My JVC DR-M10 Tests

[EricS]

Ok, as one of the people who thought the JVC was not accurately capturing color/contrast, I finally did some test captures.

The video tests and frames came from the Monsters Inc. DVD.

The original was created by ripping select parts using DVD Shrink and burning onto a DVD-R.

JVC RCA indicates the copy came from the RCA output of a Pan DMR-E60 to the RCA input of a JVC DR-M10.

JVC S-Video indicates the copy came from the S-Video output of a Pan DMR-E60 to the S-Video input of a JVC DR-M10.

The frame captures were made using the ‘Capture’ feature in Nero Showtime.

I also did a capture from the JVC to the Panny for comparison, but Nero puked everytime I tried to capture a frame from that disk.

I don't know how to upload pictures, so I put these on my web hosting service. I included a Word file with all the screen captures (5 MB) and zip files that contain all the video captures (there are big). I don't know how long I will keep the video files up.

Everything is at http://www.salwan.com/vidtest/. If someone finds this interesting and wants to re-post the screen captures in this thread, feel free.

Also, the only DVD player I had available for playback was the Panny and a Mintek portable - I used the Panny for the test. Hopefully the is no playblack black level bug or whatever that means the entire test was flawed.

My results: The RCA input showed huge washout. The S-Video exibited the same behavior, but not as severe. Sharpness, detail, etc, good.

Take a look - let me know you think.

E

(I am in process of uploading the video - it may not be up yet)

[EricS]

Well, apparantly the hosting service thinks I am over quota even though I'm not - so the only files up are the word file with the screen captures and the original test disk - the other files may be incomplete - I am in process to getting the quota issue fixed.

[gshelley61]

You'll need to adjust the output video settings on the Panasonic E60 before testing. There are controls in the setup menu and playback display menu for video output black level (lighter, darker), image quality (fine, normal, soft, cinema) and MPEG noise reduction. Depending on how those are set, they can have a big impact on the recorded image quality. Turn off the MPEG noise reduction and set the picture to "fine".

Additionally, the JVC has no black level setup on the input or output. To record to the JVC from the Panasonic, set the Pansonic video output black level to "darker" (0 IRE). To record to the Panasonic from the JVC, set the Panasonic video input black level to "lighter" (no black level reduction, for digital video sources that are 0 IRE like DVD and MiniDV).

It's not unusal for video software to choke on Panasonic DVD recordings. Sometimes the Panasonic units produce video files that are buggy or act as if they are not compliant. Try setting the Panasonic recording resolution setting to Fixed (not Automatic).

[EricS]

Ok, I will give this a shot. Does this mean that the Panny should always have the output set to darker if I am using it for a playback deck - i.e., to watch store bougt DVDs?

I am also going to run a test using the Mintek portable RCA outputs.

E

[gshelley61]

All modern TV's can handle 0 IRE black level, so it makes sense to use the 0 IRE ("darker") composite/s-video output setting on your DVD recorder for playback.

The component YPbPr outputs are usually already set to 0 IRE (that's the encoded black level of DVD's). There's no reason these days to have your DVD player adjust the black level up to 7.5 IRE (which is a dark gray, not true video black).

Tweak your TV's black level (brightness) and luma (contrast) adjustments for DVD playback by using the THX Optimizer test patterns on Ice Age, Monsters Inc. and Star Wars DVD's.