Optimized / Flexible recording (from HDD to DVDR) ?

[m3]

Okay, so touched on this slighty before in a previous post, but slightly different question this time...

I noticed in the manual for the Pioneer 533H it states:

"With this device you can choose to copy material at a different recording quality from the original. For example, you might want to copy an XP mode (highest quality) recording on the HDD to SP (standard play) quality on a DVD so that you can fit other recordings on the same disc"


Does anyone have any idea how successful this is? e.g. If I convert an XP+ or XP recording to SP how will it look? i.e. Does it look blockier/more pixellated than if I'd just recorded directly to SP mode?

Someone pointed me to a comparison thread of the Panny and Pioneer before, but it doesn't seem to include anything relating to the Pioneer's transcoding capability (unless it is misleading in the manual?)

Anyone ?


Also- in the Panasonic manual for the EH-50 I found this:
"If you select a recording mode with better picture quality than the original, the picture quality does not improve. (However it does prevent
against degradation of picture quality.)"

Does this indicate that the Panasonic can also record e.g. in XP mode to HDD, and then convert to SP mode to fit a DVDR ?

How the Panny goes about explaining what it does and how it does it is very confusing

[Frobozz]

DVD recorders can re-record the video from the hard drive to the DVD (and usually the other direction as well) at a different encoding rate. This is done in real-time, of course.

In the case of your Pioneer, that's the only way an XP+ HDD recording can be copied to DVD.

I've read discussions about whether recording first as XP+ and then copying at a different rate to a DVD is better than recording at the lower rate to begin with. Logically, two different MPEG encodings of the same video should have lower quality. However, Pioneer claims to create a record of the first compression that helps maintain quality in the second compression. Some have asserted that this is like the two-pass encoding that high-quality software encoders use. But it can't be because those don't do any encoding until the second pass.

I bet you thought all this would lead up to an answer to your question. It seems with the Pioneer 533/633 recorders that any difference may be small as long as the first encoding is at XP+. If you don't know what the final recording speed will be (such as when recording a football game and it goes into overtime) then you are best off recording in XP+ to the hard drive and choosing the final setting for the DVD after you've completed your editing. If you know for sure what your recording setting will be then it is best to choose it to begin with.

[trhouse]

Tests were done on this thread to answer those questions about the Pioneers.

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/t279460.html