Panasonic DMR-HS2 Discontinued?

[markw]

I was in for a surprise today. I placed an order for a DMR-HS2 yesterday and expected to receive it in a few days. For some reason I checked to see what the status of the order is and they said it's been discontinued! Obviously I was shocked. I found a few mail order places that are out of stock but I figured it's selling fast and new. One other did say discontinued so is that true? If so, how come?

[zanos]

I don't know if it's been discontinued. Why would they do that? It's their latest dvd recorder. I can understand if they discontinued their older models though. Anyway I have noticed that prices on this model have actually gone UP if you go check pricegrabber

[FulciLives]

Hello

Not to worry it is a good thing.
Panasonic is releasing a replacement called the DMR-E80H which is pretty much the same unit (though I think it lacks a FireWire input) except it has a built-in 80GB HDD plus it will not have the dreaded "black-level" bug.

This puppy is expected to hit the market in late July or early August 2003 at an estimated mail-order price of somewhere between $600 to $700

Sometime later this year Panasonic has another model due with a built-in 120GB HDD that will have FireWire inputs. This model is not due until several months after the DMR-E80H but will most likely be out in time for the end-of-the-year Holiday shopping spree.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[oldfart13]

Panasonic Canada told me both models were due to be released in August. You might try to email Panasonic USA for an update...

[zanos]

Instead of increasing the hard drive space they should concentrate on maybe including a tivo like program guide.

[dafoe]

Faster HDD to DVD-R dubbing speeds would be nice also.

[FulciLives]

Faster HDD to DVD-R dubbing speeds would be nice also.

The reason the transfer from HDD to DVD-R is so slow (real time) is that it has to re-encode when doing the transfer. Therefore if you intend to record to the HDD first with the idea of THEN putting it on DVD-R you should use the XP speed (the best recording mode) so the quality loss when going from the HDD to the DVD-R is not so noticeable. To clarify ... record to the HDD only in XP mode then when you record to the DVD-R you can drop it down to SP or whatever so that your program "fits" on a DVD-R disc.

HOWEVER ...

Please note that HDD to DVD-RAM transfer is faster than real time as it does not re-encode AS LONG AS you record to the HDD at the speed you record to the DVD-RAM

So in that case if you record XP to the HDD but then SP to the DVD-RAM it will re-encode it. But if you record SP to the HDD and then SP to the DVD-RAM there is no re-encoding being done.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[dafoe]

Wow!

I've noticed a slight quality loss when transferring from HD to DVDR but I didn't realize that it was actually re-encoding.

I would love to record everything in XP mode to the HD but that would only be aprx 8 hours worth of shows. I am collecting 5-6 shows right now so my HD would fill up very quickly.

Besides, most of the stuff I collect is from the 80s, 90s or earlier so the original quality wasn't spectacular anyway. Definitely food for thought though.


Thanks for the info.