Panasonic EZ17 ATSC DVD recorder. Strange sound problem.
hu...@psfc.mit.edu
have waited for a recorder like this with ATSC is that I want
something for time-delay recording of digital over the air (OTA)
broadcasts. The quality of widescreen OTA is so much better than old
style analog VCR. I just hate it when I can't be present for the live
broadcasts.
The EZ17pk has an excellent tuner and just the right features to be a
good match to my plasma TV. And it costs only $200. No it does not
record in HD, but it does record in 13x9 and it puts out 480p, which
is the highest resolution justifiable for the recording it makes.
Since my 3-year old widescreen TV is only really ED, that's great for
me, and I am impressed with the picture quality. Not quite as good as
broadcast, but very good.
I've run into a strange problem, though, with the audio. When using
scheduled recording (not when just hitting the record button) digital
audio is often incorrectly played back. There are what sound like
appropriate background sounds or music, but no dialog, or dialog so
quiet that you can't hear it. These are the sort of symptoms I would
expect if the recorder were recording only the rear channels of 3-2.1
dolby (and as far as I can tell this only happens on 3-2.1 sound). I
know this is not my connections (which are just 2-channel stereo from
the recorder) because such broadcasts give fine sound when simply
passed through the DMR-EZ17 tuner, or when recorded by hitting the
record button. I'm using DVD+RW disk because there's not ready source
of DVD-RAM disks nearby, so I have had to order them over the
internet.
No response (so far) from the Panasonic email support line. It's a
pity there seems to be this blemish in the capabilities. If anyone
knows a way round the problem, let me know.
Ian Hutchinson
dmaster
Ian:
I've been using an EZ17 for about a month now, and I haven't had any
recorded sound problems. Admittedly, most of my recordings are on DVD-
R, but I have made a DVD+RW recording, and that was just fine too.
Could it just be a coincidence? Maybe the station you were recording
had sound problems that week?
Dan (Woj...)
Mike Ray
same problem watch OTA HDTV. I had to go into the audio settings and
turn off some kind of a 3D simulation for 'fake' surround. Then I could
hear the voice over the background and music. Check your DVD audio settings.
Mike
Ian Hutchinson
> On May 6, 2:04 pm, h...@psfc.mit.edu wrote:
>> The panasonic DMR-EZ17pk has some excellent features. But
>>
>> scheduled recording (not when just hitting the record button) digital
>> audio is often incorrectly played back. There are what sound like
>> appropriate background sounds or music, but no dialog, or dialog so
>> quiet that you can't hear it. These are the sort of symptoms I would
>> expect if the recorder were recording only the rear channels of 3-2.1
>> dolby (and as far as I can tell this only happens on 3-2.1 sound). I
>> know this is not my connections (which are just 2-channel stereo from
>> the recorder) because such broadcasts give fine sound when simply
>> passed through the DMR-EZ17 tuner, or when recorded by hitting the
>> record button. I'm using DVD+RW disk because there's not ready source
>> of DVD-RAM disks nearby, so I have had to order them over the
>> internet.
>>
>> No response (so far) from the Panasonic email support line. It's a
>> pity there seems to be this blemish in the capabilities. If anyone
>> knows a way round the problem, let me know.
>>
>> Ian Hutchinson
>
> Ian:
>
> I've been using an EZ17 for about a month now, and I haven't had any
> recorded sound problems. Admittedly, most of my recordings are on DVD-
> R, but I have made a DVD+RW recording, and that was just fine too.
> Could it just be a coincidence? Maybe the station you were recording
> had sound problems that week?
>
> Dan (Woj...)
>
Latest on this is that I now have DVD-RAM disks. I made one recording
that was fine. Then tonight I made another of the same program that gave
me the problem first last week (House on 25-1 in Boston). It was bad
again on LP on DVD-RAM. Same symptoms. Remarkably, the tail end of
American Idol before it sound ok, even though the adverts during House
have hopeless sound too.
Hence: this is not a simple function of DVD media type.
By the way, here we are 5 days later and there's no response at all from
the Panasonic support email. Pretty unhelpful.
Ian Hutchinson
Ian Hutchinson
> that was fine. Then tonight I made another of the same program that gave
> me the problem first last week (House on 25-1 in Boston). It was bad
> again on LP on DVD-RAM. Same symptoms. Remarkably, the tail end of
> American Idol before it sound ok, even though the adverts during House
> have hopeless sound too.
>
> Hence: this is not a simple function of DVD media type.
>
> By the way, here we are 5 days later and there's no response at all from
> the Panasonic support email. Pretty unhelpful.
>
> Ian Hutchinson
Actually Panasonic eventually replied to my email with an email telling
me to call their support line. I did that, and after waiting 10 minutes,
getting a fairly clueless person, waiting another 10 minutes while they
"researched" my problem, I was told a specialist will "call me back".
However, I have now been able to demonstrate that the problem arises if
the recording starts during a time when the OTA broadcast is in stereo,
but then switches to 3-2.1 sound. This is true on Channel 25-1 (Fox).
When one schedules a recording, it will quite often be the case that at
the turn of the hour, one starts with ads in stereo, then the broadcast
switches to 3-2.1 and is incorrectly recorded.
It's pretty hard to prove these symptoms are causal.
Ian Hutchinson
QUAKEnSHAKE
signals?
Wes Newell
> Does this Pan EZ17 output High Def signal to the TV from OTA digital
> signals?
Not according to the specs. which are about as clear as mud. I believe the
next model up does, but only via HDMI, not component. Look at other
brands. They're cheaper and do more too.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=105664&fromPageCatId=62055&catNavId=62055
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Ian Hutchinson
> On Tue, 15 May 2007 11:56:16 -0500, QUAKEnSHAKE wrote:
>
>> Does this Pan EZ17 output High Def signal to the TV from OTA digital
>> signals?
>
> Not according to the specs. which are about as clear as mud. I believe the
> next model up does, but only via HDMI, not component. Look at other
> brands. They're cheaper and do more too.
>
> http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=105664&fromPageCatId=62055&catNavId=62055
>
The EZ17 outputs up to 480p (progressive 480) to the TV direct from OTA.
To the best of my knowledge, none of the EZ series directly outputs HD
(i.e. >480p) to the TV. Certainly, none of them records in HD. The EZ27
has a built in upconverter from the low-def recording to 1080i, but
that's not really useful to me.
However, the picture quality is very good, and perfectly matched to my
ED 13x9 TV. It is not quite as good as the quality I get from the TV's
ATSC tuner OTA but close.
Now if I could just get it to record the sound properly from "House"
(FOX HD broadcast) I'd be happy.
I can so far strongly UNrecommend the Panasonic support service, who
have been totally unhelpful/clueless on this sound recording problem.
Ian Hutchinson.