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BuffaloJack · Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 8:33 pm Post subject: Stupid V-Chip

I bought a Panasonic DVD/VCR recorder last March. In October we had a bad fall ice storm and power failure for over a week. When power was restored, the VCR part of my set worked fine but the DVD recorder appeared to record but not play back. Error message "Unable to find program." I thought the DVD part of the system was toast. Instead of tossing it, I kept it because the VCR still functioned fine. I even bought a second stand alone DVD recorder as a replacement.
3 months later (last night), reading a web article, somone else had a similar problem and traced it to the V-chip. This intrigued me. I sought out and found a 10 year old copy of Snow White and tried it. It played fine. The storm had set the V-chip to the lowest level and locked it there. After calling panasonic service they told me how to reset the machine back to factory settings (hold down 2 console buttons while the drawer is extended, wait 10 seconds, let go and push the drawer back in.) The recorder re-booted and everything works like new. I came very close to tossing the set because I thought it was damaged. Stupidest error message I ever saw, "Unable to find Program". Why didn't is just say that the parental control was set?
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Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71)

Snipe · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:42 pm Post subject:

OK, THAT cracked me up. I've had my Panasonic DVD recorder - with an 80 gig hard drive - for 3 years now. I found out about holding buttons down for several seconds and doing this and that obscure function to correct real and imagined problems to keep the thing churning out violent Japanese anime, John Wayne movies, anything Navy (including all of "Victory at Sea") and other stuff (old Popeye and Looney tunes cartoons from the 40's) What I found out about long life for a Panasonic product is to keep it clean. Blow out with air at least once a month and running a laser lens cleaning disc once a week and also reformat the hard drive weekly. Also to format the DVD-RAM discs prior to recording on them. So I have a nice collection of stuff that runs to around 2000 hours of content. I also have 8 (going on 9) grandkids - 4 of which are addicted to cartoons that come on after their bedtimes.

#3 Kid just bought a brand new TIVO and loves the thing, but it just won't record to a disc. To bad. I still record her "Grey's Anatomy" for her. I only watch it at high speed while getting rid of the commercials, but what the heck.

Very Happy

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Tin Can Sailor