Help with Panasonic DMR-HW120 Problem Please

dandino

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Model: DMR-HW120 HDD Recorder.

Just purchased the above from Amazon UK today and now have what appears to be a major problem. Set up the recorder with my Panasonic TX-P55VT30B TV connected to HDMI 1 of the tv and all went well. It auto tuned and found/stored all Freeview channels. I then watched a few of the channels through the unit without any problems.

I then used the EPG to record a program just for a test. A short while after the program finished recording the Recorder went into standby. I then turned the recorder back on from the remote control and instantly noticed that the screen was flickering very badly plus it was snowy and the audio wasy cutting in and out.

My first thought was a bad connection so checked every one of them and still no better. I then swapped the HDMI cable for one that I knew was definately working ok, but still no improvement! I have also tried retuning the channels but still no luck. Even when I bring up one of the DMR's menus the TV screen still flickers so I know it's not an incorrectly tuned channel!

I am nown seriously beginning to suspect a faulty unit.

Would very much appreciate any feedback you may have to offer on this perplexing problem!? :lease:

Many thanks in advance
 
Welcome to the forum.


Try a power disconnection for a minute or two, then reconnect.


If that does not immediately correct the problem, return the unit to the vendor for a replacement
 
It might just be worth also trying another HDMI port on the TV and also another HDMI-enabled device to rule-out a fault with the panel, using the same HDMI port.

Panasonic recommend that their devices be connected to the HDMI2 port for full Viera control (as I recall) -- perhaps that's the issue here. Does the problem go away if Viera Link is disabled in the PVR and/or TV?

Is it possible to try the unit on another HDMI-enabled TV perhaps, just to see what happens?

It's not uncommon to see HDMI issues during handshaking -- on kit that I own I've seen pink screen, green screen, blank screen and snow (like the old days of analogue TV when the signal goes or you select an untuned channel) in the past. Usually these correct themselves by putting the device into standby and waking it up again, but on one box that I own (a TVonics PVR) I have had to power-cycle the unit to clear the issue on more than one occasion.

It could well be a duff unit -- kit typically fails within the first 30 days of use in my experience -- but a little more troubleshooting is I think required to get to the bottom of the issue before you consider sending the unit back -- it may not be that device that's faulty.

HTH


Clem
 
Thanks Gavtech & Clem, I really do appreciate your time.

I have tried conecting to HDMI 2, 3 & 4 (with Viera Link turned on & off) which according to my TV manual all support VIERA Link!? However 3 & 4 still give me exactly the same problem as when I connect to HDMI 1.

HDMI 2 was almost working but acting very strange :confused:
If I awoke the recorder from standby it must have sent it's correct signal because it displayed just fine. However if I then switched back from HDMI 2 to TV and then back to HDMI 2 the picture display was all over the place - flashing on and off, audio cutting in and out, no real picture almost as if it was only half tuned in to a station. But again I know it was tuned in because this happens even when I go into setup and try to display the menus :(

Again if I leave it on HDMI 2 output and put the recorder into standby and then re-awaken it, then it starts to output correctly because the picture then displays perfectly. Surely this can't be normal - I must be able to switch between TV output and HDMI output without loosing the picture?? :confused:

What's even more puzzling is that I have a Panasonic recorder and TV for god's sake, it should be a sinch to set up because they should be soooo compatible??!!

I'm now even more baffled :lease: :lease: before I pull all my remaining hair out :eek:
 
Hello again and thanks for your suggestions earlier.

After following your advice and trying a little more trouble shooting I am still unable to solve this problem so have decided to return it to Amazon and purchase another from John Lewis where at least if I get a problem I can return it and speak to someone.

Thanks again guys
 
That sounds like a plan. However, in the interim I strongly suggest getting hold of another piece of HDMI-enabled kit (not Panasonic) and at least one new HDMI lead and check-out the HDMI connectivity on your panel.

The fact that the box did work as expected (if only for a while) makes me a little suspicious that it could be the HDMI interface management on the panel itself. By checking with a non-Panasonic piece of kit if you see the same sort of problems that to me, would suggest a panel fault, rather than external unit.

Does the TV have the latest firmware installed? Vendors do fix all sorts of things and if you're not running the latest firmware that might be relevant. It is also worth connecting the Panasonic PVR to another panel if you can, Panasonic or otherwise, to see what happens.

Based on those tests it would be reasonable to assume the following.

1) Non-Panasonic kit connected to panel (use all HDMI ports in sequence): working, suspect Panasonic PVR and/or cabling; not working, suspect TV.

2) Panasonic PVR connected to another TV: working, suspect Panasonic TV as being faulty; not working, suspect Panasonic PVR as being duff.

One thing to check: what sort of HDMI cables are you using, and how are they physically routed? Poorly manufactured cables can introduce all sorts of issues -- look elsewhere in this forum alone for similar reported problems. Keep all HDMI cables away from mains leads, aerial cables and so forth.

A last thought: what happens if you connect the PVR to HDMI2, but disconnect the aerial cable running from the PVR into the TV? Do things now work as expected (albeit with the temporary loss of TV picture from the on-board tuner)? It may be that if the aerial cable is of poor quality, it could be introducing something 'leaking' from the PVR. I bumped into something similar to that many years ago with a Mitsubishi VCR. If things now work, replace that flylead with a good quality double-screened version and re-test. If you still see problems at this point a swap-out of the PVR would be the next step. I would suggest though that if you see the same problems with a second sample of the PVR then you probably have a fault on your TV.

Good luck.


Clem
 
Thanks again Clem, have already parceled and sent the recorder back but have just done what you recommended to check my tv.

Tried connecting my PS3 and my old Medi8or Streamer to all of the HDMI inputs one at a time and all worked perfectly fine - HDMI 4 didn't seem to work but a little poking around with the hdmi cable at the back of the PS3 (must have just been a little loose in the socket) and that then worked also!

So it does appear it is the PVR - would you agree?

Talking of the HDMI Leads I think the ones i'm using are actually quite cheap really, I have 3 Bush 1.5m leads with 90 degree swivel heads (need the swivel to fit tidily into the tv panel). I have in the past used more expensive leads but was speaking with a computer repair technician before I bought my latest leads and he said don't go out and spend a fortune on hi-tech HDMI leads because a lot of it is just sales hype. He reckoned that he learned through job experience, had started using much cheaper leads himself, and had never had any problems and that the cheaper leads did exactly the same as leads often 2 or 3 times more expensive! Now I am confused. Do you think I really should look at a better quality HDMI lead? How can we the public, really be sure that we are not been talked into these so called hi tech leads and just wasting money?

Again would appreciate your thoughts on this...

Best Regards
 
Do you think I really should look at a better quality HDMI lead?

Definitely not. ... apart from which, what is better quality? It can scarcely be defined.

The technical requirements for HDMI leads are carefully defined and a £1 pound lead should fit these requirements equally to a lead costing £250.

All of those who have done as much testing of HDMI leads as is feasible have never found any meaningful or detectable performance difference in leads no matter what their origin or cost.

Also there is one fairly famous problem which commonly has to be troubleshooted on these pages, that of radiative leakage from these leads, which causes UHF interference and thus gives reception problems.
Investigation of those problems has shown there are no correlations in performance of expensive or cheap leads.

Expensive 'shielded' leads are no worse, but importantly, no better in exhibiting these problems... and our usual recommendation is to replace the lead with the cheapest that can be found.
More often than not, that provides a complete remedy.

So in cases of HDMI problems, just a different lead is more important than a more expensive lead.
 
Gavtech is spot-on here -- there's no point spending silly money on HDMI cables. In the days of analogue, I believe that there was certainly a case for spending money on quality cables -- they could make a difference. For digital, that's no longer really the case, but what you do need is a well-made cable. I've standardised on Amazon Basics 2m HDMI cables -- I've had one duff one, which gave odds results -- my TV would detect that a device was connected, but I couldn't get any video or audio playback. Take advice from other forum members here in that regard. I'm not a fan of those HDMI cables with swivel ends though -- that just seems to be a recipe for problems to my mind.

As for the PVR, well, if every other piece of kit that you connect to your TV works as expected, then it does sound like the PVR to me. A second sample will hopefully be OK. I have a 120 PVR, and although it's a good unit overall it's clear that Panasonic are now building to a price, as it were. I don't think that the Chinese-made remote that came with the PVR is as good as other Panasonic remotes that I have -- it feels plasticky and the buttons wobble a fair bit. The front of the unit is pretty plasticky too. My point here is that the problems that you've seen are not something that perhaps would have been the case with Panasonic kit made a few years ago. That all said, do try a second 120 (try John Lewis this time) and report back. Thus far, I'm happy with my 120 overall. It is sometimes too easy to nit-pick, but as a repeat Panasonic customer I do think that overall quality is not as good as it once was. Others of course may well disagree with me .....


Clem
 
Well, just got my new PVR DMR-HW220 (I liked the idea of the built in WiFi) from John Lewis and am really shocked as this unit is giving me exactly the same problem as the the previous 120 did!!

This so disheartening!

As long as I have my tv set to HDMI 1 (thats the inport I chose) and start the PVR then everything appears to be fine. But as I said earlier if I then use my tv remote controle to switch back to TV and then go to back to HDMI 1 the picture is kind of paper thin, transparent and flashing on and off, and there's no sound at all !! Then if I power the PVR down into standby and then back on again everything is ok again!?

I think I have tried just about every setting there is on my TV and the PVR and nothing seems tomake any difference. Maybe I will have to get onto Panasaonic Tech Support. With all the DVD players and recorders I've had in the past I have never had a problem like this - I am completely baffled now! :confused:

Its not as if I have a cheap TV it cost me two and a half grand and up until now (bought it about 14 months) I'e not had a single problem.

Who knows maybe I'll just have to power down and power on the PVR if I switch to TV and back. I suppose for all prctical purposes I don't need to switch to TV and back for any real reason, it just doesn't feel right that if and when I do I loose the picture?! Have tried the same thing with my PS3 and I dont loose any picture or sound when I switch between TV and HDMI inputs.

Again any thoughts would be greatly appreciated guys :rolleyes:

best regards
 
Yes , I think you should contact Panasonic Customer Services and explain the circumstances and , importantly that two machines have displayed identical problems ... which suggests an issue with the TV hardware or software.

However, before you do....HDMI is a weird interface with peculiar properties ... and it is capable of remembering and holding onto problematic states.You need it to 'forget' its connections.

I suggest trying to reset the HDMI interface of your TV by carefully following this sequence:

Switch it off... disconnect all HDMI leads ... Disconnect it from all power and leave it for an hour or two.

Upon reconnection to the mains, switch it on and let it run for a minute or two.
Now switch off and reconnect HDMI lead(s)

Switch on the TV again - ONLY.
Let it run for a minute, then switch on the connected equipment ... (one at a time if more than one)

The interface should reinitialise, hopefully in a clean way.


If the problem remains, contact points for Panasonic CS are here.
 
I do not have experience of an HW120 or 220 but following on from a point made by Clem, I have a Tvonics that sometimes gives a green screen on my Technika TV. In that case I switch my Tvonics HDMI Output from "Auto" to a fixed setting, eg 576i, which forces the Tvonics to "re-negotiate" the HDMI interface with my TV. It re-instates the picture and I then switch back to "Auto".

You could try fixing your interface to a specific definition, if possible, to see what happens.

Martin
 
Thanks very much Gavtech I understand what you are saying. I'm off out tonight as I'm sure most of us are, so will power down everything and disconnect from mains and try again tomorrow.

I can't thank you guys enough I would be lost without you. It's great that we have this thing called the net and guys like you who give advice and your time. I only hope I will be able to help someone like you have helped me.

I will keep you posted

All the best for the new year

dan
 
Thanks martin, I will give that a try sounds quite a logical thing to do.

Do you get the green screen after switching to TV and then Back to HDMI again...?
 
Not exactly.

The Tvonics incorporates an HDMI switch. I get the green screen occasionally when I switch back to the Tvonics from one of the other "throughputs", in my case either a Panasonic DVD Recorder or a HUMAX HD FOX-T2 with an external Hard Disk. My Technika TV has only 1 HDMI socket. I very very rarely use the TV tuner.

Martin
 
Update

Can't quite beleive this guys, I think I have cracked it!
Was playing around with the settings in the PVR and noticed an output "Deep Colour" setting was set to Automatic which was the recommended setting. However I thought I would try setting this to "OFF" just to see if it would make any difference.

Well as soon as I set it and clicked ok I knew something was happening because immediately it exited menu mode displayed the TV picture for second and then went back to the menu. I then tested it by switching from HDMI 1 to TV and then back to HDMI 1 and Halleluiah! still had a perfect picture!

So it looks like I have resolved the problem but I think I will still contact Panasonic because (1) I would like to know why such a hi spec TV doesn't appear to support "Deep Colour", whatever that may be, and (2) it stated in the PVR that if you were unsure as to whether your tv supports deep colour then set the PVR Deep Colour Setting
to Automatic (default). I would have thought that even if my tv didn't support the so called "Deep Colour", then an Automatic signal from the PVR would have initiated the tv to check for the support and if not supported just go on displaying its usual format.

Anyway I always thought 24p was a kind of deep colour mode and I know my TV definately supports that. But then again this Deep Colour mode can't be 24p or it would explicitly state 24p!

Anyway just though I would let you guys know

Regards
 
Ah, the power of experimentation. Well done!

Glad everything turned out ok.

Martin
 
Update

Can't quite beleive this guys, I think I have cracked it!

Good news.

Deep colour is high resolution colour that requires a High Speed HDMI cable to the 1.4 specification.

Your cables are most likely 1.3 specification so this may have been the cause of the odd behaviour.

I'm surprised we've not had this problem reported before now.

But alls well... :smashin:
 
Interesting, and one for the mental archive!

The 120 and 220 players are in some respects a little odd, because (to my mind) for PVRs they also seem to carry a lot of options in their configuration that would I believe only normally be found on blu-ray players. This makes sense because the units are available as the 420/520 but with a built-in blu-ray transport. The odd thing here, or perhaps lazy, is that it looks like to me (when I compare my 120 with my Panasonic Freesat PVR that has a built-in blu-ray transport) that Panasonic have simply removed the drive from the 120/220 but left the blu-ray player configuration options enabled. As I posted elsewhere, my Sony TV behaves as if my 120 is a blu-ray player, reporting picture mode and scene changes and so forth, something that I wouldn't have expected from a 'plain' PVR. Another example of cost cutting by Panasonic, perhaps.

If you do contact Panasonic Support, do it by 'phone. They (in my experience) just ignore emails sent to them, and don't expect too much by way of a sensible response -- you'll have to work at it a bit, I think -- I did. I do think that it's also worth checking that your TV has the latest firmware installed, because if not, that might be part of the solution.

Let us know how you get on Dan.


Clem
 
Hello again guys,

After resolving my former problem of flashing display I now have another problem with VIERA Link! I have turned VIERA Link to "ON" in both my TV and my PVR but VIERA Link simply will not work.

When I press the VIERA Link button on my TVs remote control I keep getting the message "Feature Not Available" :confused: This is very strange because both my tv and pvr support VIERA Link? I have double checked the HDMI connection to my TV and PVR and have now also tried 3 different HDMI Leads.

I have as yet only tried the set up through HDMI 1 on my tv but according to my tv manual all 4 HDMI sockets support VIERA Link so it should in theory work in any. The manual also states (in fact both manuals) that whenever the PVR is played or the Direct Navigator/Function Menus are accessed then the TV (if in standby mode) will automatically power on and select whichever HDMI the PVR is connected through. Well guess what - this doesn't work also :eek:

I know it's not essential that I get VIERA Link working to actually use my PVR but it really is very annoying and frustraiting that they don't work because I know they should and after all I paid a lot of money for my kit!!

Again any help will be greatly appreciated

Best regards
Dan
 
Problems of this nature are nearly always due to the HDMI interface being in a confused / corrupted state which is not too surprising given all the switching and changing that has been necessary for you to go through recently.

HDMI does not like being messed about. It is principally a security interface and it starts limiting functions at the slightest hint of anything untoward.

Both devices (TV and PVR) should be reset,much as I outlined in post number 11.
 
OK, thanks gavtech. I am just about to atempt to reset both my TV and PVR as you outlined earlier.

Keeping my fingers crossed and really hope this works because if it doesn't I'll start the think that maybe Panasonic have been very lazy indeed and not bothered to remove "This device supports VIERA LINK" from the PVR manual.

Funny thing is my father has a pansonic tv and Pansaonic DVD recorder (not sure what model but quite a bit older than my PVR) and he got the VIERA LINK working immediately after connecting them up with no trouble at all!?

I have probably paid 4 times the amount my father paid for his TV and Recorder and yet mine fails to function correctly! I understand in what you are saying Gavtech, about HDMI being very volatile, but surely it shouldn't be that way because that only implies we are paying for a product that has never really been perfected!?

Anyway will let you know how I get on

many thanks
 
I have probably paid 4 times the amount my father paid for his TV and Recorder and yet mine fails to function correctly! I understand in what you are saying Gavtech, about HDMI being very volatile, but surely it shouldn't be that way because that only implies we are paying for a product that has never really been perfected!?

It is the HDMI interface that is such a backward step... not really the product itself.
This problem applies to every piece of equipment that uses it.


Note this point from the manual too:

If the connection for the equipment connected with HDMI was changed, or if there was a power failure or the plug was removed from the household mains socket, “HDAVI Control” may not work.
In this case, change TV (VIERA) setting for “HDAVI Control” again.
 
Hi Guys,

Just to let you know that I followed your instructions exactly Gavtech, and still no luck! I now beleive the VIERA LINK feature will just not work and is probably not ment to work when using this paticular TV Model and PVR togeather. It appears for whatever reason that VIERA LINK works with a Panasonic TV and DVD/BlueRay Recorder but not with a PVR/DIGA HD Recorder :devil:

Unless someone has a very obvious answer I am not even going to try anymore Ive just spent too long on this problem and I don't want it to take over and spoil my viewing pleasure - I guess some problems are just not solvable and best left alone...:rolleyes:

Thanks again guys
 
Well, I know that the Viera Link facility works on the 120 -- I have it enabled, and I can use my Sony TV's remote to control the Panasonic box -- that only works if the option is enabled in the PVR, but I did also have to 'sync' the unit with my TV first. Is there a procedure like that for the Panasonic TV that you have?

On older Panasonic kit I think only the HDMI2 port is your friend. Plugging and unplugging kit when you were testing, as Gavtech mentions, may have caused the feature to be disabled, as would probably any removal of mains a/c.

Personally, I's first check that you have the latest firmware in the TV panel, and if you haven't, update that first, then try again. If you have, and you've followed both the TV and PVR manuals to the letter in trying to make this work I'd give Panasonic a call.


Clem
 
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