20 Most Recent Panasonic DMR-E85H DVD Recorder - Page 7 Questions & Answers

Are you on the correct av channel,if on av2 make sure it does not say av2s,if it does keep pressing av button on tv r/c until you get colour

Try unplugging the DMR-E85 power cord. It is important that you unplug it from the back of the recorder, not the wall. Leave it unplugged for 10 or 15 minutes. For good measure disconnect the cable 'in' connection as well. Once both lines are plugged back in it will go through its self-check diagnostics. Leave it alone for awhile (give it time to consider the error of it's ways). If you are lucky, when you turn it back on it will ask you to verify the channel lineup. If this does work, and all the channel info is correct, press 'enter' (lineup 1 highlighted). Good luck! This is an awesome machine, WHEN IT WORKS!

I have two Panasonic DMR-EH50s and one DMR-E85H. I also have a Sony DHG-HDD250 which also uses TVGOS, but it is a HD recorder (that means full DIGITAL capabilities, including the TVGOS ) My TVGOS went out in the middle of April. I messed around on the support sites for about two weeks and found little real info.

The bottom line: I live in Madison, WI & have Charter Cable. None of my DVRs were receiving the TVGOS. Charter was not processing and/or transmitting the TVGOS properly (doesn't really matter the DVRs couldn't receive them), so I called them up, got to their "Level 3 Technical Support" and explained to them that I could not receive the TVGOS digitally or analog (converted digital) on any of my DVRs. They called me back a week later and told me to try it again....

So, all you need to do (if your local Cable Company is sending it properly):

WARNING - All SCHEDULED programs that you have previously scheduled by using the TVGOS will be deleted (NOTE: not the programs that are already recorded on your hard drive, they will NOT be deleted)

Turn the unit off.

Press the up channel & down channel (on the box, not on your remote control) at the same time & hold them for at least 10 seconds. This will reset the entire TVGOS system back to the default settings that were present when you first plugged in your DVR. This erases all previous info that your DVR had about what station it used to get the signal from and forces it to scan all the channels looking for the new channel. This is the only way to force this to occur.

When you turn on the unit, it will run you through the setup like it did when you plugged it in for the first time. Enter your zip code, etc. and when you are done, turn it off & leave it off overnight.

If your TVGOS has the Station Grid but no listings, be patient, TVGO updates its own firmware on your DVR automatically, and that may be all that happens the first night. It should start updating the listings the following night.

If it found the station grid, this is a great sign!!!! This means that your cable company is working on it!!!! It took my local Cable Company about 7 or 8 days to get it working properly, but now my 3 Panasonics and my HD Sony are all receiving full listings!!!!

If you are still getting nothing, complain to your LOCAL Cable Company. It is up to them to ensure that the signal is converted to analog & sent out over cable.

You need to update the firmware. You can find it on the internet.

If take apart the machine and look at the power board you will find two capaciters that are bulging. These have gone bad. Replace them by heating up the solder and then remove them. Take them to a store like Radio Shack. You can call first...
When your replace them with new ones make sure you have the positive and negative in the right direction (+/-). Take note before you remove the old ones.

Also, you can download new firmware for your machine.

I had same problem - No Power/No Display. I replaced two bad capacitors on the power supply card. See http://vassfamily.net/projects/DMRE85H/dmre85h.html The capacitors I replaced were C1260 and C1261 slightly different from the one on "vassfamily.net". Everything works now for me...

If replacing the capacitors doesn't work, try replacing PSU Regulator - STRG6353.

Good luck.

Also for those interested, I found the "commands" listed on http://www.dxcc.com/dmr-e85h.htm useful when operating the DMR-e85h to correct problems.

The error message you are recving are due to hard drive failure.
I most cases found, all the drives have over 50 % drive space used.
Bellow you will find some steps to resolve these problems.
Note.... Please understand the risk of this service.
Not to be attempted with electronic experience.


If the U99 error ever causes your hard drive to jam, here is what you do to avoid having to take it to any repair shop.

1. Replace the hard drive (which is what I did by getting one off another machine) & it will debug the machine of the U99 error asking you to reformat the new hard drive. Now your machine will work without the u99 error. Only now you probably want your old drive containing all of your TV shows, movies, etc back in the unit.

2. Turn the unit off, unplug the unit's Power Plug and take out the new hard drive and put the old hard drive back in but do it where you can easily unplug the white Power Wire to the hard drive a few steps later (-not the hard drive's wide black wire). If you are angling the hard drive in order to later unplug the white wire, make sure to protect the hard drive from shorting out by using cloth, etc underneath from it touching any metal.

3. Leaving the machine's cover off, plug in & turn the unit back on. Machine will begin to boot & a message will pop up asking you to "Format" . Of course if you have nothing on it of value go ahead and choose "Yes" -BUT- To save your data continue these steps.

4. With the option still on the screen, pull off the white POWER lead wire from the Hard Drive, but do not touch the wide black IDE cable---only the the white POWER wire, also make sure to pull it off evenly.

5. Now with the remote go ahead and hit "ENTER". The unit will try to format only it will get stuck since the machine can not talk to the poweless Hard Drive.

6. After about 5 seconds unplug the DVD Recorder from the AC Plug (wall plug or from in the back of the unit).

7. Plug In the Hard Drive white Power cable.

8. Install the Hard drive properly then put the lid cover back on the DVD Recorder and plug the unit in and turn the Power on.

9. The unit should do a quick scan of the drive restoring all your recorded shows back into it's list.
effectively bypassing the format routine.

(Note in Step #3, there may be a problem with the unit's cover off. On the side of the unit, there is a little hitch that sticks out when the cover is off, which may let your machine know the cover is off & refuse to work. If this is true, stick something to push that little hitch inward so the machine will think the cover is on.)

I just repaired this unit with the replacement filtering capacitors. This is a widely known problem. Hope this helps.

There is an article that addresses this very error and it has to do with the power supply filtering capacitors. I just repaired a unit and the fellow that brought into me said this a widely known problem. I replaced three of the capacitors ... two had leaked and the last one was bulging. Works fine now.

http://vassfamily.net/projects/DMRE85H/dmre85h.html

If you have questions or would like your unit repaired send me a note.
[email protected]

This really is not a problem. I was just trying to post it to the thread that had the same problem.

Your radio is made by CLARION and the only CLARION code available for free (using a serial number ) from anywhere on the Internet is if your radio also has a BARCODE SERIAL NUMBER beginning with C7000000 + + + + on a label somewhere on the metal casing.
(There are usually two barcodes on one label. The one required is the lower one )

If you have this barcode serial number then

POST ANOTHER QUESTION              with these details

If not then it will only be available from your Main Dealer or a Decoding Service or your local Car Radio / Audio Store who will connect a laptop to read/recode the memory chip (EEPROM) 

I assume you are using a seperate vcr,you need to connect a scart lead into av1 on the vcr,then the other end into av2 on the dvd,you then select av2 as your recording channel on the dvd,to finalize if you go into the disc menu it will tell you what to do.

There might be a TV Guide issue located in your area, since the transition to digital, TV Guide have been updating there broadcast frequency which is know been done by CBS. Have unit reset by holding down channel up and down button for 15 second on the unit itself until 12 flashes on display, then power on unit and setup TV Guide, then have unit off for 24 hours especially between 11pm to 6am for listing. If issue still exist contact Panasonic to have issue send to TV Guide.

You should be able to connect using a scart lead from the dvd to the tv

Send unit to Panasonic for repair....

Lens dirty, have lens clean with DVD lens cleaner.....

To setup your IR Blaster (transmitter), hold down the channel up and down button at the same time on you the unit for more than 5 second until the unit says bye and 12:00 flashes, then power on unit and the setup screen will come on your TV.

need replaced DIGITAL board or DVD RAM DRIVE
Manufacturer Panasonic Part Number VXY1814 Description DRIVE

Manufacturer Panasonic Part Number REP3774G Description DIGITAL BOARD

Open case and look for failed capacitors, which are cylindrical and will have a bulging top and a yellow/gold substance leaking out. If this is the problem, search for previous solutions that mention "solder capacitor C1260" for the DMR-E85. I had a similar 'no power' problem with my DMR-E55 and my son and I were able to fix it Sunday. Not hard to do and mine is working again!

Your problem may be Panasonic's common capacitor failures. Open case and look for capacitors with bowed out top and yellow substance. Replace both with higher rated capacitors from Radio Shack. Will need some soldering skills. Look on this site for "solder c1260 c1261"