Panasonic DMR-EH52 LP Mode Test

[Satanico Pandemonium]

Hi,

I had a chance to test this machine for couple of days, and here are the results of the test I made.

Original footage is DVB stream captured with SkyStar 2 card.
The video was then recorded using Panasonic DMR-E50(all playback-filters OFF) as a Player, connected via SVHS cable to DMR-EH 52.
I tried to include as various material as possible in this short clip.

- 20 sec. of Football (soccer) game -Fullscreen
- 25 sec. of Cher's concert (very colorfull) - Widescreen
- 30 sec. of TMNT Cartoon (flashing lights, rain...) - Fullscreen
- 30 sec. of Multivision Trailer Show incl. short clips of Ladykillers, The Alamo (10 sec. mostly explosions, fire, smoke...) and The Gathering (still scenes, almost no movement). There are also some fast transitions between the clips. It has blue bars on top and the bottom, so you can get impression of how it looks like with widescreen recordings.


DMR-EH 52 LP Recording

http://rapidshare.de/files/2364100/DMR-EH_52_LP_Recording.part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2364372/DMR-EH_52_LP_Recording.part2.rar.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2364740/DMR-EH_52_LP_Recording.part3.rar.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2364859/DMR-EH_52_LP_Recording.part4.rar.html


Original DVB Stream (please keep in mind that this may not be compatible with some DVD players since it's unchanged DVB stream with non-standard gop structure, to high bitrate...etc...etc...)

http://rapidshare.de/files/2365329/RAW.part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2365556/RAW.part2.rar.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2365678/RAW.part3.rar.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2365935/RAW.part4.rar.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2366046/RAW.part5.rar.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2366264/RAW.part6.rar.html

[klick on the url, scroll down and klick on "FREE". In the next window scroll down and wait few seconds for a download link to apear]

Im my opinion, the quality of DMR-EH 52's LP recordings is good, but having in mind that HDTV is going to become standard very soon, it's not good enough for archival Purposes.
Anyway, it looks better then on other recorders i've tested (CyberHome CH-DVR 1600, JVC DR-MH 30, Yamakawa DVR-625, LiteOn LVW 5045, Toshiba RD-XS 34 and Pioneer DVR-433) because of the higher resolution.
It's especialy noticable on football games. All of Recorders i mentioned above produced terible results on such material...with giant macroblocks surrounding every player. DMR-EH52 is by no means macroblock free in LP mode, but it looks definitely better.

Now just a quick word about editing possibilities which are very important to me.
This recorder produces FRAME EXACT cuts. I made some tests on PC, and the cut's were always perfect. It only makes pixel-mess (not noticeable on TV) on one frame before and after the editing point, but it goes away as soon as file is remultiplexed on PC.
Another great thing is that unlike previous Panasonic models, this one uses almost whole disk space (4,27 GB).


So much for now. Happy testing, and sorry for my bad english!


-

[Rlaci]

Could you give me information about filters of Panasonic DMR-EH50 compared to Pioneer 433?
Which works better in case of VHS source?

[Satanico Pandemonium]

I can't tell you exactly what filters Pioneer has (only had it for 2 days), but I think both machines perform very well on good VHS source. Only thing i noticed with one of my bad tapes , that the picture was far more stable when recorded on Panasonic. Orignal tape had some kind of waves constantly going trough the picture and those were almost completely gone on Panasonic which was not the case on Pioneer model.

[Rlaci]

Thanks

[eddytor]

Am surprised to hear about macroblocks on the pioneer 433. its supposed to have a high bit rate to cater for such action sequences.

how were your test generally with the 433. its the one DVD recorder i am looking to buy currently.

were you able to test the two pass VBR mode when dubbing from the hard disk?

cheers

pete

[DVWannaB]

Well it is LP mode (3 hours, no?) which means the recorder can only dedicate on average about 3 mbps, maybe less. For fast action captures, sports, action movies and the like, it will not look good. LP mode should only be used for programs like sit-coms or anything like talking heads, where there is not much movement, scene changes and fast camera pans. LP is not meant for archiving. This mode was included as a sort of "throw-in" capability, becuase many people associate the settings on the DVD recorder with that of a VHS VCR. Use it at your own risk

[Satanico Pandemonium]

Am surprised to hear about macroblocks on the pioneer 433. its supposed to have a high bit rate to cater for such action sequences.

how were your test generally with the 433. its the one DVD recorder i am looking to buy currently.

were you able to test the two pass VBR mode when dubbing from the hard disk?

cheers

pete

Sorry for the late answer. I had pioneer only for short period of time and I wasn't able to test the 2pass mode (had to return it to a local store due to their 2 days return policy). I'm not sayin' that it's a bad mashine. It just that LP mode looks better on panasonic. I have made the test same way i did with EH52 (including same footage & setup), if you're interested I can send you the samples so you can compare it for yourself.

Well it is LP mode (3 hours, no?) which means the recorder can only dedicate on average about 3 mbps, maybe less. For fast action captures, sports, action movies and the like, it will not look good. LP mode should only be used for programs like sit-coms or anything like talking heads, where there is not much movement, scene changes and fast camera pans. LP is not meant for archiving. This mode was included as a sort of "throw-in" capability, becuase many people associate the settings on the DVD recorder with that of a VHS VCR. Use it at your own risk

LP mode = 4 hours
I wouldn't use it for archiving either, I was just curios how it REALY looks like since some people here are constantly stating how extra-crap it is. Download the sample and see it for yourself.