Panasonic Repairs? The ONLY place for warranty or out-of-warranty service! - Page 15

I was dubbing a DVD from the HDD on my four year old Panasonic when about half way through the write process the DVD drive started making odd noises. I got "unable to read disc" messages on the display. So I tried another blank DVD and got the same message and then I tried to read several other known good discs to no avail. I figured my DVD drive died so I got out the paperwork for the three year extended warranty I had purchased from Panasonic. Lo and behold I had six days left in the warranty period so I contacted Panasonic. They instructed me to ship the unit to United Radio in East Syracuse, NY for repairs and I did. They called after they had received it and diagnosed the problem and said they had ordered the part for it. About ten days later I received the DVD recorder back and it works perfectly. All in all, a good repair experience.

Did they list what was done and did you try cleaning the spindle prior to sending it in? Good timing on your part

No, I didn't attempt any cleaning or repairs on my part since the unit was still under warranty. The repair ticket listed "Replace defective DVD mechanism". As a side note, and perhaps DigaDo can respond, are replacement DVD drives for this recorder available to the general public? Specifically, the DVD drives that are capable of reading/writing DVD-RAM and dual layer media.

Over $400 last I recall

How much was your repair, HDinTX?

Nada. It was under warranty.

Sorry that this is a bit off topic.

Panasonic DMR-EH50S DVD-Recorder

I remember seeing a remote code posted to force the TV Guide OnScreen IPG to select a specific channel rather than have the IPG scan through all the channels.

Does anyone know what that code and procedure is.

Thanks in Advance.

Try this.

Worked perfectly, Thanks Much.

So now that it's almost impossible to get an 80's DVD drive fixed, is there any user fix for what both my units are doing now?

Basically the first unit stopped writing properly to DVD-RAMs, then would write to a DVD-R just fine - the content was completely playable - but after finalizing the content would either not be readable at all or would just stop playing about 3/4 of the way through the disc.

Now my second unit has stopped being able to write properly to DVD-RAM; thankfully it still will finalize DVD-Rs.

Any suggestions?

I don't use them much now, just to make the quick DVD now and then, typically to convert an old VHS/SVHS/8mm/DV tape to DVD.

Thanks in advance...

A Bit Off Topic again, but I know this is where the Pros are.

I have a question, and the answer is probably NO, but I thought I would ask anyway.

I am using an IR blaster to control an SA3250HD receiver using the TVGOS.
Cox is moving the HD channels from channels 7xx's & 8xx's into the 1xxx's.
The DMR-EH50 seems only capable of tuning up to 999. Is there any Hack or Firmware Update I can do to get the Panny to be able to tune in a four digit channel number? Is there any way to download or upgrade the version of the TVGOS?

Current DMR-EH50 DVD Recorder Firmware
Version UA-340
Compatible Models DMR-EH50S
http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-e...DMR-EH50S.D#ts

The current charge by Panasonic to repair the DVD Drive for a DMR EH-75V is $275.00 as of 09/08/2011. A british company is offering the laser part for the fix it yourselfers for around $80.00 US plus shipping. Unless someone else comes up with a better idea, I may try that. Hard to find used ones on ebay where you could just swap ot the entire drive unit. Wish someone had an up to date answer for this.

Could you please post the link to that British company?

This new laser is available from an eBay seller in the US for $72 plus shipping.

Digado once posted a link to a company(I think in Scotland??) where one could purchase just the laser, I'm sure it was more reasonable than the entire assembly.
Don't forget Mikinct, the AVS member who does Panasonic repairs. He may know of a source or be willing to do the repair for much less than $275. You might want to PM him.

If one were to pick up the replacement laser assembly, does it need to be calibrated once installed, or will it work without any extra fiddling?

One of my EH55s failed this weekend. I was burning a disk and the thing just quit! It now makes the familiar beep-beep-beep-beep-burp sound. This is my third DVD recorder that this has happened to. The first two needed replacement optical pickups, so I strongly suspect that this one does too. I used it a lot, so I am not too surprised that it has failed. I expected it eventually.

I have sent Mikinct a PM, but does anyone have the current address and phone number for the (latest) place to send these machines for repair. a year ago I sent one into Elgin, but I think that is no longer an option.

Does anyone have a current best-source at Panasonic for repairs of DVD recorders, specifically the EH55?

I've done plenty of these, cost to repair is $175.00 plus return ship of $15.00, WITH A 1 day turnaround. send me a PM if you need to.

I've an E80H and the cleaning allowed it to burn one disc, after which it was back to failure mode.

For those that don't remember, it seems to write the tracks OK - you can view them just fine - but after finalizing neither it nor any other player can read the tracks without lots of errors.

Also, neither it nor another 80 I have (that still burns OK) likes DVD-RAM discs any more, believing them to be unformatted (and of course a format attempt fails.)

Any ideas? Are both lasers going? The one that's further gone had been writing about 3 hours to RAM five days a week for years and the first symptom was when they stopped being readable by the other unit.

How I wish Panasonic had just used regular PC-style DVD-R/RAM writers in these…

Wow, this really went up in price! $132 now.

That is price gouging I mean you can buy an entire DVD drive for your PC for $20! It's really too bad the majority of DVDR mfgs. never standardized with PC drives It's probably not like Panasonic is making a ton on these drives, heck they probably don't even sell them anymore and only the resellers are profiting beyond belief!

When did market pricing become "price gouging?" If the seller can get $400 or $1000 each for these lasers, good for them. If they're priced too high, no one will buy them, too low and they take a bath, but otherwise it's a rare commodity with high demand and pricing will reflect that.

I think Bicker is back using a new IP address.

???

Gave me a chuckle this morning
Bicker was someone who would say no if you said yes or yes if you said no, always trying to play the devils advocate. I haven't seen him around for quite some time......
Anyway, while companies can do anything they want it doesn't make it right. Company morality is quickly going down the toilet and it's sad Sure this type of thing has gone on for years but IMO it's getting worse and worse X10 in this modern world. Some people would say companies don't need to have morals, for those I hope your satisfied when you need to get a part for your old DVDR and it's $100+, I hope you'll be satisfied with a new and improved replacement DVDR

Ah, so the comment was directed at me.

Look, you can talk about company "morality" but Panasonic's responsibility is long over for most any of these parts; it's likely they were dumped en masse and the seller on eBay bought them knowing what they are and is recouping costs. Large companies like Panasonic don't make a lot of repair parts and don't keep them just sitting on the shelf for 5+ years as there are costs associated with that that need to be amortized (or, something else could be taking up that warehouse space.)

If the seller on eBay finds they are selling, prices may go up both to reflect the market for the item and to make up for losses on other electronics parts purchased that have no takers; that's the way business works.

My comments were not meant to be gut reaction oppositional but rather to reflect how a market economy should function.

By the same token, if the new price is too high, the eBay seller could be sitting on a pile of otherwise useless lasers, so there's incentive there to price them fairly.