Official Panasonic DMR-EZ48VK thread - Page 32

The RF output is for cable or antenna 'Over the Air' signal pass thru to a tv with it's own analog or digital tuner, so that the tv can recieve either cable or the OTA digital signals without the 48 being tuned on.
Since you have an AV receiver, I don't think you'd need a modulator, unless you need more connections for other video equipment (another dvd player, or vcr) than your receiver possesses.
The DirecTV feed should come in on the ez48's line input, so is that where you can see the DirecTV picture when you've got the 48 tuned on? If you can see the feed over the line input, then you should have no problems recording from it, unless the program has some copy protection signal transmitted with it.

Thank you so much for responding. At least I know that my connections were good and there was no need for that RF modulator.(The sales person said the RF modulator will "unscramble" the DirecTV signal so I can record shows...is this really true?) I'm not planning to add any other equipment so I'll take it back to Best Buy.
My next step therefore is to set up the Panny EZ48 clock and hopefully, everything turns out fine. If you have any tips, please let me know. Once again, thank you so much.

A RF Modulator converts a composite input (yellow, white, red) to a RF output (threaded connection). A RF Modulator can not "unscramble" anything.

Although best buy misinformed you about "unscrambling", you may want to hang onto that RF modulator anyway. It's an excellent way to distribute the output of one D* receiver to other TVs in your house over your existing coax. (If your sat signal is coming in on that same coax, things get more complicated, but can be solved with a pair of diplexers). Do yourself a favor though and use S-video from your D* receiver to the 48 to get the best picture quality.

We have had our Panny for about 2 years. It has been quirky that whole time. We use DVD-RW. Previous to this our DVD recorder was an APEX cheapo unit, that was a workhorse. We wanted a new one with a digital tuner and got this one at Costco.

To confirm your experience here, we too are having a problem with the 4:3 vs 16:9 aspect ratio. What I can add to the "problem" is that it was not a problem until after the switch to digital. Before that we watched KNBC in 16:9. (We never could record in that, but a previous poster here showed me the light and it works.....set your output to 16:9...) The other stations are OK. Unfortunately we went through so many perturbations to try to change that, that we are now seeing all the stations in goofy settings.....I just reset and we'll see if we can get back to where we were. (edit: this problem presented the day of the switch right after the new scan.)

And jjeff, your link to instructions for cleaning my Panny's spindle was a Godsend, thank you! I just did it and it's working better (it records again and doesn't ruin discs), now to adjust those settings..........yea!

Glad the cleaning worked, I bet hundreds if not thousands of Pannys get thrown away each year because of a simple spindle cleaning. I was at that point with several of mine before discovering the spindle cleaning.
Quirky that's the best word to describe the EZ-48, it's not junk because it can make some fine recordings when it's working correctly......too bad it's some peoples introduction to DVD recorders, no wonder they're a dying product line.

If you are using it for "time shifting" programs, I think it would be to your advantage to use DVD-RAM (They are available at Frys) because:

1. DVD-RAM will record 16:9 correctly. If I recall, the other formats record a 16:9 as a squashed 4:3 which you have to then stretch out to see correctly.

2. DVD-RAM will record copy write protected broadcasts. If you are using one of the other formats, the broadcaster can shut off your recording by flipping on the copy write protection switch.

3. DVD-RAM can be rerecorded 100,000 times vs 1,000 times for DVD-RW.

I bought 2 5 packs of DVD-RAMS, which was probably overkill, since we've just left the 1st disk in the machine, and keep reusing it.

I'm a little confused about what you are saying about KNBC. I got our machine just before the switchover, and didn't use it until after the switchover, so I don't know if KNBC was correct before or not.

For a definitive confirmation, can you, and anyone else in the Los Angeles area who watches over the air, put on ch. 4 (KNBC). If you see a 16:9 broadcast, set you TV to view it through your DVD recorder, set to ch. 4. No recording is necessary. Are you seeing the 16:9 broadcast as 4:3 when using the DVD recorder? If I get more confirmations, I'll try to take it up with the station... even if I have to go to the studio. They're only a few miles from me.

Sorry I was unclear...

I had hoped to confirm what you were seeing. My TV tuner gets the 16:9 broadcast of KNBC. My Panny Tuner does not. But before the switch, my Panny whether I was recording or not, received KNBC in 16:9 instead of the (truncated) 4:3 that I now receive after the switch.

I was recording in the 4:3 distorted image before I set my output to 16:9. And I was widening it to view onscreen. I no longer have to do that since I changed the output (yeah it doesn't make sense.)

My mom is using a converter box and what she is receiving the stations in varies by station. So I think it's how our boxes are receiving the station, not necessarily how they are being broadcast. (How do both my TVs, a Samsung and a Vizio get the broadcast correctly?) I am a member of another forum for certain TV shows, and I know several people have complained about the broadcasts on KTLA 5 not being in widescreen, but I receive them in widescreen, and I believe the problem lies with the cable/satellite companies. Probably something to do with the switch. I receive my signal over antenna.

As far as the ram discs, they won't play back on a lot of equipment, so I'm using the RW. I don't record (or watch) much TV so it works for me. The only thing I am envious of, is the watching one program and recording another, or, as you mention, the timeshifting (just because it would be cool). But again, it's not really a problem for me. What I really miss is being able to create my own chapters......my old APEX (non-digital tuner) let me do that.

OK, Thanks, I'm clear on it now. Yours is working just like mine.

As far as the converter box goes, I have a Zenith box on a 13" set back here.
I found the the format has to be set for each channel, maybe that's why you are seeing various formats on different stations. You have to set it up for each one.

I read the start of this thread and have a question which I am not sure if has been asked.

You were asked if the EZ-48 could play a VHS tape and route the signal out into a filter and back into the DVD recorder. The filter would be required for prerecorded tapes. You said you could do this without a filter. Did you do it with a prerecorded commercial tape?
In other topics it is said this Panny will allow this rather than having to use an outside VCR through a filter to the DVD recorder. It is just so hard to imagine an electronics maker letting users be able to do this. Does this unit really allow such copying without using a filter or another VCR?

I read a lot in that thread (not everything) and I'm not 100% convinced that's the problem. What I'm getting is 4:3 screens (black on both right and left sides of screen) of what I know is broadcast in 16:9 because both my Samsung and Vizio HDTVs get the broadcast in 16:9. (I'm not sure "zoom" mode is an accurate description of this problem, as it was described in the thread referenced above.) It might be that the Panny is hung up on the AFD, but that means both the TVs aren't. Anyway, it is annoying, but at least it's just one station. And it does it all the time for KNBC, it never goes back and forth, unlike what some were saying in the aforementioned thread.

Does anyone know for certain that the Pannys cannot override AFD? I'm talking actual specs someplace or some conversation with a tech, as opposed to your personal experience.

not sure about the EZ-48 but on my EZ-28 and all previous Pannys you stop a scheduled event just the way you described and it works fine. I would think the DVD section of the EZ-48 would be the same but I can't say about the VHS section. I would think for sure a person would need to select the VHS section before trying to stop the recording.

I have my ez48 plugged into my panasonic tcp42x1 plasma they are connected by component cables. Every time I switch from watching the tv to watching somthing recorded on my dvd recorder the sound cuts way down on my dvd recorder. Like i can watch tv with the sound on number 9 but if I watch from the dvd recorder I have to put the sound on the tv up to number 35 or higher. I have no other audio output. Could someone tell me what the proper settings are for the audio portion on the setup page of there dvd recorder is or perhaps some thought on what the problem could be. ps I am using high quality component cables.thanks

1) Yes, NBC is 4:3 off the Panny. sigh.... NBC must fix their problem!
NBC is 16:9 on my TV's tuner however.

2) Playing a DVD, my machine will pop up the info display in the upper right corner now and then as if the status button was pressed once. Without me touching anything! No idea why it does this during a movie. Can't trace it to stray IR light or anything. sigh...

3) Post digital transition, nothing wrong with the channels here with a rooftop antenna. Still pulls in all LA channels clearly and no problems with reception here in 92683.

4) Works nicely with the 37" LCD Panny TV from this year's lineup over HDMI. Can control everything with the TV's controller, so makes it nice - no multiple remotes. Nice because the single HDMI connector is all you need and you can finalize discs, play/RW/FF, etc. with just the TV's remote (or using just the deck's remote - both remotes control most everything). Just a few features are missing off the TV's remote such as status, VCR/TV, create chapter, etc. - but then again, you can simply use the DVD's remote most of the time then if you edit a lot and need these features.

5) Same DVD-RAM cartridge (Verbatim made in japan) since I bought it months ago, and it still records daily TV shows w/o a problem.

6) Pulling the video off the DVD-RAM is easy as can be. Just break the two tabs on the cartridge that prevent it from opening, carefully pull out the disc w/o touching the surface, drop it into a DVD_RAM compatible PC drive (eg. Pioneer DVD burners), open up a program like Nero, etc, and pull the video onto your HD. You can then burn it to a regular DVD, use the MPEG-2 video stream for editing directly in any video editing program like Sony Vegas Video, etc.
You DO NOT NEED to convert the MPEG-2 video stream to AVI!! In fact, doing so degrades the video quality because you're doing a unnecessary format conversion between two lossy formats! Best to keep it in the original MPEG-2 video format until you're ready to render.
see videohelp.com if you need more tools and help....
Anyways, seeing how everything's easy as can be pulling video off DVD-RAM discs, I love this format! I just use the erasable DVD-RAM for everything, and when I get to some show I really want to save (but didn't know ahead of time), I simply pull it off on my PC and burn it to a DVD-R/+R disc.

7) Yes, setting the output TV format to 16:9 allows recording of 16:9 shows anamorphically to DVD-/+R discs. Why on earth you only get cropped letterboxed if you set it to 4:3 is beyond me, but at least it'll intice people to upgrade their TV's to widescreen's.

During playback, press the Display button omn the remote, and go to the Audio tab. Change audio settings under V irtual Surround from Emphasis to Natural to Off and see if that makes a difference. The try Dialog Enhancer setting, on or off, to see if that helps...

If you still experience problems, you may need to go in to the Audio menu under Other Functions> Setup, and alter the settings there.

Rongo, you can also check the audio setup of your Panny plasma. I'm sure it will have a setting for balancing the audio level for each input. Crank up the setting for your DVDRs input and if need be lower the setting for regular TV(using the plasma's tuner).

Adorable, 2). The rogue status display is a known bug of some Panny DVDRs. If it really bugs you, you can go into the Panny's SETUP and disable the status messages. You can still get status by pushing the status button but they won't automatically pop up. I've seen the status screen pop up every few seconds when watching analog cable, in my case the machine kept thinking the MTS stereo status was changing so it kept popping up on the screen to alert me

7). This is a big point, I wonder how many people that currently have 4:3 TVs (and have that setting set to 4x3) realize they're not recording full wide screen? If/when they upgrade to a WS TV they'll probably be bummed I could be wrong, but I thought when set to 4:3 that the tuner just truncated the sides instead of actually letter boxing the output. For this reason even when I had my EZ recorder hooked to a 4x3 TV I kept that setting on 16:9. The downside was everyone looked tall and skinny.

1) Yeah that's the problem.....arg....

2) Our does the same thing. My hubby suggested that it does that at chapter breaks, we haven't checked that yet though...but the intervals seem about right...

3) I'm using DVD +/-RW discs and same thing, set that output to 16:9 and it records in 16:9, makes no sense, but it works.....(to put it in very old programmer lingo...it's an undocumented feature..)

I just noticed my wife watching a recording of NBC's "America's Got Talant". It was full screen 16:9 Maybe they fixed it.

OK, so I see your post above Jeff, and I turn on my TV and Panny, and sure enough they took care of it, I was watching Ellen in widescreen, woohoo!

Your complaints must have worked!

I'm pleased to hear the Panny does the right thing now in regards to the NBC situation. I have to wonder though how much of the solution has to do with NBC though---my DTVPal+ tuner still won't show any of that net's programs in widescreen.

Hey Bruce, welcome to the thread and AVS!

I just noticed that my KNBC news (11pm) is no longer showing in widescreen on my Panny, but it is on my TVs. So either yesterday was a fluke, or certain programs are widescreen while others are not. Anybody else?

edit: Conan is also truncated......it seems we are back to the beginning......

Thanks Atomic Girl for the shoutout. And yes, my new Panny EZ48 (the second one I've owned) is also misbehaving on KNBC because of the AFD mishegas--just like the buggy EZ48 I had and returned a couple months ago.

I will say this though: channel cruising is smoother and faster with this new machine. Perchance the software hath been improved?

The EZ48 is quirky, there's no getting around that. Luckily the great folks posting in here have made my life easier in regards to my Panny. If you have time, go through this thread, it was quite the education for me, and I learned to clean my spindle and that saved me from tossing this thing.

The thing I'm going to try now is recording in 2 or 4 hour mode. Since I usually record and then erase I was recording on the 6 hr, but after reading the comments on here, I decided to try the 2/4 hour. I've tried the 4 hour and I was amazed at the difference. I will probably use the 6 hour very infrequently now...the quality is so much better in 4 hour. So now to try 2 hour......

And KNBC is still giving me grief......ugh

If you like the 4hr you should try using FR set for 3hrs.
I've found using FR3 I get much less macroblocking, which once you notice how prevalent it is at the 4hr LP mode it might start bothering you. As you may have read macroblocking occurs when the bitrate is starved and shows up first in scenes of fast movement or quick scene changes.
FR is easy to use if you're recording the whole disc at once or for the last title on your disc but to use FR in other cases it requires you to push STOP after your event. IOW you can't use it during timered events(in those cases).
With your Panny any speed above LP (even FR set for 4hrs 1 minute) will force it to 1/2 resolution which at times depending on source may actually be preferred because it allows more bandwidth to reduce macroblocking.
If you have multiple titles on your disc and want your next event to be in a 3hr speed the easiest way to know what to set FR for is to display how much time(in minutes) is remaining in LP speed and multiply that by .75. For a new disc that would be 4hrs(240 min)X.75=180 minutes (or 3hrs). If the disc had 2hrs LP you'd set for for 120min.X.75min.=90min. or 1.5 hrs.
SP is even better but personally I like to get the extra 25% recording time using FR3, also many of the events I like to record are more than 2hrs so if I didn't use FR I'd have to drop to LP which again I prefer to not use due to macroblocking.

First time poster, thanks for the help in advance.

I have this model DVD Recorder and it's worked just fine in general. I started playing around with the USB port for the first time lately and I can't figure out how to get it to play DIVX movies from a flash card.

I have a newly purchased 8GB, USB 2.0 flash card, formatted as FAT 32 with a couple of .divx movies that work fine when burned to a DVD but when I plug in the card, I get a message that says 'no files.' When I hook up a digital camera directly to the USB port, I can view pictures, so it seems to work fine.

Any suggestions?

^^Welcome to the club-the Frustrated EZ48 Owners Society. Sometimes for me, the usb drive won't load properly, forcing me to take it out for a minute, then replug before it'll accept the drive.,. I've never used a usb larger than 2GB, so I don't know if it can handle a drive as large as 8gb....Do you have a smaller one to use, to see if the same problem occurs?

I figured it was pretty flaky. I tried a 512 MB card that was older as well as a 1 GB card. Neither of them worked, so I just thought they were the problem.

Good thing USB flash cards are cheap!

It's odd that hooking the camera up to it works perfectly for pictures.

During playback is there any way to display the total time of the track , or time remaining? either on screen or in display?

No, that's my single most wanted feature and AFAIK no DVDRs have "remaining" time, the best we've got is something like the Philips 3575/6 (maybe Maggy 2160) that has "total time of the title". With that number and elapsed time it's possible to subtract elapsed time from total time and figure remaining time.
People shouldn't be confused with "remaining time" of unfinalized DVDs. That remaining time is just how much blank time is remaining on the disc, not how much time is left on the title you're watching. IMO there must be something inherent in DVDRs which excludes them from being able to display "title remaining time". I searched high and low for any brand that had that feature and I could find none. While remaining time is getting harder to find in players too, it's still available in select brands, Sony for one.