Panasonic Resolution in FR Mode

[SkyIs2Blue]

I have a Panasonic DMR-ES35V. I am trying to copy a 90 minute VHS tape to +RW disk at the best resolution. This is just a test. I realize that the quality of the copy is limited by the tape. At the XP speed the max record time is 60 min. At the SP speec the max is 120min. In the FR mode the bit rate should be set so that the the entire disk is used at the best resoution which is what I get. But here is my problem/observation. After I check the copy I find that there are 4 vob files. The first vob is reported by Bitrate Viewer (Teco) as 352x240 resolution, but the remaining 3 vob files are 720x480. That not what I expected. But the bit rates for the files appear to be correct, about 5 to 6 Mbps on average. Also when I demux the 1st vob with TMPGEnc it creates an .m1v and .ac3 files which is an MPEG1 file and Dolby Digital audio file which I though was not supported in MPEG1. By the way, Cuttermaran reports that the video stream is mpeg1-VBR. I also tried the same FR recording test using an high quality video feed and all files were 720x480. Does the recoreder handle VHS copies differently than other sources? Why would'nt all vob files be the same resolution? Could the issue be caused by improper headers in the vob files? Any suggestions or comments?

[pinetop]

Check the res with Gspot, perhaps Bitrate viewer is wrong.

[SkyIs2Blue]

Gspot also reports the 1st vob as 352x240 and VCD coded in MPEG1 while the other vobs are 720x480 coded in MPEG2. So the vob files still appear to me to be different. Why would Panasonic design the DVR to record this way?

[Captain Satellite]

SP quality is better than FR.

[CrayonEater]

Unfortunately, Panasonic DVD recorders are badly botched designs, full of caveats like this. If best quality is essential to you, it's best to record two discs in XP mode and splice them together; otherwise, use SP. Personally, I don't really see a difference between XP and SP.

[gshelley61]

If I remember correctly, Panasonic recorders have a setting in their video setup menu for FIXED or AUTOMATIC resolution. You want that to set to FIXED, otherwise the recorder will "choose" what resolution to record in on it's own, and it may vary during the same recording.

[SkyIs2Blue]

SP quality is better than FR.

The idea is that using FR should result in an average bitrate that is greater than SP but less than the maximun of XP. Using SP would leave 1/4 the space unused and using XP would require 1/2 of a second disk.

Unfortunately, Panasonic DVD recorders are badly botched designs....

How unfortunate. I have not done a test to actually see the difference. Is it possible that Gspot and Bitrate Viewer are just reporting the resolution that is in the file header which may be incorrect? The reason why I am wondering this is that if I play the recording back in my Toshiba DVD player I can turn on a feature of the player that displays the bitrate in almost real time. The average bitrate is just as high for both the vob thats being reported at MPEG1 as the vob that is reported at MPEG2.

If I remember correctly, Panasonic recorders have a setting in their video setup menu for FIXED or AUTOMATIC resolution. You want that to set to FIXED...

This particular model does not have this setting. In all but the EP speed the codec that is used should be MPEG2 and not MPEG1, which is what Gspot reports. VBR is desireable as this gives better quality for frames that need it, better utilizing DVD space. But the whole idea behind FR is so that the average bitrate that is used will be maximized for the time to be recorded on the disk space available.

[classfour]

Gshelley hit it on the head: I've seen this with two different models of pannys - set the resolution to "fixed". Without it, I had some pretty strange happenings on my video, including some "half screens" and other unusual stuff.

[Captain Satellite]

[quote="SkyIs2Blue"]

SP quality is better than FR.

The idea is that using FR should result in an average bitrate that is greater than SP but less than the maximun of XP. Using SP would leave 1/4 the space unused and using XP would require 1/2 of a second disk.



I know what the idea is, Sherlock, but SP mode yields better quality. Burn one in each speed and compare them for yourself.