Panasonic DVD Recorder recently not upd...

I have two Panasonic DMR-EH50s and one DMR-E85H. I also have a Sony DHG-HDD250 which also uses TVGOS, but it is a HD recorder (that means full DIGITAL capabilities, including the TVGOS ) My TVGOS went out in the middle of April. I messed around on the support sites for about two weeks and found little real info.

The bottom line: I live in Madison, WI & have Charter Cable. None of my DVRs were receiving the TVGOS. Charter was not processing and/or transmitting the TVGOS properly (doesn't really matter the DVRs couldn't receive them), so I called them up, got to their "Level 3 Technical Support" and explained to them that I could not receive the TVGOS digitally or analog (converted digital) on any of my DVRs. They called me back a week later and told me to try it again....

So, all you need to do (if your local Cable Company is sending it properly):

WARNING - All SCHEDULED programs that you have previously scheduled by using the TVGOS will be deleted (NOTE: not the programs that are already recorded on your hard drive, they will NOT be deleted)

Turn the unit off.

Press the up channel & down channel (on the box, not on your remote control) at the same time & hold them for at least 10 seconds. This will reset the entire TVGOS system back to the default settings that were present when you first plugged in your DVR. This erases all previous info that your DVR had about what station it used to get the signal from and forces it to scan all the channels looking for the new channel. This is the only way to force this to occur.

When you turn on the unit, it will run you through the setup like it did when you plugged it in for the first time. Enter your zip code, etc. and when you are done, turn it off & leave it off overnight.

If your TVGOS has the Station Grid but no listings, be patient, TVGO updates its own firmware on your DVR automatically, and that may be all that happens the first night. It should start updating the listings the following night.

If it found the station grid, this is a great sign!!!! This means that your cable company is working on it!!!! It took my local Cable Company about 7 or 8 days to get it working properly, but now my 3 Panasonics and my HD Sony are all receiving full listings!!!!

If you are still getting nothing, complain to your LOCAL Cable Company. It is up to them to ensure that the signal is converted to analog & sent out over cable.

The channel that you have been getting the TVGOS on has gone digital and the TVGOS signal was only coming into your Panasonic DVR as analog. Panasonic has known that this would happen when the digital conversion comes but has chosen not to do anything about it except be evasive.

The people from Comcast have told me personally that my/our issue is with the DVR manuacturer for not providing any form of conversion and the FCC handling the digital conversion debacle.

I have emailed Panasonic and they tell me to call their support center knowing full well that all I will get is some ignorant person that will only frustrate me and that I will give up. FCC has yet to respond. I would encourage someone out there to file some sort of class action lawsuit to recover the value of our now worthless DVRs

There is no point in reporting Panasonic to the FCC. It would be better to report Gemstar for not providing any advancewarning that they were turning off the analog feed, and not having thecorrect information in the digital feed for the DTVPal to translate forlegacy TVGOS analog devices. Panasonic licensed TVGOS from Gemstar andit's up to Gemstar to get everything up and running.

The issue relates to the fact that the digital signal does not carry the vertical blanking interval (VBI) that currently carries the TVGOS information in the analog signal broadcast by PBS for Gemstar/Macrovison.

Macrovision turned off the PBS analog signal nationally. It was turned back on recently. Macrovision is working to get the DTVPal conversion of the analog signal working via a standard called SCTE 127 - the standard was created to translate the old VBI info for the digital signal. Here's the bad news - even if they get all the SCTE 127 stuff working with the Dish DTVPal - if you are over the air only (OTA) you will only be able to get the digital TVGOS in markets where the CBS affiliate has agreed to carry the signal. Owners of Sony DVRs have followed this closely at:http://www.spiffspace.com/forum/index.php



If you would like to read about this issue it has been discussed extensively at www.avsforum.com

Here are some relevant threads - and technical specificiation documents.

threads:
TVGOS gone
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1115693
Dish DTVPal Thread
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1001979&page=198
Magic 8 ball on TVGOS
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1093923
TVGOS devices
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1122914

Documents relating to TVGOS and DTV transitionj
http://laurenstephens.net/uploads/3d927cc0e5.pdf
ANSI/SCTE 21 2004 Carriage of NTSC VBI Data in Cable Digital Transport Streams
10. ANSI/SCTE 20 2006 Methods for Carriage of Closed Captions and Non-Real Time Sampled Video

So SCTE 21 appears to be specific to Cable.

Carriage of Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) Data in North American Digital Television Bitstreams - SCTE doc
http://www.scte.org/documents/standa...CTE1272007.pdf
ATSC Standard: Carriage of Legacy TV Data Services
www.atsc.org/standards/a_99.pdf

Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Viewers
www.atsc.org/standards/a_79.pdf (This one has a pretty extensive references section)
5.4.2 ANSI/SCTE 127 Data
ATSC PIRDs should decode ANSI/SCTE 127 [15] payloads carried per ATSCA/99 [17] and should re-encode all the payload data as analog waveformson the appropriate line. When present, CEA-608 [14] data carried perA/53 Part 4 [6] should take precedence over any line 21 (or line 284)data present in ANSI/SCTE 127 [14] payloads.
Section 7 is Broadcast Station Infrastructure Guidelines
Covers closed captioning, content advisory and ANSI/SCTE 127 data
"7.4 ANSI/SCTE 127 Data

And a fabulous white paper on the issue

http://www.tandbergtv.com/uploads/do...og-Turnoff.pdf
Preparing for the Broadcast Analog Television Turn-Of: How to Keep Cable Subscribers’ TVs from Going Dark

It covers the closed captioning and content advisory as well as: on p17
4.3 Other Ancillary Data
AMOL data (which are used to create the well-known Nielsen TV ratingsof program viewers) and TV Guide data (which are used by many analog TVhouseholds that do not subscribe to pay TV services) are carried inwaveforms on various lines of the VBI. ANSI/SCTE 127 [17] defines amethod to carry AMOL-48, AMOL-96 and TVG2X data in the DTV signal. Thisis shown pictorially in Figure 19. The timing of the VBI data-stream issynchronized with the corresponding video and audio data-streams, asapplicable, through the use of common presentation timestamps. Thewaveforms themselves are defined in CEA-2020 [18]. If present in theincoming ATSC/DTV signal, the ATSC-to-NTSC converter/receiver willparse through the ATSC transport stream, locate the VBI data-stream,extract the AMOL-48, AMOL-96, and/or TVG2X data, regenerate thecorresponding VBI waveforms and insert them into the output analog TVsignal.

I had read in another forum that beginning May 1st, Comcast would start to Broadcast the necessary SCTE 127 data for the TVGOS function again. I don't recall if this applied to all Comcast locations. I am in New England and sure enough, sometime between the evening of 4/30 and morning of 5/1, my guide has updated. I am using a Panasonic DMR-EH50. I was suspicious that the equipment might not be capable of updating after the DTV conversion. It had stopped updating the TVGOS in mid-February. This is the first time the guide has updated since then. Glad to report that the equipment is working fine.

To get limited functionality with the dmr-e85h tell the unit there is no cable box, and on time warner you can get the channel line up but they may not match perfectly, next a custom edit of the channels may work to get updates, the local channels appear to be getting the guide info. ok but other channels just added will take longer if they get the program lineup. The ir blaster failed every time for me.

I have the DMR-E85H and Charter cable, and received TVGOS solidly until July 2009, when it failed to get listings. I tried the firmware updates and system resets, and further lost the entire channel line up. My unit would never finish setup, still trying to search for channels and programming. But I noticed my TV with a digital tuner was able to pick up local digital signals coming through the cable.

I tried a long shot and borrowed a digital converter box intended for broadcast tv. I set it up, and left it turned off -- also left the DVR set at Cable without a Box. It worked!! When I turned on my DVR later the next day, it stated it had found more than one signal service provider, so I selected Charter Cable and went through a couple of steps to verify setup, and my channel lineup was back, and the TVGOS programming schedule. Hooray!!!!!!!

I have had this same issue happen to me three years in a row. It seems to happen in July. First I get limited channel information, and then nothing. I've tried resetting the system, and it never helps.
I normally call Panasonic, and go through all their basic steps, and ultimately they escalate it to TV guide. After a period of time (varying from 2 weeks to a month), magically the programming appears...
Last year, when it happened, I contacted Comcast, in Boca Raton, FL, and was promptly told that they do not do any troubleshooting for non-comcast equipment...

I just spoke to Comcast cable in Philly.  The channel that carries the on screen tv guide signal was switched from KTCI (analog) to WCCO (digital) on tuesday Feb. 17, 2009.  Coincidentally my onscreen TV Guide listings disappeared in that same time frame (Panasonic Plasma TV and DVR).  Comcast assured me they are aware of the problem and have technicians working to rectify it.  
Thanks for the posts.