DMR-E30 Newbie / Blue screen no setup to start

[teddyxox]

Hello everyone, I am a newbie with a Panasonic DMR-E30. I am new to DVD recorders ( this is my first one), and after this weekend I am ready to pack it back in the box and put it up for sale! I purchased this from an Ebay seller who said it was brand new and taken from the original box for the picture, said he tested it before sale and it worked perfectly.

After hooking the recorder up per the instructions thru my digital cable box, I had a solid blue screen, I could not even get the setup button to work. I called Panasonic, and they told me I needed a RF Cable Modulator, I made a 60 mile trip to get one...came home and hooked up just the TV and the recorder, same thing, just a blue screen. I called panasonic back again, and this time a different tech told me that I needed to buy a new TV, that the RF Modulator could not read the signal because the TV is too old (Magnavox 5 yrs old). Yesterday I talked to friend who sells this stuff, and he told me that was a crock....that's why they make RF Modulators! *sigh*
I guess before I ask for any more help from anyone I need to know if I am spending wasted money and time in trying to get this to work. I came across this site by accident but was very impressed in reading the posts while waiting my 24hr to post here. I purchased the DMR-E30 to transfer my VHS home movies to DVD, and maybe venture out after that.
Any advice would greatly be appreciated. This site is wonderful, and thank you to those who try to help others!
~Have A Great Day~
Teddy

[Roll Tide]

It would help if you could describe the connections you've made. If your TV has an S-Video connector + RCA audio jacks, you should be able to connect the recorder outputs to these. Otherwise, you will need to use an RF modulator. My 6-year old 32" Philips Magnovox TV has these inputs, so you may have already have them.

One note about these recorders is that the 75 ohm coax output is just a passthrough. In other words, it just passes through the signal from the input. None of the recorder's functions are displayed through this connection, so you'll have to get the s-video or component video signal to your TV. If you don't have these connections on your tv, run an s-video cable and 2 RCA audio cables from the output on the recorder to the RF modulator you bought, then run a coax cable from the coax output of the modulator to your TV's coax connector. Make sure you're tuned to channel 3 or 4 (set this on the modulator).

I have one of these recorders and I think you'll love it when you get it working. There is a little bit of a learning curve, but you'll pick it up quickly. Sometimes making the connections is the hardest part. Just make sure to go through the equipment you have, and logically work through the connections. It is just a series of simple inputs and outputs.