Panasonic DMR E80H Question about FR recording

[dvd-dude]

Hey everyone,

I've had my E80H for almost a year now and I love it. Has been rock solid - although the built in menus are bland the stuff that really counts has always been top notch. I usually record in SP or LP (depending on how important the program is to me) and then burn to DVD in high speed mode. Why do I do this? Because chapter markers are extremely important to me and this is the only way to have them carry over to the DVD-R - besides, its quick and painless.

Here's my question - I have a video of a gig I did that ended up being about 2 hours and 20 minutes - I really want to fit this on one DVD-R, but I don't want to use LP since it's only 20 minutes over. Will FR rate provide an "almost" SP quality, or will it simply look and say "well SP won't fit so I'll use LP instead." I'm unclear as to whether or not FR uses bitrates that aren't otherwise offered - I'm hoping this is what it does. So, assuming it will give me an "almost SP" quality, will my chapter markers carry over? I'm guessing they won't because a reencoding will have to take place.

I'm sorry to say I haven't done a lot of digging yet so I may be asking some "duh" questions but thank you for giving me some help. For all I know I may be able to record my program to the DVD burner's hard drive in FR mode telling it 2hrs is the limit and be able to retain the chapter markers I would then add later on before burning it to DVDR. Thanks!

-DVD-Dude

[dcsoulchild]

I have a Panasonic E-50 and have recorded many DVDs up to 2 1/2 hrs. I have never seen a drop off in quality compared to the SP mode. I think the quality starts to suck once it passes the 3 hr mark.

DC

[handyguy]

LP produces excellent quality on my e30. I have been using it daily for 18 months.

It depends on what you are recording though.

[Capmaster]

I have a Panasonic E-50 and have recorded many DVDs up to 2 1/2 hrs. I have never seen a drop off in quality compared to the SP mode. I think the quality starts to suck once it passes the 3 hr mark.

DC

Agreed. No noticeable difference until the 3-hour point is reached

[macleod]

You could also dump it into your PC and use an app like TMPGENC DVD Author. It does all of what you want it to PLUS makes better menus and whatnot than the panny can.

As far as your specific question, I really have not done that I either pick XP or SP. If it is over 2 hours (by your 20 minutes), maybe do two separate recordings, piece it together in TMPGENC DVD Author and then use shrink to get it under the gun. Another alternative all together (which would be VERY time consuming, is to record 3 sessions in XP mode, reencode all of those with TMPGENC or other encoder, then use TMPGENC DVD Author (or other app) to pull it all together and burn on one DVD-R.

[zorankarapancev]

On E60 it is SP up to 3 hrs. Excellent quality, better then iDVD with Mac (compared on 2 hrs mode).