Hi

I've got a Panasonic Viera TXL37E30B TV and after 5 years I have decided I'd like to utilise the HDD recording feature. From what I've read so far Buffalo are pretty much the only compatible HDDs with Panasonic Viera, but before I bite the bullet can anyone please answer the following questions:

1. Can you record from Sky / Virgin Media / Blu-ray to the external HDD, or can you only record from the TV's onboard channels?

2. What would be a sensible sized HDD be for recording from the TV?

Amazon are selling a Buffalo 1TB USB powered HDD for £50, which according to 1 of the 130 reviewers, works on his Panasonic Viera TV.

Thanks

I've downloaded the manual from the Panasonic website (can't link to it due to the way they do things) and it is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard frankly.

Reading what it has to say about recording to a USB drive it appears it will only record the TV programme you are watching. I couldn't find anything to say it could record from the EPG so you schedule programmes to record.

So doesn't look like there is much chance it will record from anything else.

Thanks for your reply. I dont know if its really worth it then. Apparently once the HDD is formatted to the TV its rendered useless on any other device included a PC.

Not only will it not work with a PC it won't even work with another TV of the same make and model. Which is a major bummer with this system. If you break the TV and it has to be replaced, or you just fancy a new telly, then any unwatched recordings on the drive are toast, no way to watch them.

At least with a "proper" PVR you stand a fighting chance of being able to watch any so far unwatched recordings if you change TVs.

Oh well, the idea sounded good anyway. If only I had an old suitable HDD just knocking about, at least then I could have a go without losing money.

I have been doing this for years with a Panasonic Viera and it seems to work OK with any HDD although I have only used ones with an external PSU. It is quite good for time shifting or storing a few programmes from its own tuners for later viewing. My TV has two tuners but it will only let you view the one being recorded or an external source (I use a cheap Freeview HD STB).

As already stated the disk can only be used for this purpose (until reformatted) and recordings are locked to the original TV. In fact its worse than that. After any change to the TV it demands you reformat and start again. Mine gets a glitch about once a year and refuses to recognise the disk so you have to reregister it and lose all your recordings.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I read elsewhere that once the HDD is formatted to the TV, PC's won't then recognised the said HDD later on if anyone wished to reformat it for PC use.

My Dad used to have a HD attached to the TV. You just reformat it if you want to use it for something else.

Mistake, please delete.

It is likely that the TV uses a file format that Windows isn't able to read natively. It could need a third party driver to read it.

However that should not stop the PC being able to re-format the drive. You may have to dive into the nether regions of the Disk Manager tool to see the drive in order to do this if it does not appear in Windows File Manger.

As others have said, you simply reformat it when you connect it back to a PC - just as you reformat it when you connect it to your TV

Yes you can reformat it no problem and it doesn't have to be the buffalo mentioned as that is obviously just some promotional tie-in they have with Panasonic.

I have used portable Samsungs or Western Digital drives in the past with Pansonic Viera's.

I've read in several places that the reformatting issue on PC's is something to do with the Panasonic TV's using Linux.

That is correct, but it doesn't stop you reformatting the drive (or more accurately, deleting the partitions and creating new ones).