On panasonic e50, which is best quality for analog vhs?

[fsuorange]

I want to put my vhs tapes onto dvd but would like to know the best way to do this. Should I record in SP or XP quality or will there be no difference between the two becase the source is vhs?

Thanks

[donpedro]

Bets is to use DVD-RAM and play with it. It is all up to you to decide if SP is enough for you. XP is of cource technicaly best.

[Shannafey]

I second what Don says, but actually both settings look good, depending on your source material. If it is a tape recorded in SLP mode, the higher the bitrate, the better, to compensate for a lackluster original. Actually, figure out the exact length of the film, and use the flexible recording feature, so you get the optimal bitrate for the length of the film.

[spiderman2k1]

Do a small test on DVD-RAM so you can see. Always the best way. Trust your own eye's. You might like LP for the one reason is help to get rip of noise reduction. It has a software picture then XP and SP. The MPEG 2 in LP is soft so it will hide alot of the crap that's you see in the VHS tape. Just do your own test and pleae post back.

[handyguy]

Vhs isn't very high resolution is, LP mode should be fine.

[Shannafey]

You guys are wrong!! The LP mode is a much lower bitrate, so there is going to be more artifacting! If quality is the issue, go for the highest bitrate. The XP is, or as I said earlier, use the flexible recording time if it's under an hour or between 1 or 2 hours. I have had my deck a month now, and have tried all the speeds, including the horrendous 6 hour mode!! I use the LP mode, if the footage isn't as important to me, and I want to store a lot!

[musher70]

F-rec is the only option here....
find out how much time you need
and then use this option, xp ep usually
if 1 or 2 hours exactly...but if 96 minutes
you have almost 25% of unused space in sp
mode right???

[Bob W]

When recording from a VHS tape I only use F-Rec mode to set the exact time on my E50.

[donpedro]

BTW: There is couple of options that can affect what you see on TV. Some of them are for OUTPUT and some might be for RECORDING.

Does anybody know which one affects recording (encoding) ???

[thoots]

I almost always use straight XP mode to record my XP stuff. I'm usually just recording "bits and pieces," so it's rarely "I've got one hour, twenty-three minutes" or anything like that -- I just keep oin going until I fill up one hour at XP mode.

Yeah, sure, VHS isn't that high resolution, but I CAN see a little bit of artifacting and a minor reduction in sharpness when I move down to SP mode -- yes, even with VHS originals. I always want to get "the best" quality, at least so far.....

thoots