Panasonic S-Video DMR-55

[nwo]

Hi, i have dmr-55 i have lots of vhs tape i wish to put
on dvd-r but a lot of them have blocks on the image
when put on dvd sp mode, i seen a post about S-Video
not beening as good as AV or 21-pin. if so what the best
way of doin' it thanks. oh, my vcr is a jvc s-vhs and the tapes
are mixed vhs & s-vhs.

[Brent G.]

I had blocky pictures (especially the faces) and slight greenish tint on my Panny E55 in SP mode when recording off of satellite. I gave up on it and returned it. Got a Pioneer 220 which has a much sharper image and truer colors.

You can try a good set of AV cables to see if that makes a difference but from what I've tried the improvement was just minimal. I'd suggest borrowing a friend's Pioneer or JVC and compare the results to your Panny. There is no point spending hours (days?) converting your VHS tapes to DVD if you lose quality.

[richdvd]

I have converted lots of tapes via SVideo on the E55. They have all turned out great.

[Stu Jordan]

Hi.
Sorry if this sounds to obvious, but have tried connecting the JVC to the Panasonic using the s-Video sockets ? Then set the Panny to record from that input. (it's marked AV3 on my Panny HS2). I have achieved excellent results using this connection.

[Sherkhan49]

I had a similar problem when transferring from a JVC deck. The problems went away when I used a friend's Mitsubishi deck, which had an excellent built-in Time base Corrector. If your JVC model does not have this feature, get an external stand alone corrector like the Datavideo TBC 1000. Also, if your JVC deck has an autostablize feature, turn it off, as it causes dropouts.

[pippas]

Is this problem with flesh tones, 'blockiness' and green tinting a feature of NTSC only ? -- I have a PAL e55, and haven't found any of these problems!

just lucky, I guess.

[ann coates]

Is this problem with flesh tones, 'blockiness' and green tinting a feature of NTSC only ? -- I have a PAL e55, and haven't found any of these problems!just lucky, I guess.

I don't think it's an NTSC problem. I have the Panasonic E85 and don't have the blockiness/green tint problem. The only problem I've ever had is the picture seems a bit dark every so often in certain scenes so I have to change the picture settings on some clips. I have the same problem on my Pioneer 520, however, in the same scenes.

[handyguy]

Green tint was covered in another post, you have to change the display properties on your panny.

I use LP mode for vhs, its not very high resolution, looks great.

[ann coates]

Green tint was covered in another post, you have to change the display properties on your panny.

I use LP mode for vhs, its not very high resolution, looks great.

You find it preferable to SP for VHS tapes, yeah?

[ejai]

Panasonic recorders can produce blockiness in some videos but I noticed a few setings that have helped me.

1 - I don't use s-video because the chroma effect along with blockiness are more noticeable using this input. I prefer composite, because it produces a more smoother picture.

2- I change the black level setting from darker to lighter especially on captures that produce very dark areas. This helps me get rid of the greenish tones that are produced in some captures as well as smooths out the areas that show macro blocks.

[handyguy]

"You find it preferable to SP for VHS tapes, yeah?"

No, I only use LP, not SP.....

Another reason you see blocks is cause of cheapo media or perhaps your sharpness is set too high.