Grannygrunt. Thank you for your reply. To answer your questions, my aerial is about 10 years old pointing at Crystal Palace feeding a Labgear 4 way distribution amplifier. I consider it to be a good signal, Chan 5 has always been good! The PVR is the first piece of equipment in the chain (PVR →VCR→TV). Last evening the problem was affecting ITV 1,2,3 &4, More 4, E 4 and Quiz Call, all the rest seemed OK although at other times BBC1 & BBC2 have been affected. The info bar varies the display between ‘no signal’, ‘bad signal’ and ‘no service’. When on ITV 1 on Live 1 the signal quality was jumping between 5 & 8, I then went to ITV 1 on Live 2 to check the signal quality and found a similar result, jumping between 5 & 8, but the picture was stable. One other observation last night was the analogue signal when viewed direct on the TV now appears to be nosier than before the update, worse on ITV than BBC. GET.

The Beeb appear to broadcast 4:3 material as a cropped widescreen picture. The Pana reads the flags incorrectly and sets the TV to 4:3 even though it is really a widescreen image, so you get a very long thin picture. You can ofcourse manually set the TV to the right aspect, but it is annoying.

Only the beeb seem to do it this way, others transmit a "propper" 4:3 picture, but all my other boxes are able to determine the correct aspect, so the Pana is definately at fault.

getman, most of your problems seem to be occuring with the dreaded Mux 2, which if you read any of the other PVR's threads, has been giving problems with quite a few set top boxes, as well as PVR's. Was this happening before this weeks update?? If not, then I should contact Panny, the number is at the back of the instruction manual, and let them know. PVR's do tend to be a little bit more 'touchy' with regard to the signal coming down to them, but to let you compare, the quality signal bar on my unit is just under 10 for all channels, and I have had to have an attenuator fitted as the analogue signal is too strong, and tends to swamp the digital signal. It certainly sounds like a signal problem, but if it wasn't present before the update, then Panasonic will probably be prepared to do you a swop out. I would also consider having your aerial looked at as well, it could need upgrading.

GG
Last edited by Grannygrunt : 11-02-2006 at 11:35

Found a bug which it hasn't fixed. Recordings not showing up in the direct navigator while they are recording. Had set the 6 nations and Morse to record earlier to test out recording two programmes at once. The 6 nations showed in the navigator while recording while Morse did not, only appearing after it had finished recording. On the upside tested out playing back something previously recorded while these programmes were recorded and no problems at all, even when FF/RR at x120 which in the past would of caused problems, usually a blank screen.

Thanks Baccatack for giving feedback about that. I too have tried two recordings since the update, however, I didn't check the direct navigator to see if they were both shown recording. has the Panny ever done this or has it always just shown one?

GG

I've seen two simultaneous recordings appear in Direct Navigator previously, so I think it's a new one. Unless it was/is an intermittent problem, I suppose.

Also, I've had a sound drop-out in a post-update recording now, so that issue's still there.

Yes, I can now see the behaviour you describe occurring. It's just that my TV recovers from it to produce a viewable, if slightly incorrect picture, so I'd never noticed the problem before.

Yes lewisnt I too have noticed a few in the test recordings that I have been making since the update, although they are not as noticable as previously. I shall report this of course. Any other problems that have
1. Not been resolved by the update with recorded material.
2. Have not been addressed (were there before, and need addressing) I mean such as the incorrect switching of 4.3 broadcasts on BBC channels, etc. ( not wish lists)

GG
Last edited by Grannygrunt : 12-02-2006 at 12:02

Another thing that seems to have been fixed is the 'fan' problem.

Everyday I could guarantee the fan would be on when I came home in the evening, but since the update it hasn't been on.

I checked today, and at 12.05 the CTH100 springs in to life as it should, then 7 mins later it re-booted itself and switched off. It hardly ever did this and would remain on all day.

Anyone else who had this 'fan' problem still having issues?

Thanks digidol for your input I am glad that the 'fan' problem seems to have been fixed for you. To be quite honest I have never experienced this problem, but I know from reading other posters problems that many of you have.

GG

Just to confirm programmes not showing in the direct navigator while they are recording is not a new problem (see the old thread!).

I've been having trouble with sound synchronisation when I try to dub a longish program to a DMR-ES10 DVD recorder. I believe this problem existed before the 0.57 update, but I've only really started to investigate it now.

Everything is hooked up with SCARTs as follows:
TV ----- (AV1) CTH100 (AV2) ----- (AV2) DMR-ES10

I can play the programme from the Direct Navigator, and everything seems fine. However, when I set up to dub the programme to DVD, the sound and video become increasingly out of sync. Things start off OK, and some attempts seem better than others, but invariably, after about 45 minutes to an hour the delay becomes intolerable. It's hard to estimate the delay, but I'd say the sound is lagging by around a quarter of a second.

In order to rule out the DVD recorder (and any possibility of delays caused by monitoring sound from one device and video from another), I set up just the TV on the AV2 output of the CTH100, and started a dub:

TV ----- (AV2) CTH100

Sure enough, after about an hour, the sync was way out.

Then I put the TV back on AV1 and played the programme normally. No sync problem.

Has anyone else seen this problem, or found a workaround? If I get desperate to clear HDD space I suppose I could resort to swapping cables around and recording to DVD from AV1.

A related thing: I set a dub to start using the timer, and switched off the PVR. At midday the dub started as planned, then at 12.05 the machine did whatever it is that it does at 12.05, rebooted itself, and brought the dub to a premature end. Grrr.

Steve.

Hi smorphet, I have done some dubbing to my DVD recorder since the update, didn't seem to get any problems, but will check this out. My DVD recorder is the Panasonic DMR-E55 and should work in exactly the same way as yours. I did check the dubbed film to make sure that it had taken place o.k and was on the disc, but did not play it back all the way through. Will do this today.

GG if mine is the same, then there is a problem with the output from the TU-CTH's AV 2 scart, and obviously this will need to be addressed. Can I also add though that before the update, if you chose to record directly to your external device instead of the internal hard drive, and set sub-titles off, the TU-CTH used to record it with just sound and no picture!!
Last edited by Grannygrunt : 13-02-2006 at 10:06

I've just checked out a DVD I dubbed before the upgrade. I'd dubbed six half-hour programs to it. The first five of them are fine, but the sixth one definitely has a (slight) lipsync problem by the end of the half-hour.

I've got a number of films ready to dub down to DVD at the moment, so will try and get one done this pm and report back.

Hi smorphet, watched the dubbed film that I did after the update, and mines okay, but I think the actual recording 'Gangs of New York' was done before the update, so I am now dubbing a recording that I know has been recorded after the update, 'Officer and a Gentleman'. Will report back with my findings.

GG

Thanks for investigating it. The particular recording that I've been struggling with was recorded before the update. I'll try making a new recording too and see if that's any different.

I'll have to go back and look at dubs I made a while ago too. As lewisnt observes, short programmes don't seem to be so good at showing up the problem. I don't have many films dubbed to DVD yet, but perhaps I've got some concerts that are a good length.

One old recording that I have observed the problem with was the Cream Reunion concert from BBC4. The first dub had very poor sync towards the end, but a second dub from the same recording was acceptable. (In this case the recording and both dubs were made with 0.47 software). It seems that there is either a random element, or that it is somehow influenced by other activity of the PVR. I had hoped that using the timer to start the dub from standby-mode would ensure an otherwise idle machine, but I tried that this weekend, and it seems to power up into a 'normal' on state for dubbing.

If there is a random effect, it didn't show itself this weekend. Seven or eight attempts, and bad sync on all of them. Perhaps some programmes are more prone than others.

It's frustrating that the sync problem only shows up after a while. It makes experimentation rather slow.

Steve.

Well smorphet, the TU-CTH should dub to an external device, and record, let you watch a channel, even two recordings at the same time and you watching a recording without problems as far as I know. I do a lot of dubbing to disc, mainly films that my daughter wants to watch on her DVD player, and have dubbed whilst watching with the unit on, also dubbed whilst it has been recording something else, no problems. The only problems in the past that I had was with the feature that let's you record straight to your DVD recorder instead of the hard drive. This used to end up being sound but no picture. Because it is usually films that get dubbed, I do tend to edit them with the TU-CTH if they are from one of the channels with ads, because I like to fit them onto a 2hr disc. Anything from the BBC that I might want to transfer would of course not need editing. (Actually, I do prefer the editing in the DVD recorder better, you have a job with the TU-CTH, just getting start/end of ads just right.) Anyway, will report back my findings from this latest dub.

GG

I suspect it's other activity in some way. Which'll make it dificult to reproduce.

I just dubbed down "The Godfather". Synch is fine, right to the end of the 3 hour recording. At least as best I can tell when they shot the lighting engineer, the main character has hamster cheeks, and everyone has subscribed to the "Real Men are all ventriloquists" school of acting!!

I'll try a post-v0.57 recording.

Hi digidol

Yes, I did mention a few days ago that my fan problem received a miraculous cure via the update. It did run 24 hours a day but now only comes on when the Pany is in use. Whats more, since the update I have no problems to report at all. I’m quite bored.

I did laugh when I read your post Trev2. Yes, it's quite boring isn't it when there are no problems to report. You will have to just keep posting about how wonderful everything is!!! I suppose now that everything is solved, the TU-CTH threads will just dry up!! Will then have to begin a 'wish list' thread about what you would features you would like implemented if at all possible with the Panny.

GG

It was tick tock to countdown and now twiddle twiddle of the fingers... since the OAD I genuinely have little to moan about now, other than C4 not being available on the EPG for several days resulting in correctly timed recordings all with the wrong name! Hm! Yes, lets get this wish list going a.k.a. Humax 9200T...

PS - it's not like the Germans not to solve a problem, but to run away... so what nationality created this successful OAD

Hi Trev2

Sorry, must have missed that one. Good news though!!!

Just checked some timer recordings I set for this evening including recording two programmes at the same time. Set them up this morning and put into standby......100% success. Well chuffed!!

Having stupidly scheduled my holiday to coincide with the update, I returned to find the dreaded "fan on in the afternoon", and so I was unsurprised to find that my Panny was still on 0.47

Does anybody know when the download is due to repeat? Or failing that, can anybody recommend a way to hack it in?

I'm really looking forward to being one of those with no complaints at all...

Villarica, had you left it in standby as well? If so, it is strange that it didn't download it itself. I don't know when it will be repeated, will try and find out for you, or you can ring Panny to see. Well, at least you can keep posting to keep the TU-CTH thread alive!!

GG

Not noticed this one on the postings before (will be probably proved wrong), however, often I had to bend down to hear if the Panny was actually recording a timed event from standby... not any more, it actually glows a red REC - cool... a wish come true