Which recording mode?

[busterw]

Well, I'm a newb here so give me a little break. I've been reading a lot in here while I was awaiting the arrival of my Panny E80. Just trying to be prepared for what to expect in the record process.

Just got it in and connected last night and gave it a test record from VHS--> HDD, then HDD--> DVD-R. When I got to the point of choosing my recording mode, I selected SP b/c the way I understood from what I had read, anything lower than SP would degrade the output. I understand you if you start with crap, you'll get crap back. My question is, now that I recorded in SP, that I recall when the VCR tape started playing, seeing LP on the screen at the beginning. Does that mean that I should have recorded to my DVD-R in LP mode rather than SP since SP can't make that output any better than the source LP mode? Or, should I have or is there a way on the VCR to change this mode before I hit play. I'm guessing no but wanted to ask. It's been years since I've fu*&ed with a VCR and I ain't enjoyin' it to say the least. Another good question may be is there any advantage on VCR tapes to burn to the HDD rather than just sticking it straight to the DVD-R. Can't titles still be manipulated on the DVD-R before it's finalized?

I've also got a dubbing question or 2 but I'll start a new thread for that.

Thanks guys!

[busterw]

Any ideas folks?

Thanks

[Mixer2000]

No matter what if you are looking for the best quality you should always use the best mode. The sharp recorder has a fine mode as well as sp lp and manual and I use the SP mode all the time. If you use the fine mode or SP mode there really isn't much you can do to improve your outputted source unless you have time base correction equipment. But always use the best recording speed on the recorder as this will ensure the best reproduction of what you already have on tape.

[bnbhoha]

If you want the best quality, you would want to record to dvd-r in high speed mode. I wrote a guide/cheat sheet in the avs forum. There maybe some errors, but for the most part it's pretty accurate. Good lucK:



This is a little & cheat sheet for the E100 & E80. I am not taking credit for this, for all of this information came from this forum(avs forum) recently (in fact, I cut and pasted most of it). I wanted to put it all together especially the stuff that confused me. Please feel free to add your comments and other tricks or suggestions for these models. I still have many questions which I will post later. Also note that some of this information may be incorrect and feel free to correct me; I made this so that I wouldn’t forget and though I would share it to help others. Thank you to all forum members for your input and ideas.


I bought E100, which I will receive at the end of the week. My main purpose was to archive my vhs tapes including weddings, family get togethers etc. This is what I learned thus far:

The Panny E100 & E80 are this years new hard drive version. They got rid of the luma bug that plagued the HS2 and previous models. The main difference between the E100 & E80 is that the E100 comes with a firewire interface, picture thumbnail menus, 4x speed recordings and a bigger hard drive (120gb vs 80gb).


HIGH SPEED OR LOSSLESS DUBBING


It was earlier learned that both of these models allowed for high speed or loss less dubbing. This was a procedure which permitted you to transfer your recording from the hard drive directly to dvd-r w/o any further loss or re-encoding involved; however, you had to follow some steps before doing this. Otherwise, if you chose not to use this method, you could just dub the recording to your hard drive at your desired mode (usually XP) and select which mode you would want to record you’re dvd-r in (XP, SP, LP, EP, FR) and then the recorder would re-encode again, resulting in a slightly degradation in the picture + it would be in real time.

Advantages of high speed dubbing are that you would save time and have a better picture because there in no re-encoding. Here’s how you would do high speed dubbing:

*You can only use high speed mode when you’re not changing the recording mode (source to HD and HD to dvd-r modes must be the same). If you change the recording mode you need to copy in real time & that requires a re-encode.


1. In setup, under disc, make sure "DVD compatible rec" is on
2. Then, record to the HD using
FR for anything not exactly 1 hr or 2 hr.
SP for anything exactly 2hr.
XP for anything exactly 1 hr.

So if you know your recording is going to be 1 or 2 hours (maybe a couple of minutes shy but not over) then use XP or SP respectively. If it’s like 1 hour and 15 minutes, you’re better off using FR (flexible recording) mode because it utilizes more space and a better bitrate/resolution. Same as if your recording was 1:45 you’re better off using FR mode instead of SP mode because it will utilize the disk space and would retain the SP resolution and get slightly better than SP bitrate.

*Remember, which ever mode you chose, you have to use to use the same mode to record to the dvd-r; this is the only way you will get lossless high speed dubbing.


I’m going to use my wedding tape as an example. Let’s say it’s 4 hours long (give or take a few minutes). To get the best quality, I would transfer the entire movie on to my hard drive in SP mode because that would retain the vhs quality.

*I have read that the maximum time you can record on to a dvd-r in SP mode is 2:07, but you may want to keep it at 2:00 because after that it will result in average bitrates that are slightly less than SP.

I will find the two hour mark and then divide the segment and then high speed dub it to dvd-r in SP mode (because that was the mode I originally recorded it on to the hard drive and that is the mode I will have to use to record it on to dvd-r for high speed lossless dubbing).

I could use FR mode, but I would have to time it exactly to 2 hours on the HD and then record to dvd-r in FR mode. If I choose the FR mode option, I wouldn’t be able to record the full 4 hours of my video to the hard drive; I would have to do it in 2 hour increments, and I wouldn’t want to go over 2 hours because it would not retain the SP quality then. However, if I wanted to put 1:45 on the first disk of my wedding dvd-r, then FR mode would be ideal because it would use up the entire disk, but remember I have to record the video to the hard drive in FR mode and only then can I record using the high speed dub to dvd-r using FR mode (If I recorded SP mode to hard drive, and then use FR mode to dvd-r, it would re-encode the video in real time and would no longer be a high speed dub)


* if you want to maintain SP BITRATES & RESOLUTION, you need to keep an FR mode recording to less than 2:00, to maintain SP RESOLUTION for an FR mode recording, you need to keep the duration to less than 2:20 , at this point FR mode defaults to LP RESOLUTION which is 352x480 FOR THE ENTIRE RECORDING vs. XP/SP resolution which is 704x480.

*-If you're going to use standard dubbing combined with FR mode, then you might as well master to the HD at XP to maximize quality.



MARKERS/CHAPTER MARKS/DIVIDE

You have to use the high-speed dubbing mode in order to retain your markers.
This means you have to be in dvd compatible mode and then use the same mode (FR, XP, SP, LP, EP) to record to the HD and dvd-r. The manual markers then will have been converted to chapter breaks.

This is from the manual:
"The markers you entered (page 22) will be lost. However, when the "DVD-R compatible Rec" setting is set to "ON" (page 44) and the recorded program is being dubbed from the HDD using the high speed mode markers are treated as chapter cut off points."


If you set MARKERS in the SP program on the HDD and then HIGH SPEED burn to the DVD, the markers will turn into chapters (only they do not appear in any menu). They will work as chapters in that the "skip" button on the DVD player will skip to the next marker. If you want each segment to have its own menu entry (like chapters on a commercial DVD), then you have to DIVIDE. As long as you do not change the dubbing list, you can
burn 1 --> finalize 1, then burn 2 --> finalize 2, etc.


* Programs directly recorded to a DVD-R and dubbed programs longer than 5 minutes using any mode other than high speed mode are divided into approximately 5 minute segments (in standard dubbing mode). Also, with dividing, you may lose a few seconds in the divide.




EDITING/COMERCIALS

Many people are using the divide segment program to do this; however, shorten segment works the best. You just select it from the program's menu, use the fast forward, slow motion and/or pause buttons (depending on how accurate you want to be) to pick the start point, then the end point, and the recorder will delete everything in between. You'll still end up with a single program, but minus the commercials.

*The E80 doesn't allow you to name your markers, only titles. That's the key! The E80 will allow titles to be named and you can dub many titles to a DVD-R (or RAM).

*Use the Time Slip function to reposition the playback location forward or backward a specified number of minutes.