L2TEK

Panasonic DMR-BW780EBK
For a long time I have wanted a hard disk recorder for terrestrial TV recording. Panasonic released the above model last year with a feature rich set of functions, including a 250Gb HD, Bueray recorder, twin DVB-T2 tuners and H.264 encoding engine. Originally the price was high at over £600 but I eventually got it for around £400 fro Amazon...a bargain for the technology!
After the excitement of receiving my Amazon delivery I plugged my unit into my Sony Bravia 40"......then the disappointement set in.
Connecting the HDMI port to the TV, killed the TV's digital tuners. Also the Panasonic would not tune to any channel. After some fiddling around, I disconnected the HDMI cable and inserted the Scart cable (yuk!)...magically all the tuners started to work. However, the Scart only supports analog SD....not much good considering the £400 price tag for the HD performance.
I spent a good few hours playing around with the RF cables, convincing myself that the problem was interference or a ground loop problem. The next task was to replace all my cheap RF cables with noise suppressed ones and inserting an isolation transformer....checking the antennae amp etc. To my dismay, this made no difference.
I started to conclude, that the problem could only be due to the HDMI radiating and interfering with the tuners. But I had already purchased a good quality HDMI cable. I made another investment in an HDMI cable (by Panasonic) that had zinc molded connecters ("to stop leakage"). Instantly the problem disappeared!!
I am now enjoying an excellent image quality.....the decoding / and the SD to HD upconversion is far supperior to the Sony Bravia with very few artifacts and great detail.I am now awaiting for the analog switch off in 2012 so that I can enjoy free terrestrial HD.
My next job is to open the Panasonic unit to see what image processor they use....I suspect I-Chips.