Panasonic DMR-EZ47V: DVD/VCR recorder with ATSC (digitl), QAM(digitl) & Analog Tuners - Page 20

The Panasonic Service Center information is found in this post:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...8#post14451738

Since it's only 10 months old it will fall under the 12 month Panasonic warranty. I think Pat is questioning whether it will get fixed or not if he sends it in, and rightfully so. Intermittent problems are very hard to find. Your best hope is they've seen this type of problem before. I believe sending it to Elk Grove shouldn't cost you any shipping, just the hassle.
IMO the EZ-x7 series was not a very good series at all. Too buggy.

I recorded Saturday Night Live last Sat. evening for an hour using XP speed on a RAM disk. This is my first try using a RAM disk. I played it back on my 50" 1080p TV. Now I know it can't be HD but good golly, it sure looks like HD. Incredible detail. What resolution is this being recorded in? I have my cable passing through the unit then going into my cable card TV so there is no cable box so the cable is feeding the unit the HD feed of a QAM tuned digital channel (NBC).

I agree with you 100%!! I've had mixed feelings about this unit over 10 months of ownership. The EZ475 has some great features but the bugs are not minor.

For a while I thought of it as "Dancing Bearware":

It's not important that the bear dance well; the miracle is that it dances at all.

[But if you need a dancer, why would you hire a bear? -- Alan Cooper, "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum."]

What to buy instead???

Pat

I recently purchased a refurbished EZ47, and I've noticed this problem a few times. Not sure what's causing it, but I'm glad to know that it isn't just mine. I can usually get it to power up by pressing either the Schedule or the Direct Navigator button. It's much easier than unplugging the unit every time.

All,

I too have a EZ47V. Suddenly the DVD tray will not open. I tried unplugging it and using the reset button but these did not work. After calling customer service they had me try some button combinations which still does not work.

When I hit the tray open button the word "OPEN" show up on the display but nothing happens.

Any ideas? Has this happened to anyone else? Since I am just past the 12 month warranty Panasonic will not help me out.

-Pfitz

Try inserting a VHS tape.

See this and the posts that follow it for similar situations discussed back in January:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...9#post12841939

I did try putting the VHS tape in to my unit. The tape plays and ejects as it should but the DVD tray still does not respond to the openlclose button.

The first time this showed up was when i had just finished recording a DVD. When I got to the on screen note that has you press the open / close button too finish finalizing the disc I did but had no response. I had to navigate through the menues to start finalizing the disc. After it was complete it ejected the disc after it finished finalizing. I shut the DVD tray but could never get it back open again.

I sure would like to know if others are having this same problem? I have read on other websites that this has happened before but have not learned of a solution.

-Pfitzy

I purchased a refurbished EZ475VK on eBay a couple of months ago, and I've noticed that it generates a significant amount of RF interference when powered up. I'm using an indoor antenna, and whenever the Panasonic is powered on, it seems to cut my reception by about 50% or more. As soon as I power down the Panasonic unit, my signal strength returns to normal. I own a couple of other DVD recorders, and they do not exhibit this behavior. I am using RG6 quad shielded coax, and my antenna is on a shelf about 4 feet above the Panasonic. Any suggestions on how to reduce or eliminate the interference?

The only thing I can think of is distance and antenna orientation. My father who also uses a rabbit ears had this problem when he bought his Vizio LCD. When the TV was on it would send out severe interference on the VHF low band. He didn't care about this too much when watching live TV because he watched those digitally and the digital band was not effected by the TV. The problem was recording to his analog DVDR. I finally got him a 12 foot piece of coax and between that and changing the antenna orientation were able to get the interference down to a minimum.
When he got his Philips DVDR w/digital tuner he had no problem since he now does everything off digital channels. He was able to put his antenna right back by his TV.
Are you having problems with the digital channels or only analogs? and if only analog I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you're going to have any favorites in the LPS realm.

It's mainly the digital channels. When the Panasonic unit is turned on and a recording starts on my Philips 3576 or I try to watch something else on my HDTV, there is a lot of pixelation and audio dropouts. I was hoping that someone else here may have run into this problem and come up with a work around. Oh well, thanks for the reply.

One other thought then. Unless you're watching your EZ47 through channel 3 or 4 you'll want to have the RF modulator disabled. If you have it turned on in the setup and the EZ is on the passthru RF will be severely attenuated. Could this be possible?
Disabling the RF modulator is somewhat tricky, it's in the manual but not very well documented. It's earlier in the manual and is in reference to if you're seeing interference on the screen. It's not as plain as RF modulator ON or OFF. If you can't find it I can try and look in my manual.

Hmm...I didn't even realize this unit had an RF modulator. I have never used the RF out for anything but pass-through. You're right, the setting was not very easy to find. It's not in the standard settings menu, so I had to look it up in the manual. I'll give that a try. Thanks for the feedback!

It's on page 77 of the manual.

I assume that you are inquiring about Coupon Eligible Converter Boxes (CECBs) for OTA reception of digital broadcast signals, not for use with cable or satellite systems.

The Zenith DTT901 is the best overall performer with faster channel changing than that of the Panasonic EZ series recorders. (I have four EZ17 models and one EZ28 model.)

I have been entrusted with ten CECB coupons from my immediate and extended family. I purchased two Zenith DTT900 models, six Zenith DTT901 models and two Zinwell ZAT-970A models. The DTT901 and ZAT-970A models have analog pass through.

The Zinwell 970A (and the more recent 950A) have an eight event timer for changing channels in order to allow unattended scheduled recordings with VCRs or DVD recorders.

If you do not yet have coupons the NTIA is still accepting applications but there is a waiting list for coupon delivery until unused coupons expire or more "bail out money" is provided by Congress.

There is extensive discussion among owner/users in the AVS CECB Forum:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=186

The CECB forum has extended discussions of pros and cons for various models/brands.

1. I am impressed with every aspect of the DTT901 model's performance. (I should mention that the Insignia NS-DXA1-APT, found at Best Buy, is a twin of the Zenith DTT901.) The most common criticism of the Zenith/Insignia is that the program guide only shows information for the current program and the next program. A few CECBs show programming hours or days ahead. The drawback of the extended program guide is that this feature makes a greater demand upon processor resources.

2. Some areas have community access, low power and translator stations that may continue broadcasting analog signals well beyond the 2/17/09 shut down of full power analog signals. The analog RF pass through feature allows the CECB to pass through the analog signals so that the TV's analog tuner may still tune in these continuing analog broadcast stations. On the Zenith DTT901 analog RF pass through becomes functional whenever the 901 is powered off. Other CECBs may implement the analog RF pass through in the same manner or through a menu, a more cumbersome arrangement.

3. IMHO picture quality is somewhat better in the Zenith/Insignia twins than in the Zinwells.

4. As with most CECBs the Zenith/Insignia twins have no built-in system for scheduling the channels to change. One must manually change the channel. The Zinwell 950A/970A and a couple of other brands may be programmed to change the channel in much the same manner as one programs a VCR or DVD recorder. Then one programs a VCR or DVD recorder to record from the input that the CECB feeds. Various sources promote these features found on CECBs from Dish Network. What these sources fail to mention is that these Dish Network timers seldom work. The Zinwell timers are functional.

5. Most of the Zeniths were purchased for $9.99 (with coupon) at KMart or Bi-Mart (a regional chain located in Oregon, Washington and Idaho). Circuit City and some other stores sell the Zenith for $19.99 (with coupon). Best Buy sells the Insignia for $19.99 (with coupon). Both Zinwells were purchased at Albertsons grocery stores, the first for $9.99 (with coupon) and the second was FREE (with coupon). In my state (Oregon) there is no sales tax.

Also, let me add that along with the timers on the Dish CECB's being undependable, the picture quality sucks. At least compared to the Panny's built-in tuner, it won't even come close.

But it's not as good as the Zinwell's or Zenith's, either.

Well, I wish I had read this before ordering my Dish TR-40. I've been happy enough with its picture quality but I should mention that I only have a standard def TV. I don't notice that the Panny's built-in tuner gives me a much better picture.

But since my main reaseon for getting the TR-40 was for its timers, I'm disappointed to hear they're not dependable. I've only used timers a few times and they have so far worked. Have you noticed whether there are certain situations that are more likely to fail: e.g. recurring rather than one-time? farther in the future rather than more immediate? I'll try experimenting to see what I notice.

Some of your posts mention a need to change display settings when changing channels, and i think i've fought this too. I'm disappointed to find that the Panasonic doesn't seem to recognise or remember that you recorded from a widescreen (16 by 9 aspect ratio) program, and the HDMI output on playback produces an old fashioned 4 x 3 image on my widescreen TV, squashed and tall compared to the original, recorded broadcast.

I know there's a setting on the Panasonic telling it to FILL THE SCREEN which can be used to overcome this issue, but that stretches regular 4x3 channels horizontally to fill the 16x9 screen, making everybody fat.

My temp solution is to watch TV (using the Panasonic's ATSC tuner) via an HDMI connection to my display, so footage shot 4x3 is shown correctly, with side borders, and widescreen content fills the screen. Those extra pins and leads in the HDMI cable are doing their job, to tell my monitor how to display the image.
When playing back widescreen footage from the Panasonic, i switch to a component connection from Panasonic to the display, which is suitably dumb, and does not force the monitor to reduce picture width to 4 x 3.

I'd love to hear that i'm missing something here, and to hear nuggets of wisdom that might make me curse this Panasonic less!

BTW - are there software upgrades available for the 475v that might improve its manners or performance?

Thanks for reading, appreciate any advice

I do all my recording to DVD-RAM in 8 hr EP mode and also use the "Create Chapter" and "Delete Chapter" functions to edit programs. After recording and editing 6+ hours of stuff, I received this unpleasant message the next time I turned on the unit:

This disc is not properly formatted.
Do you want to format the
disc in DVD Management
Yes No

I tried ejecting and reloading the disc. Running a disc cleaning DVD. No luck.
Is there any chance of recovering the programming on the disc? I hate to just wipe out all my work.

Have you noticed lately that your drive has been making a grinding noise when inserting recordable discs, recording or editing discs? If so your spindle needs to be cleaned. Cleaning discs do nothing to the spindle.
If the disc slips when it's being written to it can cause unrepairable damage to the recordings on that disc. I would first try cleaning the spindle. Note you still may not be able to recover the recordings on your disc but at least a clean spindle should reduce the chances of this happening again. Here's a link to a thread talking about cleaning the spindle.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f106/fixing...t-help-210507/

patman2,

You can also try washing the disc. This saved one of my "bad" RAM discs. Some time ago I read a few other people did the same thing & it worked. Just use a dab of gentle dish washing detergent, such as Dawn, & very carefully wash & dry the disc.

Shortly thereafter I did clean the spindle on my EZ17 as jjeff mentioned because more discs were acting up. It now works like new.

Thanks jjeff and Mike99! I'll try both of these tips. The disc washing is simple. Taking the unit apart will require more planning. I'll report back on results. Thanks again!

More detailed information, advice and photos may be found in this post and those that follow it:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...8#post14479898

Thanks so much for pointing out the thread. Your explanation and pictures are incredible. I just wish I had a 'parts machine' to practice on. Well, maybe my current machine will be reduced to parts use if more things crap out.

Funny you should mention a "parts machine." In several of my posts that include photos the parts and/or parts machines themselves serve as the "props."

Some of the parts have been kept in labeled boxes. Earlier today I gathered up the boxed parts and reassembled my three Panasonic "parts machines" to be as complete as possible.

My 2006 model "parts machines" consist of one DMR-ES15 and two DMR-ES35V models, all purchased "as-is" in 2007. One DMR-ES35V had a bad tuner, both had bad Digital PCBs, but both had good DVD Drives that just needed a hub cleaning to return them to functionality. These DVD Drives were subsequently swapped into DMR-ES15 models that had DVD Drives with failed laser assemblies. One of those DVD Drives continues in daily use in an ES15; the other DVD Drive had a laser assembly failure of its own nine months later.

The attached photo is posted as an homage to the "parts machine."

Addendum: On 18 May 2009 the DMR-ES35V "parts machine" seen at the bottom of the stack was returned to full functionality with a swapped in spare Digital PCB and DVD Drive as reported in this post:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0#post16484860

thankyou much for this info' i have since placed a good heatsink on my Panasonic DMR-EV475V i got new for $42.00 cash on craiglist, however' just one more thing and that is the fan does not spin' so i modded from the stock 7v fan to a 12v sunnon 80mm out side the case with epoxy and a wall adapter to molex, work really good, i cut out the factory grill and put a chrome finger guard on my sunnon for better air flow and it even looks good, so there may aswell be a problem either with the stock 7v fan or the onboard fan connecter so i just bypassed them both, arctic ceramic adhesive works great to mount the heatsink aswell, thanks again