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  1. I purchased this DVD/Blu-ray recorder a while back and one of the things I assumed I would be able to do is record footage from external equipment (for example a VHS player) to Blu-ray discs.
    Now when I wanted to try that, I cannot figure out how to. The manual is confusing and useless to me. For example, on this page https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1179140/Panasonic-Dmr-Bct74.html?page=8#manual it indicates that I should be able to record in recording modes referred to as DR/HG/HX/HE/HL/HM both to the internal HDD and a recordable Blu-ray disc. But when I go to set the recording mode all choices I get are the DVD formats (XP, SP, LP etc.)
    To make things worse, later in the manual https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1179140/Panasonic-Dmr-Bct74.html?page=75#manual it says that I cannot record external equipment footage to anything BUT dvds??
    Can anyone please explain, am I not able to hook up a video cam or VHS player to this unit and somehow record the footage to a Blu-ray disc? And if so, how? And if not, why not? What is the purpose of advertising this product as if it can record in HD formats and burn Blu-ray discs, if I cannot do it?
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    According to the table on Page 4, external video can be recorded to BD-R or BD-RE. According to Page 75, only XP, SP, LP, and EP modes are supported when recording from external equipment. This is likely to prevent you from making HD copies of sources that lack content protection.
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  3. Originally Posted by JVRaines View Post
    According to the table on Page 4, external video can be recorded to BD-R or BD-RE. According to Page 75, only XP, SP, LP, and EP modes are supported when recording from external equipment. This is likely to prevent you from making HD copies of sources that lack content protection.
    Thank you for your reply. So, what does that mean exactly? I'm sorry but I am horrible with these kind of things.
    External video, as in a TV broadcast? And external equipment, meaning any type of device hooked up to the recorder?
    In other words, I won't be able to record my old family videos to Blu-ray discs as I was intending to? I so regret buying this recorder. It has just been disappointment after disappointment.
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    Originally Posted by guy24s View Post
    Originally Posted by JVRaines View Post
    According to the table on Page 4, external video can be recorded to BD-R or BD-RE. According to Page 75, only XP, SP, LP, and EP modes are supported when recording from external equipment. This is likely to prevent you from making HD copies of sources that lack content protection.
    Thank you for your reply. So, what does that mean exactly? I'm sorry but I am horrible with these kind of things.
    External video, as in a TV broadcast? And external equipment, meaning any type of device hooked up to the recorder?
    In other words, I won't be able to record my old family videos to Blu-ray discs as I was intending to? I so regret buying this recorder. It has just been disappointment after disappointment.
    you should be fine in copying your old family videos, you should be able to copy from a camcorder to a dvd/bluray disc without copying
    to the HDD. certain TV broadcasts are copy protected and cannot be copied without certain external equipment.
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    Originally Posted by guy24s View Post
    Originally Posted by JVRaines View Post
    According to the table on Page 4, external video can be recorded to BD-R or BD-RE. According to Page 75, only XP, SP, LP, and EP modes are supported when recording from external equipment. This is likely to prevent you from making HD copies of sources that lack content protection.
    Thank you for your reply. So, what does that mean exactly? I'm sorry but I am horrible with these kind of things.
    External video, as in a TV broadcast? And external equipment, meaning any type of device hooked up to the recorder?
    "External" means any input that you connect at the SCART terminal. You can record from this input to Bluray BD-R or BD-RE discs in XP, SP, LP, or EP mode. These modes are not limited to DVD. I don't know where you got that idea but it is mistaken.
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  6. SCART only carries standard definition video. So anything you record from it will be standard definition (in the absence of upscaling -- which the manual says it will no do).
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  7. Thank you all for your replies. I thought XP / SP etc was only for DVD. I wasn't aware of that it was possible to copy it onto Blu-ray discs. However, I'm disappointed it's not possible to upscale standard definition to HD on the device. I was wanting to do that in order for the recorded footage to suffer as little compression as possible and at least look as good as it does on the original tapes. It sort of makes it pointless to just be putting XP quality onto a Blu-ray disc, apart from the fact that you can fit more data onto the same disc, that is.
    Thanks for clearing it out for me.
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    XP, SP etc etc were VHS terms that manufacturers carried over to digital/DVD recorders.....just like ISO 100, 200, 400 "speed" film for cameras was carried over to digital cameras. Not the smartest decision but it was something people were familiar with.
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  9. Originally Posted by JVRaines View Post
    Originally Posted by guy24s View Post
    Originally Posted by JVRaines View Post
    According to the table on Page 4, external video can be recorded to BD-R or BD-RE. According to Page 75, only XP, SP, LP, and EP modes are supported when recording from external equipment. This is likely to prevent you from making HD copies of sources that lack content protection.
    Thank you for your reply. So, what does that mean exactly? I'm sorry but I am horrible with these kind of things.
    External video, as in a TV broadcast? And external equipment, meaning any type of device hooked up to the recorder?
    "External" means any input that you connect at the SCART terminal. You can record from this input to Bluray BD-R or BD-RE discs in XP, SP, LP, or EP mode. These modes are not limited to DVD. I don't know where you got that idea but it is mistaken.
    Just an additional question, on page 59 https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1179140/Panasonic-Dmr-Bct74.html?page=59#manual the manual says that XP/SP/LP/EP/FR can only be copied onto a DVD or an external HDD, not Blu-ray discs. The same page also says DR/HG/HX/HE/HL/HM can only be copied to a Blu-ray or an external HDD.
    So in other words, it seems that I cannot copy XP recordings onto a Blu-ray disc after all?
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    At this point, why don't you just try the operations and see what happens?
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  11. Originally Posted by JVRaines View Post
    At this point, why don't you just try the operations and see what happens?
    I'm waiting on a S-video cord in the mail before I can start the project, and I was just anxious to know in advance what to expect.
    But will try it soon.
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