SONY or PANASONIC...

[the phantom]

SONY RDR-GX7 or PANASONIC DMR-E80H???

pros and cons, please?? i will take all info into account! thanks for your time...

[rhegedus]

Ever thought of looking for the answers?

Desktop DVD Recorders

[the phantom]

why, rob, yes i did!! it was helpful indeed....just was trying for a little more info if possible. no harm in that is there??
your response is appreciated though!
take care,
michael

[rhegedus]

Well, there's 35 posts on this site and also the following:

SONY RDR-GX7

PANASONIC DMR-E80H

Happy reading!

[the phantom]

ROB- the ease with which you use to navigate the confines of this wonderful site is astounding! and the web search info will provide a veritable wealth of info that will undoubtedly be applied to my current info, as i make my final decision in the purchasing of a standalone recorder!

out of curiosity, which do you own?? thanks again!

take care,
michael

[Bob W]

Since I know the Panasonic recorders have a built in TBC (time base corrector) I would go with it. Also I think the Sony DVD recorders are way over priced. Also if you don't plan on recording from satellite or cable then you can do without the hard drive and save some money by getting the Panasonic E50.

[the phantom]

Bob W- so the recorded picture clarity is comparable between the two then? in both XP and SP??
thanks for taking the time to help out an uninitiated member of the dvd recorder populace!

take care,
michael

[Bob W]

Bob W- so the recorded picture clarity is comparable between the two then? in both XP and SP??
thanks for taking the time to help out an uninitiated member of the dvd recorder populace!

take care,
michael

The recorded quality of the E50 and E80 would be the same in any record mode IMO. A hard drive is nice for recording TV stuff then editing it prior to recording. Myself I have no desire to record the crap that comes from my satellite.

[DaveS]

- sony is expensive but has a better video digital to analog converter (sony is 108 mhz 12 bit, panasonic is 54 mhz 10 bit). From the specs, I would have to assume that at equal bitrates, the sony conversion would be better. How much better, I can't say (e.g. is 54 mhz enough to plow through a crappy VHS source to clean it up enough - not sure). I have heard that panasonic pictures are pretty good too.

- Both have TBC and noise reduction/cleanup to clean the signal prior to putting it on DVD

- "Standard" recording for Panasonic is on DVD-R, while sony is -R, -RW, +RW

- Panasonic "advanced" editing is on DVD RAM while Sony is on -RW VR. Neither plays easily on your PC if you want to rip/edit from there - need a RAM drive and I thought there was a s/w patch to let -RW VR be read by win XP but I haven't followed up from there

- RAM would allow chasing playback but w/ the HD, you don't need the RAM format for that since I think panasonic provides. Sony does not permit chasing playback (models in japan have HD but that's not released here (yet)).

- Panasonic offers variable bitrate, e.g. you tell it your source is X mins long and it will fill the disk allowing as many bits for your source as possible. Sony is constrained to the fixed intervals 60, 90, 120, etc. (although does record at a variable bitrate within those). Not sure if b/c of the higher spec chip whether this is a negative for Sony. Theoretically it would be, all else being equal, but the chips are different spec, so if you waste 15 mins, for example, of space and bits w/ sony, not sure if that's visible in the output.

- Sony has firewire input (but no firewire out); Panasonic doesn't seem to.

- Sony has no program guide but does have VCR+ and standard recording. Not sure if panasonic has a program guide.

- I wish sony had a feature to burn a DVD in play only w/ no menu; not sure if panasonic does.

- Can't speak to playback features / quality.

My personal opinion based on all of this is that if you want to maximize picture quality of recording, go for sony (e.g. converting analog tapes to dvd)(and, if later you want firewire in to put your digital camcorder stuff on dvd more easily). If you are more into timeslip / chasing playback (e.g. TV sources, etc.) go for panasonic. FWIW, if you want Tivo with a dvd burner, ther is a new model out (pioneer maybe but not sure) that does actually use the tivo program guide - can't speak to quality of recording or playback.

[rhegedus]

out of curiosity, which do you own??

Neither - I'm looking to buy one myself.

I love the idea of the HD of the Panasonic, but don't like the idea of useing DVD-RAM because I plan to do my editing on PCand using a DVD-R for each recoring is a bit wasteful - they're not the price of CDs yet!

The Sony can use rewritable DVDs and also has a firewire connection, but since I can capture from TV to PC using firewire I don't realy need that feature.

I'll probably wait for a machine with HD and RW capability, unless the sales get the better of me - which they always do!

[Bob W]

There is some advanages to using DVD-RAM (one being you can write to the disk over 10k times) and you can buy a Toshiba DVD drive that reads RAM as well as all the other formats for $30. Thats what I did and it works out great. All I do is copy the DVD-RAM files to my hard drive, change the file extention from VRO to mpg then use the software of my choice to do any editing.

[rhegedus]

Two questions:

What's recorded on the DVD-R: VOB or VRO?
What's recorded on the HD: VOB or VRO?

[Bob W]

Two questions:

What's recorded on the DVD-R: VOB or VRO?
What's recorded on the HD: VOB or VRO?

VOB for the DVD-R and VRO for DVD-RAM. I assume that files recorded to a DVD recorder hard drive are VOB.

[rhegedus]

How is HD material transferred to DVD-R? i.e. how does it do VRO --> VOB?

[zanos]

get the panasonic with the hard drive. It's a necessity. A dvd recorder without one is almost pointless. It's incredibly hard to edit and you always have to record programs over an hour in a lower quality setting and then edit later on on the computer. This ultimately leads to lower quality recordings. The remote control on the sony also sucks and the recorders costs alot more. On the plus side I think the Sony produces a slightly better picture quality at the highest quality setting BUT the tbc is not nearly as good as correcting certain errors and distortions dubbing bad quality vhs to dvd. The built in tbc in the panasonic rivals standalone tbcs costing hundreds of dollars! However the Sony doesn't have an FR mode for recording and the panasonic does. The only bad part of the panasonic is the lack of a free "tivo" like guide, no firewire and dvdram instead of dvd+rw.

[netuer]

If you are interested in analog picture quality capture, here is my experience.

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=192386

[ejai]

Editing dvd-ram is not hard to do at all, and a hard drive is not a neccessity. Once you copy the file to the pc hard drive all you have to do is use a program called Mpeg2vcr to edit out commercials and other bothersome stuff you prefer not to have recorded.

Then use the authoring software of your choice to burn the dvd-r.

It's just that easy!