Panasonic DMR-EH60DEB: Occasional Faulty Recordings

[robert.hunter]

I am finding that the occasional recording is faulty. By occasional I mean about 1 in 15 or so. By faulty I mean that the picture is fine then freezes for a few seconds, sometimes the screen just goes black, there are loud "clicks" on audio - as if the hard disc is jumping. The result is unwatchable. The signal stength is more than adequate.

Before sending it back to the retailer, I would appreciate any thoughts as to the cause.

[T0rNaDo]

corrupt area on the hdd ?

or bad sectors...

maybe ........

dunno how to check that...

from the player but easy to check on a pc...

[AVmaster]

Yeah, sounds like an odd one.
If there's nothing important on the HDD, maybe it's worth formatting it?

[sjw]

There have been a few people complaining about that here and the consensus seems to be it is either Freeview receprion or interference from taxis etc..

[maldonian]

Your description sounds just like the effects of interference on Freeview reception.

- Is it only happening when you record from Freeview?

- If you have only recorded from Freeview so far, try recording from the analogue channels to see if you get the same problem. I suspect you won't. Since you have only seen the problem in one recording in 15 you might have to make quite a few recordings of analogue TV before you can be sure one way or the other.

- How good is your aerial and downlead? If you're not close to the transmitter, you should use a good quality external aerial and double screened (braid + foil) low loss cable. The aerial you previously used for analogue reception may not be ideal for Freeview in your area - you may need a different group or a wideband aerial.

[Gavtech]

It is conceivably possible that the effects you descibe could be caused by buffering problems. The data rate required to read full screen video of a disk is quite extreme. Maybe part of your HDD is severely fragmented which may account for the ~ 1 in 15 recordings effect.

Are these recordings always at a similar quality level... such as SP? .... so that like is being compared with like.

[laser]

The problem you describe is due to radio radio interference. See the this thread:
Freeview recordings stuttering when lights turned on

The problem can be fixed using a line-conditioning device which can be found in some expansion blocks.

I get exactly the same symptoms you are quoting when viewing Freeview on my TV screen, though it has never happened to anything I have recorded on to the HDD.

Sometimes I can pickup for example the UK History channel, and the next time I try to view it, it's not available.

I think my TV aerial news renewing. The cable is 30 years or more and is split in umpteen different places. In fact at times rain water comes into the aerial socket from outside.

[laser]

Replacing the arial with a high gain antenna, specifically for Freeview may help in boosting the signal so you receive a picture with more data which is possibly less prone to freeze.

It may also be worth considering the purchase of a line conditioning power block. Buy one from a shop which will accept it back if it doesn't work but explain why you are buying it. I've found B&Q quite helpful.

[kingdick]

Hi,

I had a very similar problem instead of being 1 out of 15 recordings, it was every recording. But it would also happen during normal viewing as well.
I thought it was Reception/Aerial/cable problems, then low and behold I was sat down watching freeview during the day and no flickering of the picture or loud clicks in the audio, nighttime came and all the problems were back.
To cut a long story short this has only happened in the last two weeks, have previously had the recorder working fine since early September.
So I came to the conclusion it could only be one of two things, I brought a standard lamp two weeks ago could this be interferring when turned on at night, turned it off problem still occuring. The other thing was the seasonal ritual of the christmas decorations "fairy lights" turned the "fairy lights" off and HEY PRESTO no interference at all, problem solved.
Conclusion if reception was fine before hand and nothing has knocked the aeriel, try down the electrical interfernce route ???????

[robert.hunter]

Despite what I said in the initial posting, I now believe that the problem is associated with the Freeview signal being poor on occasion. My Freeview television (Toshiba 36ZT29) rarely has this problem, the Panasonic recorder seems to have a tuner that performs less well than that in the television.

Thanks to all for their thoughts.