Is anybody familiar with the U80 and/or U81 error messages displayed on Panasonic equipment?

The official line from Panasonic is:


I have spoken to quite a few people recently who have been told by Panasonic that this is caused by 4G interference but when speaking to the company responsible for resolving 4G interference, this appears not to be the case.

Just curious as to what the error could mean if not 4G-related?

If it is an aerial fault (which can include 4G interference) then you should be seeing other symptoms. A poor signal will make itself known by picture and sound disturbances of one form or another.

The TV may well be able to show signal strength and quality readouts for the various muxes. If you check those then poor signal should show up as low readings on either or both. Or signal quality readout jumping around the scale randomly.

If you don't see any picture disturbance and the signal readouts are reasonably stable then chances are it is not an aerial problem. But never a waste of time to check things out just in case. Check the aerial alignment and condition if possible. Check the condition of the downlead and all connectors in the signal path. Check any amplifiers or passive splitters used and the connections to them.

By far the biggest cause of signal interference entering the terrestrial (Freeview to you and me) signal chain is poorly screened aerial coax cable - usually one of those coax flyleads with the moulded plugs (see image link HERE).

There's insufficient cable shielding in these, and the cable itself is very thin which means that whatever inadequate shielding there is is also too close to the centre conductor. The result is that any devices using switch-mode power supplies, which are themselves very common, and where the shielding on the power supply is poor, then the interference it generates is picked up by the coax cable. As an aerial installer myself I have measured signal level at wall sockets and then at the end of a 1.5m flylead like this. What I often see is that the signal power has dropped by about as much as it would do running through 10m of decent coax. That's a lot of loss for a short flylead. The bit error (noise) is often higher too, particularly if there's a computer near by.

The solution is very simple. Buy some good aerial coax (Webro WF100 - and not RG6 or "low loss coax" or RG59) and the appropriate ends for the connections you need, then make up your own flylead in the length and colour to suit you. There's plenty of guides online about how to fit the plugs. It's no more difficult than wiring up a mains plug.

The above doesn't rule out other problems in an aerial system. But if you have one of those moulded flyleads then this is an easy and quick solution to try before looking for more complex and/or expensive issues elsewhere.

Try leaving the machine off of any BBC channel, ie put it on itv. I have had lots of problems with various makes and models recently that have had problems with the extra data being transmitted by the BBC.

U81 Codes normally relates to power supply issues. Just check a few repairs carried out on this code and that's what the cure for all of them was.