Well here's my bet for nothing, I bet it was an english team!!! Just hope whoever it was, that Panasonic Wales keep them and let them do any further updates!!

GG

Right Nirm so I can report to my friend at Panasonic that they are no longer to be held liable for back pains etc suffered by you. By the way, the Panny should always have had a red rec displayed whilst recording, but I am glad that your back is no longer suffering strain!!

GG

GG...LOL... seriously, the only time REC glowed (in my unit at least) was when it was actually switched on, i.e. out of standby; if I recollect correctly (and I don't want to go back through the original 1000+ thread) this was an early criticism as no one could actually tell that it was recording if it was not switched on out of standby

Well, I have had quite a few units due to swop outs, and I can honestly report that they all had the red REC display whether in standby or being watched. In fact, when two recordings are taking place, there are TWO red REC showing, one below the other!!

GG

Well smorphet, have played back 'Officer and a Gentleman' and sorry but no lip sync problems at all, and I specifically watched the whole film. There were one or two sound drop outs, will be reporting these, but no sync problems at all. Have you tried to dub to disc some material that you have recorded since the update?

GG

I was planning to try dubbing a recent recording last night, but found that I didn't have anything of sufficient length. I made a long recording overnight, and set it dubbing before I left the house this morning, so I'll check that when I get home and report back.

I wondered whether there was a problem with the particular recording that had been causing me trouble at the weekend, so last night I tried dubbing a different pre-update recording. This also has bad sync problems.

I'll be checking to see if my REC light comes on in standby now. It never used to. It's amazing that there seem to be so many different combinations of quirks on different boxes. At least my recordings have always been reliable! I can only imagine that there are a number of hardware revisions in circulation. Mine's a 'made in the UK' one, purchased in early July 05 with the 0.3-something software.

Steve.

O.k. smorphet, try it with a recording done since the update, and let us know whether the lip sync problems are still there.
Incidentally, the only time that I have ever noticed Picture/sound sync problems is sometimes when I am 'surfing' channels (up/down channel keys) I usually rectify this by going up/ down from the channel concerned, and then back to it, and this usually cures it. Mind you, that has not been cured by the software update, as I have just experienced it this afternoon, when going to ITV1 to watch Poirot, which is also being recorded incidentally.

GG

Yes, I had definitely left it in standby. But I have noticed that sometimes, although it powers up at 12.05pm, it fails to reboot, and then the fan remains on and recordings tend to fail. To reset it, it has to be switched on and off - and sadly I wasn't present to do that!

Thank you very much! I'm so glad you have taken on the unofficial Panasonic liaison role

Except I never was that good at whingeing

Well, someone has to do it!!

I've had it happen during archive playback - if I've been FF/RW'ing. Sometimes it's recovered after pausing, sometimes I've had to stop and restart playback.

I've not seen it happen post v0.57, but it was a pretty rare event before, so that doesn't really mean anything.

Unfortunately the problem is still there with the programme that I recorded last night and dubbed this morning.

I can't think of anything else to try. Any more suggestions?

I've also seen occasional sound sync problems, either on archive playback or live programmes, I can't remember. I've not noticed it for a number of months though. I seem to remember that something like channel changing or start/stopping the playback would resolve it.

Steve.

Hi Villarica
Thank Gawd you missed the update. If you had updated the software this forum would now have been dead and buried. We would have all now been playing dominoes, picking our noses or talking to the wife. But not now, none of us can rest until you are clapping your hands with excitement as the Pany responds to the new downloaded software.
Grannygrunt!! Get on to your man at Panasonic and tell him to do transmit another download.. Now.

Hi Nirm
I have already mentioned the faults that I had before the update, not recording in Standby Mode, fan running all the time and programmed recordings cut short. But I failed to mention the little red Recording light. Honestly I didn’t even know it had one until the update.

GG - I'm not alone I thought I was going bonkers and had a drink or three last night, and then asked my wife (who promptly thought I was having some kind of breakdown!) and confirmed that she always found it odd that I bent down to hear if it was "working"... and remembers my comments too

Or perhaps just busy watching the 40 hours of recorded programs that we never seem to have time to watch...

Anyway, once the TU-CTH100 is sorted out for everyone, we can start whining about the TU-CTH200

Already done it, although it sounds then as if I am asking for a repeat of the OTA just for Villarica!!! Will let you know the answer, but there are probably lots of people who don't use this forum who have missed the update, and it is too good to miss!!! Have also reported to Emsee about the miraculous turn around of the TU-CTH so that he can update his PVR comparison site. Anyway, how do you know it's a man? I never stated this!!

Villarica, I think that I can safely say that Panasonic have probably learned from their mistakes from all of this, and that there won't be a repeat if they do manufacture another PVR. I just hope that all of this has not put them off for good as far as the PVR market is concerned, I hope that as a company, they don't feel that it is just not worth the hassle!! After all, their DVD recorders sell well, and now that they are introducing them with a Freeview tuner they might not bother getting their fingers burned again!! The TU-CTH must surely have turned out to be a costly exercise I should imagine, and we might not see another PVR from them which would be a shame, as although I have both a DVD recorder and the TU-CTH, the PVR is definately the way to go as far as I am concerned. And where are the other big players? Why haven't we seen the likes of Sony, Philip's et al entering this lucrative market? If they have been following Panasonic's foray into the PVR market, they might feel that it is too much hassle, despite the fact that they already produce set top boxes.

GG

Good news Villarica, if the proposed software update for the TU-CT41 is not ready, then a repeat of 0.57 for the TU-CTH will be sent OTA in March!!! If not, it will be the next available slot that Panasonic are allowed. Then the update to the mheg engine will probably be in May, and then the TU-CTH should be one of the most stable pvr's on the market!! After that, then they might look at some enhancements to the unit.

GG

You mean we're all going to have to wait for an MHEG upgrade just 'cos Villarica went on hols!! Can we have a vote??

Hoorah! Let's be honest, set top boxes are two-a-penny... who honestly cares about the TU-CT41 You can tell Mr/Mrs/Ms Panny that I'm personally resposible for two of my friends buying TU-CTH100 as well - so I'm a VERY IMPORTANT PERSON
Last edited by Villarica : 15-02-2006 at 12:21

What, he was on holiday??? I thought that he was working!!!

GG

Okay Villarica, will do!!! I think that any to any manufacturer worth their salt, every customer is important, and I'm glad that you are also part of the TU-CTH sales team!!!

GG

Steve, if it is still apparent with the recording that you made after the update, then I think it better if you contact Panasonic yourself, explain that your unit has always done this and they might be prepared to do you a swop out as it seems that your particular unit could be faulty.

GG

Ah but they have now invested all the "blood, sweat and tears". If they have made the investment and now have the basis of a good product I'd have thought they'd want to make use of the previous effort and use the 100 as a building block to go on and make 200, 300 and so on - it's kind of unusual for a manufacturer to design each new product completely from scratch, the 2006 model is likely about 80-85% the 2005 model with some added "bells and whistles" and so on. If the core operation of the device is sorted then it's actually a good platform to build upon.


I think the questionable word in that is "lucrative" - is it? really? Like you say they probably poured oodles of development resources into it and how many have they ended up selling? The amortisation of the development costs must be immense. One thing that puts the multinationals off such devices is that because of the UK only MHEG (most other countries use MHP) it's not a case of making a "European wide" product as they do with DVD recorders and stuff and just having a few "tweaks" for each target country. The UK model is quite a major separate development in its own right so that, until the domestic PVR market here is much larger, it may not be cost effective to bother. In fact Panasonic were quite "brave" to do so!

Cliff

This is clutching at straws a bit, but you could try making sure the machine is doing as little extraneous activity as possible.

Assuming you're not actually watching or recording anything during the dub, is the machine tuned to a good solid signal, that will minimise any load from error correction? Not on an MHEG channel? How much live TV are you buffering?

Unfortunately, since the machine powers up while dubbing, it must presumably carry on decoding at least one channel in case you take it into your head to get up in the middle of the night and watch it.

Are these recordings you are dubbing "clean"? I.e. have you set any skip areas or done any partial deletes, etc.? I'm just wondering what might "confuse" the machine.

Also, how full is your disk? I'm wondering if there may be an issue with handling fragmented programs/files.

There has to be some variable affecting the sync. Otherwise why would I have slight sync errors on a half hour programme, but nothing on a three hour film?