DMR-HS2 questions???

[Chuck Antinoro]

How accurate are the editing capabilities? Can you stop on a dime or is there any lag?

Can you record from DVD to HDD (assuming there is no copy protection)? Not looking to illegally dupe movies, but rather make a 'best' of compilation of purchased DVD sketches that I don't believe are copy protected. I am able to copy these purchased DVD to VHS or Hi 8, so that's why I think they are not copy protected.

What's the picture quality when recording from tuner to HDD (depending of course on mode selected), but in general is there any pixelation or artifacts???

What are people's general impressions of this unit, as I am quite anxious to get one.

[Tearren]

Hello Chuck!

I just picked up a player last week and have done a little testing with it.

The editing capabilities are pretty good. It allows you to edit and delete the video by the frame. It also lets you create play lists which is pretty convienent. I didn't really understand the concept of a play list, but it is exactly what the name implies. It allows you to create a new video segment from several different video segments that you have saved on your HDD. This lets you edit the play list without actually editing the video segments themselves (For instance, once you edit/delete something from a video segment, it is permanently deleted).

You CAN recored from DVD-RAM to HDD, but you CANNOT record from DVD-R to HDD. This is the biggest draw back I see about the player. So, lets say you transfer a home movie to the HDD from the VCR. If you burn it to a DVD-R and delete it from the HDD you CANNOT copy it back to the HDD by way of DVD-R. If you want to make a copy for someone, you would have to either transfer it to DVD-RAM via computer DVD recorder (which sorta defeats the point of having a standalone DVD recorder) or re-copy it via VCR.

The picture quality on SP is very good - Close to DVD quality - little pixelation. At LP is pretty good - Better than VCR not as good as DVD some pixelation in high motion scenes. EP - Don't even bother.

My overall impression is I really like the unit. I like the combination of recording to HD and DVD as well as playing DVD's. I like the convience of recording to the HDD, this appeals to me the most.

My suggestion is if you are seriously considering getting the player, pick it up at Circuit City. It will be $1000.00 but with their exchange/warranty policy you can test it out for 30 days and if you don't like it return it for a full refund for any reason (without having to pay a restocking fee). If you like it you can find it on the internet for $750. Just make sure your Circuit City has this same policy by asking the sales associate.

Note: If you have a DVD player with a firmware upgrade that turns off macrovision, you still CANNOT record to the HDD with a protected DVD. You would have disable CGMS on the DVD player to do this.

Later,
Tearren

[Chuck Antinoro]

Tearren:

Thanks for the quick reply, which of course prompts more questions, if you'd be so kind.

Re: not be able to record DVD-R to HDD, I assume that's if the DMR-HS2 is the sole unit. How bout if you connect an external dvd player like you would a VCR or camcorder and play the DVD-R from that? Or I guess you could keep a master copy of everything on DVD-RAM.

Same question goes for recording excerpts of my owned DVDs. One of the things I'm hoping to do is to make copies of various sketches from my Monty Python's Flying Circus DVDs. The reason I don't think they are copy protected is because I've been able to record excerpts to my VCR and camcorder. When I try other movies, I get jumpy and discolored pictures on the VCR and a copy protection unable to record message from my camcorder. I do not have any firmware upgrade on my Sony DVD player that disables macrovision or CGMS, that I'm aware of. What controls these copy proection schemes anyway, the player or the DVD itself, I'm assuming it's the player?

Did you get your unit from Circuit City, where? Massachusettes Circuit City's don't list them.

I've heard of a problem when playing DVD-Rs in other players, looking too bright. Have you experienced this? Apparently the problem is not supposed to occur with DVD-RAM.

Thanks again.

[Tearren]

Ask away, I am happy to answer if I can.

DVD-R to HDD, yes this is if the unit is the sole player. You can record from other players, or atleast I have been able to do so. I have recorded VCD's I have made to the HDD from several disks and burned them to 1 DVD-R. You just want be able to do it from copy protected movies unless you circumvent the macro and CGMS. From my experience, if your movies are as you say not copy protected, I believe you will be able to do what you want to accomplish. I believe the copy protection schemes are controlled by the other source, so if you can disable it from there you would be fine. But, the DMR-HS2 also has its protection schemes as well.

I got mine from Circuit City in North Carolina. I am not certain what you mean by not list them. I would think a chain carries pretty much the same stuff, but maybe not. When I was looking it wasn't on the website yet, so I called and asked them if they had it. The guy said yes, so I just went and picked one up.

I have an APEX 5131 and when I played a DVD-R the picture looked great. The only problem I experienced is when you fast forward, you can only fast forward at x2. Also, it would not rewind at all. You can skip chapters both forward and backward though. I am not sure if this is because of the DVD-R media I am using, the way the DMR-HS2 records to DVD-R, or the nature of my APEX player with DVD-R media. The same DVD-R disk played fine in the DMR-HS2 though. I could fast forward and rewind without any problems. It reminds me of burning an SVCD in an old version of NERO, where it won't allow you to fast forward or rewind. Anyone else have any ideas or experience with this???

Later,
Tearren

[TuxOmatic]

Hey Tearren, thanks for sharing! A lot of us are very curious about this unit. I'm on the edge of ordering one myself. A couple of questions, if I may:
1. Have you used the firewire connection and, if so, are you pleased with the video when you play it back off the hard drive?
2. You say you recorded some VCD's onto the hard drive. Did you play them from another device that was wired to the HS2? Or can the HS2 play your VCD's and record them at the same time onto the hard drive? I heard that you can't record a DVD-R onto the hard drive, so does that apply to CD-R's, too?
3. Related to question 2, and maybe you haven't bothered to check this out, but how does the HS2 play other formats, such as SVCD, mini-DVD, etc.?
Thanks for your responses!

[SergeantD]

Hi Tearren, I can sort of answer your question about the not being able to REW or FF past 2x. I have the DMR-E20 which uses the same recording drive as the DMR-HS2. I have encountered the same problem and I can assure you it has absolutely nothing to do with the media. It is basically a combination of how the recorder authors the DVD-R and the DVD player that plays it back. My Apex and Daewoo have the 2x and REW limitations while my Toshiba and Koss do not. When the same media is recorded on by my pioneer DVD writer, the playback on the Daewoo and Apex are as normal. Hope this helps.

[Tearren]

SergeantD

Thanks for the info, that certainly sheds some light on the issue. I now know to take an "if it works it works, if it doesn't it doesn't" approach to playing DVD-R's in other players. I am going to try a few other DVD-R media as I have them, but I am not going to waste a lot of effort experimenting. Thanks!

Tux0matic

1. Have not used the firewire connection, this is a little out of my technical sphere at the moment.
2. Yes, I played the VCD's from my APEX 5131 with a setting of SP. They looked just as good as my VCD's. I have 1 movie on 3 VCD's (actually they are second generation KVCD's) and I consider them near DVD quality. A little caveat you should be aware of, if you make a DVD-R from several VCD's there will be a little "blip" between the transission of the different segments when playing it back. This blip is where the sound will go out and the video will flicker for a second or less.

The only format you can copy to the HDD is DVD-RAM. You see, when you are dubbing, it gives you 2 different selctions to choose from

1) HDD ---> DVD-R or DVD-RAM
2) DVD-RAM ----> HDD

That is it. If there is not a DVD-RAM disc in the unit, you can't copy it to the hard drive.

3) The HS2 CAN play my VCD's which are actually XVCD's (or KVCD's).

As stated in the manual of the HS2, it CANNOT play the following:

"DVD-Video with a region number other than "1" or "All"
Some DVD-RAM, Some DVD-R, PAL Discs,
DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, DVD-Audio, +RW, CD-ROM, CDV
CD-G, PhotoCD, CVD, SVCD, SACD, MV-Disc, PD
Divx Video Disc, etc"

I can confirm it will not play SVCD, as I have tried it. Based on the given information, I doubt it would play mini-DVD's.

Hope that answers your questions, if anyone has anymore, feel free to ask.

[TuxOmatic]

Thank you Tearren for your detailed response. I haven't burned a whole lot of CD-R's in any particular format. I've been experimenting with different formats to see how well they play on my Apex 600a and 500w. The other night I made a XSVCD that my 600a couldn't FF or RW but my 500w could. Most of my recent projects are still in DV AVI format on my hard drives, which I would dearly love to transfer onto DVD-RAM through the firewire, thereby giving my drives some breathing room. I guess my biggest worry when I get the HS2 is how I am going to finance all the blank media I will need!

Speaking of media, which brand of DVD-R have you tried so far?

I've read that these units can get by with low cost media, but the playback on other DVD players becomes iffy. Of course, I'm like every other Joe that wants cheap media that will play on everything, but I'm willing to bite the bullet and buy something at a higher price if it is more reliable.


SergeantD:

Which brand of media do you use on the E20?


Thank you all.

[bnbhoha]

Also, if you don't mind. You never answered the question if you observed the "wash out" look that many have reported. Some say that did not notice it, but others disagree. What's your expereince? Thanks.

[Tearren]

TuxOmatic:

I bought a sample pack from www.meritline.com also picked up a few Memorex. I intend to test all the disks. Here are the results so far:

Opto Disk 4.7GB DVD-R General (OPT-DVDR4.7G-001) - Burned a movie to disk. I was unable to finalize the disk, so I can't play it in other DVD's. While this is not desirable, it does plays fine in the DMR-HS2.

Accu 4.7GB DVD-R General (ACU-DVDR4.7G-001) - Successfully burned movie to disc and finalized it. Plays in APEX 5131, but does not FF or RW can skip chapters. Plays fine in DMR-HS2, FF & RW as well.

(I realize it says on the website some media will not be suitable for this type of recorder, but some were supposed to be and I couldn't resist testing for myself).

That is what I have done so far.

bnbhoha:

I believe I know why there maybe a difference in opinion about people experiencing "wash-out". When I record from my digital signal from the satellite to the HDD, I do not experience wash-out when I play the movie back on my TV. But, I noticed that when I recorded a VCD to the hard drive from another player, the picture was washed-out. This occured slightly in some places and was more predominate in others (such as in a very dark scene with a bright light source).

That is my experience atleast.

Later,
Tearren

[TuxOmatic]

Very interesting, Tearren. Buying blank media is only part of owning the HS2 that I'm not excited about. Although some of my needs will be for DVD-RAM, things I want to archive for myself, I also do a lot of special projects for people and want to provide a DVD-R for their own viewing. I guess I'll have to deal with that no matter which DVD authoring solution I choose, so I'll be doing more research. I hope to have the HS2 in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, concerning the "wash out" effect, I've been reading a lot of comments on another forum where they call it the "Black Level Bug". Some users have used instruments to prove that the HS2, as with the E20 & E30, burn DVD-R's with the wrong black level setting, making the video appear too bright and washed out. Some people have noticed it, and some have not. Probably the people with the really high-end home theater equipment are more likely to see the difference. I have a very low-end setup, so I'm hoping I won't notice. Which brings me to a question. The info on the HS2 at various websites states that the HS2 has "Picture Control (Brightness, Color, Contrast, Gamma)". How is this feature used? Can you adjust the brightness of a source while you are recording it? Or is this just for playback purposes? If you can control the brightness of the source, and if you plan to make a DVD-R, and if this black level bug exists, then can you make the right adjustments to compensate for it? Just wondering . . .

Thanks for your thoughts!

[SergeantD]

Tux,
I also use the Accu 4.7GB DVD-R General (ACU-DVDR4.7G-001) from Meritline for only a $1 each and they work perfect! I thought I made it clear to Tearren that the REW & FF problems have nothing to do with the media but he doesn't seem to believe me. Those problems will happen with certain DVD players regardless of the media you use.

[Tearren]

TuxOmatic

Sorry, it took me a while to get back to you. Interesting theory about the "wash-out" effect. You say it is due to the way the recorder burns the DVD with the wrong black level setting? Just to let you know, I recorded "Birds of Prey" to the HDD this past Wednesday and burned it to DVD-R. When I played it back in my APEX, there was no wash-out effect. So far, the only time I have experienced the wash-out effect is when I capture to HDD from an external DVD player.

I looked into the picture control features for you. You can adjust the picture control settings for video playing on the HS2 in either DVD or HDD mode. The picture control features will not affect signal being "passed" through the HS2, such as cable or satellite.

You can't adjust the picture of the source while recording. To test this I changed the picture control features (contrast and brightness) and turned them all the way up while playing "Birds of Prey" on the HDD. I wanted to test extremes to make sure I would notice. I then dubbed a 30 sec segment to DVD-RAM. While the player was recording in dubbing mode the video was playing on the TV and it returned to a "normalized" picture setting (ie, it played without the picture control changes I made). I then turned the picture controls back to normal levels and played back the DVD test segment. It played normally, without any changes I made. If there is a way to do it, I don't know how. I also, tried to change the settigns when actuall dubbing, but it would not let me access them. It did not specifiy in the manual that it is possible to make these adjustments either.


SergeantD

It is not that I don't believe you, I am just a little confused. A DVD-R I burned can FF at 2x on my APEX and with different media I can't FF at all. This inconsistency puzzles me. Have you experienced this? I would think if it wasn't media related I would have the same results with all media, right? Or is it the case you can either not FF at all or you can FF at 2x? Regardless, FF at 2x is better than not FF at all. Also, if we can FF at 2x couldn't it be possible there is media that let's us FF at 3x or maybe even 4x? Why the 2x limitation, what is so special about 2x? I am just looking for the cheapest DVD-R media that plays the best.

Thanks,
Tearren

[TuxOmatic]

Tearren -

Thanks for checking that out for me. I appreciate your posts. I guess it was a bit of wishful thinking about the brightness control thing. I read a post on another forum that someone uses a "PA-1 Proc Amp" (serial digital) to lower the IRE black level of the source before it goes into the HS2. The video looks too dark before burning to DVD-R, but after burning and finalizing the disk it plays correctly on his other DVD players. If I was rolling in cash I'd pick one up . . . yeah, right! I'm not too concerned, though. If it becomes a problem with other family members, etc., I can always adjust the video darker while still on my computer as DV AVI before I transfer it via firewire. I went ahead and ordered the HS2 and should have it on Thursday. I'm really looking forward to it.

Also, I think what SergeantD was trying to point out was that different DVD players react differently to disks authored from different setups. Even 2 players of the same make and model might have different playback characteristics if the firmware versions are different. After reading the countless posts here about the countless compatibility problems people are having, I held off from investing in anything for months. There are so many variables involved for something to work perfectly . . . it makes my head spin. This is why I bought the HS2, it will keep things as simple as possible. Although, as SergeantD has pointed out, using the HS2 is not perfect, since his Pioneer drive can author a disk that will play better on his Apex than the same media burned with his E20. (His Apex can FF a DVD-R faster than 2x if it is authored on his Pioneer). That's the nature of the beast, I guess. Even the most subtle differences in burning specs, firmware, etc., can change the compatibility level of a player. Eventually I will have a burner on my computer for the fancy jobs (motion button menus and stuff) and maybe even better compatibility with other players.

Thanks again for your responses!
Tux

[Cyrax9]

I have a few questions abot the HS2 as well.

Befoe I drop $750.0 on this at PCMall.com, I want to know ifI can record from the TV to the HDD in the DMR-HS2, then watch a DVD Movie, and after I ahve 2 Hours of TV-Recorded programs (Stuff I keep and I like to watch several times), can I pull the Store-bought Disc out, and put in a DVD-R then Burn the stuff on the HDD to the DVD-R?

In other words TV >> DMR-HS2 HDD >> "Watch Store-bought" DVD >> HDD to DVD-R?

Basically can I record to the HDD, and watcha "DVD MOvie" without havig to leavea "Diosc" in the Drive the way I wuld on the E30S?

Thanks in addvance guys, also can you reccomend some Blank DVD-R's?

[resinger]

Tearren,

You say, "You CAN record from DVD-RAM to HDD, but you CANNOT record from DVD-R to HDD."

Two questions: (1) Can you record to HDD from the RCA inputs (patch cords) such that you could record a DVD or VHS from a separate machine to the HDD (assuming, of course, you had a way to kill the copy protection)?

(2) At what speed does the HS2 record on the HDD? I understand that it records at all four speeds provided the original program is on the HDD, but I've also read that if you record from DVD-RAM to HDD, that it only records at the LP speed. In addition, I've read that if you record from another source such as VHS, it also is limited to the LP speed.

Um, one more question I just thought of:

(3) Is the recording from HDD to DVD-RAM or DVD-R a digital copy or is it analog? (I'm inferring that at least in some cases it's digital, since I've read that you can do a high-speed dub from HDD to DVD-RAM.) I'm hoping that it's digital, because that mean a minimal--or no--loss in quality.

Right now I'm doing analog dubs from the Panasonic DMR E10 to the DMR E20, and the results look pretty good, but digital dubs would be better.

[oldfart13]

Go to:

http://www.avsforum.com

and search under the HS2 and other DVD recorders info. Extensive testing by users there. Also links to new DVD standalone recorders there.

[Tearren]

-Cyrax9

I will try to answer your question the best I can, as I have never operated a E30S I am not familiar with the issue in which you are referring.

If you are asking can you switch between watching a store bought DVD movie while recording "TV programs" to the HDD at the same time and then later recording your "TV programs" to DVD-R then the answer your question is yes. You don't have to have a disk in the drive to watch something from the HDD.

Accu 4.7GB DVD-R General (ACU-DVDR4.7G-001) from www.meritline.com works well for me and are pretty cheap.

-resinger

(1) Yes - I recorded a copy of a VCD to the HDD from a seperate standalone.

(2) You can record to the HDD in 4 of different Recording Modes available (there are actually 5 recording modes however) from a source such as a TV or Seperate DVD player or VCR.

"XP" Best quality
"SP" Close to DVD
"LP" Close to VCR if not better
"EP" Don't bother.
"FR" The 5th. Recording to DVD-R/DVD-RAM fits program to disk or whatever is remaining on the disk.

When recording from the DVD-RAM to the HDD, it doesn't let you select a Recording mode/Speed. I believe it just "Dubs" it back to the HDD at the Speed it was recorded to on the DVD-RAM disk. There is actually a selection greyed out that it will not let you change called "High Speed".

So, yes you can record in different speeds from an alternative source. I confirmed this by looking at the status while recording in different speeds.

(3) I am not sure what you mean by this question. When you say analog do you mean some type of re-encoding? If you select High speed dubbing mode when recording to DVD-RAM it should be a digital copy though. I don't know what happens if you record to DVD-R in the same speed that you recorded it on the HDD. I am not sure if it re-records it or just makes a digtal copy as it plays. Good question though.

If I am recording a movie I copied from the sat to the HDD (at SP) and then to DVD-R I record at FR speed to get the best quailty on the Disk. I record TV shows at SP speed and fit 5 1-hour episodes (really 42 mins with commercials edited out) to 1 DVD-R at LP speed.

[resinger]

Tearren,

Thanks very much for the info. I can barely contain my excitement about getting the HS2. One thing that surprises me is how quickly Panasonic has put better units on the market. I can tell you from personal experience that it sure didn't happen that fast with VHS. I can't remember exactly how long it took for S-VHS to hit the market, but I bought my first VCR in October 1978, and I got my first S-VHS in 1992.

The FR recording mode sounds fantastic, just the right thing for exactly fitting a movie on a disc. Add to that the fact that the dubbing to disc process ends automatically, so I don't have to wait around to press "stop" on the remote anymore.

Have you settled on a favorite brand of DVD-R? I've had very good luck with Optodisc, and they're priced right, too.

[Chim Bubba]

8)
Well I thank you and others that have contributed. I went ahead and
returned my Panasonic DMR-E30 from circuit city and went to best buy
and purchased the Panasonic DMR-HS2. To put it simply I am very very
pleased!!! The main thing for me is that I have a really large amount
of VHS tapes to get rid of. So this is perfect for me because instead
of putting them directly to DVD-R and basically watching every darn
movie all over again, instead I just press play on my VHS and transfer
as many as I can to the Panasonic HDD. Now in the case of recording
mode, most of the tapes I have been transfering so far are old martial
arts movies and believeit or not i have used exclusively EP mode (the
so called worst mode) and the output has been good actually the out
put is far better than the original VHS tape. I have also tried the
better modes and really no difference to me. I think this is because
some of these old movies aren't the best but I seem to see them just
fine. By the way I have a widescreen 65 inch TV so I should see the
junk pretty easily. But I actuall tried some of the DVD-R I made on a
27 inch tv using an older Panasonic A-320 (my first dvd player) and it
looked even better than the 65 inch. The only problem I have so far is
one of the DVD-R I created has problems with one of the movies on the
disk. It plays choppy and there is a stop and go effect to it. The
other movies on the same disk do not have this problem. I took a good
look at the DVD and it appears to have a scratch or some kind of
defect that I cant remove by cleaning. Could it be that this disk was
just bad? The DVD-R I have used so far are Imation. They were going 5
for $9.99 at CompUSA.
So that is it so far I will keep you updated as to my ups and downs
also I am curious as to what people think about the Philips DVD
recorder. I haven't heard much feedback on that one.
Take care and much thanks!

[Chim Bubba]

Just to add on more info about my trials. I have had some problem with
playing my newly created dvd-r in my older dvd player. It is a
Panasonic A-320. So far with 2 disks I created I am unable to choose a
movie from the playlist and there is also pixelation I think that is
what you call it. When fast searching it sometimes freezes or locks
up. Of course it plays perfectly in my Panasonic HMR-DS2.
The dvd-r I am using so far is Imation. I don't know what this could
be. Perhaps the Imation disks are not good for my old dvd player? The
only thing I can do is wait for a shipment of DVD-r coming from

http://store.yahoo.com/cdrdvdrmedia/higqual47dvm6.html

to find out if it is the older player. If anyone has any ideas please
let me know. Or any info on the older Panasonic A-320.
Thanks

[resinger]

Chim Bubba,


I think it is likely a player problem. I have recorded on some off-brand discs in my DMR E20, only to encounter shuddering and pixelation on playback. I can take the same disc, insert it in the Panasonic DMR E10, and play it just fine. We're in the early days of the format, at least from the stand-alone player aspect, and I think things will get better over time. It's analogous to the CD-R/RW situation. My three-year-old Sony CD player will play most CD-Rs, but not all. On the other hand, my newer machine plays virtually everything.

[JHebert]

I am seriously considering buying a DMR-HS2 and I have a couple additional questions I haven't seen answered before:
Can the DMR-HS2 accept DV input from a PC instead of a DV camcorder? I know the manual says "no" but I've read conflicting reports on different web sites. One guy claimed he could with iMovie on a Mac, but a few PC users said they could not. I don't care whether or not the PC can do DV device control over the DMR-HS2, I just want the ability to send a DV bitstream from the PC to the DMR-HS2 so I can use it as an external MPEG encoder and DVD burner for DV projects edited on the PC. If I have to manually start/stop the recording on the DMR-HS2 that's fine.
Also, I understand that the hard drive and DVD-R/DVD-RAM drive in the DMR-HS2 are standard IDE devices like in a PC. If the above idea doesn't work, perhaps IDE/Firewire bridge board converters could be attached to these drives in place of the internal IDE cables. My theory is that then the PC could use the drives in the DMR-HS2 as an external Firewire hard drive to transfer between PC<>DMR-HS2 and also as an external DVD burner.
Any experiences with these ideas?

[Chim Bubba]

Chim Bubba,


I think it is likely a player problem. I have recorded on some off-brand discs in my DMR E20, only to encounter shuddering and pixelation on playback. I can take the same disc, insert it in the Panasonic DMR E10, and play it just fine. We're in the early days of the format, at least from the stand-alone player aspect, and I think things will get better over time. It's analogous to the CD-R/RW situation. My three-year-old Sony CD player will play most CD-Rs, but not all. On the other hand, my newer machine plays virtually everything.

You are probably so right.
What DVD-R brands have you had the most success with in terms of compatibility??

[youngblood]

Tearren,
Again "Thank You" for answering all the questions about the DMR-HS2. Here is one I thought someone might asked. If you tape a show (4 shows) on the HDD and put titles in. Do you have to stop the machine to insert the titles to the DVD-R ( I wouldn't know how to stop it unless you stop recording)? I know if I wanted to add titles to the DVD-R I had to stop my E-30 to do this. I thought maybe if you record everything to the HDD (2 hours) and go back and edited it and insert the titles maybe you can record from the HDD to the DVD-R (without stopping) and it would put chapter stops on the DVD-R for you...Any help would surely be appreciated..Thanks YB

[Tearren]

Hey Youngblood,

Glad you PM'ed me about the question. I am only sporadically getting notices that there is a new post to this thread.

Are you saying by stopping the E-30 Machine, you have to burn a segment of video to DVD-R, stop it and edit the DVD-R with a Title and then start burning another segment again? If so, that sucks.

No, The DMR-HS2 is very flexible. You can create "playlists" as I mentioned above and edit those. Add titles and arrange them in any order you want them to play. There is a limit to the playlists, I think you can have up to 999 of them.

Here is what I do, after a program has recorded to the hard drive, I add a title to it. When I have several programs, I then copy the programs to the DVD-R and add a "Main Title" to the DVD-R. That is it. When the programs are burned to the DVD-R, the HS2 adds its own chapter stops. I am not sure if you can go back and add a title for a program after you have burned it to a DVD-R though. Hope this answers your question, if not let me know.

[resinger]

Well, folks, I took the plunge last night. I ordered the HS2 from Planet MiniDisc (with whom I've done business before). Their price is $799, and although it's out of stock, they expect a shipment in next week and will e-mail me when they ship.

This means I will have the DMR E-10, the DMR E-20, and the DMR HS2. As I told a friend at work, "If you don't get off the dime, I'll have three DVD recorders, and you won't even have one. As I spoke to him about the features of the HS2, I could see his mouth watering. Before I was finished, he asked me for web sites where he could examine the machine, and he allowed as how getting the HS2 was almost like getting two machines, which made it easier for him to rationalize spending $800.

Another convert made!

[youngblood]

First and foremost I want to "Thank" Tearren for helping me figure out the new DMR-HS2. I had two E-30's which I was recording one to the other but I had to stop the second machine to add titles. On the HS-2 you don't have to do that now because of the dubbing menu it has. Also I saw on other boards that people were having trouble with the E-30 recording some DVD-R's. Sometimes when I put a blank DVD-R in one of my E-30's it would give me a message like U11 or Can't record disc. I was ready to throw the discs away but I waited until I got my DMR HS-2 and tried it and it burned them with no problem. Another thing I have heard that TKD doesn't sell in bulk but I bought 25 Disc from www.meritline.com yes there were about $2.30 a piece but they do say TDK on them. I would say anyone who has the extra money should buy the DMR HS-2 because it is a great machine. One drawback it can't record from DVD-R to the HDD. But I use my other E-30 for that unless you pick up a Daewoo 5700 which does read DVD-R's and they are really cheap in price. The Daewoo 5800 won't read DVD-R's only the 5700.. YB

[duffy76]

I'm brand new to the world of DVD Recorders and I'm seriously thinking about buying this model - it sounds great. Thanks for all of the information.

I have two questions:

I do character edits of my soap. What I want to do is transfer VHS footage to the HD and then edit different scenes and transfer it to DVD-R. When I edit various scenes on the HD, are the scenes deleted from the source video or does it remain intact? For example, Actors A & B are in a scene. I am doing different edits for both characters. Can I edit the scene for Actor A, have the scene remain intact on the source video and then come back later and edit the same scene for Actor B? I hope I didn't totally confuse anyone.

My second question is - when you are transferring from the HD to DVD, is the transfer time in real time or is it faster? If I am transferring am hour show, do I have to wait an hour for it to finish?

Thanks so much for the info,
Anne

[thxkid]

Sorry but I do have to correct the statemnt "daewoo 5800 does not read DVD-R", with a simple CD-R hack not only will the $79 5800 play DVD-R's ( I have 3 with no problem reading DVD-R's) you can make it region and Macro free. Add a Sampo 631CF and the DMR's can also record any DVD's from the 631CF onto your blank DVD-R or DVD-Ram. Have no problem useing Ritek or Primedisc $1.09 DVD-R discs in the DMR's either, now I have a E20, so not sure about the E30's.