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  1. Member
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    Let me just add another set of praises and thanks to thoots for this guide. I am just waiting for the right moment to buy this toy, but I already know a lot about it, mostly because of the people like thoots
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    Check out the price at this place. Anybody have a bad experiance with them?
    http://www.abesofmaine.com/viewproduct.asp?id=psdmre80hs
    Thanks Mike.
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  3. Well, time for Google.

    Hmmm.... This doesn't look like Maine, Toto!

    Try your luck -- looks like YMMV:

    http://www.ebargainwizard.com/stores/Abes_of_Maine_Reviews.asp



    thoots
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    Thoots,

    Thank you for your hardwork and the wonderful information. The question I have is if I want to burn multiple copies to DVD-R, the programs have to be reselected everytime. Does it save the settings for the next dubbing? Thanks.

    Kwojc
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  5. Originally Posted by kwojc
    Thank you for your hardwork and the wonderful information. The question I have is if I want to burn multiple copies to DVD-R, the programs have to be reselected everytime. Does it save the settings for the next dubbing? Thanks.
    kwojc,

    Well, "yes and no." You can't save that list that I created in the process I described. However, there's a whole feature I didn't even mention, mainly because I've never used it -- "Play lists." You can see a couple of menu items for "play lists" in the "Functions" menu shown waaay far up above in this thread. The process is very similar to how you choose programs for the dubbing list, except you'll be building a "play list" you can save, and enter a name for. Then, you can dub a play list, or several play lists, over to DVD-R. The really really big difference between dubbing separate programs like I showed in my example and, say, dubbing a "play list" that collects a bunch of separate programs is that the "play list" will come across to the DVD-R as "one program," whereas the separate programs in my example come across as "separate programs," showing as separate items in the DVD-R's main menu.

    So, something like you're thinking about can be done, but then again it's not quite the same. In the end, it is a very quick and simple process to grab programs for a dubbing list -- you just hit the enter button, zip up or down the list of programs, hit the enter button to grab it, then hit the enter button to repeat the process, and so on. A couple of minutes, tops!

    Hope that helps!

    thoots
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  6. Member
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    Thanks Thoots,

    your tutorial is full of variable information. Thanks for anwering my question so quickly. I will put the DMR-E80H in my wish list. Hopefully the price will go down after the holidays. Thanks again for your help.

    Kwojc
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  7. Originally Posted by kwojc
    Thoots,

    Thank you for your hardwork and the wonderful information. The question I have is if I want to burn multiple copies to DVD-R, the programs have to be reselected everytime. Does it save the settings for the next dubbing? Thanks.

    Kwojc
    To add to the above - the E80 will keep the selected programs in the Dubbing window until/unless you turn the unit off or perform another function. But if you dub a disc, eject it, put in another blank, and hit "dubbing" again, the same programs should still be selected. So you can make a bunch without reselecting, you just have to do it all at the same time.

    Hope this helps,

    Tony
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  8. Originally Posted by Tony Tower
    To add to the above - the E80 will keep the selected programs in the Dubbing window until/unless you turn the unit off or perform another function. But if you dub a disc, eject it, put in another blank, and hit "dubbing" again, the same programs should still be selected. So you can make a bunch without reselecting, you just have to do it all at the same time.
    Tony,

    Ahhh, great tip!! Something I've never tried -- heck, never even THOUGHT about trying!

    thoots
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  9. Originally Posted by thoots
    Originally Posted by Tony Tower
    To add to the above - the E80 will keep the selected programs in the Dubbing window until/unless you turn the unit off or perform another function. But if you dub a disc, eject it, put in another blank, and hit "dubbing" again, the same programs should still be selected. So you can make a bunch without reselecting, you just have to do it all at the same time.
    Tony,

    Ahhh, great tip!! Something I've never tried -- heck, never even THOUGHT about trying!

    thoots
    Glad to be of service. Just one of those things I found by accident. . .

    Also FWIW, when selecting programs for your dubbing list, you also have the option, to enter the Program Number via the remote. After hitting "enter," your cursor will be brought down to the program whose number you've entered. If you hit ENTER then, that item will be selected.

    Quicker than moving through tens of programs with the down arrow!

    - Tony
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  10. Thoots,

    An amazing contribution. Thanks. To the best of your knowledge, would your guide likely apply to the E100 as well?
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  11. I would say yes... even that you didn't ask me. Try to download manuals from their web and compare. I believe athat 100 have some more features. At least that is what I remembred from reading them.
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  12. Originally Posted by humbled
    To the best of your knowledge, would your guide likely apply to the E100 as well?
    Yes, agreed with donpedro here. To a very great extent, the E100 will work exactly as shown here. I have seen a version of the E100 manual apparently meant for UK recorders, and I see a couple of things have different names -- presumably that won't be the case for E100's here in the US.

    Mainly, though, the E100 has a few more options -- most significantly, you can choose a "thumbnail picture" for your DVD-R menus. It looks like you have to go into the DIRECT NAVIGATOR on the DVD-R you've made prior to FINALIZING it, and that's where the RIGHT-ARROW BUTTON MENU will show the CHANGE THUMBNAIL option. It'll just grab somewhere around the first frame from your program for each menu title, unless you go in here and change the picture to a different frame.

    Also, the E100 has an option to set how the resulting DVD-R will work in a playback DVD player -- you can tell it to display the TOP MENU, or to just start playing the first item recorded on the DVD-R. This is called AUTO-PLAY SELECT, and is in the same screen where you give the disc a title, choose a TOP MENU, and FINALIZE the DVD-R.

    Other than that, the E100 has a whole bunch of stuff relating to the "memory card" input, which of course the E80 doesn't have. But, otherwise, this guide should get you through the E100 just as well as it works for the E80.

    I hope this helps -- good luck!

    thoots
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  13. Originally Posted by Tony Tower
    Also FWIW, when selecting programs for your dubbing list, you also have the option, to enter the Program Number via the remote. After hitting "enter," your cursor will be brought down to the program whose number you've entered. If you hit ENTER then, that item will be selected.

    Quicker than moving through tens of programs with the down arrow!

    - Tony
    Yes, this is very handy. To clarify, when you hit the ENTER button to grab your next program, it always starts with the first program, so, for instance, if you're grabbing a dozen different programs, you'll wind up going down the list and down the list and down the list every time as you grab each new program. If you've got a lot of programs like this, it can be very handy just to hit the number for each program on the remote control!

    thoots
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  14. thoots
    a thousand thank yous for this tutorial. as you say the manual is lacking a bit. I printed all 35 pages of this out and it was well worth the ink. i will now be able to easly master the editing features.. THANK YOU!!!! you da man!!
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  15. In addition to my nattering above, I would also like to thank Thoots for his work on the guide. While I've figured out most of this stuff on my own before he made, he should be commended for his very valuable effort. I just wish he'd done it before I got *my* E80 - it would have made my life much easier.

    As it is, I've printed out Thoots' guide for future reference for friends who may need to use my unit, and as a counter-reference for Panasonic's manual.

    - Tony
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  16. Member
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    Nice visuals but if you REALLY want to know about using the E80 and E100 DVD recorders (no visuals though), go here:

    http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=320713&highlight=cheat+sheet
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  17. Hopefully I am not steering this terrific thread off-topic (excellent pics and guide, by the way!). So here's my question:

    Can you pause live-tv with this Panasonic? I almost bought one this weekend, but after d/l'ing the manual and reading it, all I see is "Timeshifting." But, with Tivo, you just turn it on and watch TV. If you want to pause, you hit the "pause" button.

    With the Panasonic it seems to me that you have to be recording something, then you can hit "pause." Would I have to theoretically have to hit "record" every time I am casually watching TV, even though I really don't want to be recording per se?

    Thanks!
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  18. Originally Posted by shatner
    Can you pause live-tv with this Panasonic? I almost bought one this weekend, but after d/l'ing the manual and reading it, all I see is "Timeshifting." But, with Tivo, you just turn it on and watch TV. If you want to pause, you hit the "pause" button.

    With the Panasonic it seems to me that you have to be recording something, then you can hit "pause." Would I have to theoretically have to hit "record" every time I am casually watching TV, even though I really don't want to be recording per se?
    Well, should be the same with Tivo I would guess, but you can't "pause live TV" unless you happen to be recording it onto the hard drive. Or, maybe the Tivo just jumps into record mode if you hit the pause button. I'm not that familiar with Tivo.

    But, with the E80H, you definitely have to be recording something in order to "pause" it. Now, if you are indeed recording something, and you want to "go back" to see what you have recorded while it continues to record, it's all covered on Page 17 of the E80H manual. Bottom line, you press the "Play" button while it's recording, and it'll jump to the beginning of the program. Then, you can zip through it fast forward and rewind, pause it, and so on. You can also go into the DIRECT NAVIGATOR while you're recording, and choose to watch any other program you've previously recorded onto the hard drive.

    Finally, you can press the TIME SLIP button while you're recording, and that will reduce the "recording" video to a small picture-in-picture window, while the "playback" video fills the screen, and you hear the playback audio. The "playback" video will start from 30 seconds previous to the time you hit the button, and then you can use the UP CURSOR and DOWN CURSOR buttons on the remote control to move backward and forward in time through the playback video.

    I hope that helps to clarify the E80H's ability to record and play back at the same time!

    thoots
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  19. in response to the tivo queston.

    tivo is a different type product, it is a DVR, digital vidoeo recorder and the panasonic is a dvd burner. we are comparing apples and oranges.
    i do believe there are some models of dvd burners that have tivo also but they price is sky high, PLUS tivo has a $12 or so monthly charge. that charge is what has kept me from going to tivo route, i pay enough montly charges for dtv, cable, internet etc. enough is enough in my mind, for now LOL. i am sure in a couple years or less i will be a tivo man
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  20. Member
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    If you are in the USA in a few years you can be a Tivo man. The UK version of Tivo was not renewed so it will end in 2 years. It is not marketed anywhere else other than the USA and UK. The Pioneer 810H DVD recorder with Tivo doesn't allow you to edit Tivo recorded content before burning to DVD, so it's pretty pointless unless you are recording movies with no commercials. It's way too expensive compared to standalone DVD recorders and Tivo units anyway...
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  21. Originally Posted by shatner
    Can you pause live-tv with this Panasonic? I almost bought one this weekend, but after d/l'ing the manual and reading it, all I see is "Timeshifting." But, with Tivo, you just turn it on and watch TV. If you want to pause, you hit the "pause" button.

    With the Panasonic it seems to me that you have to be recording something, then you can hit "pause." Would I have to theoretically have to hit "record" every time I am casually watching TV, even though I really don't want to be recording per se?
    As sparkafatty pointed out, Tivo is a DVR. It is different from a DVD recorder, although it is totally possible to include the functionality in a DVD recorder that has a HD. It is just programming and user interfaces. I am sure there will be a DVD recorder that combines both functionalities in the near future. The Pioneer DVD recorder with Tivo is not really it because the burning of Tivo shows on DVD is limited/crippled.

    Tivo is ALWAYS recording the live TV ALL THE TIME. Tivo has the ability to play a recorded program while recording the live TV because it is using a HD. A live TV is whatever it is on. If you schedule a program, the channel is switched at the scheduled time and the live TV will be your scheduled program. So if you are wathcing a live TV and play pause, the TV screen is paused, but the recording still goes on. In a way, you are always watching the recorded program. And for live TV, it just happens that you are watching the same thing as what Tivo is recording.

    If the live TV is a scheduled program, it records the whole program and create an entry in the play list. If the live TV is not the scheduled program, it only keeps the last 30 minutes of that channel and there isn't an entry in the play list.

    I hope it is clear. It is not that easy to explain this in a sentence or two. That is why DVR is not catching on very fast. But for most people like me, once they use a Tivo (because of some need), there isn't turning back. I haven't watched a live TV for 2 years.

    I bought a Sony RDR-GX7 to convert my VHS collection to DVD. I record the VHS on DVD+RW. Then I copy the content to the computer. I edit the start and end of the VHS, create titles/chapters, and then burn it to DVD+R.

    I did buy a E50/E60 to compare the analog PQ. GX7 is a bit better, so I returned E50/E60. However, GX7 is about $100 more expensive. But I don't have DVD-ROM that reads DVD-RAM disk, but I would have to spend an extra $50 to buy one and some money to buy a few DVD-RAM disks. So the "total cost" between the GX7 and E60 is about the same for me since I already have a DVD+RW burner and many DVD+R/RW disks.

    I don't have a need to archive any TV shows. I record them using Tivo, watch them, and delete them. I did add a 80 GB HD to my Tivo so that I could record a lot of shows. I always have something to watch and don't really have to worry about the HD space. If I ever run out of space, I will just add another 120 GB HD to the Tivo. But I hope it won't happen because then we would be watching too much TV

    If I want to make copies of DVDs, I just use my PC DVD recorder to do that.
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  22. Originally Posted by netuer
    If I run out of space, Iwill just add another 120 GB HD, hopefully not anything soon.
    Little bit off topic... how do you do that ?
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  23. Originally Posted by donpedro
    Originally Posted by netuer
    If I run out of space, Iwill just add another 120 GB HD, hopefully not anything soon.
    Little bit off topic... how do you do that ?
    Yeah, I agree. The part about my Tivo setup is off topic. I got carried away explaining how Tivo works. Hopefully how Tivo works is not off topc. Sorry about that
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  24. Thoots--great post. Some questions.

    --Have you tried creating a playlist out of a program and editing it into several scenes for burning to DVD? I'm doing that now and trying to see if it's possible to *Title* the different scenes.

    --I didn't think of the way you Divided the program as an option. Seems a good way to have a title for all the segments. Let's say you divided the Letterman show into several programs, cutting out commercials... instead of using a playlist or the regular editing function. Will all those divided segments play back seamlessly as a single show?

    I guess I'm trying to find the best way to edit commercials out, set my own chapters and preferably have those chapters on the main menu, yet all play seamlessly when viewing the burned DVD from start to finish. (i.e. baseball game divided by innings and labeled on the menu 1st inning and so on)

    --Couple thoughts on things I've read in different forums but haven't yet validated myself: Doesn't DVD-R Compatible Record mode uses a varible bit rate compression? While it will allow for high speed dubbing from HDD to DVD (with no re-encoding and at what speed I don't have a clue) it doesn't yield the best picture quality. When you don't use DVD-R compatibility and record form HDD to DVD, you can set the bit rate (xp, sp, lp) but it re-encodes the video when burning to DVD.

    Here's a link to a good post about a test comparison
    http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=e5728b4be154455ac4691b789ed5b843&threadid=328422
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  25. Originally Posted by shutterbug
    --Have you tried creating a playlist out of a program and editing it into several scenes for burning to DVD? I'm doing that now and trying to see if it's possible to *Title* the different scenes.
    No, I really haven't played with "playlists" at all. Please let us know how it works for you!

    Originally Posted by shutterbug
    --I didn't think of the way you Divided the program as an option. Seems a good way to have a title for all the segments. Let's say you divided the Letterman show into several programs, cutting out commercials... instead of using a playlist or the regular editing function. Will all those divided segments play back seamlessly as a single show?

    I guess I'm trying to find the best way to edit commercials out, set my own chapters and preferably have those chapters on the main menu, yet all play seamlessly when viewing the burned DVD from start to finish. (i.e. baseball game divided by innings and labeled on the menu 1st inning and so on)
    Yes, the "divide" route seems to be a good way to go to get new "chapters" that show in the menu, so you can navigate to them in the main menu, and with the "next" or "previous" buttons on the remote control. These WILL play back more or less seamlessly all as one program -- there might be a tiny little "pause" as you go from one program to the next, but it's like not even one second long. Maybe not what you'd want, say, for a "movie," but it should be just fine for the typical show you'd be editing commercials out from...

    Originally Posted by shutterbug
    --Couple thoughts on things I've read in different forums but haven't yet validated myself: Doesn't DVD-R Compatible Record mode uses a varible bit rate compression? While it will allow for high speed dubbing from HDD to DVD (with no re-encoding and at what speed I don't have a clue) it doesn't yield the best picture quality. When you don't use DVD-R compatibility and record form HDD to DVD, you can set the bit rate (xp, sp, lp) but it re-encodes the video when burning to DVD.
    As far as I understand it, DVD-R Compatible Record mode tells the machine not to use variable bit-rate compression, and to use constant bit-rate compression, instead. The manual says something to the effect that the "default" mode is to use variable bit-rate, to make the best use of the hard drive space, but you turn that off when you switch to DVD-R Compatible Record mode, which needs to have everything in constant bit-rate compression to allow the high-speed dubbing without re-encoding.

    Bottom line, if you record at one speed, you have to dub to the DVD-R at the same speed, in order to get high speed dubbing. Only if you do something different (like taking two hours recorded at XP and want to fit them both onto one DVD-R, which would be at SP), would the machine need to re-encode the video.

    I almost always do everything at XP quality, so I'm not too worried about picture quality. So, I'm not the most expert when it comes to knowing what goes on with the "lesser" picture quality modes...

    Hope that helps!

    thoots
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  26. I have learned quite a bit from this thread, thanks to all. alter playing with the fr mode and editing commercials primarily with fiitball games i have a question i hope someone can answer.

    I have an E80. FR mode is on and i am using it to record games to the HD. games are approx 3.5 hours before edit and 2.5 hours after edits. i am splitting the game into 2 parts after edit and burning onto 2 discs.

    my question is about choosing the highspeed mode when burning to the disc. do i select highspeed mode or FR mode. i don't see how i can shppse FR and highspeed both.

    this might be clearer. starting with a FR mode file on the HD which mode do i choose when i burn to disc if i want to burn at highspeed and retain lossless dub. do i choose highspeed, or FR.....

    normally the files are approx 1hr 20 min or so. i have just been choosing highspeed and it burns in about 16 minutes or so.

    today i tried one of the files in sp (from fr off the HD) and it burned at 1:1.....

    I am looking for the best quality. tonight i am taping a game in Xp mode and will burn at Sp to see what kind of quality loss i get. and i will burn part of it in xp mode to see how much better the quality is.....

    i seem to get a better picture from things off direct tv versus regualr cable.

    any help is greatly appreciated.THANKS
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  27. Originally Posted by sparkafatty
    I have an E80. FR mode is on and i am using it to record games to the HD. games are approx 3.5 hours before edit and 2.5 hours after edits. i am splitting the game into 2 parts after edit and burning onto 2 discs.

    my question is about choosing the highspeed mode when burning to the disc. do i select highspeed mode or FR mode. i don't see how i can shppse FR and highspeed both.
    As I understand FR mode, it won't be very helpful to you when recording something to the HD that you later need to remove commercials from.

    Recording a program in FR mode to the HD requires you enter a running time. In my understanding, that allows computer to calculate a bitrate to get you maximum picture quality for that runtime - "maxing out" a 4.7GB file. So if you record a 3 hour football game with FR mode, and then delete a half-hour of commercials, you've "wasted" 1/6th of your disc space.

    To my mind, if the length of your program minus commercials falls at or near one of the speed benchmarks (1, 2, 4, or 6 hours),you could record at XP, SP, LP, EP to the HD and high-speed dub to disc. Otherwise, record your program to HD in XP mode, make your edits, and then dub to disc in real-time FR mode. You'll lose a smidge on reencoding, but will maximize your file size and resolution.

    That's my take on the sitch.

    - Tony Tower
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  28. tony
    i am recodring using the timer and have it set for 4 hours of FR mode. i definetly understand what you are saying and it makes sense. i am recording a game now in xp and will do the edit and burn in fr. i am burning approx 1hr 25 minutes on the disc so i guess FR mode will burn it as Sp. OR should i be do the HD recording at SP and burn to disc at FR......

    its kinda confusing all of a sudden.

    the quality i got doing it the way i was seemed a bit lower than i expected. i guess i will learn more when i do this next burn...

    thanks for your input...

    if anyone else has an thoughts i would enjoy hearing them.thanks

    -
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  29. Thoots, thanks for the detailed reply. It's great to be able to hash out some editing ideas with others. Here's what I found trying the Divide Program and Playlist options.

    I'm working on dubbing some baseball games right now from VHS. Tapes are fair quality at best--recorded in EP (3-4 hrs w/commercials).
    1st Disc: Recording to HDD--I turned on DVD Compatiblity record mode, used FR mode and set the amount of time to 2:45:00. I calculated the amount of time for commercials and manually paused recording to get the most out of FR mode for a disc less than 3hrs long.

    After recording to the hard drive, I created 9 Playlists. Each Playlist has 2 scenes - the beginning of the top and bottom of each inning. This allows me to have 9 Titles on my finished DVD. I dubbed the 9 Playlists to DVD. I can go to any inning through the menu. Playback is seamless with no pauses. I noticed I still had chapter stops within each inning, either as a result of pausing/recording during recording to HDD, or else they were automatically added.

    After I dubbed to DVD, I noticed it was not high speed....Maybe I should have taken notice of where the manual says you cannot high speed dub playlists lol. Based on that, I assume the final DVD was re-encoded . I'm comparing the finished DVD quality on my Phillips DVD player (rca cable) to the original recording on the HDD (SVHS cable). On 2nd look, it's hard to tell. In some cases my burned dvd played on the Philips looks better than the HDD, but the audio isn't quite as good. I may try dubbing it again using just the program and not the playlist so I can test for the difference in PQ and speed.



    Disc 2:I tried the Divide Program option with another game. I divided 9 innings into 3 different programs. The advantage was being able to have 3 menu items, the disadvantage was having long pauses between the segments. As a rough guess--maybe 1 to 2 seconds at the end of the divided program and a 1 second pause at the start of the next segment.

    I would not use the Divide segment option to edit a movie. It might be a good option where you have a long fade to black or in an instance where you won't mind the pauses. You can High Speed Dub a divided program though. As long as you use the dvd compatible option for the original recording and don't change recording speeds (xp, sp, etc.)

    Bitrate Quality When you've viewing a program off HDD or DVD, if you press the STATUS button 3 times, you will see the bitrate your program is recorded at.

    Here's a Great link to a cheat sheet someone created for the E80 in another furum. More info on dubbing and PQ. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=320713&highlight=cheat+sheet
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