No picture on RGB timed recordings on DMR-E30?

baccattack

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I hope there's someone out there who can help with this problem.

I took delivery of my Panasonic DMR-E30 yesterday and spent most of the afternoon setting it up and rejigging my existing kit. Anyway when it finally came to testing out it's capabilities I hit a problem. If I make a timmer recording from my ex ITV Digital Philips set top box, model DTX6370, setting the timmer on the box and putting the recorder in Ext Link mode ready to start recording when the set top box switches itself on I don't get any picture if recording in RGB. The sound is fine. If I already have the set top box on and I press Ext Link on the recorder it will start recording the current channel I'm on fine, in RGB. I also tested with setting my set top box to output composite from AV1 and on the recorder to accept composite on AV2, doing this gave no problems with timer recordings, picture and sound both present and correct. It seems my problem is confined to RGB timer recordings. When the recorder is in standby it passes through the RGB signal from my set top box fine.

My equipment is set up as follows. Philips set top box set to output RGB from AV1. AV1 from Philips going via scart to AV2 on Panasonic recorder. AV2 on recorder set to accept RGB and set up as Ext Link 2. AV1 on recorder set to output RGB via scart to TV's AV1 socket. TV is a Panasonic Tau TX 32PK2. All the scart leads are of the fully wired variety. I have also tried setting the AV2 on the recorder to Ext Link 1 but doing this meant it didn't switch itself on and start recording when my set top box came on.

I would be grateful if anyone could provide any suggestions. There must be others out there making timed RGB recordings from a DTT set top box. My parents have a Pioneer DTT box in the lounge which I got them so I'll try it with that tonight in place of my Philips, I also have a Pace FTA adaptor which is currently boxed up which I could try, if they have had the software download yet to provide timer recording facilities.

stephen
 
I have the E20, but reading other posts and from my experience with the E20 I'm smelling a rat here.

Although the E30 is supposedly RGB in capable for AV2, there have been reports of it not working. One magazine review even claimed that it did not have RGB in. However all the published specs say it does.

Stephen - you say it records fine in RGB when you select Ext Link. However on the E20 when Ext Link (1 or 2) is selected for AV2 the option of which input mode to choose is greyed out - it defaults to composite. If you want s-video into AV2 (the E20 does not have RGB in of course) you have to select "normal" as the input. Are you sure that when you select Ext Link it is not defaulting to composite? If it is then there would seem to be a problem on this model with the RGB in for recording
 
Philip,

The ext link button I'm pressing when it does record ok, when the set top box is already on, is on the front facia of the recorder. I also have to press this button to ready the recorder to receive timer recordings from the set top box. I'm pretty sure it was recording in RGB but I can find some more suitable broadcast material to confirm this or plug in one of my games consoles to make sure. The setting for the AV2 socket which is set to AV Link 2 is in the recorders setup menu. The video input for this socket is still showing as RGB after making a recording as outlined above. I wonder if it's not my set top box at fault, perhaps it won't output an RGB signal from AV1 when it's doing a timmer record?
 
I have not had any problems with my e30 on rgb record. Can i suggest you try out the source by using a vhs recorder to see if its an issue with the settop box.
 
Update:

I've confirmed the recorder is recording in RGB when I start it recording when the set top box is already on. I recorded the set top boxes menu which looks horrible in composite but playing back the recording it was crystal clear. I then swaped my Philips box with my parents Pioneer and tried a timer recording but again no luck. It must be that the set top boxes aren't outputing an RGB signal from AV1 when set to timer record.

Despite this set back I may have found a solution to my problem and a use for my Pace FTA adapter that was boxed up doing nothing. The software download for the Pace to enable timer recording is due tomorrow. The Pace can also output an S-Video signal. What I could do therefore is split my ariel feed, one to the Pace one to the Pioneer/Philips and use the Pace as a dedicated digital tuner for recording. The Pace would feed S-Video into the recorder, I would then switch the recorder to output S-Video and plug it into my TV's AV2 socket which besides acepting S-Video is also the socket that provides Q-Link functions which would give me enhanced functionality between the recorder and TV. Obviously it would mean I would be playing back my pre-recorded DVD's in S-Video but I've never noticed to much difference between this and RGB. I would then feed the RGB output of my Philips/Pioneer, probably via a switch box to allow the hook up of my PS2 and Xbox, to the TV's AV1 RGB input socket. This way I could record one digital channel while watching another! Any thoughts on this solution?
 
Appologies for bumping up my own thread but I just thought I'd update people as to the latest :)

I abandend the s-video option I outlined above as it seems that the Pace's s-video output is no different to the composite :confused: (I now remember this being the case when I first set it up back in April). Not that the picture is terrible or anything in this mode but it can't compare to the RGB output. Besides which when I switched over to the s-video output on the E30, just looking at the players menus I was not particularly impressed.

Now the good news; thanks to Pace's latest software update being broadcast today for the DTVA, it is now capable of making timer recordings. Having tested these out I am now pleased to say that I can now finally make timmer recordings to my E30 in RGB and boy do they look good :D On Wedensday I recorded the England match in the players 2hr SP mode. The quality was very close to the original broadcast, I was able to watch the first 10-15 mins before I went out. A slight increase in digital blocking artifacts was evident but then demanding sport such as football is likely to through this up. Even the original DTT broadcast was not completely free of such artifacts. More recently since 'The Hits', emaps music channel coming to Freeview, has started testing I have been recording some videos for comparison purposes. At present the test transmission consists of a loop of videos of around 75 mins in duration. This makes it easy to record the same video several times. My video of choice for this has been Sarah Whatmores' 'When I lost you'. What can I say expect recording in the players XP and SP gives a picture, subjectively at any rate, identical to the broadcast original on my 32" Panasonic Tau. It makes me wonder how I ever put up with VHS for so long;) I haven't tested out the LP and EP modes yet as I can't see myself ever using these as my recordings tend to consist of short programmes which I watch once and then delete. All in all I'm very pleased with my purchase and would highly recommend it to anyone considering a DVD recorder. Once you've sampled you won't want to go back.

stephen
 

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