Recorder w/ A/D pass through?

[hamaholic]

Does anyone know for sure whether any DVD recorders (especially the Panasonic E60S, HS2) have analog to digital pass through? I want to get one of these recorders to kill two birds: (1) easy transciption of most home video tapes to DVD and, (2) A/D conversion of home video tapes to firewire, where it can be imported and edited on my PC. I have had sales people tell me both answers. Anyone have a definitive answer, especially first-hand experience?
Thanks,
Dean

[scottymac]

The panasonics that feature firewire are for inputting not outputting.

The HS2 features a HDD so you could capture, edit and then record to DVD-R.

Or if you went for the E30 or E50 models (no HDD), your best method would be capture in XP mode on DVD-RAM and edit, then export RAM to your PC to burn in another format.

Or because you went with the E30 without the HDD and saved yourself about $300, you could pick up a few DVD-RAM disks and a RAM compatible player. Capture in XP mode on RAM, edit, then pop the DVD-RAM in your other player and re-capture on DVD-R. The loss of quality should be negligable.

The E30 does not feature a firewire input, but unless you're running a HD setup, it makes no difference.

I have captured my miniDV footage from my digital camcorder thru the S-Video cable and it looks great! I do not have component in on my TV, only S-Video, so it doesn't matter if it was captured through firewire and burnt on a PC DVD burner or captured on my E30 through S-Video, Since I can only see the maximum resolution of 480x480. Which looks pretty darned good to me.

Happy hunting, hope I helped.

[hamaholic]

Thanks, scottymac.
I suspected that no dv output was the answer. I guess I'll reconsider how to accomplish my tasks. I see two sure ways: a digital camcorder with a/d pass through, or recording to dvd-ram. If I buy a Panasonic dvd-r/-ram drive, I can read the dvd-ram from the recorder into the PC, edit it, and write it back out as a DVD-R.
Thanks again!
Dean

[piano632]

The Pioneer DVD recorders all have DV output as well as input. I don't know if it does pass-thru though - you may have to record it to disc/HDD first. A new model (DVR-002h) is due sometime this summer w/ 80 GB hard drive). Also Panasonic will have their new 80 GB hard drive model out in July (DMR-E80) for $699 though I don't expect it will have DV output any more than the current Panasonic models do.