New Walmart HDD/DVDR-Magnavox H2080MW8 - Page 9

just last night, my magna has been adding 'blank' selections when i 'setup', 'title list', 'hdd'.

it will display my 'good' recordings in slots 1-whatever (let's say 1-3) and then there will be black boxes in 4-9. they 'clear' themselves once i play a valid recording.

it seems to me that it has something to do w/ the 'resume play' feature, as my front panel timer said 30 some minutes when i had already deleted the title that i had jsut watched. i saw there was an 'elapsed time' on the display, so i hit play button to 'resume' and nothing happened because that title was already gone. when i went into 'setup', 'title list', 'hdd' is when i 1st saw all the blank titles.

i think, when you view and delete a title, the front panel shows channel info, not an 'elapsed time'.

Sounds like a corrupted HDD. Did you edit after a title divide?

In any case, you should probably erase everything and start fresh.

i didn't edit before the funky title listings. i did my 1st edit last night before i did my 1st burn to dvd rw.

today, when i turned it on for the 1st time, i had lost all my settings. all channel info, display, video etc settings, and all timers were gone also. the power did not go out, because i have a clock radio that flashes "12:00" if the power even flickers...and it still had the correct time.

so i'm not sure what happened. my previous recordings were still on the HDD.

Not sure if I already mentioned these things you could try, so here they are:

1. Go thru Playback and Display Setup menus and set all "Language" options to English. If they're already there, press OK again on English.

2. Set your clock with the 1st Clock setting menu, "Clock Setting".

3. Set "Auto Clock" setting to OFF.

4. Set "Daylight Saving Time" setting to OFF.

If a week goes by w/o further problems, you can reset #3 to "Auto" and #4 to "ON/MAR-NOV" if you want your clock settings to be automatic rather than manual.

The "OSD Language" is probably the most important thing to set for "English." If it gets reset or loses contact in the FW somehow, it will send you back to initial setup menus and cause all sorts of other problems.

Well, just a follow-up After lots of testing over the weekend on teh player resetting itself to the initial setup screen (prompting for the OSD language).

Testing went weel Friday and Saturday, over 25 recording seesinos without the problem returning.

Unfortunately, Tuesday nite, the recording failed to start recording some shows I had set up and when I turned on the machine, it was again sitting at the OSD entry page.

I think I"ll start looking at other options now.

Rick

Rick,

Coming back to the OSD Languiage screen after you've already set it for English seems to be only possible if the unit is defective, or it's getting a power loss longer than 30-sec., which might not be noticeable if your other clocks have a longer battery backup???

Sorry this is qun is not in line with the current discussion, but where is this model available. I dont see it in any store in San Diego, CA. Can anyone throw some light on where we can get this model of Magnavox with HDD...

Only in Walmart stores (and not on their website), as far as I know.

when my unit lost all setup, channel and timer info....the clock was still set and correct. everything else seemed to be back at factory default.

when i turned it on, it did not come to any OSD setup screens. it didn't even do that when it was brand new. i believe the manual shows that it SHOULD when 1st turned on, but mine never did.

Rickie,

are you using the ATSC tuner for viewing/recording?

i had been using the analog for both and have been having no problems. the day before my unit did a factory reset, i was viewing on digital (and left it there when powered off). i don't know if this is the 1st time i have ever left it on digital when powered down, but that is the only thing i can think that i did different the time it reset.

Yes, most of my use is for recording from teh built-in ATSC tuner. Although at least once, I know it failed when the input was recieveing a feed through E1, however, I've actually run tests where I've successfully recorded from an input with no signal (ie E2 with nothing connected).

I've seen in a thread on anohter Mag DVD recordre (non-Hard disk), that support had user send unit in , when it reset, suggesting that they had a bad memory chip.

Not sure how reliable that is, but it's a thought.



Rick

Thanks for the follow up post Rickie. I had the same problem with this machine as you and defed. I finally traded up for the Phillips dvdr3575/37. It appears to be the same unit with a larger hardrive and an HDMI connection.

I have had no issues with the Phillips. So if your happy with the Magnovox except for the problem discussed, I would recomend the Phillips.


I was following this thread to see how widespread this problem with the Magnovox was because I wanted to get one for the bedroom. I think I will wait and see.

I recorded a program the other night, unfortunately I did not set the channel correctly. When I went to review the recording the setup screen popped up, I hit the setup button to remove it. All my channels and settings were still there, just the wrong program recorded. Last night I noticed that the clock had somehow advanced about 45 min. - anyone else had this happen?

Also does anyone's audio decrease when watching programs thru the unit compared to the TV volume? Discussed earlier but just wondering if this is common? I am using composite cables. Planning on ordering some premium component cables from monoprice. Thanks, Nelson

Actually, I already have the Philips as well. I bought it first, and it's worked pretty well. I needed another though, and thought since the units appeared to be virutal clones, I could save a few bucks and go with the Magnavox (besides, I couldnt find Philips anymore).

Ah well, still havent totally decided what I'm going to do, I'm guessing it'll go back to the Manufacturer. I assume there is a faulty component, since the problem doesnt seem to be hitting everyone, I'll hope they'll send me back another and hope it isn't bad ( I doubt they'd take the time to actually diagnose and repair, unless they already know what the problem is).


Fortunately, it doesnt seem to be happening to very many folks, but just to a few of us.

Rick

I havent looked into the audio issue yet,but yes, my audio is lower. What I've verified is that anything I record on both this unit and the Philips no longer has a Center channel output, The output from cneter channel has been split to the right and left channels. I get no output from the center. The audio is still there, and from the seating postion I'm in, the sound is "located" properly but with no center channel output, I find I need to crank it up. I've just recenetly changed some of the audio options, but haven't had a chance to check it out yet. I'm guessing its in the setting. Note, these observations are made on viewing dubbed DVD's from the Mag to DVD and played on an OPPO DVD player.

I'm betting it's one of the settings, I just havent taken the time to verify yet.
It's not bothering me all that much.

Rick

If it is like the Phillips, yes. Turn off auto time set and auto DST.

Like all current DVD recorders, the Philips and the Magnavox record only stereo sound, not DD 5.1. What you need to do is check the settings on your surround-sound receiver to see how it is processing stereo input - you probably have it set to ouput plain L+R stereo, when you really want to be using something like Dolby PL II or DTS Neo surround simulation.

My first post. Go easy on me.

DVDR3575H records and plays back a DVD correctly on my 16:9 TV. The aspect ratio is correct. When playing back the same DVD on the laptop or Sony BlueRay, the picture is "squashed" into a 4:3 picture.

Maybe this has been covered somewhere else in the forum.

I just joined this forum and have a question about the Magnovox recorder at Walmart.

I have about decided a HDD recorder is the way to go but didn't want to spring for $300. The Walmart Magnavox caught my eye the other day but it didn't say it upscaled to anything, just said it's progressive.

Does anyone know if this unit will upscale to 720P or 1080P? I only have a 720P Panasonic plasma so 1080 isn't that important right now.

Thanks for any info.....

For a widescreen DVD program to play correctly on 4x3 TV (and a PC), the DVD needs to include a "widescreen flag" which tells the DVD player to either play the program letterboxed, with black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, or, pan and scan/full screen, with left and right portions of the video cropped off so the remainder of the picture fills the 4x3 screen. A user-settable option in the DVD player controls letterbox vs. pan and scan viewing when the DVD player is set up for a 4x3 TV (also user-settable option).

There are several threads that discuss "anamorphic" video, which is a 16x9 picture squeezed into a 4x3 "space" as recorded on the DVD. Also discussed are methods for setting the widescreen flag when making a home DVD recording. The two methods are:
1) having a DVD recorder that supports setting the widescreen flag (very few do this--the Philips and Magnavox do not) or,
2) using a PC to copy the file from a DVD recorded elsewhere, copy the files onto the PC hard drive, use software like IfoEdit to add the widescreen flag, and then burn a new DVD on the PC that includes the flag.

This is the same approach as used for commercial "enhanced for widescreen" pre-recorded DVDs. They have anamorphic video combined with the widescreen flag.

Found one today at the Cranberry store in Pittsburgh. Was simply setting on top of one of the other DVD recorders like an orphan (not plugged in). No box. Gave salesman the SKU 05381857049 and he found it in the store's computer. No others in the store. After a lot of searching he found the plastic envelope that Walmart stores the paper, manual, SKU cutoff, etc. in for display units. Got it for $25 off as it was a 'display' unit. Two year warranty was about $18 which is a very good deal. These things are so flakey that I would never buy one without the warranty.

This thing has a serious vertical overscan on output as a 'tuner'. Cuts off about half the Fox News scroll! Messed with all the video settings and it made no difference. Anyone know if the Philips DVDR3575H is as bad??

Not that impressed with the analog tuner as average picture quality at best; digital tuner seemed OK for what little I could use it. My Panasonic DMR-HS2 was better on analog...but... it cost $800. Too bad it died. Anyone know if the Philips DVDR3575H might have a better tuner. (Regard the Panasonic: Don't believe the Service Manual(SM). Some of the voltages were non-existent on the Power Supply board. SM said replace board. Sprung for another at $100 only to find that has a trigger off-on in the main board where there is some malfunction. I didn't want spend $200 for that board since it might be in yet another board. Hence, the search today for the H2080MW8)

For the Pittsburgh Comcast folks: Only analog channels were available and none found above 100. No digital channels were detected on the H2080 [but was able to manually find a few that from my Samsung w Cable Card I knew were laying around like 17.1]. But could not easily keep them memorized in the H2080MW8. To get the higher 'free' digital channels on Comcast here, I think you will need to have a QAM enabled player recorder if there is even such a thing. Thus, no direct recording of the Speed channel for me without going through a cable box.

H2080 memorizes analog and digital channels separately...and... you have to toggle the remote to select either analog and digital channels when entering or scrolling up or down the channels. Remote is pretty cheap with small buttons and small hard to read print. But than again, its only $200. Haven't tested the record yet but seems to play prerecorded DVD movies fine. Didn't notice the vertical overscan when playing DVD, but then again, I wasn't looking too hard.

I'm really kind of cheezed off over the vertical overscan issue. Anyone know it this is both a Philips DVDR3575H and Magnavox H2080MW8 issue ...or... only a Magnavox issue?? I looked through all the threads on the Philips but didn't see vertical overscan mentioned as a defect. This was not an issue with the Panasonic, god rest it's soul.

I don't think it upscales. The only choice in the video settings is progressive on or off. You can select 4 by 3, 4 by 3 letter box, or 16 by 9. But I think the latter are better done inside my Hitachi RPTV than inside this animal for standard 480i.

Thanks for the reply Dick,
I thought that might be the case, but in this price range I would it expect it to scale.

Not sure what you mean by overscan. New to this video jargon. But it doesn't sound good.
Thanks,
Acer1

Acer1, your fixed-pixel plasma TV has to scale any input to its native resolution and, since it costs way more than a $200-300 recorder, it probably has a much better scaler than the recorder could possibly have.

With the Philips 3575, some people (incl. me) are finding they get a better pic if they output 480i and let their plasma and LCD TVs do the scaling...even tho the 3575 can upscale to 1080p over HDMI.

In other words, I wouldn't make upscaling a requirement or even a desired feature in one of the current low-priced recorders on the market?

dickmc, no reports yet of any overscan with the Philips 3575.

My 3575 doesn't overscan to any great extent, though it does have the memory issues. They have offered to RMA and fix it I just haven't sent it back in, hate to be without it for months while they fool around with it. Tempted to just try and get another new build unit and use this one for analog only. Too bad it appears the magy has the same issues for some folks, you'd think they would have had a fix by now.

Sorry Rick,
I have been reading through some more of these threads and I see that you already have the Phillips.

Knowing this now, I have a question.
Do the remotes for these units(Magnovox and Phillips) send similar signal? Example: can I set one recorder on top of the other and operate them independently without affecting the other?

Tried connecting H2080MW8 today with old VCR-VCD player that had an output to Channel 3 cable. Used this analog cable as input to:
H2080MW8 with component output to Samsung LNS-4096D LCD TV
... and also....
as direct cable input to Samsung LNS-4096D LCD TV for comparison.

Could not duplicate overscan found yesterday with Hitachi. Found out that Hitachi was treating Component Output from Cable Box differently than the Component Output of H2080MW8. This is because each can have a different aspect ratio setting. The first picture below is a side by side comparison which does not show any overscan.

However, I checked out the sharpness. The H2080MW8 seems to have a lot of ghosting (or ringing or something). This seems to get progressively worse as the signal gets processed. These three photos are:
1. Cable direct to TV
2. Cable to H2080MW8 as tuner with Component Output to TV
3. Cable to H2080MW8 with Hard Drive recording. Then Hard Drive playback as Component Output to TV.

This doesn't appear to be the greatest tuner in the world because of the "ghosting" or "ringing".

Anyone know how well the Philips behaved with the same Avia 'resolution / sharpness' test disk or with ghosting ...or... am I the only guy who has an old DVD that can actually output a Channel 3 signal to cable for test purposes???

Stopped by Walmart today to check the 2080 out closer. Two things are negatives for me.
1. No HDMI
2. The tuner does not appear to have QAM.

So no joy! I'll keep looking, probably Toshiba D-R550.

Thanks. You are exactly right. I looked at setting closer today, and messed with my AV reciever and you are correct. The AV reciever doing straight Stereo separation. Changing the AV receiver to PLII seemes to be ok. I need to do some more checking though as this seems to introduce some lip sync issues now, but only barely noticeiable. I'll do some more looking at it.

Thanks!
Rick