Flexible Record Problem-Panasonic DMR-ES20

[statl]

I have had a Panasonic DMR-ES20 DVD Recorder for about 10 months. Over the past few months, I have had problems using the FR mode in timer recordings. For some reason, recordings of 2 hours or more are not completely filling up the disc. An example: the other night, I programmed a recording of 2 hours and 8 minutes at FR. Yet it used only 25 per cent of the disc. As you can imagine, the video quality was quite poor

Panasonic tells me there is not a Firmware fix for this problem. Has anyone else experienced this with a Panny DVD Recorder? Any ideas for a solution?

[nottooserious]

Same problem here. I have to "overestimate" the length of a movie to use the FR mode. For example, for a 2 hour recording I'll set the FR for about 2:40, and hope to get all 2 hours before it stops. Defeats the whole purpose of FR mode.

This problem occurs in both timer recordings and manual recordings, but only in FR mode. Also the brand of disks doesn't matter. I only use DVD+R because of other problems with -R.

This may not be an issue any more, since my unit seems to be dying after less than 1 year of use. It will record a movie, but then make a loud mechanical "honk" sound (some sort of friction) when I try to play it back or finalize, and then tell me that the disk is unreadable.

It was good while it lasted, but it sure didn't last.

[trhouse]

Panasonic has a one year parts and labor warranty. The unit should be covered.

[nottooserious]

You're right. I missed it by one week. Ouch.

[zebsdad]

Here's my bit.

Panasonic DMR-ES10 was doing the same thing with DVD+R's. The third helper at Panasonic finally told me to stop using +R's even though the thing had been working for a year and a week. I went to DVD-R from Sony and worked fine for the 50 disk spindle. I went out and got some more Sony's not noticing that they were 16x. It worked on everything except FR. In FR it recorded the whole movie and froze the recorder. Had to do a cold (unplugged) start and the thing said unsupported disk. End of story---I did a firmware update and the booger works perfectly again.

[pinetop]

I had Panny ES20 and had the same problem. I returned this recorder because of this problem. I wanted to record sports programs that were more than 2hrs and didn't want use the 4hr mode. I'd go out on a fri or sat and come home, expecting a nice SP quality 21/2hr DVD and get the dreaded 8hr rubbish. The flex record feature defaults to the 8hr mode or 6hr depending on how you've set your extended play. Its a flaw of this recorder. If you still had a warranty they might of given you a ES15 as a replacement.

Read more here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=586960&page=1&pp=30&highlight=panasonic+20

I hope its ok I posted this link.

[nottooserious]

This has all been helpful--at least I'm not the only one with the problem. I'll try some DVD-R discs, but I doubt they'll take care of the other, newer problem: the "honk" just before the disc becomes unreadable.

[classfour]

If you can get Lord Smurf to pipe up on this one - Panny's have had some problem or another with VR since the beginning: I've had issues with both an E20 and E55 on VR mode.

LS and others were extremely helpful - there was a fix in the menu of those models.

[trhouse]

You're right. I missed it by one week

Call them anyway. If you get the right person on the phone, Panasonic has been known to cut some slack.

[pinetop]

You're right. I missed it by one week

Call them anyway. If you get the right person on the phone, Panasonic has been known to cut some slack.

I was thinking the same thing. Tell them you're a long term Panny customer, and you want this repaired under warranty. You may get lucky.

[SkyIs2Blue]

I just found this thread and it suggest some strange Panasonic FR recording behavior. I experienced a somwhat similar problem. Take a look at this thread:

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=325856