Panasonic 3 hour mode ???

[jrh1194]

I completely agree with the 2 posts above. Panasonic does a great job. Again, it is not perfect, but no doubt better than JVC. (And please don't anyone try to say that Liteon is better). It is good to see that there are people who understand what good quality recordings look like. There has been too much nonsense written about recordings over 2 hours that don't look as good on Panny units. The fact is that recording over 2 hours will degrade in quality on any recordings (yes, even JVC). Furthermore, the Panasonic units have a proven track record of reliability that some of these other brands don't.

[zenzen1]

Well, as I said in my previous post, I did have the unusual opportunity (before returning the JVC back to the store) of comparing the two results. I carefully recorded identical video transmission from SD televison (good clean source), using the same settings (XP and SP) on both machines, and using identical media (dvd-ram). I then transferred the VRO files to my computer, and compared them side by side, frame by frame, using Virtual Dub, one of the few applications in which you can load two (or more) separate sessions at one time. So I loaded the Panny VRO file in one session of Virtual Dub, and the JVC VRO file in the next session of Virtual dub, resized the two sessions on screen, and began my frame by frame comparison. You can be sure you are comparing the same frames, as Virtual Dub has a GO TO option, and you type in the frame number.

Having just spent some dollars on the JVC unit (and already owning a Panny DMR-50), and after all I had read about the JVC, I really wanted it to be better, but in every frame I compared, the Panny showed a sharper, more colourful picture, compared to the dull JVC output. In one part of the video, there was a shot of some distant houses (news report), and some of the houses had corrugated roofing. On the Panny's video you could just make out the lines of the corrugated roofing, but in the same frame on the JVC, it looked like a slab roof, further proof that the JVC is slightly smoothing the vision.
And....I've never seen a "Loading" message on the Panny

[zenzen1]

Just got a PM from someone asking to see my test results between the JVC and Panny. In hindsite I wish I had kept them and uploaded them here. But on the day, I was more concerned in returning the JVC to the retailer while I still could..........