Since the Divide Title U99 was resolved with the firmware update identified by Roger Amidon, imagine if/when it's proven that all the hassles and utility problems (lost timer programs) everyone has been experiencing using the TVGuide is related to ads???? Imagine the uproar that would occur if all regular TV viewers in the USA were simply watching broadcast TV and every time a certain commercial played (essentially a streaming download to your TV), your TV froze with a black screen and U99? How long would that commercial be played? TV equipment manufacturers would immediately swing into action to make sure that all new models were invulnerable to the problem. Legislation would probably be passed to ban the use of whatever element caused TV's to produce a "black screen" with U99. Whomever produced the ad would be sued criminally, civilly by everyone and their grandma, and probably end up spending time in jail. They'd be hounded by the law enforcement agencies and media. Little old ladies would be interviewed with tears in their eyes because they missed the last few minutes of Wopner, or Oprah, or Dr. Phil. Sports fans would be up in arms. As a society, we'd label the creator of such ads as slimy virus generators, or perhaps even by the "T" word. One of the reasons I don't use the TV Guide is this whole issue where Gemstar, or whomever, may apparently simply reprogram your DVR without your permission or KNOWLEDGE! That ability was reported earlier in the thread, although I don't know if it's factual. When I performed the firmware upgrade, it was with my explicit consent. I'm "hoping" that by disabling the TV Guide "data" download that I have also effectively overriden any ability of GemStar to reprogram my DVR's!
Quick update: Talked to Cheryl late morning. She said she didn't have any screen shots from an E500 yet. I sent her what I had taken with me to work. She asked me for an "after the reset" set of shots and also wanted to know what cable company, cable box make/model I use. When I got home, I captured screens for her and sent them along. [bold]mtlove[/bold] - I mentioned that you said you only use your unit with broadcast (lest she set off down the wrong path). After resetting last night at 9:30, at 4:30 this afternoon there were a line-up, listings for 3 day and half of next Tuesday and two basic TV Guide promotions. I'm going to go in and prune the line-up now. I'll report back tomorrow sometime.
Well, I got home and it was U99. I tried the "service mode" reboot however that didn't allow me to shut the TV Guide off. I did a hard boot and redid the start up. I exited the screen and went to setup to manually do the channels. However, it is not changing the cable box. Is it possible to stop the download of the TVguide but still control the cable box so I can change channels? It seems the only way to control the cable box is to do the TV guide. I'm at a loss.
BudinMA, It's hard to believe they would tie controlling a cable box with the IR blaster to TV Guide download. So you did a hard reset. Then the first thing it asks you is to set up the TV Guide (do you have cable?, is cable box attached?, enter zip code). You do all that. Then you hit Functions button, goto Setup, and select Auto Channel Scan. You should then get the warning that TV Guide download is disabled from that point forward. After all that you're saying if you set up a timer program to record that the DVR does not command the cable box to the appointed channel when the timer triggers to start program recording???
Unfortunately, it doesn't happen like that. I hard boot (3 times already tonight) and go to the enter cable box, zip...etc... after all that is done and it asks "What would you like to do now, watch TV" I hit enter and then go to setup. However, by this time the auto channel box is already greyed out so I can't press it. The only way I can press it is to not even put in the cable information, however, then, like I said before, I can't control the box. BTW, after sending numerous emails to Panasonice they say I have to bring it in. They also gave me a website to rate their customer service. Feel free to send them a message: http://www.pasc.panasonic.com/epartCC/survey.asp?k=3243507984956421001
BudinMA, Jeez, that sucks. Sorry. I guess I've never seen that because I don't have a cable box, just cable. I thought a poster claimed earlier that the Auto Channel Scan is only greyed out once TVGuide data begins to download. Since you were never in Standby, why would it be greyed out? Hmmm... seems we've received some misinformation somewhere along the line.
Wow, I've just tried calling Panasonic's customer service number and it's just rings busy signals. How ridiculous that their service has gotten so pathetic.
[bold]BudinMA[/bold]: Interesting that auto channel select is greyed out; I've never used it, but I was reporting from the manual that states that TVGOS HAS to be set up even if you're not going to use it. I'm SURE that it was NOT grayed out for me after a reset, as I considered it, but didn't do it. Reset and try it again, and if it's still grayed out, try entering a bogus Zip (00000 or 11111). [bold]Skatter21[/bold]: THANKS for telling Cheryl this is NOT a cable issue as at least 2 broadcast-only posters have seen it, too. Best to give her as much info as we can about what we've discovered in this form (I hope she reads it!) [bold]vulcanusa[/bold]: If it *is* an ad with bad code, I agree there *should* be ramifications, but the U99 population is too small for anyone to care much. Perhaps we should write letters to Consumer's Union that they can include in a sidebar the next time Consumer Reports reviews ANY equipment with TV Guide.
I just got another U99 and I just happened to be looking at it so I know that it happened at exactly 12:40 AM Eastern time. I believe it got the U99 right when it attemped the download because I've gotten several at this same time. I do have partial listings again but no ads except for the TV Guide ads. I think the ads must be the problem because Cheryl asked me to watch and see if the ads came back. Is anyone seeing the ads anymore? If you are seeing them are you still getting the U99?
U99 still appears. I got it yesterday at 10:00 PM, and today around 7:00AM PST (but at 3:25AM everything was fine, no U99.) Then, I left the unit turned on, because I wanted to use timer recording (manually entered). I spoke with Cheryl today in the afternoon. I gave her all information asked from the screen. She recommended factory reset, and she suppose to call me back tomorrow to check my info on the screen. She told me that SC-HT1500 home theater system (actually, it's kind of funny because the box and manual say Model No.: SC-HT1500, but the unit has Model No.: SA-HT1500) are in the same firmware family as DMR-E85. It was one strange thing. I had channel lineup, but the information which Cheryl requested showed that I do not ahve any cahnnel lineup. At 10:00PM PST I did channel up/down factory reset and unplugged the unit from the outlet. I also unplugged digital cable box (Scientific Atlanta from COX Communications) and TV from the outlet. The I plug ged back the cable box and TV and I check TV Guide on cable box. Everything was fine with my cable box, data for 1 week. Then I reconnected IR blaster, plugged back the SC-HT1500, and I did TV Guide OnScreen SetUp. The unit is turned off since 10:39PM. Immediately after turning of the unit, the channels on the cable box began to switch. It went from 02 to 10, then return back to channel 02. Now it's on channel 42, and the "12:00AM" is still flashing on the unit. I will continue tomorrow. First, I was looking for home theater system; however, when I saw DVD-recorder and 80GB HDD included in SC-HT1500, I opted for it. I already have DMR-E80H for over 2 years, and was satisfied with it. It did not have TVGOS, so that's why I choose another unit with HDD. But I did not have any clue about all those rules with downloading data and turning off the unit overnight to get TVGOS listing.
I came to this forum several months ago and found out how to do the firmware upgrade. That helped solve those problems. After a month or so of getting a daily U99 error, I came back here a few days ago to find solutions. I did the channel up/down reset and waited overnight to see the results. I was absolutely thrilled the following day when all the channels and listings were loaded with no U99 error! I modified the channel order and turned high speed dubbing back on. Then today I discovered another U99 and blank TV Guide listings. However, I still had my channels, which has been normal for the U99. I cleared the U99, so we'll see if the listings load again tonight. If not, I plan to do another channel up/down reset with absolutely no modifications. This is getting infuriating. I love this unit when it works, but I've never seen a piece of electronics equipment that is more finicky. It reminds me of the old Jaguar XKE reputation--great when they work, but they spend more time in the garage than on the street! I hope we find a solution soon that fixes these problems PERMANENTLY. For reference, I am in Oklahoma City and using an antenna only. I am only a few miles away from the 1000' antennas so I get a VERY strong and clear over-the-air signal. Bottom line: This appears to be a nationwide problem that is not related to cable systems.
Update Wed morn from Bonus2 on Sat reset of E85H As you may recall, I reset using 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. Please note that my firmware is 970DL updated Jan 05 using download dated 1-27-05 from Panasonic. It is now Wed morning (10-12). Still no U99s. Prior to this I had U99s 3 or 4 times a day, forcing power on to get the time back and power on again to go through self-check and finally power on. This lasted a full 3 weeks and all days in the guide showed not listed. Now I have TV Guide data for 7 days, however oddly it doesn’t seem to fill in the data in exact order. Today is Wednesday 10-12-05 and Wed is fully populated Thu 13th fully populated Fri 14th fully populated Sat 15th partially populated (mostly just sports) Sun 16th fully populated Mon 17th No listings Tue 18th fully populated Wed 19th fully populated So as far as I can tell, my E85H is now fixed. Not sure if it was just the reset of if perhaps the reset coincided with a fix in the Guide data stream. Also I did record last night (using the Guide to set up the record) of the Boston Celtics last night. It recorded fine; and did not U99 after the record. Good Luck to all others in fixing your U99s Bonus2
[bold]My ads all repopulated by 9PM.[/bold] It's odd because they are usually late to the dance. By this morning I had listings for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, movies and sports for Day 5, up thru 4PM for Day 7 and all of Day 8. No U99's yet even though we took the unit out of standby 3 times during what appear to be the download windows.
Well after waiting the night (I reset it last night trying to disable the TVguide. I also switched it back to Ch 3 instead of L3 since that is the way I had it when I first bought it and didn't have any problems.) This morning there was no U99, however, I also didn't have any channels above 98. Additionally, there was no channel lineup nor program listings. I did have TV guide ads though. Arkansas Tourism was there as well as Bose and a slew others (it seemed like pages of ads). I was going to try what Bonus2 suggested since he is in Boston too however, I couldn't shut the TV guide off on startup. so I did the setup again but with L3 as the channel the DVD is on. I'll see when I get home tonight what happens but I'm not hopeful. I wish there was something else on the market that I could just exchange this one for that worked. (I bought the Best Busy extra warranty.)
I've been reading that some people have been able to get ahold of Cheryl at TVGOS, but I can't. I even left her a message on monday and she hasn't called me back. Can someone give me her email address please so I can at least tell her my location, unit model, ect.?
DMR-E85H TV GUIDE ON-SCREEN PROBLEM Workaround?! WHOA! After my last hard-boot (ch up/down setup blah...) I was left without listings AGAIN and once again my unit downloaded the LOCAL BROADCAST TV channel listings. Since I've gotten used to using my TVGOS, I had no PAPER listings to refer to, so I went back to the TV Guide Website. The website usually defaults to my zip code, but came up with an error message saying that it was an invalid zip (or something to that effect). When I manually entered my zip, it couldn't be found~!! It DID have a listing for a neighboring city that uses the same TV Channels as us, so I used that. Here's the thing -- the TV Guide Website no longer has a record of OUR ZIPCODE -- and it DID still have it a couple of months ago before my E85H started having problems. Coincidence? This gave me an idea; On Saturday I re-booted and re-set my 85 using the zip that the TV Guide Website recognized (of the neighboring town with identical channel lineup - Ft. Gratiot) and after a nights sleep I woke up to a re-populated and CORRECT lineup and it's been downloading the listings correctly since.
Nice theory - and that may be the issue that's causing your U99, but TVGuide.com still has all the listings under my zip code, and I am still plagued with U99. @
[bold]kensmith[/bold]: I tried a neighboring ZIP code previously and still got the U99 with it. I've been lucky and have had no U99 since 10/7, but we'll see if it lasts the weekend. I'm still convinced it's being caused by "bad code" somewhere in the download, either in the ads or elsewhere.
