Page 1 of Panasonic DVD Recorder w/80gb HDD

Mate of mine is now looking to grab his first DVD recorder and has decided he`d like one with a HDD. He`s seen the Panasonic DMRE85 multi region for under 300 quid in Richer Sounds and has asked me a few questions, most of which I could handle (i.e. aboutthe differnet types of discs it uses), but three questions I couldn`t answer were these..

1-Richer sounds website reckons it won`t play back +r discs or any type of RW at all-is this correct, or a they getting confused with recording to those types of discs?

2-Can you do a `disc to disc` copy using the in built HDD.. In other words, if I send him a non copy protected DVD, could he copy it to the hard drive and burn it back to new blank disc and keep all of the original menus and chapters?

3-If he makes recordings on DVD-RAM discs but then wants to share them, can the footage be copied to the HDD and then back onto a DVD-r?

Your input is, as ever, much appreciated...

I`d be interested in why anyone would get the E85 above the newer EH50. Is there anything not one the newer model?

Ste

Hi

While I haven`t tried many brands of discs but my E85 will play movies copied on DVD +RW from Imitation & Verbatim just fine.

You can copies movies from non-copy protected DVD`s but not the menus or chapters i.e. the DVD plays the movie & the Hard Drive copies in real time. You can add chapters to the copy on the Hard Drive after you`ve made the copy & if you copy high speed back to DVD the chapters will be on the DVD.

I don`t bother with RAM discs, I usually record & watch from the hard drive & then delete. If it is a program I want to keep then I just use DVD -r to make copies as they are so cheap. A pack of 25 Datasafe DVD-r costs about £4.00 which is 16p a disc while RAM discs are about £1.50 each. Doesn`t make sense to me to use RAM discs if you`ve got a Hard Drive.

If friends or family ask me to record a program, I just record to the hard drive, edit out the adverts & make a copy to DVD-r which that they can keep or throw away.

Earlier Panasonic recorders would not play +RW,but the more recent ones should be fine.
Pioneer recorders are the only recorders that provide a disc copying feature that works in high speed while retaining all the quality and menus/chapters of the original disc.Panasonic will copy from disc to HDD in real time forfeiting quality and original settings.
RAM-HDD-DVD-R will work fine