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  1. Hi,

    I bought a DMR-ES40V combo player from a guy on eBay. He said that everything worked fine, so when I got it and opened it up I discovered that the styrofoam packing peanuts he used also wound up INSIDE the unit! The VHS door was stuffed full of them, as was pretty much the entire inside of the unit. I took off the cover, cleaned everything out, then took an air compressor and used it to blow out any remaining pieces and dust, etc. Hooked everything up and found that while all the features seem to work, there is no picture on either the DVD or VHS side. It's like a scrambled black and white image that won't resolve itself. On my older tv, it continually rolls, and on my newer tv at times it's almost a split image. Either way, it's undecipherable and unwatchable. I did contact him and got a full refund, but I'm really disappointed that this unit doesn't work. I bought it being that my exact same unit has the dreaded F60 and U99 error codes. So now I have two of these machines that don't work. Any suggestions on how I might get it working? He didn't want it back and so I've got it but really have no idea what to do. I'm wondering if the problem is somewhere in the video output? I tried disconnecting and reconnecting all the cables (RF in and out, and RCA audio / video cables). Thanks for any ideas....

    Keith
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  2. Mod Neophyte Super Moderator redwudz's Avatar
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    Probably better asked and answered in our DVD & Blu-ray Recorders Forum. Moving you.

    And welcome to our forums.
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  3. Member hech54's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by three4rd View Post
    It's like a scrambled black and white image that won't resolve itself.
    Sounds like a PAL/NTSC issue also.
    If you are certain the Panasonic is a USA model with a 110V plug....what is the origin of the video tape you are trying to play?
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    So this happens on all outputs? composite,component and HDMI?
    Does it also happen with all sources, for example playing a DVD, VHS tape, maybe a line input to the units line output?
    Oh just so you know, IMO the ES-40v and cousin the VHS-less ES-20 were probably the worst DVDRs Panasonic made Panasonic made lots of good DVDRs but those two models are to be avoided at all costs. When they record they do a good job as they were the first Panasonics to have the LSI silicon but they are just buggy as hell, in fact they were such a debacle for Panasonic in '05 that they switched back to Panasonic silicon for the '06 model year(which is considered by many to be Panasonics pinnacle year for DVDRs) Panasonic came back with LSI silicon after '06 but '07 was also a rather buggy year with the EZ-x7 series DVDRs, finally by '08 Panasonic managed to get most of the bugs out and the '08 EZ-x8 series DVDRs were also a pretty good year. Too bad it was the last year for Panasonic DVDRs in N. America They did sell the x8 series DVDRs here for several years but it was basically the same '08 model, nothing changed.

    If your looking for a good Panasonic combo I'd really suggest the '05 ES-30v, IMO the best combo Panasonic made unless you count the end all '06 EH-75v, although the ES-30v does lack HDMI) if you need HDMI then I'd suggest either the '06 ES-45v or clone ES-46v or again the unicorn(extremely hard to find and expensive if you do) EH-75v. Personally I'd avoid either of the EZ model year combos by Panasonic, again kind of buggy.
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  5. I've tried several outputs, all with the same result. And, yeah, it is the same scrambled picture for both DVD and VHS. Interesting about the ES-40v being a bad unit. I've had mine for a long time and never had much trouble with it until the past year or so. I'll definitely take your advice though and check out the ES-30v. I believe I had seen a few of those on eBay.

    I can't help but wonder, though, why the 30v would be that much better than the 40v? In comparing the two units, there is really not that much difference. The 40v appears to have a few more features, but it seems weird that one would be significantly more "buggy" than the other (?)

    Thanks for the replies!
    Last edited by three4rd; 3rd Apr 2017 at 09:47.
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    Do you have the tv set to the right channel ??
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  7. Thanks for asking but, yeah, I do....with my set-up the actual channel on the tv really doesn't matter. The VCR is set on 3. I use antenna RF in / out along with a digital converter box. The VCR in question is still hooked to an old CRT TV, hence my propensity to continue to buy 'old' VCR combo players!

    I wouldn't need to buy another Panasonic unit. Despite the relatively long-term trouble-free operation of my first Panasonic, jjeff's thoughts on the problems with this particular model seem to be pretty well supported by how many people are selling 40v units on eBay that have error codes! I'm more than willing to buy another brand combo player BUT it needs to have the RF in and out jacks. I don't have cable. Alot of the newer units appear to only be set up for coaxial cable rather than the older antenna jacks. So if someone could suggest a good older unit that enables the same antenna set-up, I'd be more than happy to shop around for it. I'll continue to do research on it but for now have a 30v on my eBay watch list.
    Last edited by three4rd; 3rd Apr 2017 at 11:23.
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  8. I just purchased a DMR-ES30v from a guy on eBay. Only problem is, he sent me an ES-35. Should I keep it or send back? I've read that the 30 is a better built unit than the 35. Any suggestions?
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    Both are quite good combos and have full D1 resolution on speeds through LP. The ES-30v has the advantage of the dual displays, one for the VHS side and one for the DVD side, the ES-35v shares the same display between both sides. The ES-35v makes slightly sharper recordings(720 vs 704) but the ES-35v like all the x5 DVDRs of '06 tend to suffer laser failure more often than the ES-30v who's laser never seems to die. The ES-30v's main issue is it's power supply capacitors which fail more than the ES-x5 Panasonics. Oh another issue with a ES-30v is it's generally very dim display, to the point of hardly being able to read it in a lite room, the ES-35v has a nice bright display. Unfortunately there is no way to really fix the dim display problem with the ES-30v, I've read it's caused by air getting into the florescent tube display and would not be economical to fix, you can still see it, just not in a brightly lite room.
    Again both are good and both have their issues, at this point both are getting harder and harder to find so I guess if it works good now, I'd probably keep it. Oh one more issue with the ES-x5 series DVDRs, they can get the dreaded U66 and U99 errors at which point they are probably not worth fixing. It's not real common but does happen, the ES-30v doesn't really seem to be affected by that issue.
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  10. jjeff,

    Thanks so much for that information! Sorry to hear about the poor display on the 30, but given that it seems to be less prone to the error codes, I think I made the right decision in sending back the 35 the guy sent me and will have him send the 30 (the one I bought). My current 40 was bought when it came out and I've never had any trouble with it other than the codes. Were it not for that, I'm sure I wouldn't be shopping around for a replacement. I do little to no recording, and so that advantage of the 35 is really not applicable. Concerning the increasing rarity of both models, I'm surprised how many actually show up on eBay. The caveat, of course, is not knowing what level of working condition they are truly in. Some guys provide a good bit of info, and others don't. The one I bought, based on the guy's other items and from email exchanges with him that include descriptions of what he does with these, would appear to be refurbished to a good working state. He replaces any bad or suspicious looking caps - or at least he professes to do so. Guess I'll find out soon. The way my luck has been going so far with trying to get a used Panasonic, who knows!

    Thanks again!

    Keith
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    Don't get me wrong, the ES-30v still makes good recordings, just not quite as sharp as the ES-35v. I mean the difference between 480x720 and 480x704 is really small
    For comparison, your ES-40v was similar to the ES-35v with 720 resolution.
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