Emailed Cheryl my digital pictures of the TVGOS debugging screen this morning. I'll let everyone know the response. Again, I would suggest you call her using the method described around page 11 where their phone number is posted. Probobly some goofy TVGOS advert (Soloflex or spray-on-hair) that was contracted to run from mid-Sept that's crashing our DVR's <g>. Anyway, call her and send her your debugging screenshots.
To Timdf: You stated that "2. Re flash the firmware with latest version acquired from a service dept source - note this code is the same size as what's on the panny website, even reports the same version number 970DL, but the code is substantially different. I checked the contents of the file." Where can I get this "new" firmware? Do you have a number I can call to get their help? Should I just call the closest service center for Panasonic? Should they have it?
Now we add Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada to the list. [bold]kensmith[/bold]: Your TV Guide just downloaded the broadcast (instead of CABLE) channels one day without you resetting the TV Guide? That's odd. I'd re-do the setup and make sure you say "yes" to the "do you have cable" question. If that doesn't work, do the channelup/channel down reset, and go through TV Guide setup again. [bold]rekoj[/bold]: After a U99, please enter the TV Guide debug pages (messages tab, enter, type in 753159852, and write down the info in AKNewbie's post on page 13, 7 Oct 16:42). Call Cheryl at Gemstar (see prior posts) and let her know. Read carefully through prior posts; Panasonic cust service is seriosly confused/misinformed about this "new" U99 that is related to the TV Guide Onscreen, so they're useless. Contact Cheryl at Gemstar instead. [bold]mtlove[/bold]: Do the same. [bold]AKNewbie[/bold]: Keep us updated about Cheryl, and again, thanks for all your input. I have had NO U99 since 10/7, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but sometimes it takes a week or 2. *laughs* re: bad code in an ad, I considered that too
I was doing a manualy timed recording on Sunday from 1:30 pm until 2:00 pm. I got home early and was waiting for the rocording to end. When I looked back at the recorder around 2:02 it was showing U99. I have the TVGOS set up on RF input and say I do not have a box. I get the TVGOS listing only for channels from 2 to 70 (these are the channels I get from the cable system with no box attached). I do have a cable box connected with RC cables to L3. When I do manual records I set the cable box to the channel I want to record and then say to record from L3 with a start and end time. I was doing this on L3 when the error occured after recording the program. When I want the recrder to get TVGOS it seems I have to leave it set on tuner for it to get the info. I did not want to set up the IR blaster. I'm not sure that this error was caused this time by TVGOS but again, not sure why I get the error. I'm going to start logging when I get the errors. I'm using Insight in South Central Kentucky. Keith
First reply from Cheryl since sending screenshot: Thank you for the screen shots. Do you ever see any listings or does it say "No Data for this Screen"? To which I replied: "I see some listings (today, next Saturday), but some days (like Tues/Wed) show "no listing" except for the PBS station. I have no promotions or ad's. I got a U99 yesterday and this morning." I will advise as with her next reply.
To which she immediately replied: Did the listings you had stay after the U99? Did you do another reset? Would you take another screen shot of page 1 and 2, please? To which I replied: "Listings stayed after U99. No, I have not performed any other resets since last week. Those screen shots were from yesterday. I received a U99 this morning. I will take screen shot of 1&2 tonight, and after tomorrow's U99 (not to be pessimistic), I will get screen shots of 1&2 again. I will date the image names." Will continue to advise.
I'm with Daughn...if you have the firmware, then share the wealth! I don't see how panasonic would care if you gave it out and actually did their job of fixing things!!!
To which she replied: Sorry for all the questions. Have you noticed whether or not promotions/Ads are showing up for you? Are they there when you see listings? Do you see listings and no Ads? Ads, but no listings? By Ads, I mean the blocks on the left side of the screen when you bring up the Guide. To which I replied: "Cheryl, No problem at all with your question. Everyone is grateful that you are working this and trying to help us with the U99 errors which started last month. It seems as if the promotions disappear after the U99 error. To clear this error, I push the power button on my remote which returns the unit to standby mode. I then push the power button again, which switches the unit on, where upon it goes through a self-check. I then turn the unit off (via the remote) to await the next TVGOS downloads. I will take a few screen shots of the TVGOS screens with the listings and messages so that you can see what I see. I will include them with tomorrow's debugging screens 1&2. Thanks from all us,"
To those of you who would like to try the firmware I have installed, please send me a PM with your e mail address and I'll send it to you. No guarantee it'll work for you, but it appears to be working 100% ok here - at least so far. Interestingly the source who gave it to me (who must remain annonomous) said it didn't work for him ! Note - this firmware appears to be identical to other previously posted on the panny website - but it isn't. Check for yourself the 1st 25% or so is totally different.
I had additional U99 error yesterday evening around 10:20 PM PST and one today in he morning - around 6:15AM. I was so frustrated from it that I made new setup with entering bogus ZIP 00000, and since then mine manually entered timer recordings worked perfect. IR Blaster switched channels (scheduled for timer recoroding) without problem. It is not so easy as it would be with TVGOS, but it was crazy to check the unit every time if there is U99 or not (or leave the unit on to prevent U99 happen again and not have movies or shows recorded.) I lost my TV Guide channel lineup, which appeared today for the first time after 1 week I have recordable home theater system (SC-HT1500.) And I had a lot of promotions listed after U99 in the morning. I did not checked them. However, I have not had any listing at all since I bought the unit. It was impossible for me to have the unit turned off for 12 hours. U99 error was on the display always after a couple of hours. I have never see any listings; it always says "No Data for this Screen" when I turn on the unit after U99? Today, I called Cheryl; however, she was not available. She called me back (message on my answering machine), but I got it after 6:00 PM EDT. I will call her tomorrow. I gave up with calling to Panny after my experience. I was transferred three times, and they did not know what's going on with U99 error at all. It is really looks like nationwide issue. I do not know, whether I can use any firmware. Many of people have DMR-E85; I have SC-HT1500. I already checked Panny website, but there was no firmware available for my model at all.
Hello All It has been 3 days now and no U99s. I was getting 3 or 4 a day. When I first reset early Sat morning and turned on the E85H the correct time appeared and 30 seconds later a U99. I powered on twice (once got rid of U99 and the second starts the self check). Then the set up screen appeared and I put in zip, L3, Motorola set top box etc. and powered down the E85H. The E85H immediately switched to MSNBC (Ch 53 for Comcast Boston). About 1/2 hour later a second U99. When I hit power on twice I was greeted with a choice of line ups. I picked the first of 4 choices. Then I powered down the E85H. It switched channels somewhat but mostly was MSNBC or CBS (Ch 4 Boston Comcast). Sunday morning no U99 and the channels all showed up (Ch 1-99, 201-289 and 301-382). However still no data. Powered down again. Monday morning no U99 and there was a day or 2 of channel data. Tuesday morning (10-11-05) no U99 and now 3-4 days of program data is loaded. I even had a couple of recordings scheduled on Monday and both recorded fine. Before the reset the first program may record but then the U99 would appear and the second program would not appear. Everything seems to be fixed. So I would definetly recommend the reset: 1. Turn on your player. (But not in the TV Guide menu.) 2. Press & Hold the channel Up AND the channel Down button on the machine. 3. Wait until the unit says "BYE" and turns off. 4. Unplug the player, wait 30seconds. 5. Plug the player back in, turn on & re-enter setup. I think then new TV Guide data may get contaminated with old TV Guide data causing the U99s. Or it could be that the TV Guide data has been changed so that it doesn't cause U99s but need the reset to clear out the old TV Guide data. You do not loose any HD recorded data during the reset. Only loose TV Guide data. Also do not seem to need the new firmware described by timdf. The Jan 2005 firmware which I flashed in Jan o5 seems to work fine. Good Luck Bonus2
Hi, all. I've been following this thread for a week now (yeah it's been that long since I got my last U99 - until yesterday when my wife got home from work around 3PM EDT and found it) I'm in central Maryland, Comcast digital and I'm using an E500. I did the digital photo thing with the diagnostic screens (with my Panny camera/camcorder) and I have a call into Cheryl at TVGOS. I'll keep you posted. Hey, has anyone considered contacting Consumer Reports (they rated the 85 and 95 as the best DVR units available)? It might give significant leverage on the problem.
Mornin' Folks, Sorry, been a few days here, but ya know how life gets. my latest update: Daily U99's in the AM since last thursday I believe. However, ... Saturday, I got "Promotions" the ads down the left side of the TVGOS, they stayed there until Sunday mornings U99, turned it on, looked at the guide, no more ads, but I did see listings, (There is a God!!) .... oh, but wait, I see Sunday, Monday, Teusday, and next Sunday, but almost everything else is "No Listing", strange, ... there is a reason for partial entries there. Anyway, got a call from Cheryl yesterday evening, bout the same time a few others did, ... in the conversation I mentioned my old GE TV (Thoght it was RCA, ... they're all tompson now anyway, .... anyhow, she had me go through the diag. screen on it too, ......guess what, it had all the listings, but [bold]No Ads[/bold]. Now, the TV only lists like 2 or 3 days anyway (the way it was designed) but we both clued in on the ads, remember, most of us have started with Ads, then no ads, but listings, and the ads never come back. What I'm wondering is what D/L's first the ADS, or the listings, ... the first d/l you get I beleive is the channel line-up (what channel is what, KFOR = channel 4, etc), along with a hand full or more of the ads. Cheryl even mentioned contacting the ads people to see if they changed something, .... so keep an eye on the ads, ... Just guessing here, but page 9 in the Diags. is titled "AdTrack" with a bunch of letters, and numbers, .... when the ads dis-appear, the numbers are lower, 1's, 2's, 3's ... up to maybe 5's or 6's here and there, scattered, when the adds are present I've seen numbers like 422, and 317. Much higher values, almost like it's saying, .."nope, no ads here". So, in escence, what I'm saying is if you're watching, watch those pages too, don't know if they'll help Cheryl at all, but keep track of what's happening there also. I'll bet we find out that it was an ad like AKNewbie mentioned, Nordictrac or somebody like that, updated there ad, and messed up the works, Sounds like time for a class action suit, ..... wait a minute, I should calm down, and get some more coffee. RX7 Fan
My Panny continues to work 100% with new firmware. I'm getting quite a few PM's for copies of it - can someone host it and provide a link ? Those of you who have received the new firmware, please comment on how it worked out for you. Bear in mind while it works for me in my location ymmv. Tim
Hi, I wrote a week or so back. I went away last week and left the E85 on since that seems to be the only way I can record when I'm not around. I turned it off when I got home (after 5 days on) and it U99'd again. Power on, power on, power off and it started going through the channels again. Sunday afternoon again it went into U99. I have a couple of questions I've been trying to figure out: When I initially called cable they told me that I shouldn't be leaving the box on all the time (cable box that is) since it needed to be off to download updates (similar to the DMR I believe). I tried to shut off the TVGOS with the instructions given however it doesn't work. While in setup I go to "channel" and then it doesn't allow me to change any of the setting. I can press "enter" on every one of the items under channel and it doesn't give me a new menu of options. The only thing that works on this screen is the "TV Guide Setup" at the top and that only brings me to the TV guide. I'm going nuts, I want to bring it into Best Buy to be serviced but I don't want to stop recording some series. Note to Bonus: I'm in Boston and when it used to work it used to go to channel 37, MSNBC or updates. That of course was when I was getting program listings not just channels.
From Alabama, with an E85H: since I did a reset yesterday, no U99s (probably cursed myself by saying that) to the present. I now have TVGuide ads plus most of the listings. Everything seems filled out for the next few days, but some channel data is not filled in after that. I have already used TVGUide to set to record a program at 11am today (in 20 minutes from now). Pretty sure that will work OK. When downloading listings, the channel number on the cable box (IR blaster) switches to MSNBC as others have also stated. I'll just let everything alone until the next U99.
BudinMA, That happened to me once also. The Auto Channel Scan option was greyed out. I believe I entered Service Mode. When I exited Service Mode and returned to that menu, I could then command an Auto Channel Scan and thereby disable the TV Guide download from that point forward. You'll lose any timer programs you have set up. You'll have to use the Prog/Check button on the remote to manually set them up again. You won't lose any programs on the HDD you've already recorded. To see how to enter Service Mode and the commands available once you're in Service Mode, see Roger Amidon's SNAFU webpage at: http://www.dxcc.com/dmr-e85h.htm
I also suffered the "can't change settings" problem this morning. I did a reset before reading the help here though, so can't confirm the other steps work. I needed to change it because somehow TVGOS came back, after I had it off. I understand this can happen if there is a power failure, so I've added a clock with no battery to that outlet to see if the power flickers...at least enough to upset the old digital clock. Another strange thing: since updating the firmware using the Panasonic website version, the unit shows no display when in standby mode. It's complete dark. Anybody else have this problem, or does it mean my update went haywire? Among other things, it means that I can't see the u99 error...only know it's there when I hit power, nothing happens, hit it again, and see "please wait".
O.K., I'm back again, ... few notes here, [bold]C32483[/bold] says he has a Phillips DVR, basically doing the same thing (No TVGOS listings) ... can you confirm that since the last time you posted, .... what's been happening lately with the Phillips? [bold]Coyote24[/bold] has an RCA tv, what is you Guide plus doing on it, does it have ads? Side note, not sure how old yours is, but the diagnostics work the same on my GE I believe, only difference is I had to add a "2" to the number string "2753159852", and hit the "Info" button to move throught the screens. [bold]timdf[/bold] you said a few days ago, your cable converter box had no data, what's the latest on that. any listings yet, ... does it show ads at all? (normaly or now) [bold]Rekoj[/bold] please give us an update on yours SC HT1500. a quick side note on the sc ht1500 it looks to be a lot like the DMR's, btu with the "home theater" stuff added, it's got an 80GB drive. stille getting U99's on it? [bold]Bns70[/bold] Right on the money with the explanation of Photographing the screen, if you try to film a tv screen with a camcorder, they are so close (shutterspeed-wise) you'll get the "Black line", ... I've been taking pics of the diag screen with my digital camera, .... didn't want to use flash because of the bounce, so it drops the shutter speed to 1/20 (on a tripod of course, I get moire, but no big deal) and the picture turn out pretty good. Short and sweet version, Bns70 was right on the money. well, enough for now, back to lunch. RX7 Fan.
