Panasonic DMR-HS2 arrived; initial observations...

[heavyharmonies]

My HS2 arrived at work this afternoon. I've been playing with it for roughly 5 hours, and compared to the rigamarole I was going through on the PC, it's a godsend.

I had printed out the manual last night and did some reading in advance, so had at least a rough idea of what to expect. I do not have a cable or satellite signal hooked up to it, so I am not using any of the TIVO-like functionality.

Just some random notes:

I found the HS2 fairly intuitive to use; things seem at least semi-logical.

As with most complaints I've read, the titling via the remote *is* fairly cumbersome. After a while you get into a rhythm, but some sort of keyboard solution would be *OH* so nice (I'd be willing to shell out some bucks for a viable add-on).

Dividing segments is very simple and easy to do; easier than on the darned computer.

I don't find the menu options nearly as hokey as people implied... would be nice to do a custom from JPEG though...*sigh*

I've got an LD player on video 3, and an S-VHS deck on video 1, both connected with S-VHS; output via S-VHS to a 20-inch Toshiba flatscreen that I purchased solely for video editing (I have this setup sitting on a rack right next to my computer, so I can be recording/burning while still working on the computer; very nice). The built-in filters in the HS2 seem to do a very nice job. I've found that having the TBC on the S-VHS deck turned on actually made things worse (stuttering).

Most of the work I'll be doing will be music videos, usually a very good test of any encoding solution, due to the rapid movement usually found in videos. I took 2 videos from LD and one from a 12-year-old VHS tape, recorded them to the HD in XP mode, then dubbed each video to DVD-R in EP, LP, SP, and XP, in order to do side-by-side comparisons. 12 videos total on the DVDR.

Maybe it's just me, but given the talk here (and elsewhere) I was expecting EP mode to be quite a bit worse than it actually is. While I wouldn't archive material at that setting, it's on par with many VCDs I've seen. The real jump in quality comes in going from LP to SP mode. I think for many applications SP would be quite adequate. For my music vids though, I will be using XP mode; there were quite a few transitions and areas of dark solids where it made a considerable difference.

I'm in somewhat of a quandry on how to handle live concert videos though. Apparently there is no way to get around having either a video stutter *or* an audio stutter (depending on whether I have seamless play on or off) as long as I insist on dividing the source (in order to wind up with seperate menu items). The only alternative (if I'm comprehending correctly) is to record it as one long stream, and rely on the 5-minute stops in order to move forward/backward - no menu items at all. I wish there were a middle ground, like putting in playlist items and having the labels of those items translte to menu items; from what I gather this is not possible?

I'm using El cheapo Supermediastore generic media. I've run into problems with them burning on the PC (once you go above 4GB or so, most likely you're making a coaster; poor manufacture quality). We'll see how the HS2 reacts. I can't get Supermediastore to return my emails inquiring about a return, so I may be going elsewhere; I'll most likely try the Samsung/BeAll discs talked about here.

The DVDR I've burned plays fine in my JVC progressive scan DVD player, although my El Cheapo Cyberhome DVD player, which normally reads anything thrown at it short of vinyl, will not read the disc. Oddly enough my old Toshiba SD-5109 DVD player, which in theory does not read DVDR media, reads it just fine and dandy. Go figure.

I'm in the process of recording a 90-minute Kansas concert from 1982; we'll see how the treatment of live material goes.

Thus far I'm quite thrilled with it...

-Dan

[Captain Satellite]

Your old Toshiba is still not reading DVD-R, once you finalize it, it becomes DVD VIDEO.