Page 1 of PANASONIC E85 QUERY

:/ I have now got one of these machine`s and have started playing with it which is taking time.The manual is not the best I,ve seen, my question is on the record mode If you were to record a film to the hard disc in XF top mode and the film is 2hrs.30mins long. You then wish to transfer it to disc( I know you cannot have it have in xp on the disc because there is not space ) so if you set FR record mode will this then fit it on ,and will be any better then if I had recorded it in FR mode to start with.One other thing I have notice is when record a film thought a input to the hard drive when wacting the film back you can not skip forward??? works with dvd,s
any help!!!!!! :( :( :(

I just got one of these this weekend. As you say, the manual could be a lot better, but after a few hours messing around and hair-pulling, this is what I THINK is happening.

Most of the time I intend to record to hard drive using XP mode. If you then want to copy to a DVD-R you have got the best quality start. The confusion starts with the dubbing modes to DVD.

If the program you want to transfer to DVD is longer than 1 hour, then you have to reduce the quality from XP mode. You can do this manually by specifying SP, LP or whatever, or if you set to dub at FR it will fit it exactly to the DVD. So, if it was a 2 hour program, FR would make it the same as dubbing using SP mode. However, if it was a 90 minute program, using SP would leave another 30 minutes free time on the disc, whereas using FR would make it fit exactly, using a quality somewhere between XP and SP.

With a 2hrs 30 mins program, FR is even more useful. You can`t fit it on DVD using SP, and going to LP gives a bigger drop in quality and leaves 90 mins unused DVD space. FR will fill the disc and produce a quality a little bit lower than SP.

The problem with all this is that transferring using manual settings or FR means that you can`t transfer using High-Speed Dubbing, and any chapters you create are not transferred. If you want to high speed dub and keep chapters that you have created, you have to transfer at the original recording quality. For programs less than 1 hour, that`s no problem with original XP recording. But if your program is up to 2 hours long then you have to do the original recording in SP mode. For a 2hr 30 mins program, to enable high speed dubbing and keep chapters, you would have to do the original recording in LP mode, and for me quality is beginning to suffer. So I`d record in XP still and allow FR to make the best quality of the transfer, accepting it would take 2hrs 30mins to copy and lose chapters.

Also, if you want to carry out the high speed dubbing method, you must make sure that "Enable high speed dubbing" is set in the menu system before you do the initial recording.

With regard to original recording in FR mode, I think you have to tell the unit how long your recording is going to be and it will make it fit the remaining disc space, using the best quality it can. This is probably more of an issue if you are recording direct to DVD-R. If you are recording to the hard drive with lots of spare capacity it will just simply record it at XP quality anyway.

Finally, using the skip button. This jumps the playback from chapter to chapter. When you first record the program it exists as a single chapter. You can create chapters yourself through the "Chapter View / Create Chapter" menu. If you don`t create chapters then you will have to navigate using the search buttons which allow you to scan through at various speeds. Remember though, that any chapters you create won`t be transferred to DVD if you copy using anything other than High Speed Dubbing.

That`s how I think it all works after the first few days, though it not seem any clearer than the manual! Hope it helps, though.

Actually, I`ve just had another look through the manual.

It seems that when you record to the hard drive using flexible recording, you tell it how long to record for and it adjusts the file size to maximum 4.7GB so it will fit on a DVD-R. Not yet sure if that will then allow you to dub using high speed mode.

HI DS
thanks for your report how are you finding the E85.
I understand what your saying about XP etc ..But what I,am trying to say is ,is it worth recording 2hrs of XP mode to the hard drive and then setting FR to fit it on to a dvd-r disc,OR record 2hrs of SP to dvd-r disc will the quality be any better becasue the xp source to sart with was better,I know it will not be xp but will it be better then sp mode.
many thanks goblinspell
ps. sorry for taking so long to come back I have a pc problem. :( :( :(

If you can tell the difference then you should be a night fighter pilot!! Unless you have a top of the line TV there is no difference to the human eye.

Hi goblinspell

I`m new to the details of this, but browsing through this site there`s a lot of expert knowledge around, perhaps they can help.

To copy a VHS tape to DVD then: is it best to record initially in XP and dub to DVD in FR? Or, as I now think is probably best, record in FR (telling the recorder how long the tape is) and high speed dub to DVD? By doing it the second way, your getting the best quality you can for that length of video to fit on DVD, and the file isn`t altered during the dubbing process and presumably unaffected in quality. I`m recording to hard drive initially to allow a certain amount of editing before dubbing to DVD, but is there any merit in recording direct to DVD in the first place?

I had planned to copy some VHS tapes to DVD for convenience of chapters, searching etc. But, having started to copy a couple, I`d forgotten just how crap the VHS quality is. I haven`t used the VCR for a long while, I just couldn`t get on with the "scabbyvision" quality any longer. I guess I`ll copy over some of the titles my wife wants to keep and anything I want I`ll go out and get on DVD!

I`d got to the point where if what I wanted to watch on TV wasn`t on while I was in, I missed it. With my shiny new DVR though, things are much, much better. Quality of recording in XP (and, yes, SP as well) is pretty much indistinguishable from the original. Add the extra convenience of navigation, time slip and chasing play etc and I`m a happy man.

I`ve got a 42" plasma TV and NTL cable digital. I connected the DVR to TV with component video cables, and the cable box to DVR with the scart that had been feeding the VCR and was initially a bit disappointed. It seems that the VCR output from the NTL box is only composite video, not RGB. I did a swap and fed the DVR from the TV RGB out from the cable box and things are much better. But, I have to say, it`s not quite as good as the feed directly to the TV. (I`m talking here about source signal, not a recorded one)

Perhaps someone can tell me: if I feed cable box to E85 via RGB scart and then DVR to TV via component video, should I expect identical quality to feeding RGB scart direct from cable to TV?

I think the machine is great though. I`d thought the DVD RAM discs would be a huge step up from VHS tapes for convenience, but I can`t see myself using them much. The hard drive is what really transforms the usability of this.

How are you getting on with it, goblinspell?