Pan E-30 or E-50?

[jasta]

What are the differences between the E-30 and E-50?

Thanks

[Gil T Pleasure]

One difference that I know of is that the E50 does not suffer from the black level bug that the E30 suffers from.

[FulciLives]

One difference that I know of is that the E50 does not suffer from the black level bug that the E30 suffers from.

To the best of my knowledge that is the only real difference between the two machines. If I recall I read that the E50 has a selectable IRE level control for the input so it can be adjusted based on if your source is USA NTSC or Japanese NTSC/PAL

The E30 is basically set up to work with Japanese NTSC/PAL so when recording US NTSC (which uses a different IRE level for the black level) you end up with a DVD disc that often will playback TOO brightly (with washed out colors) but this doesn't happen *IF* you play it back on the E30 ... just with (most) other model DVD players.

Right now the price difference between the E30 and E50 are minimal so I would get the E50 if I were you.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[scottymac]

Definately E30 over E50. For a number of reasons.

I don't have oscilloscopes for eyes, and I am not a pseudo-statistician. I have played my E30 disks in many other players on many other TVs and have NEVER noticed this "black level bug"

The E30 is priced quite a bit lower than the E50.

But the most convincing fact, Panasonic did not make as much money from the E30's as hoped so they re-designed the E50 using cheaper parts. (Don't believe me? Open each up and take a look. Or even just pick both up, the E50 is much lighter than the E30)

And my E30 does not have the "Chroma bug" that most DVD players have (according to the disks I've checked). I don't know about the E50 though. Since it's a re-design, they may have gone with a cheaper MPEG-2 decoder?

There is one feature the E50 does have over the E30-MP3 playback (whoop de doo)

IMHO, I would rather have a less expensive E30 than a re-designed, stripped down E50.



scottymac

[ejai]

I have an E-30 and will tell anyone who is serious about backing up their tapes and keeping the color and brightness consistant to buy the E-50 or higher.

The black level bug is definately a problem. Panasonic should of allowed users to set their own settings, then this would of never been a problem.

ej