Strange Panasonic Recorder Question.

[dafoe]

A while ago I had a small fire in my house. I had to replace my DMR-HS2 Althought the DMR-E10 relic was fine. Go figure.

I was determined not to pay 800 plus, like I did for my first two recorders. So I bought a used Panasonic E85H on Ebay. While I haven't had any problems yet, I am concerned about this rather strange issue.

I am a quality freak. I like to record in XP mode. About a month ago I discovered I was able to fit 65 minutes (XP) on one DVD

According to the recorder, a 60 min recording is 3604 MB! This is some pretty screwy math. All this material was originaly recorded in XP

Anybody have any logical explanation for this?

[lordsmurf]

The rates are not tied down 100%. They are average. Compresison depends on the material it recorded. These Panasonic all use VBR.

I see this often on my JVC, which can range from 4:01 to 4:14 in 4-hour mode. I see this on most recorders using true VBR. CVBR and CBR are more tied down.