Panasonic Repairs? The ONLY place for warranty or out-of-warranty service! - Page 8

That excerpt is from one of my 8/3/2010 posts.

Yesterday, three days later, I purchased a 2005 Panasonic DMR-EH50 HDD/DVD recorder from a local Craig's List seller.

The seller had a camera trained on the front door as I entered. The camera was connected to an EH50 input. The camera image was being recorded to the EH50 hard drive. Once inside the seller trained the camera on both of us as we discussed the EH50. I was quite surprized when he pointed to the TV and there we were! He stopped the recording and played back my entry into the house. That hard drive recording documents the preliminaries to my EH50 ownership.

This EH50 looks to be little-used and very clean. The first four photos are interior views, just as purchased, without cleaning. The fifth photo shows only minor soiling to the cotton swab used to clean the DVD Drive lens, rubber hub/spindle area and the guide wheel on the underside of the DVD Drive lid. The disc tray had no dust whatsoever. Notice that the front panel must be removed to provide room to open the DVD Drive lid. The Digital PCB bracket at the right overhangs the DVD Drive lid, see the first three photos, and must be pried aside to lift the lid, see the fourth photo. Take care not to pry against the white control arm on the side of the DVD Drive.

ADDENDUM: On 10 January 2011 I purchased a second DMR-EH50. With this EH50 I removed the DVD Drive mounting screws, moved the DVD Drive just to the left in order that the DVD Drive lid would clear the overhanging metal tab. That procedure variation is described and illustrated in this post:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...2#post19805572

Five more photos of my DMR-EH50 are attached. Notice the use of a Maxtor QuickView hard drive. Additional information concerning Maxtor QuickView and Seagate DB35 hard drives is found here:

http://www.weaknees.com/seagate-db35-hard-drives.php

I mistitled the fifth photo. It should read "display and mini-switches..." instead of "display and buttons..."

Jeff,

Thanks for the advice. For those that can't quite picture the overhanging metal tab that Jeff and I mentioned, the pencil points to this metal tab.

Yes, a great deal.

From our initial telephone conversation concluding around 3:30 p.m. the seller and I both knew I wanted to purchase the EH50. After the seller gave me his address (out in the West Union/Rock Creek portion of Washington County) I told the him that I expected to arrive by 5:00 p.m. after I wound up some "involvement." That involvement was the last of five titles being high speed dubbed to DVD (with a Magnavox 2160) followed by finalizing the DVD.

After that I jumped into the car, "raced" out Willamette Blvd (at 35 mph), stopped at Freddie's for some diet 7up and enough cash back to make the purchase, then across the St. Johns bridge, out Germantown Road to West Union, and all this during the afternoon commute. That made for some adventursome driving out slow, steep, winding roads to get out to the faster "rural" roads of Washington County. I actually arrived just before 4:50 p.m.

After the seller preserved my arrival on the EH50 model's hard drive, I asked him "would you take $45?" He said "well, I kinda wanted $50..." So, I handed him the $50. He also threw in a half-used 50-disc spindle of Maxell (Ritek) 8x DVD-R DVDs.

Yes indeed, a great deal! This is especially true after reading your earlier post, found here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...6#post17779686

Now, to learn to use a Panny HDD/DVD recorder after having only Magnavox and Philips HDD/DVD recorders.

Yup, the EH50 has got the little IR "thingy." But my challenge is to disable/thwart TVGOS and, at least for the time being, to manually schedule recordings of what the Comcast box is showing without attempting to use the little IR "thingy." Sounds simple enough--but isn't. After that comes learning to edit hard drive recordings.

The hard drive has a bunch of (padlocked) home movies, some TV shows and DigaDo's arrival at the former owner's house.

In an attempt at an initial setup I pulled my bedroom Magnavox 2160 off the Comcast Pace DC50X DTA and connected the EH50 in it's place. As this is the third Panasonic in that room I reset the EH50 and it's remote to code 3.

As my goal is to set up this EH50 in a way that bypasses the TVGOS system I've faced some roadblocks in my attempts to manually program scheduled recordings as described and illustrated on page 25 of the Operating Instructions.

My initial setup has the EH50 enslaved to a DTA that has only a RF output. At first the DTA output showed up on EH50 channel 1.

I didn't connect the IR because I don't want to use it or the TVGOS system. I want to use the EH50 to record only the channel currently tuned by the DTA. I don't want the EH50 to attempt to change the channel on the DTA, at least not for the initial setup.

Tomorrow I might swap in a Motorola DCT700 converter box that offers composite connectivity in addition to RF connectivity.

I ran the TVGOS setup procedures as described on page 16.

I got bogged down when the EH50 tried to search for codes for an unknown brand of cable box without having the IR connected.

In the several initial setup attempts I used my correct zip code answering yes and no in successive answers to the question "do you have cable service connected to this DVD recorder?" and answering yes and no in successive answers to the question "is a cable box connected to this DVD recorder?" Following that last question is this (from page 16) "If you do not want to use the TV Guide On Screen system select 'No' at this point even if a cable TV box is connected." So far still a dead end.

When I couldn't access the manually programmed schedule I changed my zip code to 00000 in the hope that would break the TVGOS control over the EH50. No good. I changed to Antenna, ran a channel scan and tried that approach, still no good, but at least the EH50 now has the DTA feed on channel 3.

It began to dawn on me, from some earlier AVS reading and "hints" in the Operating Instructions that TVGOS might still insist on searching for the programming guide for
hours or days more.

Jeff and I have already exchanged PM's and he has given me some advice for the challenge(s).

Even with "Diga" in my identity I've become a Panasonic beginner again.

The little IR "thingy" is seen in the photo.

This morning's DMR-EH50 update:

TVGOS reported that it had failed to find whatever it was looking for. I took this to be encouraging news.

Then I verified the TVGOS setup seeing that I had left it with my correct zip code and configured as "no cable" and "no cable box." That's OK, I guess.

Then TVGOS asked what I wanted to do. I responded "Watch TV" after which the Comcast DTA feed appeared on channel 3. That's what I expected, so far so good.

Then, following the instructions for "Manually programming scheduled recordings" (on page 25 of the Operating Instructions) I could not get to that menu, just as before. Not good.

So, I went back into the TVGOS setup and changed my zip code back to 00000. But, I suppose that restarts the TVGOS debacle all over again. Not good.

In a few minutes the bedroom's Magnavox 2160 will be set back up in it's original space, reconfigured, and timer programming entered in that menu in order to resume it's former week day routine.

The EH50 might be left in place with composite connectivity if I move the DCT700 STB into the bedroom in the place of the Pace DTA. Might that allow me to get to the menu for "Manually programming scheduled recordings?" I don't know. If not, the EH50 will just sit there looking exquisite--and collecting dust. Like "Julio," I'll use a damp rag to clean the dust off the case.

It would have been so easy for Panasonic to have provided a menu asking "Do you want to use TVGOS? YES (or) NO." It's like Panasonic was trying to fool Mother Nature. And we all know "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!"

The EH50 remote also has a SCHEDULE button but that takes me into TVGOS. The attached photo has a closer view of the remote and the IR blaster. (The IR blaster isn't connected to the EH50.)

Then, within the TVGOS menu screen there is the "SCHEDULE" option. When selecting that SCHEDULE option I'm directed into another menu that takes me around in circles but never, so far, into the Manual Scheduling menu.

There has to be something that's missing here.

If the "missing link" can't be found the next step might be the one I mentioned earlier, "The EH50 might be left in place with composite connectivity if I move the DCT700 STB into the bedroom in the place of the Pace DTA. Might that allow me to get to the menu for 'Manually programming scheduled recordings?' I don't know."

The bedroom Magnavox 2160 has now been set up again, reconfigured, and timer programming has been reentered. The Magnavox RF input is from a split from the DTA RF output. (The other split feeds another 2160 and a DMR-ES35 in the home office.) The 2160 RF pass through output now feeds the EH50 RF input and the EH50 RF pass through output feeds the bedroom's 13" RCA CRT TV. The 2160 and EH50 composite outputs feed a three input switch box where the composite output feeds the composite input on the same RCA TV.

I can't use the EH50 until the "issues" are resolved.

At the moment I say "Blast the little IR Thingy."

The EH50 Operating Instructions has lots of notes in it. Here is the portion of page 7 with that "blasted little IR thingy." Perhaps the little thingy that came with this EH50 was purchased as a replacement of the original thingy.

Thank you all for your advice, here and through PMs, concerning my initial setup frustrations with the DMR-EH50.

Doswonk1, by going back in your posting history I found and read through those discussions in the wee hours. Those 2008 discussions gave me some good ideas how to proceed.

Luke, I started recording HGWT and Gunsmoke with the marathons around New Years and I've kept it up until this week due to Encore Western's current programming of repeats. All the HGWT and Gunsmoke episodes were recorded with my Philips 3576. (After I missed a few of the a.m. HGWT and Gunsmoke episodes I started watching for the p.m. repeats but soon started recording all the p.m. showings in addition to the a.m. showings and managed to keep a.m. shows separate from p.m. shows when high-speed dubbing to DVDs.)

I'm thinking of moving the EH50 to my home office main stack where there are currently two other Panasonics (an EZ28 and EZ17) and a Philips 3576 and Magnavox 2160. (With my current home office switch box connectivity I'll probably swap a 3576 or 2160 composite output with that of the EH50 to make enough room and then connect the 3576 or 2160 to the TV using HDMI, another "can of worms" for me to take "handshake issues" to Wajo's sticky thread, oh no!)

In the next day or so I expect to implement that change by connecting the home office Comcast Motorola DCT700 composite output to IN3 on the EH50. That should allow me to use the "Manually programming scheduled recordings" menu--without any connection to the EH50 model's RF input. I say "should" but I'll have to find that out for myself.

The EH50 will assume the cable box recording schedule from the Philips 3576 leaving the 3576 as the ATSC tuner/recorder. I also hope to use the EH50 for recording a weekday commentary program. That will allow the bedroom setup to remain as it is.

Then later, as I gather courage, I might plug in the "IR Blaster" (how's that to give the little "thingy" its proper name?) and also make a RF connection from the DCT700 to the EH50. Theoretically that would allow the EH50 to make channel changes to the DCT700 and also allow an EH50 RF pass through to the home office undertable area 2160 "A" and/or DMR-ES35 (both currently enslaved to a RF pass through originating with the Pace DC50X DTA in the bedroom). The latter connection strategy must await another day.

First, I have to develop a "feel" for the EH50 and, of course, learn how to use it.

Jeff,

Thank you. That's the missing link!

I thought the Operating Instructions had specified the blue dubbing button. Now that I try to find the reference to the blue button I see that it's the green create chapter button.

And I'm always the one saying "read the instructions!"

And it works!

Happy, Happy!