I pretty much record everything in FR mode now since there's always 17-18HR of free space and the materials (I assume) would record in XP mode anyway since space is not limited on the HDD. But there's one thing that always puzzles me whether I'm recording to the drive or burn into a DVD; all the modes from the display lights up in this order: XP, SP, LP EP in red - except for SP; which only lit in white. What does this mean, is SP not not being utilize when recorded in FR mode?

update: the recorder is a Panasonic DMR-EH55 (200GB)

I pretty much record everything in FR mode now since there's always 17-18HR of free space and the materials (I assume) would record in XP mode anyway since space is not limited on the HDD. But there's one thing that always puzzles me whether I'm recording to the drive or burn into a DVD; all the modes from the display lights up in this order: XP, SP, LP EP in red - except for SP; which only lit in white. What does this mean, is SP not not being utilize when recorded in FR mode?

update: the recorder is a Panasonic DMR-EH55 (200GB)

No vast right wing conspiracy on Panasonic's part to exclude SP from the FR mode party. The answer is simply that the light is ALWAYS white. SP is sort of the "default" recording mode (2hr/disc) so Panasonic in its infinite wisdom makes that recording mode status light show up as white vs. all the others as red. If you do a straight SP mode recording (or just set the record mode to SP) you'll see that the SP record mode status light is ALWAYS white, cycle through all the other record modes (by pressing the REC MODE switch on your remote) and they will ALWAYS be red.

Yeah, the actual plastic panel in front of the lights is red for all record modes except for SP, which is clear and shows up as white. I don't know if the manual says that all are red except SP which is white. The manual DOES say, if you can find the correct spot, that all mode indicators appear in the display when FR is used. It's on page 26, point 5 under flexible record. Also be aware that if you record in FR mode, you cannot HS dub to +R, +R DL or +RW disks.

^^I am using some Sony AccuCORE DVD+R DL discs and it does dub in high speed, but only in 2.4X max from mfg disc specs. I gotta mention one thing though; my JVC DVD (circa 2001) player states that it would play any type of disc EXCEPT DVD+R types and I remembered when I tried playing a Memorex +R disc, it gave me an error message, but somehow with the Sony Acccore +R DL, it plays fine. By the way and according to Sony, AccuCORE means: Accuracy, COmpatibility & REliability.

I guess what I'm really looking for is when using FR mode is that it mostly defaults to XP mode, then SP. For instance; if I wanted to record a show that is 1:05 min. length, then I would like the first 58 minutes to be at XP, then the rest in SP....mathematically speaking, I'm not sure if that's possible.

^^I am using some Sony AccuCORE DVD+R DL discs and it does dub in high speed, but only in 2.4X max from mfg disc specs. I gotta mention one thing though; my JVC DVD (circa 2001) player states that it would play any type of disc EXCEPT DVD+R types and I remembered when I tried playing a Memorex +R disc, it gave me an error message, but somehow with the Sony Acccore +R DL, it plays fine. By the way and according to Sony, AccuCORE means: Accuracy, COmpatibility & REliability.

I guess what I'm really looking for is when using FR mode is that it mostly defaults to XP mode, then SP. For instance; if I wanted to record a show that is 1:05 min. length, then I would like the first 58 minutes to be at XP, then the rest in SP....mathematically speaking, I'm not sure if that's possible.

FR mode doesn't work that way. The way it works is that it calculates the disc space available on the disc in bytes and the "duration" of the program and then encodes at an average bitrate (bytes/sec) that is the quotient of the disc space (bytes) divided by the duration of the program (in seconds). It will record at that average bitrate for the DURATION OF THE RECORDED PROGRAM (i.e., it doesn't switch between XP and SP mode bitrates during the recording). Of course this is an average bitrate that will fluctuate when necessary to better encode high/low motion or high/low contrast scenes. The calculated average bitrate will fall somewhere between the default XP and SP mode average bitrates ( for programs between 1+ to 2+ hours in duration recorded to a standard single layer disc) but will never exceed the XP mode average bitrate or be less than the SP mode average bitrate (though instaneous bitrate may exceed these limits as described above). Similarly for programs between 2+ and 4+ hours the FR mode average bitrate will fall somewhere between the SP and LP mode average bitrates (again, assuming a single layer disc) and so forth down to EP mode. Since FR mode average bitrate can vary anywhere from XP to EP mode depending on available disc space and program duration, Panny lights up all the mode lights to indicate that a disc has been (is being) recorded in FR mode.

Its best to record to the drive in SP so whether speed or real-time dubbing the source material is high quality. The Panasonic drives are divided into 5 hour segments. Pioneer drives are divided into 12 hour segments. This is helpful to know when recording programming like "Deadliset Catch" that Discovery will run 12 hours straight.

Its best to record to the drive in SP so whether speed or real-time dubbing the source material is high quality. The Panasonic drives are divided into 5 hour segments. Pioneer drives are divided into 12 hour segments. This is helpful to know when recording programming like "Deadliset Catch" that Discovery will run 12 hours straight.

First, sounds like he is recording in FR mode at better than SP quality because his programming is typically less than 2 hrs in duration.

Second, correction to the above, Panny HDD'S are actually divided up into 6 hour continuous recording segments (for those recorders that only support 6 hr EP recording - E95 and earlier HDD models) and 8 hour segments (for those recorders that support 8 hr EP mode recording - EH50 and later HDD models).