Magnavox 537, 535, 533, 515, 513, 2160A, 2160, 2080 & Philips 3576, 3575 - Page 640

The "other" recorders are those Funai manufactured recorders that also have the Make Recordings Compatible feature set to "ON." Some Funai manufactured Toshiba and Sylvania models I've used lacked a functional Make Recordings Compatible feature.

My old 2003 Philips DVDR72 had it, and used the +VR standard. I was able to use its unfinalized discs in the Funai models and vice-versa. Was it also a Funai manufactured recorder?

EDIT: Actually, it didn't have the MRC option, but I was able to use the dvdr72 discs in the Funai models using MRC.

I've have just received a 515 refurb from J@R and tested it for PAL disc play. It would not play commercial region 2 or 'all regions' PAL dvds, it displayed some error. However, it plays 'all regions' copies of PAL dvds on NTSC tv. My copies were on +R/RW, but it should not make any difference whether discs are '-' or '+'. I used to have a Philips 3576 and that one displayed a message that PAL dvd discs (copies or originals) were not from my area, however, the 3576 did play PAL VCDs (on NTSC tv). These tests tell me that these Philipses and Maggies can convert PAL to NTsc but those capabilities are specifically blocked in their firmwares to different degrees, in 515s the least.

I blame the grassy knoll.

Not any gunman there.

The knoll itself.

Someone asked about PAL use on these Philips/Magnavox machines here a long time ago, and someone with PAL discs replied that they'd tried it and got a disc error.

I questioned if it was the region coding, and I believe the reply was that the disc was "region zero".

Seems it's the fact the disc was a PAL disc, period. It wouldn't play in a N. American Philips/Maggie machine.

When you say your machine "plays 'all regions' copies of PAL dvds on NTSC tv", do you mean the copies are in PAL, or were they copied to an NTSC recorder? If the original is PAL, but it's played on a machine that will output a signal NTSC eqipment can handle, and your copying recorder is NTSC, the resulting disc won't be PAL, despite the original being in that format.

The copy will be NTSC, since that's the format the recorder that made it works in.

Naturally, such a copy would play in one of the P/M machines just fine.

EDIT:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1318394

I have a Philips DVDR75 (and a few me-too Maggies) that have the MRC function. As I recall, within the disk menu you have to navigate ABOVE the first title, and it's provided there.

That's what I remember, too, but then I checked the pdf manual I have stored on my computer and there was no mention of it, so I thought maybe I was remembering wrong, which at my age......

hi folks...

this is probably NOT very pertinent, but i thought i'd share a bit of ' compatibility ' experience i've had when dealing with DVD-RW discs, and their ' cross-compatibility ' between the Philips 357x and Mag 51x machines...

somewhere along the line, funai changed their directory entry structure, vis a vis, the ' empty title ' versus ' empty space ' entry in the DVDs after a recording is burned.

while this is NOT serious, it DOES affect the ability to burn additional titles across the 2 machines.

in essence, a DVD RW disc that is initialized ( owned ) by the Philips unit CAN be added to by a Mag machine without issue. In this case, the Mag machines apparently understand the older Philips directory entry ( empty title ), which is at least partially how the machines know where to begin a new recording.

however, if a disc is initialized on the mag machine, or even added to on a mag machine, the result is that the disc cannot be further processed ( other than to play ) on the philips machine.

after testing, i've found that the MRC option does NOT take care of this issue.

BUT, a ' mag processed RW disc CAN be further processed by the philips by doing a short manual recording ( post mag processing ) in the philips machine, and then erasing it.

this process ' replaces ' the mag generated ' empty space ' entry with the philips ' empty title ' entry, thereby making the disc compatible, once again, with whatever the philips is looking for in order to find a ' next recording ' start point.

i know this is drawn out and has been addressed somewhere before, but i think i dissected the process a bit further in order to understand just what was going on.

perhaps the only incompatibility in the philips process is looking for a specific title entry on the DVD, and it gets confused when it doesn't find something obscure, like the word ' title ' instead of ' space ', whereby the mag simply looks for either of those entries at the end of the last recording or some such thing.

in any case, this helped me, as i frequently record shows on both machines when there is a time or channel conflict, and use the DVDs to transfer the titles between machines.

sorry for the long explanation...

hope this helps some folks with both machines.


oh, by the way, the Panny machines do NOT use the VR+ recoding method...

rgds,
ron g

From one of my June 2010 posts:

Magnavox combo recorders, as well as DVD recorders and HDD/DVD recorders, have the Make Recordings Compatible feature that allows swapping of DVDs between some Funai-built recorders for additional recording and finalizing. The Make Recordings Compatible feature must be set to "ON" in the RECORDING menu found under General Settings accessed from the Setup menu.

With some earlier ... models the Make Recordings Compatible feature is called "Replace Disc Menu."

All my Magnavox and Philips recorders, whether they are HDD/DVD recorders, DVD recorders or VHS/DVD combo recorders, may freely swap unfinalized DVDs as long as all the recorders have Make Recordings Compatible set to "ON."

...The Sylvania ZV450SL8 ... had Make Recordings Compatible listed as an option in its RECORDING menu, but the Owner's Manual description mentioned that the feature is "not available." To verify this I set Make Recordings Compatible to "ON" in the Sylvania's RECORDING menu, but the feature was not functional--the Sylvania's unfinalized discs could not be swapped to other Funai-built recorders--the Owner's Manual was correct. Some other Funai-built recorders ... do not have the Make Recordings Compatible feature.

Don't confuse Make Edits Compatible with Make Recordings Compatible. These featrures are not the same.

Hope this is not a duplicate of previous posts, but I haven't been able to find anything on this error code.

I have Magnavox MDR515; trying to dub from HDD-DVD. I have tried about 8 different discs (two different brands) and I keep getting error message "cannot record on this disc E3 5c040303".

Anyone know anything about this? Further info: I had previously recorded on these discs, it read them fine & then I erased the discs to dub new shows & then got the error code.

I get E3 and E4 errors sometimes with +RW discs. If I erase the disc in the "Disc Edit" menu and try again it usually works. New discs seem to throw errors more often than used discs and need a few tries before they begin to work more consistently.

I've dubbed several hundred titles on 513 and 515 models and have never seen either of those errors with +/-R discs. With -RW discs I only get errors after about 100 uses, then it goes in the trash.

Well our household is back to owning a Maggy! My daughter wanted a Tivo for her bedroom but when I explained to her it would cost $600 or $100 and $20/month she asked if their were any other options. I explained I had several analog Panasonic DVDRs she could use but would require a separate CECB she wasn't too impressed. She also wasn't too excited about using DVDs(probably RWs or RAMs) and they only held 2-4hrs of programs(I'm not going to let her use any of my HDD Pannys). Long story short I picked her up a Maggy 2160a. This thing is like new, nothing even on the HDD. The original owner said he picked it up at W/M(when they were sold B&M) and only used it occasionally for the digital tuner hooked to a older little used tube TV. He was going to get into recording a few shows but never got into it. He may have used the DVD to play DVDs but everything looks line new, unlike my equipment no dust on the tray or fan, it looks like new.

After playing with it for a while I have a question for anyone who might know(maybe someone in my MSP market). As luck would have it my daughters favorite channel(one that I NEVER watch, MyTV 29.1) is problematic to record It probably has something to do with the PSIP channel mapping. Virtual 29.1 is actually on a different(higher) real channel than 29.2 although they both play the same programming(29.1 HD, 29.2 SD). Anyway if the 2160a is already on 29.1 a scheduled recording for 29.1 works just fine, the problem is if the tuner was left on another channel. In this case all that records is a blank screen Until I figure a work around I told her to just schedule all of her channel 29 recordings to 29.2 which works fine but the picture quality isn't quite as good.
One other thing I'll point out that is probably related to this is when one does a channel surf. When pushing CH UP from the channel lower than 29 the first channel it goes to is 29.2(actually it displays 29.1 and then immediately goes to 29.2) another push of the CH UP takes us to the real 29.1. A similar thing happens with CH DOWN. When on the channel above 29 a CH DOWN first goes to 29.1(actually it displays 29.2 first but then immediately goes to 29.1) another CH DOWN takes one to 29.2 We're not really so concerned with the CH scan issue since her Vizio TV has a digital tuner that she'll probably be using for most live TV watching but it would be nice to find a way to record from channel 29.1 without having to make sure the last channel watched was 29.1.

Well I read you help file and thought you had a work around, I would just setup the timer for the real channel number of 29.1. Unfortunately it was physical channel 9(which has a channel 9.1 also on physical channel 9) so when I did that of course it recorded 9.1(FOX) and not 29.1(MyTV).
Instead of playing around setting up dummy recordings I just tried to see if I could manually enter in a number to get me to 29.1, if I was already on different channel. Unfortunately I could not, the only way I found to get to 29.1 was by using the CH UP or CH DOWN button.
For example, if I was on 5.1 and entered 29.1 the tuner briefly displayed 29.1 followed by 29.2. If I was on 5.1 and entered 29.2 it immediately went to 29.2 and stayed their. If I was on 5.1 and entered 29.0 it briefly displayed 29.1 and then went to 29.2
I really think if virtual 29.1 was on a physical channel not used(for example channel 28) and I entered that number it would probably take me to 29.1, unfortunately that is not the case
Again for my daughter this is not the end of the world, since DVDRs are only SD anyway recording from the SD channel won't look much worse than the HD twin, too bad it had to be her favorite channel(Big Bang Theory, Everybody Loves Raymond, Two and a half men, etc.) things I wouldn't be caught dead watching but she adores
Oh we really don't have any analog channels left in our market, I don't think it even found any during the channel scan. She'll probably always leave it on the DTV mode.

Do you have any -R or +R discs you can try to dub the same recordings to? Hate to suggest a waste of a disc, but under the circumstances...

Are you tied into an antenna, or to cable? (Sorry if I missed that point.)

Actually channel 29.1 is the MyTV network that only shows repeats, I guess the programs I mentioned are CBS programs? I watch lots of CBS but mostly 1hr crime dramas on the real CBS channel.

9.1 is HD FOX on physical channel 9
9.2 is SD FOX on physical channel 29
29.1 is HD MyTV on physical channel 9
29.2 is SD MyTV on physical channel 29

In my market both the FOX and MyTV channels are owned by the same company. The reason for the odd channel numbering is because physical channel 9 is on VHF and kind of spotty for digital TV. The channel owners figured if you couldn't get FOX HD on 9.1 that you could still get FOX SD on physical channel 29(mapped to 9.2). This is actually true, my mother(who is OTA) occasionally has problems with breakups on FOX 9 HD and when she does she just switches to FOX SD(9.2, physical channel 29) and her reception is perfect.
AFA deleting any channels, my daughter would probably want to record from both FOX and of course MyTV so I don't know what channels I would delete??


Antenna

Most MyNetwork shows, including all you listed, are available ITC (no monthly cost) if you have a BUD. I get SVU from there and got all 8 seasons of Monk either from MyNet or Ion or both. MyNetwork from BUD routinely exceeds the best quality I've ever seen on any cable channel. Plus, about 1/3 of the commercial time is just black screen, and it plays complete shows without audio or video ad or "up next" overlays.

Anyway, back to the 2160A, I made many calls to Bright House nearly two years ago over a period of several months after a channel mapping change here resulted in exactly what you describe. Previously MyNetwork worked as reliably as any other channel. BHN was no help (actually worse, a large & complete waste of time), and no attempts at any workarounds described here helped at all.

A separate device with a digital tuner like the LG DR787T connected to one of the line inputs and left tuned to a favorite channel is a reliable workaround I use here with Bright House cable for MyNetwork, though here it's on 38.1, which like 29.1 there is tunable on a 2160A only via up or down from an adjacent channel. If you can pick up a dead 787 cheap or free it can probably be brought back to life by (easily, if you can solder) replacing one to three caps (worth under a dollar) on its main board. I have 3 787s, all of which had bad caps and all of which work more reliably as QAM tuners than these Funais.

I'll give it a shot as soon as I can pry her away from it she's not as fond of testing as I am and is happily watching a few recordings she made this afternoon


Interesting we both had the problem with a MyTV channel I like your idea about using a separate tuner for the one channel in my case I could just use one of my spare CECBs plugged into one of the 2160a line inputs, see no reason it wouldn't work like a champ. Again if this were me thats what I'd probably do, but since my daughter can actually record the MyTV SD channel my guess is thats what she'll do. Still if their is a way around it using the built in tuner it would be nice to know.
In regards to BUD, is BUD the same as the 1m or so FTA satellite dishes(not to be confused with the 18" Direct TV type dishes)? I see a few of those around but haven't really seen the big 3m?? dishes around for a while.
I'll give wajo's tips a try probably tomorrow.

I guess the difference is in whether she has a 4:3 or 16:9 TV, and knows what she's missing on a SD channel if her TV is 16:9. If she knows, maybe you should offer the CECB hookup.

This is insane. If they know a significant portion of their audience can't get them on channel 9 (which they obviously do, since they're addressing the issue), they should just switch totally to channel 29 and give THAT the virtual 9.1 channel number, and be done with it.

A channel in my area had a similar problem, and that's what they ended up having to do, move to UHF for good.

I'd say since you can't depend on 9.1 for reception anyway and the recorder won't play nice with it, if the programming on 9.2 is the same, use it exclusively.

You say it's SD, but our recorders only record in SD anyway. Do they crop widescreen pictures down to 4x3, or do they letterbox them on 9.2? If they latter, you're all set. Use 9.2 and don't worry about it ever again...

...until they wise up and start using real channel 29 only, and let channel 9 die the death it deserves.

OK, I couldn't wait and kicked her off her new toy
First I went into analog mode, 9 and 29 were already deleted since those channels aren't active in analog land, so nothing I could do their. Next I I went into DTV and tried deleting 9. Typing 29.1 still resulted in going to 29.2(but didn't first try going to 29.1, it immediately went to 29.2). Finally I deleted 29(sounded counter intuitive to what I wanted to record but did it anyway) and wala, I could type in 29.1 and have it go to 29.1 HD! I did a quick timer test and sure enough if I left the tuner on another channel(used 5.1) it would change to 29.1 HD just fine. The only downside to this is she cannot use the CH UP or CH DOWN buttons to get to ANY of the 29s(29.1 or 29.2, it just skips over them) but we'll trade that off for the ability to actually record 29.1. Of course even though CH UP/CH DOWN won't access the 29s typing 29.1 in direct takes one to 29.1. On a funny note now, typing in 29.2 directly takes one to 29.1
You're a pro with these things Wajo, thanks!

Oh while testing I got a panic call from my father, he was recording "The Devil Wears Parda" on his 2160a and said everything was is Spanish I told him to push the AUDIO button but he said all he got was a red circle with a slash through it I pushed the audio button on my 2160a but it switched to and from Spanish just fine after a little playing I found one cannot switch the audio stream while recording, called my father back, he stopped his recording, pushed the AUDIO button and he's back on track multitasking going on here

I tried Sony & TDK +RW & Memorex -RW. All of them had been previously used, but not too many times. I got the error message after I erased them in the "disc edit" menu. I finally got the discs too work by formatting them on another DVD recorder. (I just got the Mag 515 but far as I can tell, it only has the "erase" option & no "format" option.) I'm not clear what the difference is, but the discs worked in the 515 after I formatted them in another unit. BTW, what brand RW do people use with these Mags? The only recommendations I've seen are for -R or +R, but nothing for rewritables.

@ mrmazda

Yes, I understand that I can open any .zip file on my mac but these update files are a .mot. So, I don't actually need to be able to open the file, I just burn the .mot file as a "data" file to a disc and that is then read by the machine?

@ wajo,
Yes, I can use Toast to do that to a CD or DVD

If so that's great.
And Thanks to you both for the help on this!

Exactly!

The 515 will automatically format a new RW disc when you first load it. "Erase Disc" from the "Disc Edit" menu does the same thing as the automatic format.
The "Disc Edit" menu is not available if your DVD has already been formatted or erased in the 515 and there are no recordings on it. If you do a short recording (about 10 seconds) on the DVD it will allow you to go in the "Disc Edit" menu and erase the disc.

I get the cheapest RWs that I can find, usually Memorex. Memorex -RWs always work well for me but Memorex +RWs have been troublesome.

I only use RW discs for transferring titles from the recorder HDD to my PC. I never do real time dubs or record directly to DVD so the occasional failed burn isn't a big deal. I never store titles on RW media for more than a few days. Cheap RW media works good enough for my purposes.

If a burn fails on a +/-R disc you have to throw the disc away. Even if a burn is successful on cheap media you still have to worry about how long the disc will remain readable. Using high quality +/- media makes sense for your personal collection. If you are giving away many discs you might be able to save some money by using the cheaper media, but at the cost of long term reliability.