I am finding a few flaws with the Panasonic DMR-E85H DVD Recorder I bought that I was hoping some people may know of features on the menu somewhere I may be overlooking in order to fix the problem.
First of all, the most major problem of all I am shocked Panasonic does NOT even mention absolutely anywhere in the manual is this.
On your TV set, it does not work on Channel 3.
I have an 27" Admiral TV set that I have had since the 1980s. This TV is so good that it has never been to the shop one single time. I have never had one single thing wrong with the set and the picture is still absolute perfection. Out of all the VCRs, etc I have ever bought including 1 DVD Recorder (-b4 there was hard drive), everything has always worked on Channel 3. So I have never in my life encountered this problem before with any appliance that needed to be hooked to the TV ever until now.
When I first hooked the DMR-E85H up using the Coaxal Cable from the unit's output to the TV's Input, & turned the unit on, it came on alright but I kept sitting there waiting for something to pop up on the TV screen. I pressed a few buttons here and there but nothing would happen on my TV screen. I'm like WTF--please don't tell me I bought a dead unit. Then finally after tinkering with it a while, I figured it out.
So I took a Video wire & 2 audio wires (for right & left audio) hooked the wires into the L1 outputs then hooked it up to my VCR---which happens to work on L1 & L2 channels (not Channel 3).
WaaaLaaa! I could finally see the DVD Menu Screen---which was asking me a question. That was the reason why I could not use any of the buttons before. The unit was locked until I answered the question, which I could not read until then.
So now that I could finally use the machine, I had a problem.
How am I going to record from VCR to DVD---when the VCR is my DVD's viewing screen???
That situation just don't work.
So my first question is this. I saw a member here mention the other day to someone on this board, "turn your machine on, set your TV to either Channel 3 or Channel 4 and...." (WAIT !!!!! Stop right there.) You are telling a member here some invalid information.
So please, correct me if I am wrong----PLEASE !
Does this unit work on Channel 3 ? If so---how do I get it to do so ?
Okay, that is Problem/Question #1. Now for Problem/Question #2.
I like to edit a show's content down to only the specific scenes that I want. On the Hard Drive, using the "Edit-Shorten" feature, this unit is great at cutting it down to the exact starting point and ending point you want edited out. And when you play the scene back in the hard drive you can see and hear the exact words around that "splice" in the middle of the title.
However, when you record/dub that title on the DVD, the words fade out in the spliced area and fade back in after the splice.
So it makes sentences sound like this:
"Hi, my name is John and I work at the Wash......" (-audio of the sentence fades out to no sound as you see the person's mouth continuing the sentence "..ington DC Pentagon.") ~SPLICE~ ".....Teri and I work at McDonalds." is the audio heard---when you can see Teri's mouth moving saying: "Hi, my name is Teri and I work at McDonals."
However, when this spliced segment is played on the hard drive, you can hear the missing words. But when recording to DVD---the audio fades out and back in when splices occur.
The puzzling thing is if the audio does not fade out when playing the spliced segment on the hard drive----then why is the exact same segment fading out when recording to DVD ??
That is not a major problem when splicing out commercials. Usually there is a pause of silence there anyway.
But the thing is the audio is heard on the hard drive. Why does the audio fade on spliced scenes when recorded onto DVD?
Is there a choice in a menu feature somewhere that I am missing where I have the option chosen to let the audio in spliced titles fade out then in during the middle of spliced scenes?
So the question is: Why is the audio heard on the hard drive during a splice---but when recorded/dubbed onto DVD the audio is not heard during the last second before the splice and the first second after the splice ?
Well after tinkering around I found how to fix Problem #2.
You have to Click the "Setup" button, go down to "Video" and where it says "Seamless Play", click it to "Off".
That takes away smoothe transactions between Chapters causing the ends of your Chapters to freeze for a second (as it did when played in the hard drive)---BUT you do not lose any Audio during the process.
When this feature is "On", you lose audio in between the Chapters in order for the Smoothe transaction to take effect.
Evidently this is true not only in between Chapters---but titles you have "Shorten"ed as well--even if the splice occurred in the middle(s) of the titles.
Normally, if commercials only were edited out, I would rather have the setting to "On" for smoothe Chapter/Splice transactions.
But in the case where I edited an episode of a specific show down to the wire, vocal lines were fading out in their middle of sentences with the next scene beginning where the beginning of the next sentence could not be heard.
So the downside is---you have to put up with the Freeze Frame during every splice but in the predicament I was in with this particular show I had already edited down (not knowing this would occur) I'll live with the freeze frames. In this case, I would rather have the freeze frames during splices than half the audio.
So using the DMR-E85H as a way to edit down episode contents is not recommended. I don't think this will matter much in between commercials though. The vocal fade only lasts a second or so going out of the splice/chapter & a second or so going back in to the next---& with commercials, there is always audio pauses anyway.
Evidently, the Hard Drive does not play in "Seamless Play" (in other words, it's automatically turned off).
Now I still need Question #1 resolved on how to get this model to play on Channel 3.
Which I do not think can be resolved.
xvxvxvx
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Does this unit work on Channel 3 ?
Yes it does. I'll check when I get home and post how tomorrow. From memory the guide must be either be disabled or the input be coming from a direct RF cable input but I will confirm this evening.
Your last sentence makes no sense. What "guide" must be disabled? The TV Guide? I disabled that stupid function as soon as I got the machine. And "the input be coming from a direct RF cable input"---what has that got to do with receiving the ouput on Channel 3?
xvxvxvx
Unregistered guest
Posted on
You seem to know all you wish to know so good luck to you while I have mine tuned to channel three.
No, you found out that it doesn't actually tune into Channel 3 like you thought so it's best to pretend it so.
It does not tune in to Channel 3.
xvxvxvx
Unregistered guest
Posted on
It does indeed tune to channel 3 but your rudeness prevents you from learning the answer you seek. Plus your stubborn streak will not allow you to admit you were incapable of discovering the answer on your own.
Perhaps you might want to copy and paste which sentence was "rude". There were no "rude" statements made. You just do not like reading what is written. There is a difference.
The tech on the phone at Panasonic confirmed that the machine only works on Line Input Channels & does not work on Channel 3.
A week later---machine still does not work on Channel 3.
Sorry, xvxvxvx it's Line Input only.
Clarks
Unregistered guest
Posted on
RT have you not heard of an RF modulator? This should work.
kwan
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Hi, you guys seem to know your stuff on this model, I'm looking at buying a new DVD / HDD recorder, but need need one that can copy DVD's, can this Panasonic model write a DVD to the HDD and then write back from the HDD to a blank DVD ?
HI i need some help i just got the dmr-e85h i had trouble hooking it to my hd directv recever called panasonic they said it won't work with hd is this ture can someone help me please my wife is giving me hell for buying it.
xvxvxvx
Unregistered guest
Posted on
They are correct, currently no DVD recorders will record a hi-def signal. You can however record the SD (480i) equivalent using an S-video connection.