Posted by kaboom on 11/05/05 21:32

On Sat, 5 Nov 2005 14:58:42 -0600, "GaryP" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote:

>After two and a half weeks with the new DMR-EH50 firmware I have mostly good
>news to report. I've had no incidents where the timer failed to record when
>it should - both by selecting a show off of TVGOS and using the manual
>timer. I power cycled the system once after TVGOS was fully populated and
>also did a factory reset (channel up and down simultaneously) and the timer
>continued to work. Previously I saw problems the first couple days I had
>the unit, and after having to unplug it briefly after it was working a few
>weeks without a problem, which is why I did these tests.

**Excellent.

<snipped>

>After reading issues with the E85H, I conclude that Panasonic has a poor
>design depending so much on TVGOS and Gemstar. They seem too vulnerable to
>mistakes and problems in the data feed from Gemstar.

**Exactly!! I can't believe the software in the Panny is so weak as to
send the unit into a frenzy when TVGuide changes something or has a
glitch.

> One of the reasons I
>choose to go with a standalone unit over either a Tivo or Replay unit was
>the thought that the functionality of the unit couldn't be changed - no one
>could add or remove functionality - without me choosing whether or not to
>upgrade the unit, unlike some incidents that have occurred with Tivo
>recently.

**Is this about forcing you to watch commercials?

>Because of this tight integration with Gemstar, it seems
>Panasonic and possibly other vendors have put them in a position to create
>lots of havoc for all of us owners.

**The bad part is the unintentional havoc. Why would they make the
Panny so reliant upon Gemstar? I can't believe that Panasonic wouldn't
engineer software that would take any kind of Gemstar problems into
account.

>I'll try and report back anything else significant with the EH50 firmware
>upgrade I received, but other than the one incident, it seems to be working
>better.

**Thanks for the update. It's good reference material for future and
present Panasonic owners.

kaboomie

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