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Panasonic EH55, TVGOS, and now working with Verizon FIOS?

4K views 32 replies 9 participants last post by  Bushman4 
#1 ·
I have 3 Panasonic DMR-EH55's that I use daily for various recordings. This morning when I turned two of them on and hit the TV Guide button on the remote to set a timer recording for later this evening, a message came up saying that the settings had changed and to select my cable company. The listing by default had selected Comcast of Trenton, which I then changed to Comcast Digital Cable. Almost all of my preset recordings were now greyed out as if they were no longer available, which is to be expected because now TVGOS has to download the new listings.


What surprised me though was that when I first got the screen to select my cable system I scrolled down to find several choices for Verizon FIOS, which I had always been lead to believe would NOT work with the Panasonic recorders. Is this just a recent change? Did anyone else get this message. I've held off switching to FIOS mainly because the Panasonic recorders would not work with their boxes, if this has changed I can probably save myself about $40 a month by switching to their

Cable/internet/phone package. I'm curious to know if anyone who has FIOS has tried this yet?


I should note that my other EH55 which I left on all night did not get the message to change settings, but now that I've shut it off I'm expecting I'll get that message within the next 24 hours. It also no longer shows any channels past 97 in the TVGOS, where it ised to show everything.
 
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#2 ·
Yes, I think some people here use TVGOS with FIOS. But you'll probably have to download the listings OTA, which means after February you'll lose them.


As far as not getting all the channels in the initial download, they should be "hidden" in the channel editor list. You just have to go in there and turn them on, and enter in (or change) the channel numbers where applicable.


If you don't get any guide data (because the cable company's now stripping it), you can get it by setting up for digital cable and OTA, and attaching an antenna that will get you the data from the OTA host channel. But again, that's only 'till February.
 
#3 ·
???? Did something strange happen with the EH-55 and TVGOS last night?

Mine had been working fine for months and all the sudden last night I was playing a DVD on it and at 9pm it was supposed to start a scheduled event to the HDD. Well it didn't and when I went into TVGOS my system settings had changed and all my channels including cable system was incorrect. WTF! I've been playing around with it all day today and finally resorted to the old CH UP CH DOWN to reset everything. Now I'll have to change all my channels which is a several hour ordeal


I thought this was a one shot thing, but now that someone else had the same thing happen....

Since I had to reset everything anyway this time I'm trying to see if my unit will get the TVGOS signal after analog shutdown. I've disconnected my rooftop antenna and selected cable box only, no OTA. So far the the EH-55 has blasted my CM-7000 up to channel 280 and I don't think it's found anything. My local digital TVGOS station is 4.1 and I would have thought it would have stopped at that channel if it found anything. And no the CM doesn't go to 280 but the EH-55 doesn't know that and I think it will try up to maybe 1000. Shouldn't try more since I told it my cable box didn't go above 999. It didn't give me a choice to stop at 99. I don't want to stop the process since it may start all over again.

I was hoping the CM would pass the digital TVGOS like the DTVPal was supposed to, so far it's a no. I'll let you know if I have any luck.
 
#4 ·
Several hours? Even with a bunch of cable channels in there to turn off, it shouldn't take more than 20 minutes, especially with the v9 guide.


'Course, if you've only done it once before, I guess you're not too well-experienced at it. Probably haven't learned all the workings and shortcuts yet.
 
#5 ·
It sends out each channel and started at 02 and it waits 1 minute between channel blasts. It's up to 330 now


I guess that would be 330 minutes or 5 1/2 hrs that it's been chugging along. I sure hope it stops before 999 which would be over 16 1/2 hrs


Are you saying that if I had edited my channel list instead of leaving it default it would have only scanned those edited channels? If so then I sure should have done that prior to the search thing. I can't remember how high the digital channel list for my zip code went, I know their was channels in the 500s though.
 
#6 ·
You have me confused. You said you disconnected your rooftop antenna and selected cable box only but then you start talking about a CM-7000.


So which is it. Cable or OTA


If you have gone manual OTA with the CM-7000 then follow the post I made in the other thread for setting up the E-85. Unless the EH55 can understand digital TVGOS (which I don't think it does) you are done with an EPG on the EH55. The CM-7000 does not translate digital TVGOS into analog TVGOS. The EH-55 will continue to scan the channels forever when in standby looking for an analog signal it will never find. You are operating like the E-85 now -- completely manual.
 
#7 ·
In order to use the IR blaster I am forced to choose Cable with a cable box and also program in regular TVGOS. To get the digital channels to show up in TVGOS I need to select Digital cable, which is what gives me such a huge initial channel list.

I don't have cable but my EH-55 treats my CM-7000 as a cable box. I have my antenna hooked to the CM's RF input and only use the S-out to feed line input 3 on the Panny.

I used to also have a antenna feed to the EH-55s RF input, which is where I believe it got it's analog TVGOS signal(from my local analog CBS station). Now I've disconnected that RF feed to simulate the analog shutdown.


What confuses me about the EH-55 is it uses V9 of TVGOS which I've read is compatible with digital TVGOS. How the heck can the EH-55 get the digital TVGOS if it doesn't have a digital tuner? I can see the Sony HDD DVDR getting it since it does have a digital tuner, but the EH-55



Kelson I think you're right after the analog shutdown I don't think our Pannys will be able to program using regular TVGOS and the IR blaster. That is unless they ever get the DTVPal working and even then with the poor PQ of that thing I'd just as soon do as you do, that is manual events selecting the line input as a source and forgo the IR blaster and TVGOS grid.
 
#8 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/15129844


. . . I'd just as soon do as you do, that is manual events selecting the line input as a source and forgo the IR blaster and TVGOS grid.

No, that's not what I do. The IR blaster controls the CM-7000 as an external tuner. It defaults to L3 for any channel input from the CM-7000. There is no TVGOS but I set up a manual timer record on the E-85 telling it time and channel. The E-85 knows to send the channel out the IR blaster and take it's input from L3. When it's on standby, it continuously changes cahnnels on the CM-7000 looking for an analog TVGOS signal.


If you set your EH55 up like this and it is supposed to be compatible with digital TVGOS, then perhaps the EH55 suffers from the same problem the DVTPal does in that the digital TVGOS being broadcast isn't the right format for these devices.
 
#9 ·
Oh I misunderstood how you set yours up. Tomorrow I'll power up my EH-55 and try it your way. I had thought you were doing strictly manual recordings and not using the IR blaster.

So from your post it sounds like in standby your E-85 continuously keeps changing the CMs channel? I though that the TVGOS gave up searching after a while (hours or days) if it couldn't find the signal. Is this one of the reasons you leave your E-85 on all the time?
 
#10 ·
I encountered the same problem yesterday. When I check the listings, a box appeared and noted something was changed and the 'destination' setting had switched to another city, so I set it back (cable with a digital cable box) and some of my scheduled recordings were grayed-out with '???'. Also, I was only able to get about two days worth of listings max, what the hell?
 
#11 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/15130596


I had thought you were doing strictly manual recordings and not using the IR blaster.

We are doing strictly manual recordings - but we're also using the IR blaster. We just bring up the timer programming screen directly by pressing the "VCR+" button on the remote - we don't use or go through the TVGOS at all, even though you have to set up initially through it (for cable, to get it to control the box).


But just from what you describe, and also from what I remember when tinkling around with it before I set it up with Dish, I believe there are some differences in the EH55/75V's v9 guide and the way it would work with an external box (particularly in the setup - it has nothing to do with any future digital TVGOS issues, I don't think - it has to do more with the fact that the EH55/75V is designed to work with cable and satellite boxes, while still being able to get the guide info for them OTA). I'll try to experiment with mine when I get the chance (since I'm not using the CM in the other room for the winter anyway - thanks to my little raccoon friend).
 
#12 ·
80sguy-I suppose I could have just tried entering my correct zip code and see if that would have brought back my channel line up, but I thought this was a perfect time to try what Kelson and Ramm were doing. It sure sounds like a TVGOS problem then since several people reported the same strange things happening Friday night.


Ramm, according to the EH-55 manual after 3 days of searching for TVGOS the machine will give me a choice to try again or stop searching. If I don't answer this question or select try again it will try for 2 more days (5 days total) and if it still doesn't find TVGOS at that time it will give up and only allow me the manual choice. I SURE WISH IT WOULD GIVE ME THE CHOICE STRAIGHT AWAY and I could avoid all this searching



This morning my CM is at channel 85 and increasing, last night when I retired it was at channel 800 something. I think it goes to 999 and then starts all over again. I believe a work around if one doesn't want all this searching would be to never turn the EH-55 off, like Kelson does, but I'm hoping if I let it run it's course it will give me the choice after 3 days and then I'll be done with the searching and I can turn the Panny off between events.


Note I still may reset the Panny after my testing and go back to fully automatic TVGOS, it did work great before the glitch, but I'm quite confident now that after 2/09 I won't have that choice anymore, that is unless the DTVPal ever works and I then I'd only be interested if they improve the PQ. I totally believe Ramm that I wouldn't be satisfied with the PQ of the current model. I'd rather go the manual route if I only had the 2 choices.


Ramm, you've been using TVGOS much longer than I, do these glitches happen very often or was this really a fluke, maybe related to the analog to digital conversion? I'm just wondering how reliable the DTVPal DVR might be if these glitches happen even twice a year, I just don't know.


Just to clarify how I know what the Panny/CM is doing. The EH-55 is off(otherwise it wouldn't be searching for stations) and looks like it's doing nothing(hdd is not spinning, only clock display). The CM is on and I'm monitoring it's output via it's composite output. The EH-55 is fed from the S-video output of the CM.
 
#13 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/15130596


Oh I misunderstood how you set yours up. Tomorrow I'll power up my EH-55 and try it your way. I had thought you were doing strictly manual recordings and not using the IR blaster.

So from your post it sounds like in standby your E-85 continuously keeps changing the CMs channel? I though that the TVGOS gave up searching after a while (hours or days) if it couldn't find the signal. Is this one of the reasons you leave your E-85 on all the time?

Go back to the other thread and do a re-read of post #6 . All the details are there.
 
#14 ·
Thanks, I reread it last night any I now understand what you guys are doing. I'll know firsthand how your method works later. It sounds like I've got mine setup now basically like you do. Are you saying that even now if you turn your E-85 off it starts changing the channels on your CM? Were you not given the choice to stop searching like it sounds like the EH-55 will do after 3 days of searching? Their could be differences between our 2 machines in the way they handle no TVGOS signal.
 
#15 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/15132728


Are you saying that even now if you turn your E-85 off it starts changing the channels on your CM? Were you not given the choice to stop searching like it sounds like the EH-55 will do after 3 days of searching?

Yes, it does. I turn the E-85 off after the evenings recording session is over. I only turn it on when I need it to watch or record. The CM-7000, on the other hand stays on 24x7 and has been on for over 2 months.


Whenever the E-85 is on standby it scans the channels of the CM-7000 looking for an analog TVGOS signal. There was no choice for it to quit after 5 days. Don't forget the E-85 was the first Panasonic model to include TVGOS. To their credit they got it right the first time and simply improved on it with subsequent models.
 
#16 ·
We'll see if it actually quits or gives me the option in 3 days. I remember reading a post a while ago that said there Panny(can't remember model #) did quit eventually. I think another option for you then if you didn't want it constantly searching would be to just leave your E-85 on all the time. Like you said in your first post the HDD would go into sleep mode and spin down. Although leaving it on all the time may cause as much wear and tear as just letting it constantly blast your CM.

Sorry I misunderstood your first post. Now it's quite obvious how you set yours up and makes perfect sense. Hindsight is 20/20
 
#18 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/15132549


Ramm, you've been using TVGOS much longer than I, do these glitches happen very often or was this really a fluke, maybe related to the analog to digital conversion? I'm just wondering how reliable the DTVPal DVR might be if these glitches happen even twice a year, I just don't know.

The station probably turned off their signal for awhile. 95% of the time, problems with TVGOS either originate at the host station or due to user error in setting it up somehow. My Sony DVR (w/v8) temporarliy loses the guide when the signal is lost for awhile.


The glitches are not really common. They could have turned it off temporarily (intenionally or accidently) because they were fooling around with trying to set the digital one up. Or it could have been any one of a number of things. Do you ever lose the signal from that station? It could've even been turned off intentionally, because stations all over are doing all kinds of thing now in the overnight hours - they're testing for the switchover in Feb. They've been turning off some of the analogs, and switching the digitals over to their new channel assignments, sometimes at different power levels, overnight here recently. They might've even done a software update, which oftentimes requires a reset (sometimes when they add new channels to the list that will happen for some people - but not usually for me - I usually don't even know they've been added 'till I go in the channel editor list for some reason and see them tacked on to the end of it. It usually takes some kind of a big update for me to have "glitches". I get 'em maybe once every year or two. But I don't lose the guide, or any of my set timers when it happens. Usually the guide just "sticks" in some way.


As far as the DTVPal DVR and digital TVGOS, I have no idea how well the digital version will work. You would probably have a better idea of that than I would. Do you ever have any problems in your area with digital TVGOS and your Sony LCD (other than only getting 24 hrs. worth, which is probably just by design)?
 
#19 ·
Yes, either that or the schedule button on the remote. I just scheduled my weeks worth of events manually and it went just fine. It stopped searching as soon as I turned it on but as soon as I turned it off it started searching again, starting right where it left off, channel 400 something.

Sure hope it lets me choose to stop the searching in a few days. I kind of feel sorry for it, always searching but never finding anything



Other than the quirk that I need to have a couple unwanted not receivable stations on my list(If I delete them the same channel number in my area also gets deleted) my TVs digital TVGOS works like a champ. It didn't have any problems Friday night like my EH-55 did.


A few other people have also reported analog TVGOS problems the same night from different markets so I don't think it was local. In hindsight I suppose I could have just tried entering in my correct zip code again but I kind of wanted to try your manual method and figured a total reset was the best opportunity. I may go back to fully automatic TVGOS after my testing, I'll see how I like the manual method. One nice thing about the automatic TVGOS is the gird tells me if the program is a repeat and also gives a full description, I also like the auto titling, something that the manual method does not do. Of course come 2/09 it will probably be my only alternative.
 
#20 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/15135016


Yes, either that or the schedule button on the remote. I just scheduled my weeks worth of events manually and it went just fine.

I didn't look hard at my EH75's remote or try anything (I never, ever have to set timers on it when using it with Dish, which is how I've been using it since I got it), so I didn't know the exact button used, but on my E85's it's only got a "VCR+" one that brings you right to the page.


(edit: OK, I just looked, and I see the "schedule" button now. Funny - never even noticed it before. Probably because I only use the remote at night, and I generally watch in the dark.)
 
#21 ·
Actually I just tried and the VCR+ button does nothing but the Schedule button does bring me right to the Scheduling menu. Truthfully I've never used the VCR+ button and I'm not sure under what circumstances it does anything. Maybe if setup for OTA? I think it works on my ES-30v, but again I've never really programmed with it.

Thinking about again I think one needs to program the VCR+ function and I've never done that on my EH-55, I think I did it once on my ES-30.
 
#23 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/15134145


We'll see if it actually quits or gives me the option in 3 days. I remember reading a post a while ago that said there Panny(can't remember model #) did quit eventually. I think another option for you then if you didn't want it constantly searching would be to just leave your E-85 on all the time. Like you said in your first post the HDD would go into sleep mode and spin down. Although leaving it on all the time may cause as much wear and tear as just letting it constantly blast your CM.

I mention the fact of constant scanning in passing and as information. I really consider it a non-issue. I can't see where there is any extra wear-n-tear on the E-85. From a large number of the posts here, I think people tend to consider these units as being far more "fragile" then they really are.
 
#24 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/15132549


80sguy-I suppose I could have just tried entering my correct zip code and see if that would have brought back my channel line up, but I thought this was a perfect time to try what Kelson and Ramm were doing. It sure sounds like a TVGOS problem then since several people reported the same strange things happening Friday night....

I changed it back to my original setting and all is well with a week's full of listings, what triggered the change is beyond me. Are they gettin' ready for '09 already?
 
#26 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelson /forum/post/15136082


I mention the fact of constant scanning in passing and as information. I really consider it a non-issue. I can't see where there is any extra wear-n-tear on the E-85. From a large number of the posts here, I think people tend to consider these units as being far more "fragile" then they really are.

Well I'm glad to say after 3 days of constant searching my EH-55 gave me the option to quit scanning for TVGOS and I chose it. No more searching.

As far as back to back events on the EH-55 using the manual TVGOS method, it works exactly like the automatic TVGOS method. That is without a 2 minute break between recordings I cannot change to a different channel. It doesn't matter whether the machine is in a OFF state or ON when the events starts


I guess this is one of the differences between your E-85 and the EH-55.

I'm glad I don't really record any B2B events on different channels. If I did I'd probably just use one of my other DVDRs, of which I have plenty to choose



I think I'll play with the manual method a few weeks and then setup my automatic TVGOS again. At least I'll have a few months of automatic titling and point and click programming.
 
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