DMR-E85H TV Guide Problem

[Ender3rd]

I purchased a DMR-E85H last week and it seems to be having issues grabbing the full TV Guide listings from the cable PBS transmissions. It is connected directly to my cable system (no cable box) my zip code and local data are correct, and as instructed, it is turned off and displaying the local time correctly. I have not programmed any recordings for it, so it is not being brought out of standby and missing the 4 daily data windows. My cable signal levels are very good and my picture quality on the 3 local PBS affiliates is excellent. The first 24 hour period I left it alone to do its thing, and it grabbed nothing. The next 24 hour period it grabbed 3 days of data, then filled the rest of the week with scattered listings here and there. It does not seem to go back and grab missed data once it fills part of a day. currently there are spotty listings for today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday) is riddled with missing data, but next Monday and Tuesday are completely filled, with the rest of the week empty. It has been left alone (not turned on) for several days and has not successfully filled the 8 days of data.

I am unaware of any cable issues in my area, I suppose I could be getting interrupted service every night, but I have not heard anyone in my area grumbling about it. In any case, it is my understanding that the four data transmission periods are spread throughout the day to assure opportunity in the event you schedule recordings during one of the intervals. Anyone encountered this before?

Thanks,

Ender

[Ender3rd]

Well, I went in and dropped the number of channels in the Program Guide to around 30 total that I actually would ever record from. Then I shut it down and left it alone for 48 hours. It filled up Monday - Wednesday completely, left Thursday - Friday with no listings, Saturday with some data filled in, and Sunday and Monday are filled up completely. Does this sound like it has a hardware issue? It is almost like there is a bad memory module in there which cannot be written to. Any thoughts? Anyone seen this symptom before?

Thanks for any input you might have.

Regards,

Ender

[handyguy]

Naw, give it time.

Happened to me, I didn't get any listings for 2 months & turned out that the company was sold & they were redoing things.

You can get listings online at clicktv.com

[Ender3rd]

Yah, it is hard to tell if it is a dmr-e85h problem, a cable problem, a PBS problem, or a TVGuide problem. The past two days I made sure that I left it set to the local PBS station before I turned it off and it has sucked down all but two days of programming. It makes me think that if you do NOT do that it might be wasting a lot of time searching for a channel that has the programming information, and it might even be skipping past it entirely some nights. I really have no clue what it does, but it has kept itself up-to-date the past two nights, so perhaps that is all there is to it.

Regards,

Ender

[handyguy]

Try changing the zip code to another local one.

[Ender3rd]

Try changing the zip code to another local one.

That's a good idea. The town next to me serves a population 3 times larger, uses the same cable company and has the identical channel lineup. If it slacks off again I will do that and see how it does. For now, it has been updating daily just fine, and the two days with missing data will fall off the listings eventually.

Regards,

Ender

[jpoey]

Looks like i'm having the same problems. I get a couple days of listings and then nothing but "no listing". I have the unit set to record every night from 2am - 3am and was thinking maybe that's the problem. I'll give the pbs channel a try tonight. i also have been experiencing a lockup problem. When I turn the machine on it boots and goes to the tv guide screen, when I hit any key the screen turns bright green and the unit locks up. The only way to reset it is to unplug and replug it. It will then run the test and boot up fine and work for a few days. I called panansonic and they told me they heard of the problem and it happens on units produced before a certain production date (whick they don't know). They said it was in the "tv guide" chip, which has me thinking that might be causing some of the listing voids. My unit was made in march, 2004 even though I bought it only a few weeks ago. Anyone have a newer unit that's doing the same?

Thanks
Joe