Recordings on Panasonic DMR-ES10

[adrianvassallo]

About 6 weeks ago I bought the Panasonic DMR-ES10 DVD recorder. I found this machine to be excellent both for recording and for playing DVDs.

I usually record a number of films from satellite. I have my Echostar satellite reciever connected to AV2 of the Panasonic and AV1 of the Panasonic connected to the TV. Everything is set to output as RGB.

Firstly I recorded 4 films from satellite without any problems, but the next film I recorded had a problem. After about 1 hour of recording, the colour turned into a greenish tint (i.e. faces turned green, etc.) and remained like that till the end. This was noticed when playing back what I recorded as during the actual recording the picture on the TV looked perfect. This problem occurred again for the subsequent 3 films always turning to this greenish tint a bit earlier than before.

I decided to change the scart cable from the receiver to the DVD recorder and for 3 films, the problem was solved. So I thought that the fault was the scart cable but today I recorded another film and after 100 minutes the picture turned green.

Has anyone encountered this problem or can anyone help in determining what is the problem?

Thanks.

Adrian

[Faythur]

Perhaps a faulty scart socket on the Panny? Maybe after it heats up to a certain point, there is a dryish joint connection which eventually parts, braeking the signal, and loosing you one of the main colours [red?]

Just a theory :shrug: I know a friend who had a similar problem with his large screen Panny TV which turned out to be a faulty scart socket connection inside the TV - corrected by resoldering the offending joint.

[adrianvassallo]

Thanks for the reply.

But why is the picture on the TV always perfect during recording? So the recorder is receiving a signal from the receiver through a scart cable connected to the AV2 of the recorder. The recorder then displays the image on the TV perfectly and records it on DVD with a greenish tint.

If the defect is from the scart cable or the scart socket shouldn't it influence also the picture on the TV?

[Faythur]

Hmmm. Scrap that idea then! :doh: :p

Sorry, back to the drawing board :thinking:

[Bonzo Banana]

It really sounds like the mpeg encoder chip is overheating. There really is no other explanation. You could try blocking the vents to see if the fault occures earlier or using a fan to blow in cold air to see if you can cure the problem. Its still possible that it is the scart connection. Sometimes when you have fully connected scart leads it can lead to problems. Sometimes its worth cutting some scart plug connections to eliminate connections that aren't used at all. Especially if they are grounded in one device but actively connected in the other.

The PSU in the latest Panasonic recorders is fairly poor and very cheap. It actually uses 5x as much power as the previous generation of recorders in standby mode. The PSU simply can't do a low power mode at all and this could lead to the recorder generally running a bit hotter. This could be part of the problem. The price you have to pay I suppose for the constant reduction in retail prices.

I would try simplifying the scart connection and if that didn't work return it as faulty.

[adrianvassallo]

Thanks Bonzo Banana for the reply. I think you are right. I spent the whole weekend testing the unit. 4 different scart cables (all fully connected) but 2 cheap and 2 expensive all gave the problem. Connecting the satellite receiver to AV2 and recording gave the problem. Connecting the DVD player to AV2 also gave the problem. I tried different media (Smartbuy DVD-RW and Panasonic DVD-RAM) and both gave the problem.

So I'm sure that the problem is the Panasonic DVD recorder. The problem does not show up always after the same time of recording. When the recorder is used repeatedly, the problem will start showing after few minutes (4 minutes) of recording. When the recorder is not used for a few hours (4 hours) the problem will show after more than 30 mins of recording, sometimes even after 2 hours of recording. So I think that this shows that it occurs when the recorder heats up.

I also tried recording in Video mode instead of RGB and the problem does not occur.

So my conclusion is that something is wrong in the RGB circuitry when the recorder overheats.

Tomorrow I will return the item. Let's hope that they accept that the recorder is faulty.

[Bonzo Banana]

As you are probably aware dvds are recorded in component form which isn't far removed from RGB so it sounds like the fairly simple process of converting RGB to component is failing where as composite to component is ok. There is probably some circuitry inside which splits RGB into two, one for output and one for recording. Its obviously some component along the way is intermittant in operation. It could be anything at all that causes this problem but its pretty obvious heat is part of the cause. The fact composite is ok for recording eliminates the encoder from being faulty I would have thought. RGB is a european only feature and I suspect is a bit of a bolt on electronically for euro models and probably isn't particularly well tested as these recorders are designed in japan and china.

Best of luck in getting a quick swop over. You want to make sure they don't take it in for repair as a) you are legally entitled to a replacement and b) they probably won't find the fault anyway and you'll end up with the same unit and problems back. Luckily you have proof in faulty recordings that means they can't argue with you about the fault. Just remember once you accept a repair once that is all you are legally entitled to in future. Repaired units are far more likely to develop faults later on as a general rule. So always fight your case for a replacement rather than repair.