Which recorders have best quality?

[cyberdvd]

Panasonic's web site says the DMR-ES30VS and DMR-ES10K models have a 54MHz/12-bit video D/A converter. It doesn't say anything about their A/D converters. Are these older models?

[lordsmurf]

I have not seen any official information to date that these have 12-bit A/D.

[zorankarapancev]

I have not seen any official information to date that these have 12-bit A/D.

We have been posting some official links from Panasonic few months ago and in case you missed those, here are two more:


http://www.panasonic-europe.com/news_read.aspx?id=2079

http://panasonic.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/en050224-6/en050224-6.html

It can't be more official then that!

[bbanderic]

I just bought one (Panasonic DMR-ES10K) today at Best Buy, came with a DVD-RAM disc and I also got a free 10 pack of the Verbatim DVD-R discs w/VideoGuard protection in slim DVD cases (made in Taiwan) for buying the unit, all for $199. I have yet to test the unit out, I'll report back at a later time, but I just couldn't pass this up for the price and the multi-format DVD-R/DVD+R/DVD RAM recording and playback capabilities. I could be wrong but I think this is the only unit on the market capable of this. Sounds like a winner for the price but we'll see after I test it out.

[Andrey /MAG/]

Frobozz wrote:

Different brands have different encoders. The picture quality is not merely a function of bit rate and resolution.

It is true. There are some results of testing which can prove it.

Several times ago project named "Testing of video data compression quality of home DVD recorders" was started. Adress: http://mag-page.narod.ru/index_en.html.
Now you can compare results of two home DVD recorders (Panasonic DMR-E100H and SONY RDR-HX900) with the results of testing software encoder Canopus ProCoder.

The project is open. You can take part in the testing and post the results to publishing too. All details are described there (but most part in russian).

There are two pages in this site are translated into english: Main page and page of comparison. Others pages stays in russian.
If anyone can help with translating you are welcome.
Thanks.

[LCSHG]

Have to agree with [D'oh] who said.

[QUOTE]
I would choose the ILO because it's cheap, offers HACKS to remove macrovision, delivers a great picture and uses plus disks. When the next wave of recorders come along you won't be out a lot of cash to upgrade. Also, you can buy a 3 year repair/replace plan from walmart for $16.
[UNQUOTE]

I know bit rates and all could be an issue. The picture quality on this machine is very good. I think there are some tring to get a resolution that wasn't there in the first place. Like VHS to DVD. Ask yourself, Do I have a TV that can display 500 lines. Do I have a TV that almost covers one side of the room? If you are going to copy VHS to DVD or other purposes. the hack is the best.

[spectroelectro]

We keep hearing these claims year after year. "Panasonic has completely redesigned its DVD recorder." Yeah. Right. They supposedly redesigned it to fix the 0 IRE error...but the picture still looks murky. I don't think they ever fixed the O IRE bug. They supposedly redesigned the Panasonic to fix the dying hard drive problem, yet I keep hearing complaints about dead drives. I don't think they ever fixed the dying hard drive problem. Now they've supposedly redesigned the video encoder to fix the chronic lowpass-filtered-looking smudgy smeary macroblocked results you get whenyou record VHS onto a Panasonic. Well, I'll believe it when I see it.

Meanwhile, my JVC DRM10 does a champion job of putting VHS on DVD. ALl I need is a proc amp, a Vidicraft Detailer and a full-frame TBC, and the VHS transfer looks visibly _better_ than the original VHS tape. Less video noise, more detail. Meanwhile, other mediocre brands of DVD recorder like Magnavox or Emerson or Panasonic ruin the picture when you try to transfer a VHS tape to DVD.

At the 2-hour SP speed Panasonic and a good brand like the JVC DRM10 show no difference provided the source is digital cable or laserdisc. But when you try to record beyond 2 hours on a Panny or if you try to record from a lower-quality source like VHS at ANY speed, the picture produced by the Panasonic goes right down the tube.

[trhouse]

With recorders there is no one size fits all. I think it was Lordsmurf who made that point clear when he said somthing like, "some people like mosquito noise!".

[oldfart13]

We keep hearing these claims year after year. "Panasonic has completely redesigned its DVD recorder." Yeah. Right. They supposedly redesigned it to fix the 0 IRE error...but the picture still looks murky. I don't think they ever fixed the O IRE bug. They supposedly redesigned the Panasonic to fix the dying hard drive problem, yet I keep hearing complaints about dead drives. I don't think they ever fixed the dying hard drive problem. Now they've supposedly redesigned the video encoder to fix the chronic lowpass-filtered-looking smudgy smeary macroblocked results you get whenyou record VHS onto a Panasonic. Well, I'll believe it when I see it.

Meanwhile, my JVC DRM10 does a champion job of putting VHS on DVD. ALl I need is a proc amp, a Vidicraft Detailer and a full-frame TBC, and the VHS transfer looks visibly _better_ than the original VHS tape. Less video noise, more detail. Meanwhile, other mediocre brands of DVD recorder like Magnavox or Emerson or Panasonic ruin the picture when you try to transfer a VHS tape to DVD.

At the 2-hour SP speed Panasonic and a good brand like the JVC DRM10 show no difference provided the source is digital cable or laserdisc. But when you try to record beyond 2 hours on a Panny or if you try to record from a lower-quality source like VHS at ANY speed, the picture produced by the Panasonic goes right down the tube.

Hmmm...this doesn't sound like the pros/cons here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=486813

Have you made your complaints known on the other forum? I love my Panny E80 and don't find it produces the problems you state. I'd be interested in buying a newer model once the new HDD units are released entirely from MY observations and MY uses. I use mine to transfer Beta tapes over to DVD-Rs. Works fine for me. Perhaps you did not set the Panny correctly (did you buy one and test/return or did you just test it at the store?). That takes some doing as they have some of the worst translated manuals going...