Recording to Hard Drive with Panasonic DMR E85

[tucold]

Hows it going?I have a question dealing with the Panasonic DMR E85.I am curious when you are recording to the Hard Drive can you use the SLP Mode(6 Hr),then when dubbing to SP or LP keep great quality and get more to the Hard Drive.I use the LP mode and it seems fine when I am dubbing to the Hard Drive.Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Bill

[ktnwin]

If you record to HDD in SLP mode, then dubbing to DVD-R in LP, SP or XP mode is just a waste of DVD-R space as the quality does not get improved at all.

[Meritocracy]

If you're happy with it at those settings...enjoy. Dubbing via a better quality setting isn't going to improve what's already there. If it was recorded at SLP then the footage is SLP quality period. If you want to keep material you're recording to the HD for future use, then burn it to RAM. You can then erase the footage from the HD saving space, and always high speed dub from the RAM disc back to the HD at a later date if you wish.

[lordsmurf]

6-hour mode is poor. It requires deinterlace. Yuck. Maybe "poor" isn't the right word. More like "total garbage".

4-hour mode on a Panasonic is poor. It is rather blocky, maybe splotchy at best.

2-hour is fine. Gives a decent encode, does not harm the video with nasty digital artifacts like the others do. Use this.

One you damage video digitally, it's there forever. So starting off at a low quality SLP encode will always remain quality, regardless of what it may be re-encoded to later on. You cannot gain back what has been lost.

So, to answer you, no. If you want SP or LP mode quality, stay there.

[handyguy]

Hmm, my Panasonic lets me choose either 6 hours or 8 hours for SLP mode.

[ktnwin]

Of course it does. For a few shows like news, talk shows,.... where picture quality is not the key point, 6 or 8 hrs recording is OK I guess although I haven't used this mode yet.
I have tried 2hrs 45min and picture quality is still great.