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Panasonic DMR-EZ17K DVD Player/Recorder

66K views 440 replies 50 participants last post by  lmartinijr1 
#1 ·
Is an accutune tuner descibed for this product (see Circuit City) and ATSC tuner?
 
#156 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/12398468


I'm curious if anyone else has taken my test and seen the same bug? I can repeat it at will on my DVDR, and also noted the same thing on 2 other EZ-17's and 2 other ES-27's.

I'm sure it is happening on all of the Panny's with the digital tuner, but I cant say from experience on any of the model's w/vhs since I've never used one. Note I have also tried the most recent "firmware" update for the EZ-17 "U7-390" which did nothing about this bug.

I'm just trying to help someone else from missing an important event. I know before I figured it out I had missed several very important(to me) events. I hated recording events on this panny before I figured out the bug. I had to hold my breath that it would record every time I programmed an event. I've been programming VCR events since 1982, and NEVER had problems like this before. I really think the testers at Panasonic should have caught this before they released it to the public. And to make to make worse, Panasonic doesnt even have a good way for the public to notify them about issues. There most recent response is, "hopefully we will release a update disc soon"........Pitiful!

I have the same problem you described with both Weekly and Mon-Fri events. At first I thought the problem was intermittant, but soon discovered the problem was related to removing a full disc and replacing a new disc for the next day's event. I have observed how my unit fails on the second event, the event triggers as programed but the "record display" event shows 000000 till the end of timed event (nothing recorded). Powering down and up will restart the recording. I upgraded the firmware to the most recent on the Canadian site " U8-196" but the problem still remains.


I tried your work around for this problem and it does work, but it is not always possible to baby sit this machine. My unit has a August 2007 build date. I could not find a way to verify the firmware version either before or after the update I applied. If someone knows how to do this please reply.

Hopefuly Panasonic will correct this problem soon.
 
#157 ·
Mine is a June 07 build date, and according to Panasonic, who doesnt even admit this IS a problem, there is no way to read the firmware rev. in the machine. Unlike my Panny LCD TV.

I tried as you did to update the machine with the newest firmware, and it failed. After several calls to Pansonic, we deduced the reason it failed was because my machine already had the new firmware. And I'm with you. It's a pain in the A** to have to baby sit the machine. I suppose if I had to go out of town, or say if I had a recording scheuled for 3am, before I would get up to turn/off the machine, I could use SINGLE EVENT, not weekly or daily schedules. Single events never seem to have this problem.

By the way, as I might have posted, I recently bought a Philips 3575 DVDR W/HDD, and am loving it. No bugs, so far.....As a previous poster said, "Panasonic, you're embarasing yourself, get this fixed"
 
#158 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/12498565


Mine is a June 07 build date, and according to Panasonic, who doesnt even admit this IS a problem, there is no way to read the firmware rev. in the machine. Unlike my Panny LCD TV.

I tried as you did to update the machine with the newest firmware, and it failed. After several calls to Pansonic, we deduced the reason it failed was because my machine already had the new firmware. And I'm with you. It's a pain in the A** to have to baby sit the machine. I suppose if I had to go out of town, or say if I had a recording scheuled for 3am, before I would get up to turn/off the machine, I could use SINGLE EVENT, not weekly or daily schedules. Single events never seem to have this problem.

By the way, as I might have posted, I recently bought a Philips 3575 DVDR W/HDD, and am loving it. No bugs, so far.....As a previous poster said, "Panasonic, you're embarasing yourself, get this fixed"

My experience with the EZ-17 has been good so far. I do not know whether the problems being discussed here are isolated cases or not. True, I had the sound problem once and the panny missed a scheduled recording one time but after a firmware update, all the problems disappeared except for ocasional freeze-ups when too many buttons are pressed too fast.


My unit was made January of this year.
 
#159 ·

[I do not know whether the problems being discussed here are isolated cases or not./QUOTE]

I dont think they are isolated, I've noticed the same timer bug on 3 EZ-17's and 1 EZ-27.

Other problems associated with these machines are probably more isolated, but I personally have had 2 of my EZ machines die with u99 errors. Luckly they were less than a few months old, so I was able to exchange them for new ones. Note 2nd exchange was a little over a month, and I had to convince UE to exchange it, vs send in for service, since they normally only exchange for new within the first month, and send out for repair after a month.

I think it's somewhat a crap shoot weather your's will last. I hope it does, my current EZ-17 is past the month point, and all's well(except timer bug). Just in case, I bought the 3yr extended warrenty(which they were nice enough to sell to me long after I originally bought the unit). I'm normally not a extended warrenty guy, but with these I'd strongly suggest it.

For people reading about the problems with this unit, I dont want them to not buy it, but rather be aware of possible problems, and work arounds for the problems, if known.

That said, if you live in Canada, 200 miles from a store, I'm not sure I would buy one. For me, 2 miles from most stores, it's not a big deal to unplug everything, and haul it down to the store for an exchange, repair.

And as I've noted, when the machine is working, it can make fantastic recordings.
 
#160 ·
I observed a new state of operation in my ez17, today. Earlier today, it apparently hit the 1st recording, but missed the 2nd recording. The weird thing is that it did appear to have activated for the 2nd recording, but never engaged the actual recording process. So when I found it, it was in a strange limbo state where, as if it was on and idle, but could not be turned off by the power button. It wasn't crashed, either. I could maneuver around to different menus. I even switched the disc, and it identified it properly. It was just unresponsive to pressing the power button in the normal way.


Naturally, I had to do the 5-sec power button press to reset it. My latest theory is that I have to swap in the fresh disc only after I have powered it up from an "off" state. If I swap the disc while it is "on" after I have stopped a scheduled recording in process, then leave it to shut itself off, it doesn't seem to remember it has a fresh disc or set the scheduler to work properly thereafter (until I manually power it up, exchange the disc, then power it off). This was all precipitated from what I did 1 day ago, I believe.
 
#161 ·
There is defiantly a bug in the way this machine handles midnight. I think everyone's problems would be eliminated if they would turn on and then back off, the machine at least once after the first midnight.

I know to some they will think this is ridiculous, and I suppose it is. But until Panasonic gets this fixed, it's a relatively easy workaround. At least in my opinion. Note I'm not defending this procedure to be anything but ridiculous and (should be) unneeded. I'm just stating, for me, since doing this procedure, I have not missed a scheduled program, which is worth the hassle of doing said procedure.
 
#162 ·
I agree about the manual power up then down cycle, at least once before the next day's recording(s). I'm not sure it has to be after midnight (though, it certainly should eliminate the greatest amount of uncertainty in the scheduler process, by doing so).


I would also add that the disc should be ejected and then re-inserted to give the machine a chance to re-aquisition its available space (even if it is the same disc as before), while you have the machine on. In a prior test I did, I did the manual power cycle but did not disturb the fresh disc that was in there, already, and that precipitated scheduler problems in the next day's recordings.
 
#163 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/12532111


There is defiantly a bug in the way this machine handles midnight. I think everyone's problems would be eliminated if they would turn on and then back off, the machine at least once after the first midnight.

I know to some they will think this is ridiculous, and I suppose it is. But until Panasonic gets this fixed, it's a relatively easy workaround. At least in my opinion. Note I'm not defending this procedure to be anything but ridiculous and (should be) unneeded. I'm just stating, for me, since doing this procedure, I have not missed a scheduled program, which is worth the hassle of doing said procedure.

Several years ago after a software update, my old DirecTV receivers started to lock up. I found that cycling the power on a regular basis helped a lot. I used one of those programmable timers to turn off the power for about five minutes a day, then turn it on again. It worked for me.
 
#164 ·
AVchurch,

Your are correct. Just power cycling(that is unplug/replug) the unit will also set things straight. And I have also toyed with the idea of a timer to interrupt the power for 1 min, every day, at say 3am, but so far the turn/off thing has been working, especially now since everything OTA(which is all I have) will be in repeats, and I won't be recording much TV for awhile.


Mr.Handy, I have personally never had to actually eject the disc, but I find it imparitive to do the on/off thing after midnight, or at least the next day after I wake up.
 
#165 ·
I guess we are experiencing the polar opposite to achieve the same thing. I have not noticed a need to perform the power cycle after midnight, but swapping the disc during the manual power on state seems to be a key factor in my setup. Weird, eh?
 
#166 ·
I have an EZ27 (June 2007, refurb? from 2ndTurn on eBay) and wanted to see if my unit would miss the weekly recordings since I would use it that way. I did two tests, and both recorded as scheduled.


Test 1: Weekly Tues PM and weekly Wed AM (2 hrs ea, different times, SP mode). Tues night after recorded event I swapped a blank formatted disc AND checked the schedule before midnight (I think Wed still showed a !), then turned off. Wed morn, it recorded per the schedule.


Test 2: Weekly Wed, weekly Thurs (1 hr ea, 8-9PM on both, XP mode). Tues after recorded event (before midnight), I powered on, deleted the show, then powered off. Thurs I did not touch the machine, but I watched the LCD as it turned on maybe a minute before the scheduled recording and then started to record as scheduled.


I use DVD-RAM only, VSS off, DST off, manual clock, dim display, OTA.


So the only difference I can tell may be my model (EZ27 and using RAM discs). I haven't tried updating the firmware... because it's working for now, but also don't know what firmware I have.
 
#167 ·
"I use DVD-RAM only, VSS off, DST off, manual clock, dim display, OTA."


Interesting. From my experience and your description, both events should have failed. I really never use RAM discs, but did try them on my tests, and they also failed. I think I have VSS on and bright display, but can't believe it would make a diff.

Since there is really nothing to record lately(with the strike and all) I'll set up my EZ-17 up exactly as your EZ-27, use a RAM disc, and try your test #2. I used to have a EZ-27, but it died(u99 error). Now I only have the EZ-17.

From what I've found, there is no way to display what current firmware you have in these Panny's. Would be kinda nice though.

Just one more thought, what time did you delete the first show in test #2?

I guess in my previous tests I would have done the delete sometime between 9:01-10pm.

Was your delete closer to midnight?
 
#168 ·
"Just one more thought, what time did you delete the first show in test #2?

I guess in my previous tests I would have done the delete sometime between 9:01-10pm.

Was your delete closer to midnight?"


I think it was somewhere around 10, not right after it ended, but definitely before 10:30PM (bedtime).
 
#169 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by hpwong /forum/post/12609177


I have an EZ27 (June 2007, refurb? from 2ndTurn on eBay) and wanted to see if my unit would miss the weekly recordings since I would use it that way. I did two tests, and both recorded as scheduled.


Test 1: Weekly Tues PM and weekly Wed AM (2 hrs ea, different times, SP mode). Tues night after recorded event I swapped a blank formatted disc AND checked the schedule before midnight (I think Wed still showed a !), then turned off. Wed morn, it recorded per the schedule.


Test 2: Weekly Wed, weekly Thurs (1 hr ea, 8-9PM on both, XP mode). Tues after recorded event (before midnight), I powered on, deleted the show, then powered off. Thurs I did not touch the machine, but I watched the LCD as it turned on maybe a minute before the scheduled recording and then started to record as scheduled.


I use DVD-RAM only, VSS off, DST off, manual clock, dim display, OTA.


So the only difference I can tell may be my model (EZ27 and using RAM discs). I haven't tried updating the firmware... because it's working for now, but also don't know what firmware I have.

Have you tried a Mon-Fri event of "30 min. programs" leaving the EZ27 unattended till Friday which would require using a blank disc for the last event?

My unit is a August 2007 build and always fails to record the second and following events, with all media types. My unit also fails on multiple single events if left unattended, (only the first event is recorded).

If I power cycle the recorder each day before the event is to record I will have no problem.

In your test the fact you are powering and replacing the disc may be the reason for your success. Although I hope your unit is working properly mine is not.
 
#170 ·
On a separate note, I don't want folks to read my original post and think they have any better chance of getting a perfect EZ-X7 player on eBay, because...


I am looking into a weird problem where the picture (including menu items) shifts up and down every 1-2 seconds by a few pixels. It happens on my front projector, but not my tube TV (I can watch both at the same time). My Sat and other HD STB don't do this on the projector, though. On DVD recordings, I can watch and rewind, watch and rewind and the shifts occur at slightly different times, so the shifts themselves are not recorded. Anyways, I need to look into this more. And if I do post on this, I might look for a different thread.
 
#171 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by TechFive /forum/post/12614276


Have you tried a Mon-Fri event of "30 min. programs" leaving the EZ27 unattended till Friday which would require using a blank disc for the last event?

...

In your test the fact you are powering and replacing the disc may be the reason for your success. Although I hope your unit is working properly mine is not.

No I have not done a M-F event, but I can try one if you give me the specifics (maybe one that doesn't take the whole week
)


When I first got it, I did make back to back to back recording of about 10 minutes each at different recording speeds and same channel just to see the quality differences. This no where near filled up a disc, but that worked.


I think what I have not done much of (recording-wise) is leave the DVDR untouched over 2 or more days, doing multiple recordings on the same disc.
 
#172 ·
I just started test #3:

Sun-Sat, 2:30-3PM, SP, Ch 4-1 (NBC), blank DVD-RAM

The disc should hold 4 days of recording... and did show 12/31 in the Check column (which would be the 4th day)


I'm not sure I'll be around to see what it actually does at 2:30 tomorrow... but I think the key to this test is whether or not it records the 2nd day or not. So if I don't witness the DVDR going in to record mode on the 2nd day, I'[ll just turn on and check the Navigator to see what it has. Or if anyone wants the test to keep going untouched, let me know.
 
#173 ·
HPWONG-"I use DVD-RAM only, VSS off, DST off, manual clock, dim display, OTA."


Well I setup my test recording. 8-9pm tonight(friday, weekly event)XP mode, which should fill up the RAM disc.

I also programmed 8-9am tomorrow morning(weekly Saturday)

Sometime around 9:05pm tonight(Friday) I will delete the disc and power down the machine.

I will leave the machine alone, and observe if the event records in the morning.


Note I could not find the VSS? option on my EZ-17 could it just be on the EZ-27? I did manually set my clock, but as before I don't see a option to turn off auto clock set. I also set DST to off, along with dim display. I am also OTA.

I'm not too optimistic, but willing to give it a try.


HPWONG, If you happen to be standing around watching when an scheduled event is supposed to be recording, but is not, try this. Turn the machine on, wait until it's done doing it's startup thing, then simply power the machine off. What I have observed doing this is, the second you turn off the machine, it will start the scheduled event!
 
#174 ·
You can find the VSS option in the Audio menu tab. While viewing live (or recorded video, I think) press the Display or B button on the remote. I also couldn't find the VSS folks were talking about until I just pushed that button just to see what it did. Mine has always been set to off.
 
#175 ·
Very strange.......My 8am-9am event this morning worked!

Well back to testing. I setup the same series of events for tonight and tomorrow morning. This time the only thing I changed was using the auto clock set feature. Could it be that simple? I thought
I had tried that before??? but I've tried so many things, I'm beginning to forget what combinations I have tried. Well at least we've found one that works, and I'll try to backtrack and find out what option stops the 2nd event from recording. Good deal
 
#176 ·
jjeff, Strange, but good.

I recall when initally setting up the DVDR channels, I thought the last thing it tried to do was set the clock automatically. It thought about it for what seemed too long (10 min?). Then I either shut it off or exited the setup and then used manual clock.


Anyways, it would make sense to me if the DVDR checks the time at least once a day to make sure it was correct if auto clock was set. But if it can't set itself, it may go into this loop of trying but failing to do so, preventing the scheduled recording to go off. A power cycle in that 'stuck' mode may reset it. It would be nice to have auto clock on, though (did it take a while for it to set?). I always miss either the beginning or end of shows with my old VCR due to wrong time. I can't do the extra minute method sometimes due to back to back/different channel recordings, plus this DVDR supposedly already cuts off the 1st 30 seconds of the 2nd in back/back recordings.


One thing I forgot I did between Test 2 and 3. I started to use the Quick Start feature. 30 seconds to turn on is too long. Now it's just a few seconds. Sometimes it's no delay if I turn that on first then my other equipment. For 12.3 watts more I think it's worth it. But it's another variable in test 3 now.


And I'm used to turning the power off for timer to work. Same as my old Panasonic VCR the DVDR is replacing. I've missed many recordings forgetting to do that. It also started to record the second you turned it off...
 
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