Panasonic DMR-EX75EB - Select Freeview channel to watch but goes to record mode

[roger17x]

Hi everyone,

I have the Panasonic DMR-EX75EB, works great and I am very pleased with the performance and picture quality, but for one little annoyance which I hope someone can help me with.

I select the Freeview TV guide on the remote control handset by pressing the green "Guide" button and see the list of channels and tv guide, I select the channel I want to watch and press the "Enter/OK" button to confirm, sometimes it goes straight to the tv channel for me to view and annoyingly sometimes it goes straight into the recording display mode, it won't let me watch the channel with this method of selection. So I press the "Return" button and abort this method and manually press the channel number on the number keypad to watch that particular channel. I have figured out that it only goes to the recording display when the current tv programme is highlighted in "Yellow" on the Freeview TV guide. Is their a way round this, ie; selecting the channel in the tv guide to watch the channel without it going into the recording display mode?

Is this normal?, or haven't I mastered the full workings of the tv guide yet? Any suggestions?

Also, one other little annoying thing that I don't think anyone can help me with. How do I stop my two young daughters recording "Eastenders", "Coronation Street", "Hollyoaks" and all that other soap rubbish onto the hard drive taking up valuable space !!! Just Joking on that one!!!

[alan sh]

If you click on a programme which is being shown NOW, then it switches. If you click on one which is going to start in the future, then it assumes you want to record it.

That's my guess anyway.

Alan

[roger17x]

Thanks Alan for your reply, but usually the channel I might want to watch may have the first programme highlighted in yellow even though I don't want to record it, does anyone know why it's already highlighted, I haven't selected it for recording?. All I'm doing is scrolling down the channel list and selecting a channel to watch and sometimes the first programme at that time may be highlighted. Seems strange because I'm not selecting the highlighted channel, the recorder is selecting it's self automatically.

Any more clues to what's happening or what I'm doing wrong ?

[Gavtech]

Originally Posted by roger17x

Thanks Alan for your reply, but usually the channel I might want to watch may have the first programme highlighted in yellow even though I don't want to record it, does anyone know why it's already highlighted, I haven't selected it for recording?. All I'm doing is scrolling down the channel list and selecting a channel to watch and sometimes the first programme at that time may be highlighted. Seems strange because I'm not selecting the highlighted channel, the recorder is selecting it's self automatically.

Any more clues to what's happening or what I'm doing wrong ?

Hi Roger

Yes - you are not approaching it from the right angle.

The EX75 is a recording machine not a 'watching' machine and this is reflected on the way the EPG is meant to be used.

The purpose of the EPG is to select programmes to record, not to watch.

The reason you get the bahaviour of being taken to the programme you have selected is because, for incidental reasons, a currently running programme cannot be programmed into the timer ... so the machine switches you live to that channel [ so you could manually record it if you so wished ].

If you wish to use the machine for watching freeview channels then use either the UP/Down channel selector on the remote... or input channel numbers directly using the number keypad.

Happy Watching!

[Nonny Mouse]

I would partially disagree with Gavtech. Despite having filled up the hard disk twice over since September, my '75 is actually used 90% of the time as a "front end" for my non-digital TV.

I always end up using the EPG as the means of changing channel. Partly it's ergonomics, the remote fits neatly in the hand with the thumb naturally hovering over the wheel area where you can access almost all functions. I also find it's far quicker zoom round the guide to see what's on than to actually channel hop.

Nevertheless, each to his or her own.


Roger,

The most important thing to notice is that for a program in the future, ie where you will be sent to the record settings, the box in the guide is highlighted in yellow. However for a current programme, that you will be sent straight to, the box is only outlined in yellow.

The EPG keeps a pointer of the time you are looking at so, for instance, if you scroll right to the first programme on BBC3 at 7pm then up to BBC2, the highlight will still be on 7pm even if there are earlier programmes off to the left. In fact personally I prefer the one page per channel display but the same thing applies.

You can scroll across to the first programme but one of the quickest ways of getting back to "now" is to use the red Fastext button to do a -24hr jump.

Hope this helps

Nonny Mouse


PS you other problem - Playback/Table Display/Sort by - Start Time/tick everything starting between 7:30 and 8pm/Delete!

[Gavtech]

Originally Posted by Nonny Mouse

I would partially disagree with Gavtech. Despite having filled up the hard disk twice over since September, my '75 is actually used 90% of the time as a "front end" for my non-digital TV.

I always end up using the EPG as the means of changing channel. Partly it's ergonomics, the remote fits neatly in the hand with the thumb naturally hovering over the wheel area where you can access almost all functions. I also find it's far quicker zoom round the guide to see what's on than to actually channel hop.

Nevertheless, each to his or her own.

Hi NM

Just to clear up any mis-impression I was giving, I was not suggesting the machine should NOT be used that way... I was really explaining the design concept so that the OP could get to grips with the apparently unexplained behaviour.

Once a user understands the functions ... then indeed, the machine is best used in the way most suited to user's needs and convenience... whatever they be.

G