Panasonic PASS site, AC130 and Europe
 

Has anyone from Europe successfully registered their AC130 or AC160 cameras at the dreadful Panasonic PASS website? If I choose Europe as my country, the list of camcorder models to choose is tiny. For example, it lists the HMC71, but not the HMC81! And none of the AC- models.

If I choose Japan as my country then it's fine, I can choose from dozens and dozens of camcorders...

And how can a company that makes such good equipment make such a dreadful website!

Re: Panasonic PASS site, AC130 and Europe
 

Hi Mike

I had the very same issue with my AC-130's last year and I found a solution. The secret is in the serial number and the prefix and suffix..that determines which warehouse/distribution point it came from...I found that no cameras are ever sent directly from Osaka in Japan. Although mine said "Made in Japan" the cameras were actually shipped out of Panasonic's distribution facility in Singapore so try a couple of Europe/Asian locations until you find where the serial number matches the ones on the available list ...If you serial ends with an EN then it would have come from either Singapore or HongKong depots.

I eventually contacted PASS and explained my problem and gave them the serial of one camera and they responded pretty fast and said "that's ex-Singapore" ....If you cannot find the correct "format" by yourself just email them the FULL serial number and they will give you the origin warehouse. Mine came from Global Media in Auckland, New Zealand BUT originated in Singapore.

Chris

Re: Panasonic PASS site, AC130 and Europe
 

Chris,

Sorry I missed this - I read it on my iPad, and by the time I got to a real computer it was marked as read and I forgot all about it!

The thing is, it isn't dependent on the serial number. The list of products differs depending on country, not serial number. My AC130 came from:

- Retailer in UK (Prestons)
- UK distributer (Holdan)
- Panasonic Japan

Surely when registering it is country of purchase, not country of origin? They ask me to enter the name of the dealer I bought from, and that's Prestons in Malvern, not Prestons in Japan or Singapore!

I would worry that entering Japan as country of purchase would leave me uncovered, because it ain't true. I have emailed Panasonic and am waiting for a response.

From my HMC41 a few years back, I knew that the PASS site was dreadful. I just forgot how dreadful it is!

Re: Panasonic PASS site, AC130 and Europe
 

Hi Mike

That's also the first thing I did ..I mean the camera says made in Japan so the country of origin is Japan ... everytime I got an error until the support guys emailed me back and told me to use Singapore!!

Hopefully your email will get a response and you will get registered pretty soon!

Chris

Re: Panasonic PASS site, AC130 and Europe
 

After a bit more digging, it turns out that I should be using the Panasonic EU site: https://broadcast.panasonic-support.eu/default.asp

As if by magic, my profile in there includes my previous camera, so it's clearly the right place.

The sticker on the LCD told me to use: http://panasonic.biz/sav/pass_e/
- and I logged in there with my username and password from my HMC41E days. That account must just have been used for downloading updates etc.

On the PASS site, there is a link to register a new account, and I thought I didn't need that because I was already registered. But you follow links through that and end up at the Panasonic EU support site.

It all makes sense now!