With the Panasonic EH55S, I recorded a movie to the HD in XP mode. When I copied it to DVD-R, to make it fit on a single disc I copied it to disc in FR mode. This disc is also finalized.

QUESTION: Will the disc copied in FR mode play ok on ANOTHER DVD player?

Yes, as the disc was finalized, it will play on other set top dvd players and pc drives. Rec mode (typically) has nothing to do with playback ability.

Thanks. Thought I'd double check since FR isn't a record mode on other brand DVD Players. Good to know that this mode will not affect playback on other players.

Thanks. Thought I'd double check since FR isn't a record mode on other brand DVD Players. Good to know that this mode will not affect playback on other players.

Couple of things to note:

FR mode merely determines the avg bitrate needed to allow a recording to fit on a single disc (or on remaining disc space). As long as your bit rate stays at or below XP mode (the highest quality, therefore the highest bit rate that can be recorded on the Panny) then playback compatibility is unaffected (i.e., your player won't care). By design/definition, FR mode bitrate has to be at or below XP mode bitrate so it has to be compatible by definition.

You never said what your recording duration was so I can only guess it was probably greater than 1hr to some extent because you needed FR mode to allow it to fit to disc. I might suggest that you record content to the HDD in the record mode (XP, SP, or even FR) that is the same as your disc destination. In this manner you can take advantage of high speed dubbing to from HDD disc which is a lossless process. By recording to HDD in XP mode and then dubbing in FR mode, you are causing a re-encode which degrades the recording even further than if you just recorded it in the mode that was compatible with your available disc space to begin with. This is because the recording is encoded twice - first when you record it to the HDD and then again when you record it to disc. For example, if your recording duration is two hours, it is better to record in SP (2 hr.) mode and then high speed dub to disc rather than record in XP mode and then real-time record in either SP or FR mode. Of course there are always exceptions. For example, you may prefer to view the HDD recording in XP but find it acceptable to just archive the recording in SP or FR mode. Also, you may want to record something that is just over 1 hr (say 1 hr 15 min) to the HDD in XP mode, edit the recording down to less than an hour and then high speed dub to disc in XP mode. But as a general rule, to maximize quality, you want to avoid having to do a real-time dub from HDD to disc if you can because of the degradation associated with the real-time dub re-encoding. The other advantage to high speed dubbing to disc is that it obviously saves time vs. a real time dub and you can save chapter marks made to the original recording on the HDD (real time dubbing results in default chapter marks at 5 min intervals). My apologies if this information is old news to you.

I was recording "High School Musical 2" for some school kids, which after taking out commericials and other unnecessary clips, the recording length came to 1hr 45 mins. I recorded this to HD in XP mode. I dubbed it to DVD-R in FR mode.

I was recording "High School Musical 2" for some school kids, which after taking out commericials and other unnecessary clips, the recording length came to 1hr 45 mins. I recorded this to HD in XP mode. I dubbed it to DVD-R in FR mode.

Yeah, I recorded the same program for my kids, but recorded it in SP mode to the HDD, it ran 2:05 uncut, edited it to under 2:00, stuck in chapter stops to skip over commercials (a little quicker than tediously editing out all commercials), and then high speed dubbed it to disk, no re-encoding, no waiting for real-time dub to disc, and it looks great. YMMV.

Thanks for the tip. I'll know better next time.