E80H recording problem

[JeffM]

I'm experiencing a problem recording TV programs with the Panasonic E80H. The signal
to the E80H comes directly from my Comcast cable box, and then goes directly to my TV
for viewing. After recording a show, and then playing it back in edit mode, there is
bar of black/white noise on top of the picture. I understand there is something called
overscan, but this bar of garbage is significantly large, like 10-20 lines or
so high.

I've tried just about everything I could think of, reconnect cables, swap cables,
power off/reset boxes,
try different recording modes, etc.. but I get the same picture garbage.

This has never happened before until recently, but nothing in my E80H setup has changed.
The strange thing is if I connect the cable directly to the E80H and try recording it,
I get a clean picture. But I want to use the cable box as I did before.

Has anyone experienced a problem like this?

[JeffM]

Garbage is only on top of picture. The bottom of the picture is always clean.
Would placing some kind of video stabilizer/enhancer/clarifier filter between
the cable box and E80H fix the signal?

I don't why the cable signal from the box is giving me garbage.

[Frobozz]

You say this hasn't happened before. I've found Comcast to be very flexible about exchanging cable boxes (you have to take it in for the exchange). I'd just tell them this one has started malfunctioning and you are getting noise at the top of the picture.

Also, have you connected via RCA cables instead of the coaxial, or is that an option. Maybe that's what you're already doing; it isn't clear how you're connecting the two.

[JeffM]

I'm using coaxial cable for the connection.

Do all inputs for the E80H support a 480p signal (RCA, S-Video, coxial)?
So, it wouldn't matter if I tried to use RCA cables instead of coxial? I won't lose the
progressive picture quality? The cable box is a HD Motorola DCT6200, capable of outputting
480p signals. I don't think there is anything wrong with it.

[samijubal]

S-video or RCA cables is always better than coax, never use the RF converter unless there is no other way to hook up. You can't even get true stereo unless connected with RCA jacks. The video and audio quality will be far better with RCA or s-video than the RF converter.

[Frobozz]

I have that model of HD cable box (or at least a similar model). I believe setting the 4:3 Override to 480I will fix the problem with the lines. You change the setting by pushing the menu button when the unit is turned off. Select the 4:3 Override option and push the right arrow key to change it.

By the way, I was able to play with these settings to get the anamorphically squished picture output which I could record to a DVD. Unfortunately, I don't own any software that creates an anamorphic widescreen DVD from the squished video.

I have my system set up differently from you. I split the coaxial cable ahead of the cable box and have one go to the cable box and the other to the DVR. I connect the cable box to the DVR via S-Video (I had to get a couple Y cables to provide separate audio outputs from the cable box to the TV and to the DVR). This way I can be watching a high-def channel from the cable box while recording an analog channel with the DVR.

Fortunately my Sony TV has two sets of component video inputs so I can use those connections from both the cable box and the DVR.

[JeffM]

That's exactly how I have it:

TV TYPE               16:9
YPbPr OUTPUT          1080I
4:3 OVERRIDE          480I

All other on-screen options are disabled or on auto.

I also split the coaxial cable too, and have tried both setups before, one
cable directly to the E80H or one cable to the cable box, and then to the E80H.
But I prefer the connection from the cable box so I can record the higher
cable channels above 99 and also record HD channels.

Found some S-Video cable and hooked it up to the L1 input of the E80H, but
I got the same result, garbage on top of the picture, when recording the L1 input.

[Frobozz]

I checked the available information on that cable box and it states that the video going out through S-Video or line video is 480I. The fact that the E80H can record the signal properly when directly connected to the cable rules out any problem with the DVR. Therefore, the problem lies with the Motorola cable box. From what we've discussed, I'm back to my original recommendation of getting Comcast to exchange it for another one.

I understand the convenience of the way you're hooking this up. The way I've done it requires me to use the L1 input for recording the digital and HD channels. So where you have to set the recorder to channel 3 for recording from the cable box, I set mine to L1. To me it's just as easy and I get a better quality picture (although I've never bothered to see if I'd actually notice the quality difference).

It's a nuisance that the cable box doesn't have more than one pair of audio outputs. But as I noted, the RCA Y-connectors took care of this issue.

[JeffM]

Thanks for the help, you may be right. Not sure if I can come up with a convincing enough
argument to replace it, as the cable box is working as far as TV viewing is concerned.
The bar of noise is only visible in editing mode. You can't see it on the TV while
watching the recorded program. I probably wouldn't care if I only used the TV for viewing,
but sometimes I want to transfer it to my computer for further editing, and it is clearly
visible on the computer screen.