DMRE55 Multi Region is Macro-Free too

[Tubol]

We seem to be getting quite a lot of threads reguarding this machine lately. So guess it's pretty popular with us eh?. Anyway got mine at the weekend & still evaluating it at the moment.

Bought from Richer Sounds as a multi-region. Not got any other region discs to try but it also seems to be macro-free to boot . I can confirm this by having a pre-recorded vhs tape (I know to be macro protected) paying from my video connected to the second scart on the E55.

But while there is no distortion of the pic as such the quality doea not seem to be as good as I'd have expected, quite poor in fact. Not recording just refering to the playing of vhs tapes into the E55 for now. But tapes that I've recorded of tv & sat that I've tested seem to have a notable better quality pic even though it does'nt seem as good on both cases as when the vhs is directly connected to the tv.

Is this a known problem with the E55 for whatever reason or likely to be a problem with the heads on the vhs prehaps?.

Tubol

[ofbarea]

My E55 was supposed to be Zone 4 (NTSC) only but been able to play all zone 1 movies that I have tested. It cannot play Zone 2 because it lacks PAL to NTSC conversion.

My VHS Tomb Raider movie does have macrovision and the E55 is able to record it properly. The VHS deck is a very old Panasonic PU-4160, build on 1991. It’s a 4 heads Hi-FI unit with “Digital auto picture” (whatever that means). I do not thing that this VCR has the capavility to remove macrovision.

[Tubol]

Well my Video is a JVC HR-S6855 SVHS machine. And I know thats not macro free from testing in the past with vhs-vhs. So Does seem that my unit is deff macro free too.

But my other point is that should there be a notable drop in quality when connecting the video to the dvd recorder to view & rocord films\programs to dvd?. Here there seems to be but I cant work out why when the pic is better when directly connected to the tv, but not that much.

Tried using a head cleaner, but only a cheap one, & that makes no difference to the pic quality. So either the head cleaner aint any good or I've just been watching to much digital & dvd & think Ye Olde VHS tapes just aint as good as I thought they did!. Some tapes are ok, some just plain poor & others are in between. Thats just the ones I bought from the dhops, retail.

In fact those I recorded of tv seem to have a better average quality from what I've tested upto now.

Tubol

[ofbarea]

I do not see a drop in quality in the XP or SP recording modes. I have not used LP mode for VHS captures. In EP mode, and depending on what I’m recording, the quality sometimes deteriorates a bit.

For VHS captures I always turn on noise reduction (3_D Y/C separation is disabled.).

I still need to perform some testing with different settings to see what’s the difference.

[Tubol]

Another good thing I've just discovered it that it's possable to pause recording during add breaks or changing over tapes when transfering from vhs. Thought I'd have to totaly stop recording.

Makes you wander how come the ability to pause a recording rather than stop it has not really been mentioned?.

Tubol

[handyguy]

"Not recording just refering to the playing of vhs tapes into the E55 for now."

Macrovision won't kick in until you try recording something. Once you do that, it comes on & you can't record.