[countmacula]

I recieved my DVD LX-9 three days ago. I was playing a DVD-RW (despite no mention of it in the manual the LX9 plays -RW, +R, and +RW discs). About an hour into the DVD, the machine stopped.


Now, it displays "ERROR" and "F897" in white-text overlay (same as the Picture Mode display); and on the blue screen with the DVD logo, there is a rectangle at the bottom of the screen stating "No [sic] Initialized!" It will still play +R and +RW's, and pre-recorded DVD's , but no -R's or -RW's.


I tried removing batteries and AC power overnight - no help. I performed an "initalizing" maneuver described in the manual (holding pause, back chapter, and play buttons simunltaenously) - the blue DVD logo disappears, I get a blue rectangle that says "Initialized" for 1 second, the screen blanks, then the Error code and blue "No Initialized!" messages return.


I'm not a -R / +R maven, but I believe that there is some glitch in the region coding of this unit. So, when it sees a "-" style disc with no code, it chokes. From what I understand, +R/RW have no such code, so they are still playing.


I am not a hacker - I was not modifying this player in any way. There is no "system reset" switch I can see. I searched the web for two hours in vain. I have a support e-mail into Panasonic, but I did not want to admit to putting a -RW in the machine - I'm afraid they would say something lame about putting non-supported discs in the machine, or perhaps even that I broke it by doing this!


I hope this is a defective unit, and not a software bug I'm going to re-create. Can anyone out there help me?


Thanks.


David S.

 

[countmacula]

P.S. I spoke too soon - it will not play pre-recorded DVD's - a blue screen displays "This disc may not be played in your region"