to change its channel (via the IR blaster). Note I can also use the EH-55's analog tuner since I have it's RF input hooked to a antenna. I just use the input select button to toggle to the EH-55's tuner of I ever wanted. Analog looks much worse than digital so I really never do it. The antenna input is also where I get my analog TVGOS (at least for the next 4 months anyway).
Also the EH-55 will give you the option after 3 days of constant IR blaster scanning, to stop the scanning. I didn't do that since it found the TVGOS with my antenna connection and it doesn't look for TVGOS from the line input anymore. I believe your older EH50 doesn't give you the option to stop scanning so as you've said as soon as you turn your EH-50 off the scanning starts all over again.

I have had my EH55 for about two years now and never had a problem with the guide using Comcast cable (so far; knock on wood).

Crap! I spoke too soon. Now I see my TVG has gone away with the digital switch and I guess I am going to have to fight with Comcast to get it back, if I can. I didn't use it all that much, but when I did it was nice to have. Crap! :mad:

Crap! I spoke too soon. Now I see my TVG has gone away with the digital switch and I guess I am going to have to fight with Comcast to get it back, if I can. I didn't use it all that much, but when I did it was nice to have. Crap! :mad:

I have an update for those similarly afflicted. I spoke with Panasonic customer support and they said they are aware of the problem and that Comcast is supposed to be working on a fix but it may be another 30 days before we see it depending on your local Comcast service.

Following a TVGOS outage, I wound up swapping a Scientific Atlanta cable box for a Pioneer. (Except for mysteriously turning off at night I was happy with the Scientific Atlanta, but TW would only replace with a Pioneer.) Now I'm experimenting with the remote codes because as with the 1st code that worked with the Scientific Atlanta, the Pioneer cable box is not able to call up the right channel for recording 2 pgms back-to-back. What follows is a result of dealing with the same problem re. the Pioneer. The crux of my question has to do with the missing channels in the guide - here's my note to Macrovision.


Hi, I had written to you before about a TVGOS outage in NYC. Service has come back but there's been a negative ripple effect. In trying to find the best remote code for my (new) Pioneer cable box, a reset of my Panasonic EH55 (after full TVGOS service had been restored) has resulted in missing channels in the Guide. I only have a handful of channels between 99 and 800, which is wrong... dozens of channels are missing. Could the new remote code be responsible if channels 1-99 seem correct?

Thanks,

Paul Dougherty

p.s. I hope everyone w TVGOS problems is reading this thread "TVGOS Gone - Panny E500, EH50, EH55" where I've posted some breakthroughs re. Time-Warner

So you've been using an IR blaster to change channels on the cable box and it stopped working? Could the IR blaster have been knocked out of position? Did you change remote codes on the cable box for some reason? Has your setup changed in any other way?

Now that I think about it, I believe my EH50 will use its IR blaster only if I set up TVGOS to work with a cable box. Did you redo your setup so that it no longer tries to use TVGOS? If so, then the IR blaster may no longer be active. Do you remember choosing a cable box type the last time you changed things?

Woudn't you know that after my questions, you were right that the IR blaster was out of position:o . I checked to make sure the IR blaster's plug was secure, as you suggested. Then, I moved the IR blaster a little bit, and voila, the EH55 and Motorola digital cable box were back in sync. The EH55 was recording the channel I wanted using the manual timer setting. Thanks to you and Rammitinski for the advice.

Now, the TVGOS is still not working. Last Thursday, Panasonic Tech Support told me by phone that'll be another 7-10 business days before they hear from TV Guide (I guess Macrovision). I called Astound, my cable carrier, and the tech I spoke to didn't know about the TVGOS situation.

I have noticed that there is a TVGOS window still appearing on the TV screen via the Motorola digital cable box.On the cable box's remote control is a record button, which leaves a red record circle on screen in a particular program's TVGOS show description listing area. This is supposed to be for a VCR, it looks like. Is there some way this cable box TVGOS can be set up to go to the EH55?

Marshall

Yay!!! My TVGOS service has resumed through Comcast locally. I think most everyone who had it before should see it resumed very soon.

There is another forum on this topic. It's clearly not just a EH-55 problem and it's national. Check out http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=941025
I posted this there tonight, but it seems appropriate here too.

Originally Posted by Dizzie2
Lost the host channel in Sacramento, CA yesterday-March 18. I hope it is only down temporarily while the host makes some changes.
TVGOS updating is down in Davis, CA / Comcast also. Think it stopped about
two weeks ago, because that's when I first noticed the listings for two weeks out were "no data." Didn't think much of it at the time, but "no data" kept marching closer & closer to "Today". I still have the correct channel lineup but no program info.

Tried setting up TVGOS again without resetting the machine. I get the grey progress screen, which show got the time and channel lineup, but it has been looking for the guide channel for about a week now.

Anyone have any luck complaining to Comcast or PBS or Panasonic around here? If so, what address?

Thanks,
Steve

There is another forum on this topic. It's clearly not just a EH-55 problem and it's national. Check out http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=941025
I posted this there tonight, but it seems appropriate here too.


TVGOS updating is down in Davis, CA / Comcast also. Think it stopped about
two weeks ago, because that's when I first noticed the listings for two weeks out were "no data." Didn't think much of it at the time, but "no data" kept marching closer & closer to "Today". I still have the correct channel lineup but no program info.

Tried setting up TVGOS again without resetting the machine. I get the grey progress screen, which show got the time and channel lineup, but it has been looking for the guide channel for about a week now.

Anyone have any luck complaining to Comcast or PBS or Panasonic around here? If so, what address?

Thanks,
Steve

Maybe you missed my post above. I complained to Panasonic and they told me that they and Comcast were working to fix the problem, which in my case was indeed fixed last week. The solution is to have a local station carry the TVGOS data. Many if not all the PBS stations that used to carry it stopped when they were no longer paid (a pittance anyway) but were offered free advertising, which strangely they declined. Many local FOX stations are doing the job now, as is my local FOX station. Any Comcast customers still without the service should complain to Comcast, and not just the peon who answers the phone, but someone in program management.

I've been using this box with a SA standard def STB for 3 years and have had no issues with the EPG / TVGOS. My cable company (TWC NYC) just switched me to the new HD Samsung STB (SMT-H3050), and my EPG is gone on the E55. I've tried every config I can think of to get it back, but no luck. Any suggestions?

Thx.

I've been using this box with a SA standard def STB for 3 years and have had no issues with the EPG / TVGOS. My cable company (TWC NYC) just switched me to the new HD Samsung STB (SMT-H3050), and my EPG is gone on the E55. I've tried every config I can think of to get it back, but no luck. Any suggestions?
Just curious... will your new STB output 16:9 widescreen over its composite and/or S-Video outputs?

There's a big problem with the TVGOS vanishing. The channels that carry them have been going digital. Many of those are still doing the TVGOS stream, BUT the cable company is jacking it up somewhere along the way and not getting the stream down into the analog output from the cable company (so our boxes can get it).

I've been down in Lakewood, Co (just west of denver) for over three weeks now. It sucks. I checked with the TVGOS vendor, and they said on their website the cable company for my area has the equipment (which TVGOS provides) to get the signal to us. Also, I checked rabbitears.com and there is a local channel that has gone digital that IS sending the TVGOS stream.

So I think the cable co. is the bottleneck on getting this fixed.

Is there anything that can be done in the interim? It's really annoying to have to manually program the EH55 and put in specific dates and times, rather than to do it by program title. Am I best off putting in raw RF feed into EH55, or taking the output of the cable box in order to get the TVGOS? Thx.

Is there anything that can be done in the interim? It's really annoying to have to manually program the EH55 and put in specific dates and times, rather than to do it by program title. Am I best off putting in raw RF feed into EH55, or taking the output of the cable box in order to get the TVGOS? Thx.

1. Check here and make sure there's no problems with the digital transition for TVGOS in your area http://digitaltransition.macrovision.com/ Also, check http://www.rabbitears.com and see which channel in you area is streaming the TVGOS

2. Email or contact the TVGOS people Ce_customer_support@tvguide.com or 800-386-7380 If there's a channel streaming it, and if there's supposed to be no problem with the cable provider providing it.

3. They may have you do diagnostics on your machine (they'll email a thing you can fill out & tell you what buttons to push) I'll do diagnostics on my machine (I already have the diagnostic PDFs) and send them my results as well as a "why the hell isn't it working?!" email.

Post back with your results & I'll do the same.

1. Check here and make sure there's no problems with the digital transition for TVGOS in your area http://digitaltransition.macrovision.com/ Also, check http://www.rabbitears.com and see which channel in you area is streaming the TVGOS

2. Email or contact the TVGOS people Ce_customer_support@tvguide.com or 800-386-7380 If there's a channel streaming it, and if there's supposed to be no problem with the cable provider providing it.

3. They may have you do diagnostics on your machine (they'll email a thing you can fill out & tell you what buttons to push) I'll do diagnostics on my machine (I already have the diagnostic PDFs) and send them my results as well as a "why the hell isn't it working?!" email.

Post back with your results & I'll do the same.

Thanks Solo. Step 1 is complete. Macrovision is reporting that TVGOS should be working in my area. I think you meant to type rabbitears.info instead of rabbitears.com - right? If so - then rabbitears.info reports these two channels for TVGOS in my area:
1 New York City, New York WCBS-TV 2 (56 → 33) 12/29/2008
1 New York City, New York WEDW 49 (49) 03/20/2009

I'll call my cable company and TVGOS tonight using the info you provided and see what they say. I'm pretty sure this has to do with the cable box since my old SA Standard Def box provided TVGOS to the EH55, but as soon as I upgraded to the Samsung HD box, it quit.

With regard to step #3 - where do I get the diagnostic steps you are referring to? From TVGOS, or Panny?
Thanks.

kgrayAVS, you're on TWC in New York City, among the worst cable services in the nation. Do not expect miracles- they could care less whether you even have a picture, never mind "frills" like the TVGOS signal. I've purposely stuck with the lame SD boxes in two of our three connections, because of problems I'd seen at friends who've upgraded to the HD tier. TWC-NYC is now in total overload and can't provide a consistent level of service to the entire city at one time: every day one neighborhood loses internet service, the next loses box features, another loses lip-sync (BIG problem citywide now). You could revert back to the SD box, but at the rate TWC is deteriorating there's no guarantee you'd get the TVGOS back. I'd still follow the complaint procedure outlined by solo-act, just for the hell of it: if TWC gets enough pressure from Macrovision they might get on the stick.

I'll call my cable company and TVGOS tonight using the info you provided and see what they say. I'm pretty sure this has to do with the cable box since my old SA Standard Def box provided TVGOS to the EH55, but as soon as I upgraded to the Samsung HD box, it quit.
Probably because the Samsung box is all digital.

If they're still sending it over an analog channel, you can try splitting the incoming coax, and sending one half to your RF input so the Panny will pick it up.

Then, have the other half going to the digital cable box, which should be hooked to a line input.

Or, you can run an antenna into the RF, and set up for both cable and OTA (which you are fortunately able to do with both the EH55 and EH75), and then pray that an analog OTA host channel is still sending it (they're currently turning it on and off constantly in most areas). But that would only work for another couple of months, anyway.

With regard to step #3 - where do I get the diagnostic steps you are referring to? From TVGOS, or Panny?
Thanks. Diagnostics should come from cust. service at TVGOS. From what I've read, I think they ask you to do a reset of the DVR tvguide application, set up the TVGOS, and then after a few days they have you fill out the troubleshooting guide. PM me with your email and I can email you both the TVGOS version 8 and version 9 troubleshooting guides. They use the output from the troubleshooting to determine why you're not getting TVGOS.

As I said before, I think it's because the channels that had it have gone digital. The cable co. had things set up to stream when they were getting it in analog. Getting it in digital means they have to "redo" the stream (there's better technojargon but i can't remember it).

This is where I think the problems are. The cable companies aren't "redoing" the stream that is now coming in in digital. They're not redoing it as they dump out the analog (non digital cable box) version of their channel lineup. The eh55 and eh75 only have analog tuners on them.

Hope that helps. Keep us posted on how TVGOS resolves this for you.

If they're still sending it over an analog channel, you can try splitting the incoming coax, and sending one half to your RF input so the Panny will pick it up.


I tried that a few days ago - but still no TVGOS. Looks like it was somehow coming in from my old SA Standard Def box, but somehow won't come in on raw RF feed. Seems odd, unless it's how I set-up the new TVGOS wizard.

FYI, TVGOS came back on in the Denver, Co metroplex.

I've been periodically resetting the panny and reprogramming setup for TVGOS using different zip codes in the Denver metro area. For a month I got nothing, and the clock was 1 hour off. Then suddenly 2 days ago, the clock snapped to the right time, but still no TVGOS.

I immediately reset the TVGOS & setup (power up the unit, then hold down the channel up/down buttons on the front of the unit-not the remote). I did the same routine I've been doing (set up for cable without cable box -- RF direct into the panny). And then BOOM -- next morning I powered it up and TVGOS was back.

That's the latest from here.

I tried that a few days ago - but still no TVGOS. Looks like it was somehow coming in from my old SA Standard Def box, but somehow won't come in on raw RF feed. Seems odd, unless it's how I set-up the new TVGOS wizard.Seems Macrovision's been screwing around with the analog data and turning it on and of a lot lately. It's been happening all over the country with both OTA and cable (there are many threads on the forum discussing the problem, including the "TVGOS not Updating" thread here, the Sony DHG-HDD500/250 DVR thread in the "HDTV Recorders" sub-forum, and the "TVGOS Devices" thread in the "HDTV Technical" sub-forum, among others).

They may have turned it off for good (or lost it if they recently started converting the local digital transmissions to analog, which everybody's eventually getting around to doing), but I would try again at a later time, because, like I said, it's been coming and going for a lot of people. (But still, don't expect to get the analog data with a digital cable box that's not capable of tuning in analog channels.)

They keep doing it here to me, too, OTA, so even if you try the OTA method of getting the data, you might have the same problem with that, too.

If you know the OTA analog host channel (CBS or PBS nowadays), you can try either calling the station itself and talking to an engineer, or contacting Macrovision directly. Calling cable never seems to get anyone anywhere much, though. You can try, but they usually are either genuinely clueless, or won't even bother trying to help, because they'd really rather have people rent their DVR anyway.

TVGOS had been down on my Panasonic EH55 here in Davis CA 95616 since around 3/18. I called Comcast 2x: the first, got a tech who understood what the problem was and said he would get some research and higher-ups on it. Second time, even with the first call notes on the computer, the tech couldn't comprehend what I was talking about, said the only programming info I was entitled to was Comcast channel 21, and that I should call Panasonic because it was not Comcast's responsibility.

Well, that annoyed me a lot :mad:, but I never did get around to calling Panasonic last week. This being the weekend, I decided to do it, but checked the TVGOS to see if there had been any change.

Lo & Behold! All the channels were fully loaded with listings, all of the way out to two weeks from now! :D Looks like back to normal.

I never did reset my EH-55. I reset the TVGOS a few times, but I'm sure the problem was with the incoming signal. Now all I have to do is go through and get rid of the golf channel and some other useless channels that came back when I reset TVGOS.

Technical on the diagnostic screen: Host State 0x80
Host ID 0x13
Host Chan 006 (PBS KVIE, same as
before it disappeared.)

Technical on the diagnostic screen: Host State 0x80
Host ID 0x13
Host Chan 006 (PBS KVIE, same as
before it disappeared.)

Thanks sberlin. A few questions:

1. what is your current config? Are you sending raw RF to the Panny, or sending your output from your STB?

2. Is your provider fully digital at this point, or are your receiving analog?

3. How do you get to the diagnostic screen you referenced above?

thx.

3. How do you get to the diagnostic screen you referenced above?

thx.
The process is slightly different across the 3 Panny hdd models, but on my Panny E85, you go into the Guide screen, scroll over to Messages tab, arrow down to the Version ID number then, press the following
753159852.
To access diagnostics information:
1. Have the user open TV Guide On Screen.
2. Highlight MESSAGES on the service bar, and hit the down arrow once.
3. Type in 753159852

Thanks sberlin. A few questions:

1. what is your current config? Are you sending raw RF to the Panny, or sending your output from your STB?

2. Is your provider fully digital at this point, or are your receiving analog?

I am getting Comcast basic cable---no digital, no premium channels, no cable box no STB. I have the Comcast RF cable (the wire, not the service) plugged into the RF input. The EH-55 receiver is analog & so is the Sony TV it is hooked up to. Not fancy, but it works. When I can afford a big LCD TV, I guess I'll go digital and worry about all those intricate wiring posts on the EH-55 thread.

The Comcast advertising in my area keeps touting that if you have an analog set, you don't have to worry so long as you have Comcast cable about the digital change-over. I assume this means they will continue to output an analog signal to their analog customers. So far I have had no glitch in service, other than the 3 weeks with TVGOS gone.

3. How do you get to the diagnostic screen you referenced above?

On the EH-55, you select the TVGOS screen, go to top line, select "setup". Down arrow to highlight "change system settings" but do not press "enter". Input 753159852 {X-I pattern} A grey screen with lots of codes labeled "Section System-System Info" appears. Press right arrow. "Section System-Statistics" screen appears. This list includes your zip code, Host Channel and VBI Channel.

There are numerous other diagnostic screens you can access with the up-down-left-right arrow keys. I haven't figured out what most of them mean, but one includes clock/time info, one has number of titles recorded (per channel). Anybody out there know of a translation or codebook? It's not documented in the user manual.

You exit by pressing "return", or just wait about 5 minutes and it will revert to normal viewing on its own.

Host Channel is the one carrying the TVGOS signal. VBI Channel is the one the unit is currently tuned to.

Happy exploring!
Steve B

Thanks for all of the info guys - very helpful. I'm happy to report that I have the problem partially resolved (not fully though). As I had reported, when I changed my STB from the SA standard def to the Samsung HD - my TVGOS died. I've since split the RF raw cable feed from the wall and put one output to the STB, and the other raw output to the Panny. I then reconfigured the Panny TVGOS settings to "Cable without a cable box". This worked, and within 24 hours my TVGOS is back. However - due to the fact that I selected "cable w/o a cable box, I'm only getting a very small subset of TVGOS listings (only the lower channels). I don't have listings for any premiums other channels b/c the Panny things I'm not using a STB.

So - the good news is that the raw TWC RF feed is still sending TVGOS data (not sure if it's sending digital or analog to the Panny - but it's picking it up). Now I'm going to try reconfiguring the Panny for "Cable WITH a cable box to see if the premiums come back. I'll continue to have raw RF feeding the Panny (I've already seen that the output from the Samsung HD box is not picked up by the Panny) - but also have my STB plugged into "IN3" and will record from this input so I can record from the STB. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks!

Hi guys,
I have a quick question: can anyone explain to me why there are no current good subscription-free TVGOS-enabled DVR models on the market?

Both Panasonic and Sony have abandoned their DVR product lines, so folks have to go to eBay to buy an EH55 for a higher price than it cost 2-3 years ago. All this is in stark contrast to the general trends in all electronics, where in 2 years, the product would have halved its price and quadrupled its HDD capacity. Is it due to weak market demand (all cable/satellite providers giving DVRs and very few OTA enthusiasts) or some kind of "conspiracy" (side business reasons to drive primary manufacturers away from standalone DVRs)?! I don't count the DTVPal DVR (http://www.dishnetwork.com/dtvpal/dvr.shtml) for much since its reviews are lousy and my own DTVPal+ converter is lousy quality (firmware, reliability, easy of use).

For the record, I've had my Panasonic DMR-EH55 since November 2006 ($428 brand new from J&R.com) and I absolutely love it. I only have a few OTA channels and the EH55 is the piece of equipment that provides sufficient programming at our convenient times. The only current issue is the upcoming expiration of analog TVGOS, but I hope to get through that with a DTVPal+ TVGOS conversion. Still, very interested to know why isn't there an updated "EH55" with digital tuner and digital TVGOS, 1TB drive...

There has been many threads as to the demise of name brand DVDRs w/HDD. Probably the best explanation is, people are too cheap. They want the quality of a Panasonic or Pioneer but want to pay the price of a Funai (if even that).
When major mfgs. like Panasonic or Pioneer did make ~$500 quality DVDRs people balked at the price and also had trouble operating them. Apparently many were returned because people just couldn't figure how to operate them.

The only US HDD DVDR imported would be the Magnavox 2160 or similar Philips 3576. They don't have TVGOS aren't the build quality of the EH-55 or others of a few years back, but they cost 1/2 the price and have most of the features you were requesting.

Then there would be the international HDD DVDRs most notably by Panasonic and Pioneer. The best Panasonic would probably be the EH-68 going for a little under $500 and has a 320GB HDD. Note it does not have TVGOS or a digital(or NTSC) tuner. Others have suggested staying away from the international Pioneers due to there complexity operating in the US with our NTSC system.
Here's a link to a post listing the various Panasonic DVDRs, included are some of the international units also.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=16171983&postcount=1

Hi guys,
I have a quick question: can anyone explain to me why there are no current good subscription-free TVGOS-enabled DVR models on the market?
That may be a quick question, but it does NOT have a quick answer. There are numerous theories going around about the disappearance of these machines. A forum search will bring up many threads on the topic. Take your pick:

Consumer greed, making the price that people will pay for these tings below the profitability threshold.

Conspiracy of Hollywood content producers to keep these off the market.

Manufacturers have just given up on the US market because of the digital mandate.

BluRay has replaced the original DVD, in the marketplace and in manufacturers R&D departments, so no more money is being put into DVD development.

Etc.

As a pragmatist, I am not as concerend about a reason as I am about the fact that these machines have disappeared from the market place. In short, they are gone, and very unlikely to return. Sorry. It is something we all have to just deal with. Eventually, if this trend contines, the whole DVD Recorders forum will become obsolete. I'm not looking forward to that at all, there is too much good information here.

Thanks guys,
That's too bad. Anyway, looking forward, I hope I squeeze a few more years out of my EH55 and then the PC-based media centers evolve to a decent shape and form to comfortably use as living room DVR replacements: no mouse/keyboard operation, no/low fan noise, nice interface to TVs (HDMI or wireless)...

Howdy, all -- I'm an EH55 user who's been getting my TVGOS data thru DirecTV until the past month. Before that, the broadcasts were only about 1 per week, and even then only a day's worth of listings or so.

I'm currently confused by all of the TVGOS threads on the forum. for instance, I picked this one -- since I do have an EH55, after all -- even though my questions pertain largely to the source of my TVGOS...in this case, DirecTV. I hope that if this is not the correct thread, somebody will point me to the right one. I at least know enough not to try to stir up any useful info on the DirecTV forum!

I've been down this road before a few times, so I tried again to get some info about TVGOS from DirecTV. After the predicted "What's TVGOS?" I insisted on being put in contact with a supervisor, which I hoped would get me to someone with a clue, but in fact the supervisor reported that in his 7 years with DirecTV he had NEVER encountered TVGOS and had no idea what it was.

Since I had largely expected this kind of response, I also once again emailed Macrovision. In the past, Macrovision had assured me that DirecTV would continue to supply TVGOS after the Big Shutdown in a form that our NTSC devices could "hear". In light of my recent experiences I thought I'd try to get some assurance that this was still true, but so far I haven't heard anything.

I then decided, after essentially being shut down by the entire supply side, that I'd ask Panasonic what their latest info was. Today I spoke with a tech, and after getting the usual "reset the unit" routine (yeah, well, as a last resort....) he volunteered that DirecTV had changed to a different host channel! I verified that yes indeed, this was NEW INFORMATION -- DirecTV is now, according to the Panasonic tech, broadcasting TVGOS on Host Channel 224 rather than on the TV Guide Channel (DirecTV 237) that it's been for the past 3 years or more. I HOPE that he meant the channel that V9 devices like the EH55 can use (he is after all working for Panasonic...)

I just went through the V9 "VBI Scan Current Channel" routine ('963214785') with the VBI channel set to 224, and we'll see if the EH55 sees anything in the next 24 hours.

Lance

Hi guys, I have a quick question: can anyone explain to me why there are no current good subscription-free TVGOS-enabled DVR models on the market?

Its true this question has been explored many times over in other threads, but it doesn't hurt to try and give quickie "cliff notes" answers here and there to those who may not want to dive in to the deep end of that discussion. The real, core answer is the machines cost more money than Americans were willing to pay, and peripheral side issues were used by their mfrs as an excuse to just walk away from an unprofitable market segment. The side issues were: the introduction of cheap, rentable, easier to use cable/satellite PVRs took over the market overnight, TiVO came into its own as HDTV use skyrocketed, and the forced premature requirement to add ATSC tuners in 2006 all combined to sour mfrs on even bothering to sell a device they were running a loss on anyway.

Another key killer of these machines was the very nature of TVGOS itself. People expected it to be perfect and simple out of the gate, especially on machines that originally retailed for $500-600, but unfortunately it was FAR from perfect. There were no agreed-upon, debugged, tested standards for how mfrs should employ TVGOS in DVD recorders. The result was chaos: the Pioneer TVGOS recorders self-destructed faster than the tape reels in "Mission:Impossible", the Toshiba TVGOS units were completely inscrutable to most users, and the early attempts by Panasonic had issues. It took a year to shake things out and by that time the only mfr left standing was Panasonic, with the superb bug-free EH-55 and EH-75. Unfortunately these models debuted about ten minutes after the USA population had completely walked away from any DVD recorder priced above $99, and Panasonic washed its hands of a losing battle.

At present, there is no cost-effective way to mfr a TVGOS-enabled recorder unless it includes a hard drive. The major mfrs flatly refuse to sell a DVD/HDD recorder in the US for less than $350, and US consumers flatly refuse to spend that much, so we're at an impasse. Eventually it might be possible to run the TVGOS system off an embedded RAM/ROM circuit on cheaper DVD-only machines, but again recorder sales in the US/Canada region are so completely dead it isn't even worth the minimal design investment to the mfrs. I don't think we're going to see this. Even if we did, MacroVision seems to have its head so far up its ass that there's no guarantee the signal would even be available. Its absurd they can't give consumers a straight answer on this: if the plain truth is that the stations or cable/satellite vendors are demanding payment to carry it, and MacroVision can't afford such payments, then just tell consumers and put them out of their misery. Its not as if this would stall sales of TVGOS-enabled products, because there aren't any left to speak of besides Sony televisions. Those Sonys rely on digital TVGOS, and if reports from their owners are any indication, digital TVGOS ain't workin right yet.

A big part of the problem may simply be that TVGOS is controlled by a private company thats never really found a way to make money off it, so they bungle it every which way from Sunday. I believe in Europe the program guide system is subsidized by the governments, at least in the UK. Every recorder there uses the guide system. With all the money the Feds have thrown at our inane ATSC/QAM transition, perhaps they should have thrown a few mill at MacroVision and bought out TVGOS to add it into the spec. Imagine if every cheap CECB conversion box could provide the TVGOS signal? Problem solved.

Only problem is (which is so in my case), if you can't receive the digital host channel carrying the TVGOS signal, then you will have absolutely no guide info at all - period.

At least with PSIP, you get the guide info for every channel you can receive.

I'm posting here since there's no dedicated thread for eh50's.

Last night my DMR-EH50 went into the self check shut itself off mode. When powered on it goes through the - hello - please wait - self check cycle. It then goes to the guide - displays the TV program and after a few seconds shut itself off. After unplugging it for awhile, the Panny went through a single self check cycle and appears to be working ok for the moment. A DVD played fine, TV viewing was fine, and playing one of the recordings was ok. (There's nothing on the hard drive that I would be upset about losing).

I'm wondering if the hard drive is drifting towards failing? If so, I thought I might swap the drive myself over shipping the Panny to Elk Grove for the $130 repair special.

I'm sure I've seen posts about what's involved in replacing a hard drive in the Panny DVR's somewhere but haven't been able to locate them. If I recall correctly the hard drive is a WD IDE drive and you can install a new one by just swapping them out? And that the panny will format the new one to the proprietary system and whatever size the original drive regardless of how big the new drive is. Is it that straightforward or are there additional steps that need to be followed?

I'm posting here since there's no dedicated thread for eh50's.

Last night my DMR-EH50 went into the self check shut itself off mode. When powered on it goes through the - hello - please wait - self check cycle. It then goes to the guide - displays the TV program and after a few seconds shut itself off. After unplugging it for awhile, the Panny went through a single self check cycle and appears to be working ok for the moment. A DVD played fine, TV viewing was fine, and playing one of the recordings was ok. (There's nothing on the hard drive that I would be upset about losing).

I'm wondering if the hard drive is drifting towards failing? If so, I thought I might swap the drive myself over shipping the Panny to Elk Grove for the $130 repair special.

I'm sure I've seen posts about what's involved in replacing a hard drive in the Panny DVR's somewhere but haven't been able to locate them. If I recall correctly the hard drive is a WD IDE drive and you can install a new one by just swapping them out? And that the panny will format the new one to the proprietary system and whatever size the original drive regardless of how big the new drive is. Is it that straightforward or are there additional steps that need to be followed?

Another matter worth consideration is the condition of power supply capacitors. There are several threads where failing or failed power supply capacitors have been discussed. One of those threads is found here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1055111

Ordinarily I would post a link to that thread . . .

Another matter worth consideration is the condition of power supply capacitors. There are several threads where failing or failed power supply capacitors have been discussed. One of those threads is "Whither the capacitors in Panasonic recorders?" That thread is currently found toward the bottom of page five. Set the date criteria at the bottom of the front page to go back far enough to view threads where the most recent post was more than thirty days ago.

Ordinarily I would post a link to that thread. This morning I upgraded to Internet Explorer 8 with the result that I seem to have lost the ability to copy and paste a link. Perhaps an IE8 user might give me some advice concerning that procedure.

I read through some power capacitor replacement posts while I was searching for answers to the self check shut down cycle. The behavior described sounded different though - getting stuck in the please wait. So the self check shut off cycle could be indicative as well?

Another thread I was reading about it:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f106/dmr-e85h-hangs-please-wait-204006/
as well as your post #648.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=684277&page=22

Great link thanks - tdcrjeff step by step pics of his eh50 will be very useful when I have a chance to take the cover off. I didn't notice anything strange last year when the cover was off to clean the rubber on the DVD ram spindle but that was about 10 months ago and I wasn't looking at the tops of the capacitors.

I read through the power capacitor replacement thread while I was searching for answers to the self check shut down cycle. The behavior described sounded different though - getting stuck in the please wait. So the self check shut off cycle could be indicative as well?

Another thread I was reading about it:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f106/dmr-e85h-hangs-please-wait-204006/
as well as your post #648.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=684277&page=22

Yes, the advice provided by JazzGuy1233 has helped many to fix their Panasonics. In those threads JazzGuy and I (post #650) should not have included the "l" in "Touhy" Ave. where the Panasonic Digital Service Center is located.

Last March, TVGOS disappeared here in Davis, CA, and lots of other places, judging from the discussions here. There was much speculation as to why, mostly around the digital transition.

In mid-April, it came back up, and has been working flawlessly up until last night, about 12 hours ago. This a.m. I checked the listings and got the dreaded "searching for stations with TV Guide data" screen and no listings. And this is now a week after the digital transition went into effect....

Is anyone out there in Northern CA, on Comcast, or anywhere else or any other service having the same problem? Last time here it was KVIE that stopped and restarted carrying the TVGOS data.

Let's hope it's not permanent this time either :(

Steve B.

It sounds like you're local cable system isn't converting the digital TVGOS to analog. I've been watching the # of days of guide listings drop by one day each day. Currently I only have today left which leads me to believe today must be day #8 since the analog shutoff.
Note you may need to do a reset on your machine to start the searching routine. That's done by(with the unit powered ON) holding both the CH up and CH down buttons on the main unit(together) for at least 5 seconds. Note this will reset most of your defaults(and all your TVGOS) to factory default. I did this on a EH-50 connected to analog Comcast in my area and a few days later I started getting guide info(no STB involved). Of course my OTA EH-55 will need a DTV Pal or Artec CECB to do the conversion if I'm to ever get TVGOS on that unit.

I was hoping to avoid resetting the box precisely because I lose most of the settings, especially the search keywords and which channels I've turned off. But today, I called Panasonic to see if they could exert some pressure on Comcast to deal with the problem.

Fairly quickly after the voice robot, a tech answered and seemed to understand what the problem was about, and told me to hold on while she connected me to a specialist......40 minutes later, the specialist came on the line. All she would do is insist that I reset the machine and leave it off for 24 hours. I protested essentially, been there, done that, but she refused to budge. I got the idea that this was a protocol that they had to go through before she could "elevate my ticket." That sounded promising, in that if the reset did not work, she was definite I should call back citing the ticket number, which strongly implied there was something more that could be done.

Accepting the inevitable, I've reset the machine, re-initiated the TVGOS, turned it off and hidden the remote for the next 24 hours. We shall see.....

sb

jay214128 and falcon58 posted items (04-02-08) about aborted recordings in the Spring of 2008 that I missed until now. I've had the same problems for the year & a half I've owned the EH55. I'm writing now to say that I sent my unit back to Panasonic after trying to troubleshoot it by reinitializing, installing new firmware and reformatting. Nothing worked so based on the suspicion of bad sectors (inspired by a post to this forum) I sent it to Panasonic to have the hard drive replaced which they claimed to have done.

The reason I'm writing now is to report that the new drive did not help matters. The slight improvement was about as brief as the earlier reformat I did with the original drive. I came back to search the forum yesterday when I first noticed the "log" entry in the recordings-history with the msg “recording was stopped by the system. – reason error has occurred" I had searched the forum many times in the last year for aborted recording but only found jay214128 and falcon58 posts now via this error msg.http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/index.php/t-684277-p-3.html

The skeptic in me thinks that they might not have actually changed the hard drive. It is a very simple operation that you can do yourself. If they really did replace the HDD, then something more serious is going on--something that you most likely cannot do yourself. I have never seen this error, but since the repair has it's own warranty, I'd ship it back.

Hi Luke, you could be right. Here are 2 reasons I'd like to think they did it right. I sent it in for service in Oct. 08 to have the HD replaced, they went ahead and replaced the DVD drive!! When this came to light via the job ticket after being sent back to me, I called them. Before I sent it back a 2nd time they asked me to hold off long enough for them to get their hands on a replacement hard drive as they did not have them in stock. Once secured they told me to send it in. Panasonic Service did not inspire a lot of confidence here but under these circumstances not replacing the HD in round 2 would be quite a convoluted, willful deception. But alas anything could happen. Have other people had the abort problem fixed with a new drive?

I am not sure what the standard fix for a repetitive "aborted recording" error is, sorry. I have to agree with you now that I have the whole story. It would be very unlikely that the drive wasn't replaced. Sometimes these things are too darn complicated.

Well I can tell you that upgrading the firmware does NOT fix the timer abort problem (it records from 4 to 8 seconds of the program then stops). It seems to occur most often with the second of back to back recordings (though last night I changed the timer to leave a 1 minute gap between recordings and that didn't deem to help - maybe not long enough). I've started extending the record time of the first program to cover the second when they are on the same channel, though when you want to record back to back on different channels you're often screwed. To me it has all the signs of sloppy bug ridden software that Panasonic hasn't, or won't, fix.

To me it has all the signs of sloppy bug ridden software that Panasonic hasn't, or won't, fix.
I think it's worse than that. I think that Panasonic just doesn't care. If they cared, the problem would be fixed and a new firmware would be released. They are just not interested.

It just occurred to me after a failed timer recording... that if I'm around and see that it has failed, I do a manual record which has never failed or stopped short. If there any reason to think that a timer recording would write to a different disc sector that a manual? For that matter why is the failed recording always 5 to 9 sec, wouldn't a bad disc sector abort the recording at random points in time?

I reported earlier (Posts #823 & 827) that TVGOS failed on my Panasonic EH-55 last March & came back up in early April, in Davis, CA, Comcast. This update is to tell that it went down again, no listings but with grid, about 6/20/09. Per advice from Panasonic (indeed, a refusal to assist me any further unless I first did this step) I reset the machine, but not without first writing down my search list & channel lineup. (Posts #853 & 855) This had little effect other than to lose the channel lineup as well as the listings. Never found a host channel.

Just came back home from three weeks on vacation & checked status. Same deal. But before I called Panasonic or Comcast again, I did some reseach to see if there were any new developments. Macrovision has changed its name to "Rovi" or Rovicorp.com. On their website they have a page for the status of various means of getting input to an analog (NTSC) device with respect to the digital transition after June 12, 2009. (http://www.rovicorp.com/dtv/10053.htm). There is a new cable standard "SCTE-127" relating to the content of the VBI, which used to include closed captioning and the TVGOS data, but no longer exists in digital transmissions. Since my analog cable service is providing closed captions just fine, that sounded hopeful.

I selected "Cable-Ready (no cable box)" which said SCTE-127 requires the cable company to support TVGOS over the analog cable. I selected "learn more" and was switched to another page (http://digitaltransition.macrovision.com/digtrans.aspx) that allowed me to input my zip code, and got an instant reply that they have confirmed with Comcast-Davis that I should receive TV Guide/Guide Plus+ after the transition, and if I didn't get it, to contact the cable company. Armed with all this information, I felt prepared to confront Comcast.

Not wanting to look like a fool, I decided to reboot the EH-55 once again before calling. I held down the Channel up/down buttons for the requisite 10 seconds and went through all the setup screens as though the machine was new. I turned it off for 2 days and was pleased and amazed to see the TVGOS grid back fully populated with channels and the listings mostly complete! So there is hope that the digital transition has not crippled our "legacy" DVRs for good. :)

Checked the host & vbi data per the 753159852 code:
Host State: 0x80 (same as before most recent loss of TVGOS)
Host ID: 0x13 (same as before most recent loss of TVGOS)
Host Chan: 0:0-13 (CBS; used to be 006 PBS/KVIE)
VBI Chan: 0:0-13 (CBS; used to be 006 PBS/KVIE)
OTA Lineup: 0x0
CRLineup: 0x132C

Hope this helps anyone else having similar problems.
Steve

Well I can tell you that upgrading the firmware does NOT fix the timer abort problem (it records from 4 to 8 seconds of the program then stops). It seems to occur most often with the second of back to back recordings (though last night I changed the timer to leave a 1 minute gap between recordings and that didn't deem to help - maybe not long enough). I've started extending the record time of the first program to cover the second when they are on the same channel, though when you want to record back to back on different channels you're often screwed. To me it has all the signs of sloppy bug ridden software that Panasonic hasn't, or won't, fix.

--------------------------------
I'm back sadly

Panasonic replaced my hard drive, DVD, updated my ROM and it still died after 9 seconds of recording on shows 40% of the time.

Panasonic has many bugs in this machine.

the almost full fix i found was to have a leading "0" in front of all the channels. this can be done in set up. I was using no leading 0 just eg 15 but the Motorola cable box was slow on accepting the channels on the DVR's second IFR blaster signal. the leading 0 seems to fix the problem 98% of the time.

Panasonic said the Error on recording was a bad sector they were wrong it is a bug and this is the only way to partially fix it.

Sadly I am back with the possible TVGOS problem
I live in Vancouver B.C. and the channel was 9 CTV Canada, but after the usual brown out, or power failure, or unplugging that resets my DVR back to searching the channels and no listings, this is the 7th time it has run through the full 999 channels and it is still doing it.

I plan to try setup as only 99 channels available and see if it works faster?

I will check back later.

--------------------------------
I'm back sadly

Panasonic replaced my hard drive, DVD, updated my ROM and it still died after 9 seconds of recording on shows 40% of the time.

Panasonic has many bugs in this machine.

the almost full fix i found was to have a leading "0" in front of all the channels. this can be done in set up. I was using no leading 0 just eg 15 but the Motorola cable box was slow on accepting the channels on the DVR's second IFR blaster signal. the leading 0 seems to fix the problem 98% of the time.

Panasonic said the Error on recording was a bad sector they were wrong it is a bug and this is the only way to partially fix it.

Sadly I am back with the possible TVGOS problem
I live in Vancouver B.C. and the channel was 9 CTV Canada, but after the usual brown out, or power failure, or unplugging that resets my DVR back to searching the channels and no listings, this is the 7th time it has run through the full 999 channels and it is still doing it.

I plan to try setup as only 99 channels available and see if it works faster?

I will check back later.

---------------

08/04/09 just got off the phone with SHAW the Canadian cable network.
They add the signal to Chanel 9 CTV and use this to update their own PVR that they sell ( that have no DVD burning and no way to send the recorded information to a separate DVD burner or VCR- BAD deal).

So Canada seems to still have the signal in a Panasonic usable form.

But make sure you you have the SVID with audio cables from the cable box (out) to the INP3 (SVID and audio) IN. In the manual Pg 15 it says the this must be connected for the TVGuide signal. But it does not say what the RFIN connection is used for since this does not have the signal that the DVR records from eg recording chanel 67. The IFR blaster must change this.

my system DMR-EH55 has


wall cable ------splitter-----cable box in(A)
---- second splitter------DVR RFIN and HDMI to the TV
------VCR recorder

note (A) acording to Shaw the motarola cable box must not get it's signal from any other device eg from the DVR or another VCR.

Hi falcon58,

"Panasonic said the Error on recording was a bad sector they were wrong it is a bug and this is the only way to partially fix it."

So adding leading zeros will (mostly) eliminate the aborted recordings? Wow. I'll give it a try but you have to wonder about the rhyme and reason. AS things are now the recording aborts after the channel has been successfully called up by the IR blaster - wonder what change a leading zero on the channel introduces. So I'll reprogram the eh55 to make channel 14 into 014 and 101 into 0101.

Thanks,

Paul

Can any EH55 owners verify that it will record DL discs? And if yet, will it record the whole DL in one session?

Sort of. My EH-55 can read DL disks and can write to them. It can not record directly from the tuner or other input to the DL disk. One must first record the program to the hard drive, then copy it to a DL disk. Apparently, it needs to write a special temporary file to the HDD as well, because the manual (and my experience) says you need at least 4 hours free space on the HDD (in addition to the titles you want to record). However, I have had no problems in accomplishing this. I use it occasionally for those epic movies well over two hours in length or when I want an especially good copy of a movie and so record it in XP mode. I can then copy it in high speed mode onto one DL disk. It will copy enough to fill the entire disk, and do so all in one session. The manual warns that there will be a slight pause on playback when the EH-55 switches layers, but I've never noticed it.

Hope this helps,
Steve

Can any EH55 owners verify that it will record DL discs? And if yet, will it record the whole DL in one session?
I use Verbatim +R DL disks on a regular basis, and yes, the machine makes these just fine, with the few catches listed above by sberlin. You cannot do realtime recording to these type of disks, only recording from the hard drive. There is a very obvious glitch, about 1 second, at the layer change, but that is the be expected, it happens with commercial disks too. The second question, can it be done in one session, the answer is yes. Unlike some recorders, you do no thave to stop and fianlize the first layer and then start the second one and finally finalize it. To the EH55, the disk is just one long write surface.

I would recommend that you use Verbatim +R DL disks that are made in Singapore, NOT in Taiwan or India. You will notice on this page (http://www.thenerds.net/VERBATIM.Verbatim_8x_DVDR_DL_Media.95484.html) that the country of origin is listed. Also, be aware that the cost of DL disks is much higher. I only use them when it's necessary. They are four to five times the cost of a single layer disk, so you really have to want/need to use one.

hi all... sorry to have not posted recently, and i hope i'm not covering ground that has not already been covered, but i believe i have an answer to how to get this TR-40 ( and derivitives ) to actually work ( in my case )...

i will post this on all TVGOS threads that i'm subscribed to, in hope of conveying to all.

1 - my setup

OTA > TR40 ( using RF channel 3 ouput ) > PANNY DMR-E95 V7 ( analog tuner, analog TVGOS ) > TV....

2 - TR40 programming process

TR40 initialized using regular installation process...

3 - Panny programming process

panny set to Cable NO, Box NO, regular ZIP ( mine is 89052 - las vegas )

4 - sequence of events

shut down panny
wait at least 24 hours ( important... be patient )
panny might get confused... might display ' search for data has failed '
leave the thing alone and let it sit turned off longer
panny clock gets updated when it finds a host channel ( important -
panny has not necessarily figured it all out yet. all it knows is that it
found enough guide data to set its clock... it's still working on stuff )

leave the thing alone some more and wait...
panny then finds its HOST channel AND host identification ( important -
it is NOT just the RF channel, here, but the identification of the
host as well. in my case, it found the host with data on CBS, normally channel 8-1, RF channel 7 ( on the TR40 ), and on RF channel 3 on the
panny.

at this point, the panny has enough to obtain a channel lineup...
wait for the panny to display a lineup grid ( it will indicate NO LISTINGS for everyhing...

here is where the panny gets really confused... in my case, the panny knows where the TVGOS data is coming from... RF channel 3 ( output of TR40 ), AND the CBS affiliate. but in the listing grid lineup, the panny thinks that CBS
( KLAS ) is on its normal channel ( in my case, channel 8 )...

if you leave the panny in this state, you never get a listing update because the panny goes after KLAS, which it thinks is on RF channel 8... after several days, you continue to get no listings due to this, and then finally the panny will give up...

once you have a lineup, it's IMPERATIVE to go into the listing channel lineup and CHANGE the host station to the same channel that the panny uses for its found host channel... in my case, i manually changed KLAS from RF channel 8
to RF channel 3... while i made other changes in the channel editor, i don't
think it's important to make any other changes in the TVGOS channel editor.

the key, here, is that it's not only important to keep the host station turned ON in the channel editor, but to actually assign that station to whatever channel your panny thinks that host station is transmitting on. once the panny has a lineup, it will use whatever channel that lineup says is for the host station. if you have not changed the station in question to the same channel as it originally found TVGOS data on, the panny will get lost and stop working...

so far, i've gone 48 hours, and continue to receive grid updates... i'll report back again to advise if i get a full week's worth of updates...

5 - important notes

1 - success is on my oldest TR40 with F103 firmware. i suspect that it will also work on my newer TR40 ( still F103 ), as well as my DTVPAL+ ( F106 ),
although i have not tested these other boxes all the way through.

2 - these boxes DO have bugs. if the tuner is commanded ( in TVGOS mode )
to go to an unoccupied channel, the boxes will lock up and may not recover without a power down restart. all 3 of my boxes do this. sometimes if i wait long enough, they will once again respond, but i usually just do a power down restart to get them to respond again.

3 - these boxes have some problems with the remote IR receivers. one of my boxes is almost deaf in that i must hold a remote within INCHES of the box for it to respond. another of my boxes is suceptible to spurious IR signals, even from RANDOM light in the room. in my case, this is what causes the box to want to jump out of TVGOS mode. the solution is to COVER the remote
IR detector with BLACK vinyl tape after setup so it becomes DEAF to ambient
light. in this condition, the TR40 will still respond if you hold a remote about 1
inch away from the box.

4 - this setup works properly, if the object of the game is to just get listings
without using the box for anything else. in my case, i just want a week's worth of listings, and i use external stuff for actual reception. in my case, i'm currently mixing the channel 3 TR40 output with the RF distribution output of a dish network SAT receiver ( modulated on channel OTA channel 51 )...

you can do whatever you want as far as the mix is concerned, as long as the TR40 ( on channels 3 or 4 ) is in the clear in the mix, and the panny can receive it without interference from other channels in the mix.

5 - again, the real key to this mess is to update the host station's RF channel
to channel 3 ( or 4 if you are using the TR40 output on channel 4 ) once you get a lineup into the panny's TVGOS system. the panny NEEDS to have what it thinks is its host station synchronized in its channel editor in order for it to get past the lineup and start populating the grid.

sorry for the long post, but i've been going crazy trying to get this thing to work right for over a year now, and it finally came to life...

best regards and good luck....

ron g...

Hi - I've been scanning this post looking for a solution to not getting TVGOS thru my EH-55. I've talked to my cable provider (Charter) and Panasonic without getting resolution. The CBS channel that passes the TVGOS is far enough away (Mason City, IA) that the antenna option suggested doesn't appear to be practical. Panasonic indicates the problem is that certain Motorola set-top boxes can not receive the TVGOS. Any additional thoughts on work-arounds? Thanks

WCCO in MSP broadcasts digital TVGOS so if you can receive WCCO and purchase one of the two CECBs that convert digital TVGOS to analog you may have luck using that to supply TVGOS to your EH-55.

Another thing I can think of that you can try is to split the cable signal - one leg to the cable box (which would be hooked up to the recorder through a line input), and the other to the RF in on the recorder.

If they're still including the analog TVGOS on the incoming line, it should be picked up by the recorder's tuner.

You'd have to set up appropriately for the sources involved, through the TVGOS setup (but I know - because I have one - that the EH55 lets you setup for more than one source, so you should be good to go there, at least).