Panasonic E85H bug - error U99

[ann coates]

I have recently read that the Panasonic E85H has a serious bug in it. That on a random basis while using the "Divide" feature it can freeze and trash the Hard Drive. The display reads error "U99". Anyone familiar with this? I just bought this recorder and now I'm concerned even though I haven't encountered the error myself, but I've had it less than a week. Don't know if I should return it now. Any thoughts on this error? Has anyone had this problem when using "divide" on the Panasonic E85H?

A thread on this subject can be found here.

[Captain Satellite]

I have the E80H so I can't comment on that item specifically. Myself and other owners have nothing but rave reviews on this machine. After reading the link you posted along with the new crop of machines coming out shortly, I would return it. Sure, it may be a little trouble but it might be worth it in the long run.

[ann coates]

Thanks for the reply, Captain Satellite. I am going to return it. Divide is a feature I've been using a lot already so I'm too worried to keep it.

Does anyone know if there's any place that still sells the E80? I'm a bit leery to wait and buy one of the new recorders when they first come out because new bugs usually take some time to be found out so I'd rather wait on those. At the same time I don't want to be without a recorder now, especially as I still have many VHS tapes I want to transfer.

[Captain Satellite]

It really is the workhorse of the bunch. I use mine hours a day and RARELY use the divide feature. What exactly are you dividing? ebay has some new ones, not sure about the return policy though - didn't check. I always like to go to a retailer for such purchases.

[ann coates]

Well, what I'm doing is copying old video tapes with TV appearances from some musicians I collect on. There's generally about 20 appearances a tape so I'll record the whole tape to the hard drive in one go and then use divide to divide each appearance into chapters. The only other way I suppose I could do it is to press stop after each appearance.

[Captain Satellite]

What a coincidence, that is ALL that I do - every day of the week, except mine are current performances. No, what you want to do is record the whole tape to the hard drive in one shot. Then pause at the beginning of each appearance and hit 'marker' for your chapter stop. When you high speed dub this to a DVD-R, it will have the one program with a chapter stop at the beginning of every song. It's still going to be one program, but you will now be able to skip to the next song - way faster. This may not be what you want to do though, just a suggestion. I do have separate chapters but that is because they are all late-night performances from different shows.

[ann coates]

What a coincidence, that is ALL that I do - every day of the week, except mine are current performances.

Oh, I'll be doing that too!

No, what you want to do is record the whole tape to the hard drive in one shot. Then pause at the beginning of each appearance and hit 'marker' for your chapter stop. When you high speed dub this to a DVD-R, it will have the one program with a chapter stop at the beginning of every song. It's still going to be one program, but you will now be able to skip to the next song - way faster. This may not be what you want to do though, just a suggestion. I do have separate chapters but that is because they are all late-night performances from different shows.

I have chapter on the remote but not marker? Or do you mean chapter? Thank you so much for the suggestion, I never even thought of that, durr. I can see myself using that at some point but for some of the items I have I prefer having them as seperate little appearances on the hard drive for various um.. geeky reasons.

I just looked on ebay but I'm pretty leery to buy that way. Not sure what to do now really as I prefer to stick with Panasonic as I really like the features it has compared to other recorders I've looked at. Very frustrating to find out about this bug now, but at least I can still return it.

[Captain Satellite]

I mean marker. At least that's what the button says. Yeah, I wouldn't go the ebay route either. You want geeky? I record all of my performences to DVD-RAM. Why? Because of the potential of losing the one-off performances to a crashing hard drive before I transfer them and the versatility of DVD-RAM. I'm as geeky as they come I guess. Happy to help anytime.

[ann coates]

LOL regarding recording to DVD-RAM this sounds like something I'd do as well. I doubt I'd trust the hard drive with something I really wanted to keep.

Well, I have had a stroke of luck. I found a new Panny E80 at a compusa store near me for 350.00 on clearance. Very happy as from everything I have read the divide bug doesn't exist on this machine. So I'm returning the E85 for this one. Sometimes newer isn't always better, eh?

Also, since you mentioned recording programs to DVD-RAM.. Do you then edit the shows on the DVD-RAM discs, record it back to your hard drive and then from there put it on a DVD-r disc? Will it lose any quality doing it this way?

[Captain Satellite]

I'm happy that you found one. I have given mine an unbelievable workout the last year or so. Recording every day individual performances in addition to Austin City Limits, Soundstage, Hard Rock Live, etc. Up until a few months ago I even recorded the concerts and saved them on DVD-RAM. All of my individual performances are saved on DVD-RAM - I do not delete them and re-use them. I've had excellent luck with cake boxes of Optodiscs at 125.00 for 25 discs. I record the late night shows on my UTV (similar to TIVO). I then transfer them to DVD-RAM. Then when a disc is full I edit the bit of commercial before and after in DVDMovieAlbum that comes with Panasonic DVD burners, I think they are still included - not sure. Editing right on the disc itself - too cool. No quality is ever lost when doing it all on the Panny. You're high speed dubbing the clip to the hard drive, then high speed dubbing to the DVD-R. Other times I'll use TDA to make a real fancy compilation DVD with motion menus, it accepts the.vro file that the clip is written in. THERE I believe it is re-encoded, so on paper there is so-called quality loss - I sure can't see it. You bet newer isn't always better, imagine how cheaply they'll be making these DVD recorders in a couple years. Right now they're making them for the long haul just like they used to make VCRs. Try finding a new consumer VCR as hefty as my Mitsubishi U80, that thing must weigh 35 pounds. Why? Because it's not made of all plastic. Those things were almost made of industrial quality. That particular model WAS an industrial model but it's model number was BV-1000. Sorry, probably a lot more than you wanted know. So glad I could be of help.

[Anonymous65]

I have a question about the Marker feature, can this be used when making a DVD-R disk? Normally when finalizing the DVD-R disk it will insert chapers every 5 minutes or so (why not on the exact 5 minute mark I don't know). Or can I make Markes when recording? Or is the Marker feature only usable when using DVD-RAM disks?

[Captain Satellite]

I have a question about the Marker feature, can this be used when making a DVD-R disk? Normally when finalizing the DVD-R disk it will insert chapers every 5 minutes or so (why not on the exact 5 minute mark I don't know). Or can I make Markes when recording? Or is the Marker feature only usable when using DVD-RAM disks?

Right. You have to go into the set-up menu and set it for 'compatible mode ON' on the E80H. If the feature is off, it will do as you say. You don't add markers when recording. Pause the machine where you want the marker, then hit button that says 'marker'.

[Anonymous65]

I have the E50 model...

[Captain Satellite]

I have the E50 model...

I'm not sure about thatmodel. What options do you have when going into the set-up menu? It might be there.

[Anonymous65]

I'll check but I haven't seen that option before. Anyway, so there is no way to set markers (Chapters) after the record is done on a DVD-R disk? I believe that is correct?

[Captain Satellite]

I'll check but I haven't seen that option before. Anyway, so there is no way to set markers (Chapters) after the record is done on a DVD-R disk? I believe that is correct?

After a DVD-R? No way. You can do it with a DVD-RAM though. You can set them while the disc is in the machine but once you eject them they're lost - how useless.

[Captain Satellite]

I'll check but I haven't seen that option before. Anyway, so there is no way to set markers (Chapters) after the record is done on a DVD-R disk? I believe that is correct?

I just checked the user manual online, your unit doesn't have this option.

[Anonymous65]

Thanks

[kosekjm]

Hi there,

I was searching through the forums and found this article, that seems to address the U99 problem:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=259538&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

And then I found this post

You may have already seen the above mentioned post that has a fix available for the U99 problem (or maybe you haven't). Just thought I'd pass it along.

BTW, I own no DVD recorder yet. I was doing some research and found these two posts.