Just got off the phone with Panasonic Tech Support about my ES-15. Suddenly stopped reading any discs and got a No Read message on the front panel. Read in this forum that might be a dirty laser lens so I ordered and tried a lens cleaning disc which the recorder wouldn't read either. She had me try one thing and then said to return it. Luckily for me it is 5 days away from going out of warranty so I can send it back. When I asked her, she said they've been having lots of this kind of problem and were hoping in the future to create a DVD disk to send out to correct the software problem but was not available now. Sure is a pain in the ass since this is a free HBO weekend on Dish network.

Try removing the cable inputs from the STB and see if everything works OK that way...may be a problem with STB rather than ES15...others have had a "freeze" problem since the DST changeover.

I don't understand. Are you saying the problem may be with dish network's box?

Yes, the cable/sat cos. pushed thru a DST update which seems to cause problems for the ES15. If you disconnect the input cables from the ES15 from the box, you should notice a diff.

Some people have been able to play but not record after disconnecting, so you might have to do a ES15 reset, then do both of the following:

1. Set the ES15 clock manually and turn DST OFF. Try playing/recording that way, then,

2. Connect back up to the box using IN2 or IN3 rather than IN1. See iof that works now.

Panny and some cable cos. are working to find the source and solution of the problem, but no answers yet. It does seem to be the DST update thos; since several problems appeared immediately after that and cleared up by disconnecting from the box.

EDIT: See this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10230179&&#post10230179) for a recommendation to record in IN1 and playback via IN2. SOmeone tried this and said it worked so far?

Thanks for your response. Had the recorder packed up and ready to send back to panasonic but took it out and just plugged it in. Still won't read a disc so I guess it's back to them after all. It's just hard for me to understand that something the Satellite dish company did could affect my recorder. I'm upset. It's hard enough for me to figure out how to use these things without some irresponsible idiot screwing it up for me. I ordered a replacement es15 and now will be afraid to hook it up for fear it'll do the same thing. Thanks again.

Thanks for your response. Had the recorder packed up and ready to send back to panasonic but took it out and just plugged it in. Still won't read a disc so I guess it's back to them after all. It's just hard for me to understand that something the Satellite dish company did could affect my recorder. I'm upset. It's hard enough for me to figure out how to use these things without some irresponsible idiot screwing it up for me. I ordered a replacement es15 and now will be afraid to hook it up for fear it'll do the same thing. Thanks again.
Did you reset the ES15 before trying to play?