Panasonic TX-P42G20B

Diverdav1980

Standard Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2010
Messages
17
Reaction score
0
Points
5
Hi Guys, first time poster and a bit of a nube but as this site helped me decide to go for the Pana TX-P42G20B i thought some kind folk might be able to answer a few questions.

Had the TV delivered on Saturday and i am amazed with it. First off, i bought it from Dixons Online priced at £836, but i found a discount code of 'FIVETV' makes it £795 delivered, the cheapest by far i reckon.

Im really impressed with this set so far. Xbox is fantastic (bearing in mind my previous set was a 26" CRT!!), Freeview SD is amazing, photo's via the SD card slot are also great in my opinion.

So, here is my first question. The TV has Freeview HD, my postcode checker says i can get Freeview HD......but i don't appear to be getting any of the HD channels! Are they found under the normal Digital TV Guide function? I realise Freeview HD isn't reaching many areas yet, but i did hope that i would receive them!

Finally, i have a Iomega Screenplay Pro 1TB multi-media hard drive. Previously, this was connected to a Scart socket on my old Freeview set top box and would record the channel you were watching. Excuse my ignorance here, but is there a Video output on this TV that i could connect my drive to? I know i can't connect it via USB as its not the Buffalo drive by the way! And i have read the manual....twice but with no joy. Its a shame i have a HD multi media hard drive that is currently useless.

Thanks in advance!
Dave
 
Sorry, I cannot help with your Iomega Screenplay as I'm not familiar with it, but you need to be aware that the Freeview Postcode Checker is not an exact science. However, if you are in an area covered by Freeview HD, I believe you'll find the HD programs on Channels 50, 51, etc. - you only need to do an ordinary Freeview Channel Scan to tune them in.

Cheers,

Martin.

p.s. Welcome to the AV Forums.
 
Hi Martin, yes i thought as much! I do live in quite an elevated spot so hoped i might get it. I also performed a manual tune on channels 50 and 51, with no joy. Still, i can't complain, the Freeview SD is amazing to me!

Thanks for the reply.
Dave
 
:hiya: afaik there is a video output but only via a usb connected hdd and it will encrypt it so its only useable on your own set.
Your hdd should work on the set but you will need to format it first on your pc, it dosent have to be a buffalo drive btw most will work on the set.
Where are you, whats the 1st part of your postal code?
 
Yeh i thought that might be the answer! Shame as i have so many TV shows and films already on the HDD so didnt want to have to format it really. My only other thought was to re-instate my old freeview box so then i could record one channel and watch t'other on my telly! Postcode is DY11.

Thanks for your help!
 
Hi, just had a look at the Technical Specifications for your plasma, which are as follows:

21-Pin Input/Output AV1: AV In/Out, RGB In, Q-Link (rear) / AV2: AV In/Out, S-Video In, RGB In, Q-Link (rear)

I assume the 21 pin connections they refer to are scarts and therefore, if your Iomega can accept a scart input, it may well be possible to do as you want, as it would appear both TV scarts offer video out. Otherwise, try a scart to (composite) video cable if the Iomega has that sort of connection.

Worth a try I reckon.

Cheers,

Martin.
 
— As an Amazon Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases —
Yeh i thought that might be the answer! Shame as i have so many TV shows and films already on the HDD so didnt want to have to format it really. My only other thought was to re-instate my old freeview box so then i could record one channel and watch t'other on my telly! Postcode is DY11.

Thanks for your help!

I am looking at buying a usb HDD at the moment and it seems like a bit of a minefield. I had an old 160gb Medion which I got working but now won't work for some reason. It was a bit flaky and when it was working and I had to re-register it each time I turned the tv on...I put this down to it being usb powered with no ac adaptor.

One thing to watch out for, it needs to be formatted into fat32 to work and this is easier said than done, particularly if you have Windows 7 as this doesn't support or give you the option of formatting to fat32. There are workarounds for this but I haven't got a definitive answer yet but will post again when I do.:)

If anyone has managed to get a good reliable solution to the usb HDD problem, please post the make and method here and save me some time and research!! :smashin:

Thanks
 
Hi Martin, so it appears the Scarts are Inputs and Outputs, thats good to know. I will try and record something when i am home later on as my has HDD has Composite Inputs which i can connect using a Scart adaptor.

Just to clarify, the Iomega Screenplay Pro HDD that i have, has HDMI out, Composite Out, Composite In, USB and LAN so it isn't a bog standard HDD.

As for formatting an external HDD to FAT32, this is quite simple using a DOS command prompt. Versions of Windows will only format external drives larger than 32GB to NTFS. From a Windows PC, click on Start and the Run and type in 'cmd' without the quotes to bring up a Command Prompt window. Type in the following, 'format /FS:FAT32 X:' again without the quotes BUT replace the letter 'X' with the letter your external hard drive has been given, if you pick the wrong drive letter here, there could be trouble lol. I would post a link to a good website......but im not sure if im allowed, search on Google for formatting an external hard drive to FAT32. If you need any more advice, let me know.

Thanks,
Dave
 
Hi Martin, so it appears the Scarts are Inputs and Outputs, thats good to know. I will try and record something when i am home later on as my has HDD has Composite Inputs which i can connect using a Scart adaptor.

Hi Dave, it'll be interesting to know if it works okay, so please let's know how you get on.

Cheers,

Martin.
 
Hi Martin,

Finally got round to testing the scarts for video output, and it works! Well, one appears to, the other doesn't. Im still pondering about digging out my old freeview set top box so i can record straight from that whilst watching another channel on my TV. Thanks for the help guys.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom