My new Panasonic DMR-T3040Video Recorder produces a hum in the audio of my TV set. I have a good TV (a Mitsubishi wide screen WS-55819). I also have a Sony VCR and another Panasonic progressive scan DVD player - all of which work fine with my TV. When I hooked up the T3040 I get a hum out of my TV's speakers when ever I made a connection from the T3040's audio or video outputs to my TV, I tried ALL of the options (composite, component and straight video outputs) each produced the hum. I hooked it up as explained in my Mitsubishi manual (Mitsubishi has and A & B antenna input and an Antenna "loop" which they say should be used for a unit such as the T3040 that has it's own tuner. This happened whether the T3040 was on or off - it didn't matter - I still got the hum, even when I was just watching the TV (I have a Comcast cable connection). I contacted Panasonic directly and explained the situation and they told m that it should not be happening.

Next, I tried a different hook-up ( this time I didn't use the loop on the Mitsubishi but rather plugged the cable line directly into the DMR-T3040 and then from the DMR-T3040 to my Mitsubishi antenna A input. This time there was no hum. and everything seemed to be working fine.

Unfortunately, I didn't discover this until yesterday. I usually watch the upper channels on my cable (23, 31, 51 - mostly news channels and movie channels). But yesterday I happened to switch to the lower channels (mainly channels 3 & 6). What I am getting is floating transparent bars that float from the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen. They are transparent but you can still see them (I know this sounds confusing but that's the best way to describe it). They are most obvious on the lower channels - they get progressively harder to see as the channel numbers go higher, but on close inspection I can see the on most every channel - you do have to look hard on the high channels - but they are there. They are unmistakable and annoying on the low channels - especially channel 3 (CBS here). There are MORE obvious when I am looking at the T3040's tuner but they are still there when the T3040 is off and I am just watching TV. I even went out and bought expensive hook up cables (gold plated etc.) thinking it might have been a problem with my wires but the problem persists. I have four other TV's in my house and none of them have the bars - so it's not coming over Comcast cable.

I hooked up the T3040 to one of the other TV's and it works fine! My Mitsubishi seems to work fine also as long as I don't have the T3040 connected to it. I'm pretty sure it's some kind of a mismatch between the 2 units. I feel that the bars that I am seeing is the visual equivlent of the audio hum I get with the first hook up. Some kind of a ground loop problem? I tried plugging the T3040 into anothe routlet on a different circut - still have the same problem. My other TV's work fine . They also work fine with the T3040. My mitsubishi works fine WITHOUT the T3040 hooked up. There is no problem when I attach the antenna cable to the T3040. The hum begins as soon as I make and audio or video connection between the T3040 and the TV?????? Doesn't matter if it's the component outputs, SVideo or just regular connections. Still the hum or the bars. HELP!!!

Pat