Tons of questions for anyone with a Panasonic E85/E80 record

[Bridge]

I'm looking to get a DVD recorder with buit in hard drive. I was thinking about the Panny e85 but I've been wondering if the older e80 is better? Does anyone have the e85 and the e80 and knows which is better?

For one thing, I don't think I get this, I was looking at the manual of the e85 and I think that it said something about if you set two shows back to back that it can't record the last 15 seconds of the first show and the beginning 15 seconds of the second show if you record to DVD-R. Is this true? So if say, for example, I wanted to tape say "Joey" from 8-8:30 then QVC from 8:30-9:00 then the e85 wouldn't record the last 15 seconds of "Joey" and the first 15 seconds of QVC. Is that true? The one I use now doesn't do that.

2) What happens if you are watching a TV show live or off of the hard drive and a commercial comes up. You are recording it as it is happening on to DVD-R. You hit the pause button. The commercial or part you want to skip is over and you hit the pause button again. Will the e85 put a chapter mark on the DVD-R disk? The one I use now does.

3) What's this thing about a "marker" that the e80 has and the e85 doesn't. Like you can set markers up on hard drive and DVD-R/RAM disks to go back to that marker point but with the e85 if you stop the show you have to start from the beginning and fast foward to the part where you left off because you can't put in a "marker" point. Is that right?

4) Is the e85 missing TV timer programming features that the e80 had? Like more flexible ways of recording shows on the old one and now they totally limited the use of manual recording settings in order to make you use the TV Guide on screen menu to record all of your shows?

5) Can the Panasonics ONLY record to DVD-R in the 4:3 format? You can't choose to record to 16:9? Only the RAM disks allow that? I have a cheap recorder but again I have the choice of recording on to a DVD-R disk in 4:3 letterbox, 4:3 panscan or 16:9.

6) Say, for example, I taped a half hour show onto the hard drive and I wanted to keep the show but not the commericals. I don't want to go through and do tons of editing on the hard drive before I burn the show on to DVD-R. I want to watch the show on hard drive live while at the same time pushing the record button on the DVD-R so that as the show is playing off of the hard drive it is also recording on to DVD. Then when a comercial comes up I hit the pause button to stop the DVD recording, fast foward the commericals on the hard drive, and then when the show starts again on the hard drive push the record button on the DVD-R to continue recording. Can I do that with this machine or do I have to record the whole show. Edit the commercials out on the hard drive and then burn the whole thing as one to DVD-R? I'm sure you can do what I'm looking for if it was a vcr lined into the recorder but can you do the same thing if it was something taped on the hard drive instead of a VCR?

For anyone who has both the e85 and e80 or has tried both and decided that one is better than the other is all of these things above true and if so is it better to skip the new Panasonic E85 with the bigger hard drive for the older E80?

[spiderman2k1]

1. E85 has a small pause before it starts to record about 5 seconds. That what I have read.

2. E80 only does chapters in FR dub mode that recoding a huge file to fit on DVD-R. Only time this is even worth it is when you record in XP mode and its over one hour. You dub it again to get it to fit on DVD-R. I never record right to the DVD-R. I edit on the hard drive. Once ina blue moon I record on to DVD-R if my hard drive is filled. And If I have blank DVD-RAM even better I can edit right on the DVD-RAM. As for the E85 can not tell you I do not have one sorry.

3. It save the last part of the video you watch so if you leave you can come back and watch it. As for the E85 do not know do not have one.

4. As for the timer on the E80 just like any VCR very easy to use. E85 do not now.

5. You can only recorder in 4:3 you have to use info edit to change the info file on the PC to make it 16:9. I do not think you can rec ord 16:9 on DVD-RAM again I do not think do. So I could be wrong. Read this link to learn how to do it on the PC. Read this link

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=398318&perpage=20&highlight=...9&pagenumber=2

6. It does not record to DVD-R the way you think. This is how it works you edit out the commercials one or two ways. One there is Short Segment. This deletes the commercials. This way you get back hard drive space after editting. On the E80 you can High speed dub no recoding. How do you edit this way you start where the commercial and right where the last commercial ends. The other way you edit is Play list This way you edit where the show start and when the first commercial starts. So the commercials are still there just when you burn the DVD-R it will skip over them. On the E80 you have to recode them on Play list the E85 you can high speen dub

The E85 does have one small bug in it. After you delete a file some frames of that show are still on the drive and show up on other show you record later. It only last a sec or two. Right now I would go with the E80 or E95 or E100

[Bridge]

Thanks for all the info.

Now I don't know what to do? I was planning on getting an E85 this year but after you mentioned the bug and suggested I should think about last year's E80 as well as those other models I don't know what I should do? I wonder if that bug and problems of the E85 will be in next years models as well? I saw a close out of the E80 but it's still $400 at the store and they only have one or two left and the E85 is only a hundred something more. I was going to get the E85 for Christmas but now I'm lost. Get the E80 with less hard drive space? Wait until next year hope the new ones are better than the E85?

Anyway thanks for letting me know.

[handyguy]

I think you can get an e100 at buy.com or amazon for cheaper than that.

btw, panasonics use time slip technology. U can record a program & as you doing that push play to watch it, then you can pause what you are watching, but it continues to record it so when you unpause youre right where you paused.

[papakilo]

I have an E80H and it will record back to back shows and if there is a skip I've never seen it. I personally think the E80H is better than sliced bread except for one thing. It died the other day and I can't figure out how to do a hard reset on the thing. If anyone knows please tell me how.

When it died I went out and got an ILO with the hard drive, but it won't record and play at the same time and you have to turn it off when you want to record something, it thinks it's a VCR and only dummies will use it.

[Bridge]

The only thing I'm really fight over now is this . . .

The E80 sounds like a much better machine (as well as the E100 but I haven't looked at prices yet) but I was looking through the pdf manuals for them. I was going to take a Monster S-video line out of my digital cable box and run it from there into the back of the DVD recorder. I noticed that the E85, 95, etc. (the new ones) have a special line 3 input. It says in the manual if you are going to do what I'm going to do to plug it into the special L3 line in because it gives it better color and picture quality. The E80 as well any from last year has a line 3 input but it doesn't say in the manual that it gives it better color and picture quality if you are going to run a line from your cable box s-video out into the machine. As if the E80 etc. has just an average line 3 input but the new ones being made today has something special in the line 3 just for doing what I am planning on doing. I just don't know how much better that line 3 input is v.s. one that is normal? If it didn't have that special input I would be getting an E80 or E100. The E80 just sounds all around better even with the smaller hard drive but if the manuals are true then I would be getting a better picture from my cable s-video line to the E85 by using the L3 input that they said in manual is now made for such a thing.

Problem is that no store around here carries the E80 except for one now and they are closing it out so I'm pressed for making a decision. If I wait to long the E80 will be gone from around here and I have to turn to some unknown online company that won't return things if the box is open or something. I think that if I wait until after Thanksgiving all of the shopper will come out and snatch that thing up right after.

Thanks for letting me know about the place selling the E100. I have to look at that one when I get a chance.