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About Rick Montgomery
Expertise
Most questions about 1970's-1980's audio equipment. Most 1980's -1990's VCR's and VCR combo's. Most 1980's-1990's car audio, except original equipment. I know name brand after-market such as Kenwood, Pioneer, JVC, and some Sony. I am not so good with TV's, DVD's or camcorders. I do not work on Projection TV sets at all. I also have no access to documebntation for sets outside of the United States.

Experience
Professional Electronics Technician since 1975, specializing in most audio, home, portable and car. Also all VCR's. Limited TV knowledge. No projection TV experience

Organizations
Through work, NESDA.

Publications
n/a

Education/Credentials
High School. Graduated with 2 yrs Vocational Electronics in High School.

Awards and Honors
Certificates of completion of factory training seminars for various brands

Past/Present Clients
Thousands of customers to the Service Centers I have worked for.

You are here: Experts > Home/Garden > Home Appliances > TV/VCR/Stereo Troubleshooting > panasonic tv/vcr model pv-m2043

vcr model pv-m2043

Expert: Rick Montgomery - 11/6/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hi Rick, I was just given a 1994 panasonic tv/vcr model pv-m2043. The remote has been lost. I bought a Phillips Universal remote but it won't work. The Program Timer is blinking green all the time. I don't know whether it's the remote or the tv/vcr that's broken. How can I determine if it's the remote or if the tv/vcr remote signal receiver is not working? Thanks, Ron

ANSWER: Ronald,
  I'm not sure if you have more than one problem or not. The green power LED is supposed to blink if the set is working properly. You did not mention if the set works normally EXCEPT for the remote control or not. I'll go under the assumption that it does.
  When you first plug the set in and turn it on, it should automatically go into channel scan, followed by time search, which it will pull from your local PBS channel. You can interrupt and defeat the auto time set by pressing the VCR stop button.
  As for your remote control. You made a mistake that you could not have known about. You purchased a universal remote control. URC's are great for a TV, OR a VCR, OR a Cable Box, etc. But I have found NONE on the market today that are made to operate a combo unit. You see, a remote control has a limited memory, and the best analogy I can give you is to think of each brand's signal as a LANGUAGE, and within that language, every command, such as volume up or down, channel up or down, mute, the number keys, etc. is a word of that language. Even within the same brand, each type of device has it's own language, such as For Panasonic, POWER for a TV, a VCR, a DVD, and a cable box, although the same command, are 4 different words. Sometimes the language changes as different features or production changes occur. This is why you have several different codes for most of the brands, so you can imagine how full the memory is.
Combo units have their own language too, and are not included in universal remote controls, as they get too sophisticated. You can set it up for Panasonic TV's for instance, but none of your VCR buttons will work. You have obviously found this out. The original remote control for this model is discontinued and is no longer available. You have probably found this out too. You can get a suitable replacement though, from replacementremotes.com. Here is a link to the one you need for your set. Copy and paste this to your browser:
http://www.replacementremotes.com/store/productdetailp.cfm?productid=4202
Good luck,
regards,
Rick

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Rick, F/U question:
Thank you so much for the quick response. The "Power LED" is not blinking green but is steady red. The Program Timer is what's blinking green all the time. Does this mean there's a different problem as well? When I get your answer on this, I'll check the replacement web-site.
Thanks, Ron

Answer
Ronald,
  You STILL have not told me if the set is working properly except for the remote control, and are just concerned about the LED's, or if some portion of the set is not working, or not working properly. Until you tell me, I can't advise you further. In my first reply, I outlined the normal startup operation of this model. If the set is working normally in all functions, I wouldn't worry about the blinking LED's. If they are something you are really concerned about, I can try to locate a similar model owners manual. I did not find one for this model yet.
regards,
Rick

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