Hi

I've owned by panasonic dvd recorder DMR-EX75 for over a year now but in the last few hours I have been having major problems.

I tried to burn something from my HDD on to a DVD but the machine told me that there was an error on the disk and restarted after it had done this I removed the disk.

However now the system is telling me that there is still a disk in the machine when there isn't and when I do put a disk in it's telling me 'No Read'.

I have tried restarted, unplugging, I've read through the manual but to no avail.

I desperately do not want to do a complete reset of the system as I don't want to lose anything which is on my HDD.

Does anyone have any advice about what I can do? Whether it be to sort out my problem or back up my stuff before having to completely reset the system.

Thank you for any help given

Firstly none of the various resets will erase what is on your hard disc.
The only thing which does that is formatting the HDD.

Secondly, you do need to do a proper power reset [ by disconnecting from the mains for 10 minutes. ] so that the machine can go through a proper initialisation procedure.
Make sure there is no disc in the machine before starting the procedure.

However, it is possible that the DVD drive is damaged and will not allow proper initialisation.

If so, then the machine will require professional attention.

Replacing the DVD drive is never an economic proposition, unless you are under guarantee or are insured.
But the machine cannot be very old and in the event of major failure like this ....[ if that is what it is ] then Panasonic will usually pay for most of the repair, guarantee or not...on the basis that a machine can be reasonably expected to last more than a year or so.

You'll find contact points at the bottom of this page:

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/customer-Support/index.asp

But try a proper reset first.

Good luck.

The machine was unplugged for many hours throughot lastnight with no disk in the machine (although it is telling me there is a disk in there). When I unplugged it this morning I was still having the same problem.

The machine is about 1 year and 2 months old give or take a few days. If I were to have to go from a dvd drive replacement would I lose the things which are on my HDD?
Also how long would this take?

and is there any way I can backup the HDD externally before doing this?

It's not looking good unfortunately, if a reset will still not allow it to initialise.

You should not lose anything from your HDD in the event of normal servicing of the DVD drive... but if in the course of servicing the HDD drive has to be removed then when it is reinserted, the drive automatically reformats itself which would mean total loss.

There is no known easy way of getting programmes off the hard drive.

The only option I can suggest is that if you DO send it for service that you firmly sellotape a note to the top of the machine with your contact details and clear instructions that you wish to be consulted about your options before anything may be done that may jeopardise your recordings.

Alternatively - beg or borrow another DVDR and feed out your recordings to another machine.

Given the age of the machine, I firmly advise you to contact Panasonic.

Here are a couple of recent threads that deal with similar situations.


http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=711820
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...d.php?t=699784

Good luck.

Would it be possible for me to record things from my HDD on to video? I have a video recorder attached to the machine currently but am unsure of how it would work or if it is possible.

Yes - That should work without any problem.

Is the VCR connected to the DVDR via scart into AV2?

If so, you probably require no more connecting. The scart is bidirectional and so will feed a signal out to the VCR.

You would just need to select the input that correlated to the scart you have connected to the DVDR [ probably AV1 on the VCR. ]

Play the material on the DVDR and press record on the DVDR.

If your VCR is still connected into the RF daisychain then perhaps you could monitor the result via that route , just to check on it.

Good luck.

Yes it is conected via AV2 but when I set the video to either AV1 or AV2 all I am getting is a blue screen.

That's why I suggested viewing by the RF route, because you cannot monitor this by the normal method connected the way you are currently.

Perhaps an easier way would be to temporarily remove the scart plug from AV1 of the VCR [ the top scart] and put this into the remaining scart socket of the VCR.

Connected this way, you should be able to play back [ and record ] the output of the DVDR ... and view it on the TV AV channel that you would normally use for the DVDR.

Surely it is AV1 on Panasonic to AV2 on VCR then AV1 on VCR To TV. Av2 on Panasonic is only an input. AV1 is input/output

That would certainly be the conventional way, but I suggested this way to avoid too much plug changing.

Both the scarts will act as input and output... so it should still work.

can you please explain how I would set this up in more simple terms? I am not particually good with wiring system but am having to do this myself.

OK - we'll do it in a conventional way to avoid confusion.

This is assuming a VCR with two scart sockets.

Connect a scart socket lead from AV1 of the VCR to AV1 of the TV.

Connect a scart from AV1 of the DVDR to AV2 of the VCR.

Select the AV1 channel on the TV so you can see the output of the VCR.

Select AV2 as the input of the VCR so you can see the output if the DVDR.

If you can see the output of the DVDR you can now record it on the VCR.

OK?