Panasonice E50 video quality....

[thoots]

Scooter,

First of all, let me report that I recently got an E50, my first standaloner, and I'm recording stuff from old VHS tapes. I have been COMPLETELY, swimmingly happy with the video quality. I normally play my recorded DVD-R's back through a Sony 300-disc changer.

Secondly, the "chapter points" options of the E50 are very simple and rather limited but generally effective enough -- if you want to set a chapter point, hit the "STOP" button and stop recording. Otherwise, the recorder will automatically set chapter points approximately every five minutes. I'm happy enough with that!

thoots

[Scootershaka]

Thanks Thoots. Yes, I can live with the player adding chapters in 5 minute increments. The problem with stopping and starting record is the slight pause in picture from program to program. I'll just let the player add chapters. Not the best for editing, adding music and stuff but a nice player nonetheless. And I really think the dvd I recorded from vhs looked a little better than the actual video tape. Seems odd but just from what I could tell.

[mastrl]

Hi, For you E50 owners, if my main interest is time shifting would you suggest the E50, or spend the extra cas and go with the E80 for the hard drive. I, of course will also copy some existing VHS to DVD too. I appreciate any, and all comments.

[FulciLives]

Hi, For you E50 owners, if my main interest is time shifting would you suggest the E50, or spend the extra cas and go with the E80 for the hard drive. I, of course will also copy some existing VHS to DVD too. I appreciate any, and all comments.

For time shifting I would definately get the E80 because you can record to the HDD in XP mode (the highest quality mode) and then ... after watching your TV show ... delete it.

I mean if all you want to do is record something to watch later WITHOUT the need to save it AFTER watching it THEN you might as well use the HDD only and use XP mode so you get the best possible quality.

Plus with the HDD you aren't limited to only 2 or 3 hours (which is all you can fit on a DVD-R or DVD-RAM with good quality). So if you are away for a couple days or there are a couple TV shows on you want to record but the total time adds up to more than like 2 to 3 hours then the HDD becomes a godsend.

For instance ... the HISTORY CHANNEL did a Saturday afternoon marathon of some UFO shows. About 7 or 8 hours straight. I was able to record ALL of that to the HDD at the SP quality speed which normally would only allow for 2 hours on a DVD-R or DVD-RAM disc. Without the HDD I would have had to be there and switch the discs every 2 hours and use 4 discs.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[thoots]

I'll second fulci's sentiment here. Oh, boy, do I want the newest Panasonic DVD recorder with the biggest hard drive to replace my rusty old VCR!! For time shifting, the hard drive would be ENORMOUSLY helplful, I'd think. More or less "instant access," a TON of room, if you really get one of the big hard drive models -- sounds good to me!

I use my DMR-E50 "separately" from my video system -- it's on my "computer table," with a nice new Sharp LCD TV for monitoring. Once the prices of the new high-end hard-drive models come down a bit, I've got a VCR that's gonna fly into a dumpster soon thereafter!

thoots

[ejai]

Scootershaka wrote:

After trouble shooting what seemed to be for hours, I made it to the black level input. The default being darker in and lighter out. By changing it to lighter in and darker out the satellite picture was identical to the receiver satellite input picture.

If you lighten the video you are creating the same bug that the E30 and below are having. The contouring colors you are talking about are mostly visible while using the E50 to view the movie. If you play the video back in another dvd player, you will notice that most of the contouring will dissapear.

The real true color of the Direct TV signal is when the black level darken setting is used. If you lighten it you are not getting the true digital video signal feed.

ej

[Scootershaka]

EJAI, So. Are you saying if I put the black level input back to dark in, light out (default setting) that even though the color chroma bug shows throught the E50 Video output that the actual recording will look OK through my Pioneer DV-45A player. I'm OK with the chroma bug showing through the E50, as long as the recorded video looks OK through my other DVD player. I haven't tested a DVD-R recorded from the E50 with black level default settings through my Pioneer player to see if the chroma bug actually shows up on the video. Plus, I have to finalize the disc and they ain't cheap. Thanks for the heads up.

[ejai]

Yes you are correct, viewing the video through another player will show better results. I do admit that there are some contours but none as pronounce as seen from the E50.

I learnt this from the AVS forum. Others have tried this and once I did, I agree with their findings. If you switch it to lighter you are only mimicking the E30's black level bug.

8)