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Pannasonic EH75 with Zenith 901 vs DTVPal

6085 Views 34 Replies 14 Participants Last post by  Boris., 
C
Set-up:


The base:
Sylvania HDTV ATSC top box tuner who is linked by HDMI cable to a
Toshiba 34HFx84 16:9 CRT HDTV television


The challenge:

easy part: find a CECB for my Panasonic DMR EH-75v HDD/DVD recorder


hard part: who can be controlled by the DVD recorder between a Zenith 901 and a DTVpal. It's because a have this 2 at home and now holiday oblige, have lot of time to waste.


results: why wait!


Both can be controlled by my pannie DVD recorder as a DirectTV satelite receiver with the IR blaster. The Pal as an Echostar receiver and the Zenith as a LG receiver.


Both CECB can change channel with the pannie remote by using the numeric keys pad.


No TVGOS as I speak presentely for the pannie


Only the Zenith can change channels - the s is not an error- with success when a manual recording is scheduled by the pannie.


The Zenith use a more friendly pattern to enter the numbers to change a channel like to have 22-1. Zenith pattern: 22 , Pal pattern: 0022-0.


Because the pannie send at less twice the signal when recording two different channels back-to-back, the Zenith can stay on the channel but the Pal cannot.


The Zenith stay cool when on for a long time. The Pal can keep warm my coffee mug.


Winner: Zenith 901 and you have a better picture too.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------


How I did this?

turn on the pannie and the Zenith put the IR blaster in front of the blue ligth and the IR blast plug in the pannie.


in the pannie TVGOS set-up:


-choose USA

-write you normal zip code

-chose DirectTV

-select IN3 (in my case)

-channel input: choose 28 + enter and 128 + enter but not 1128

-choose the LG satellite receiver

-choose code 1415 - it's work for me

-exit from the no-working TVGOS



Your converter box is set.

you will see, in place of IN3, the letters SAT on the lcd screen on your pannie.


with the pannie remote as the zenith remote you can change channel by using or not enter with the numeric keys pad but not the channels on the Zenith with the channel arrows on the pannie remote.



when recording a program.


-press schedule follow by sub menu.

-write your time

-input: IN3

-channel: you need to write all the numbers except for the main channel ( xx-1) Ex.: for the channel 26-4, you need to write 264 but you need to write 131 for the channel 13-1.


be sure to let the Zenith on when recording is scheduled because the pannie doesn't turn on the Zenith.


If you have two or more recording in a row, the pannie will switch the channel 2 sec before the beginning of the new recording.





To sale: DTVpal useful to keep warm your coffee mug or as a gun target or act as a Digital-analog converter for a secondary TV.
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J
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The million dollar question, I have a similar setup, are you able to tune to a single digit sub channel other than a .1 sub channel. That is channel 2.2?

I am not because the Panny isn't able to send a "."

If I send a 2 it just goes to 2.1

If I send a 22 it tries to go to 22 but since in my area that's a invalid channel it just stays on the current channel.

If I try a 022 it still tries 22 which is invalid and stays on current channel.


Two million dollar question
, are you able to program back to back events on different channels?

By this I mean say channel 4 from 7-8pm then channel 5 from 8-9pm.

In my setup if I do this the first event goes fine but at 7:59:58 seconds it sends out the code 5. Before the CECB actually goes to channel 5 the Panny sends out a second 5 at 8:00:00(as you mentioned it sends out 2 very close blasts). My CECB sees these two independent blasts as 55 which is not valid in my area and just stays on channel 4



So have you been able to workaround my 2 problems? I guess if you're keeping track if it's two yeses it should be worth a cool 3M
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after more testing.....................


Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/15443320


The million dollar question, I have a similar setup, are you able to tune to a single digit sub channel other than a .1 sub channel. That is channel 2.2?

I am not because the Panny isn't able to send a "."

If I send a 2 it just goes to 2.1

If I send a 22 it tries to go to 22 but since in my area that's a invalid channel it just stays on the current channel.

If I try a 022 it still tries 22 which is invalid and stays on current channel.
Click to expand...


The Zenith 901 answer with this pattern for the channel. As for the remote than from the IR blast


If you press 2+2 the box go to channel 22-1

if you press 2+2+4 the box go to 22-4


but if you press 2 and wait for the box to change channel for 2-1 and you press another time 2 you will get 2-2




Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/15443320


Two million dollar question
, are you able to program back to back events on different channels?

By this I mean say channel 4 from 7-8pm then channel 5 from 8-9pm.

In my setup if I do this the first event goes fine but at 7:59:58 seconds it sends out the code 5. Before the CECB actually goes to channel 5 the Panny sends out a second 5 at 8:00:00(as you mentioned it sends out 2 very close blasts). My CECB sees these two independent blasts as 55 which is not valid in my area and just stays on channel 4
Click to expand...

i program channel on my pannie to send 51 for the channel 5-1


I remarks after some test tonight than the pannie can send 3 times the signal but stay on the channel 5-1.


the first time it go to channel 5-1, the pannie send the second signal 51 and the box prepares itself to change to 5-2 but the pannie send a third 51 signal and the box stay on 5-1. All this is visible on the tv screen.




Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/15443320


So have you been able to workaround my 2 problems? I guess if you're keeping track if it's two yeses it should be worth a cool 3M
Click to expand...

try this and give me some news back!
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The EH75V should also change the channels on the Pal, using special, 3-digit channel numbers.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rammitinski /forum/post/15445342


The EH75V should also change the channels on the Pal, using special, 3-digit channel numbers.
Click to expand...

it does but when it's time for recording back-to-back programs on different channels, it sucks.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff /forum/post/15443320


If I send a 22 it tries to go to 22 but since in my area that's a invalid channel it just stays on the current channel.

If I try a 022 it still tries 22 which is invalid and stays on current channel.
Click to expand...

If I send 022 using the remote my Zenith box goes to 2.2. I would suspect that the IR blaster is not sending the leading zero. On some recorders there is an option to force it to send leading zeros or a minimum of three digits.
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Looks like the panny has a problem with the number 2.



with the IR blaster to have the channel 2.2 by the panny key pad you press 2 and wait for the box to change channel for 2-1 and you press another time 2 you will get 2.2



when is time to schedule a recording:


if you write 21 you will get 2.1

if you write 22 or 221 you will get 22.1

but if you write 2 you will get 2.2



before to write this post I re-tested everything.
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When you set up TVGOS on the Panasonic EH75V for use with DirecTV (which is what you need to do in order to use a CECB), at some point you have the option to specify that all channel numbers are three digits. In that mode, it pre-pends a zero to two-digit numbers. So if you program it to record from channel 22, it actually sends 022, which the Zenith 901 interprets as 02-2 i.e. 2-2.


I don't actually have this particular channel myself, but all my single-digit major channels work like this. The lowest I have is 3.1 which I call 31 on my EH75V.
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So do you get the guide downloaded to Panny thru the converter box ?


And can you record the program using the Guide, using this setup ?
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Yes and yes.


You have to either use the pass through on the box (you can leave that feature on at night to download the data, but you'll have to remember to turn it off in the morning if you want to record that day), or you can split the antenna signal between the box and the RF input on the recorder. But you'll only get guide data until they cut off the analog host channel (which is supposed to be February 17, 2009 - soon).


After that, you'll have to use manual timers - unless they ever get that Pal - TVGOS digital/analog conversion thing going.
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Ram,


Thanks, but I am already thinking past Feb 17th, so digital TVGOS will not get 'passed on' to anolog signal past the CCB?


So what is on the horizon to get these DVRs TVGOS to work?
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Other than that? Nothing that I know of. At this point, if you lose the guide, you'll have to set timers manually.


But at least there are a few CECB's which can be controlled by the recorder's IR blasters, so you'll only have to set timers on the recorder and not also on the tuner (the Pal and the Zinwell also have timers, if you'd prefer to just set both units, or the IR method isn't satisfactory for whatever reason. But the Zinwell is probably the more dependable of the two).


The EH75V (and EH55) is known to be able to control the Pal, the CM, the Zenith/Insignia, and I think, the RCA. There may be more that I'm forgetting, but those are the main ones people here have tried and used.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cactuspwr /forum/post/15442500



be sure to let the Zenith on when recording is scheduled because the pannie doesn't turn on the Zenith.
Click to expand...

Is there anyway around this?


Will the Panasonic EH75's IR Blaster turn on the DTV Pal or the Channel Master CM-7000?


Fwiw, my usage will be almost exclusively for unattended recording. - I'm hoping for a setup that's pretty much set and forget and I just don't want to leave the converter box on all the time.
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Quote:
Rammitinski,

The EH75V (and EH55) is known to be able to control the Pal, the CM, the Zenith/Insignia, and I think, the RCA. There may be more that I'm forgetting, but those are the main ones people here have tried and used.
Click to expand...

1. Have you used any of these with the E55? Which?


2. How dependable/accurate have they been selecting exactly the program you wanted? Right channel at the right time?


3. Best PQ for E55 recording in your experience, CM7000 or Zenith?


4. For a totally manual setup without attempting to use a guide, just entering time, channel number, and input number, is there any need to make the E55 appear to the DTV box as a DirectTV satelite receiver? This might be needed to be able to use the 3 digit channel numbers to activate the DTV box.


Fortunately I found my IR blaster. Outdoor antenna, good signal, 13 miles west of Sears Tower. Any other experiences will be appreciated.


Jim
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The most dependable/accurate and best picture quality? The CM-7000.


For strictly manual timer setting, you would still have to set up the recorder for either Direct or digital cable w/box. Not sure which would work best - possibly cable, because you might get more subchannels in the list. But you would have to do that in order to be able to program the 3-digit channel numbers, as you suspect.


The CM doesn't have pass-through, so you can't use that feature to download the analog TVGOS OTA while it's still being sent (although you can split the signal to accomplish the same thing - if you'd even want to bother at this point). But the DTVPal/TR-40 *may* eventually be able to do the digital-to-analog TVGOS conversion thing, so you might want to keep that in mind - at least maybe for a 2nd coupon box. It does have a good PSIP guide of it's own, and event timers, too, to fall back on - although spotty.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by balkan /forum/post/15610017


4. For a totally manual setup without attempting to use a guide, just entering time, channel number, and input number, is there any need to make the E55 appear to the DTV box as a DirectTV satelite receiver? This might be needed to be able to use the 3 digit channel numbers to activate the DTV box.
Click to expand...

As Rammitinski said, you need to set up TVGOS as if for DirectTV or maybe a suitable cable box, in order to use the 3-digit channel numbers.


I set up TVGOS on my EH75V to use "DirecTV and antenna" in order to use my Zenith DTT901 with an IR blaster. I don't remember whether there was a separate step to indicate whether the TVGOS data would come from DirecTV or from antenna; if there was, I told it to use the antenna. If the EH75V cannot find any incoming TVGOS data, it continues to search for five or seven days (I've forgotten which), and then gives up. In the meantime, and after it gives up, you can schedule recordings manually.


As I recall, when you go into TVGOS while it's still searching for data, you get a warning screen which you can dismiss or ignore, and proceed with setting up a recording manually. At some point you can tell TVGOS to stop searching, and then you don't get that screen any more.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jtbell /forum/post/15610783


I don't remember whether there was a separate step to indicate whether the TVGOS data would come from DirecTV or from antenna...
Click to expand...

There isn't.


About the "searching for a host channel" thing - if you don't even connect the IR blaster intil well after the initial data download, I don't think it will do that once you do connect it. I'm not 100% positive about that, but you can try it that way first.
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I think the EH-55 manual says it will search for 3 days and then ask if you want to continue searching. If you say yes it tries for a couple more days after which it gives up. There is no way to tell it to not do that initial search although I didn't try disconnecting the IR blaster.

I found the most complete channel listing to be the "fake" zip code that's in the DTVPal CECB manual with digital cable. Otherwise I had previously selected digital cable with my real zipcode but was missing one OTA digital channel(that I never really watched anyway).
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I am wondering if there is a 'reverse' solution.


We know CCBs will get digital TVGOS for sure, if there is a way CCB can control Pan DVR. Not sure if there are any CCBs with IR blast capabilities.
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The only CECB that's supposed to convert (not get, and use in it's guide - none do that) the digital TVGOS data to analog, is the DTVPal/TR-40/DTVPal Plus.


It's the only one that's designed to do that, but it doesn't do it - at least not so far. No other box is *supposed* to do that, so I don't know where you got the impression that any others would.


There are no CECB's with an IR blaster, and there won't ever be. It would only ever be needed the other way around.
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