I bought a Sony GX300 so that I could record HD content from my DirecTV HR10-250 HD Tivo STB without having to worry about 16:9 flags. This works great for movies up to two hours in length. Beyond that length the Sony ignores the 16:9 record setting and records in 4:3 mode. In addition, recording with the Sony in LP (3 hours) or EP (4 hours) modes results in movies that are lower in resolution than in HQ, HSP or SP modes.

Because of these limitations I bought a Panasonic ES10 to record movies longer than two hours knowing that I would have to use IfoEdit to modify the IFO files to add 16:9 flags and burn another DVD on my computer. Panasonic advertises their DIGA technolgy and 12 bitA/D converter as providing 500 lines of resolution in LP (4 hour) recording mode. Normally one would only get 250 lines of resolution in LP mode. I must admit that movies recorded using LP mode on the Panasonic look very good.

Here is my problem: using IfoEdit to examine the ifo files on a DVD recorded on the Panasonic ES10 using either XP (1 hour) or LP (4 hour) modes the recorded resolution shows as being 352X480. This recording was of HBO's "Rome" recorded in HD on my DirecTV HR10-250 HD STB. The output of the HR10-250 was set to output 16:9 letterbox. Recording this same content using the Sony GX300 set to record either 16:9 or 4:3 in HQ (1 hour) mode results in ifo files that show a resolution of 720X480.

Does anyone on this forum understand IfoEdit well enough to explain what the differences in the resolution results between the Sony GX300 and Panasonic ES10 mean? Is the difference in resolution results between 352X480 on the Panasonic ES10 and 720X480 on the Sony GX300 significant?