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Prelim Observations on Panny EH75V

post #1 of 144
4/22/06 at 9:44am
Thread Starter 
I've done some preliminary dubbing/recording using the new Panny DMR-EH75V (VCR/DVD/80GB HDD Combo Unit) and here are a few observations:

I have confirmed that like the ES15, the EH75V indeed records at Full D1 maximum resolution of 720x480 (vice the Broadcast D1 704X480 of legacy Panny recorders). Suprisingly, I have found no compatibility issues yet with SP mode DVD-RAM created by the EH75V. I was able to dub from a VHS tape directly to the HDD (one touch dubbing in SP mode) and then I dubbed that SP recording to a DVD-RAM disc. I split and shortened that recording using the deck's editing features then combined the split recording on the DVD-RAM using Panasonic's PC-based MovieAlbum 3 SE editing application without problem. MovieAlbum recognizes the EH75V recording as having Full D1 resolution and had no compatibility issues with it. I then took that DVD-RAM and was able to high speed dub it to four different model Panny HDD recorders (the EH50, E95H, the E100, and the legendary E80) ALL without problem. I was then able to high speed dub that recording from all four recorders to DVD-R without issue (although the E100 choked on finalizing an 8X Fuji DVD-R, but that was a media issue not an issue with the source recording).

In summary, no compatiblity issues between legacy HDD recorders (EH50, E80, E95, E100) with DVD-RAM recordings made from the EH75V and high speed DVD-R dubbing capability was retained even after editing/splitting the source recording. Also, no apparent compatibility issues with MovieAlbum 3SE.

Up next, comparing the higher resolution LP mode of the EH75V (720X480) with the EH50 (704X480) and the E100/95/80 (352X480).

Mixing and matching Full D1/Broadcast D1 SP/LP recordings on a single DVD-RAM and doing some editing/combining using MovieAlbum (trying to break MovieAlbum or the disc's compatibility).

Testing the EH75V Full D1 files with TMPGenc DVD-Author.

All-in-all I am a happy camper and like the user interface and flexible one button 6-way dubbing interface (the HDD combo also allows VHS dub editing on the HDD before burning to DVD-R, real time saver).

Looks like some old Panny HDD recorders are headed for eBay...

Vic
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post #2 of 144
4/22/06 at 10:54am
Interesting stuff! Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to more of your comments as I will be in the market for a 2006 HDD recorder later on
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post #3 of 144
4/22/06 at 2:55pm
I am pretty new to dvd recording. I just picked up a DMR-EH75V, and I am wondering if I should record from my tivo to the hard drive at XP mode, then burn the dvd at whatever flex recording I need. I've recorded a couple of movies from the tivo with the flex record set to the minutes I would use to burn the dvd. Does it make any difference in the end? Thanks for any info.
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post #4 of 144
4/22/06 at 4:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vferrari View Post

I split and shortened that recording using the deck's editing features then combined the split recording on the DVD-RAM using Panasonic's PC-based MovieAlbum 3 SE editing application without problem. MovieAlbum recognizes the EH75V recording as having Full D1 resolution and had no compatibility issues with it.

Well Vic, I'm certainly happy to read this report of yours. Your previous speculation that full D1 resolution might break DVD Movie Album SE had me more than a little worried. Movie Album is my workhorse program for RAM editing (of which I do a lot of).

I look forward to reading about your other testing.
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post #5 of 144
4/22/06 at 6:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by WildBC View Post

I am pretty new to dvd recording. I just picked up a DMR-EH75V, and I am wondering if I should record from my tivo to the hard drive at XP mode, then burn the dvd at whatever flex recording I need. I've recorded a couple of movies from the tivo with the flex record set to the minutes I would use to burn the dvd. Does it make any difference in the end? Thanks for any info.

This depends on whether you want to use high-speed dubbing from the HDD to the DVD or not.

If you want to use high-speed dubbing and fit the whole movie on one DVD you have to record it at its duration. For example, if you have a 90 minute movie, you would need a 90 min FR mode. However, some people recommend that you leave some buffer on the DVD, so for example you could do 95 minutes.

If you do not want to use high-speed dubbing, then you have more options. There is plenty of debate as to the picture quality effects of an additional encoding and whether XP provides significant benefits over SP. I do not have enough information to comment on this. If you want the absolute best picture quality possible, this is something you may want to look into.

Personally I would record at FR mode to the HDD and then high-speed dub to DVD unless it was a special recording that I wanted at the super best possible resolution. But usually I am not demanding on picture quality and I have an old analog TV :-)
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post #6 of 144
4/22/06 at 6:35pm
Yes, I do want to high-speed dub. I will just record to the hard drive when the wife isn't watching tv, then I can burn the dvds anytime. Thanks for the info.
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post #7 of 144
4/23/06 at 8:44am
Thread Starter 
To WildBC > to maximize quality on your final disc you want to do a high speed dub from the HDD, this avoids an encoding step during your dubbing process (and is faster than a real time dub). Therefore, you want to initially record your source program to the HDD in whatever mode you intend for the final copy (e.g., SP>SP, FR>FR, XP>XP, etc...). So your intent to do high-speed dubs is the way to go rather than XP>FR.

As a follow-up, I tested LP mode with the various HDD recorders (EH75V LP is 720x480, EH50 is 702x480, and all others are 352x480). No problems mixing and matching (even combining two different resolution LP mode recordings) using movie album. In a side by side comparison of the EH75's clip vs. an E95 352X480 clip (Formula 1 race from Speed Channel) the EH75 showed less artifacting than the E95 even though the EH75V's clip was at a much higher resolution. Panny must have significantly improved their encoder to achieve the higher LP resolution with LESS artifacting than the old 352x480 LP mode of the E95. I need to do some side-by-sides of the EH75V (720X480 LP) vs. the EH50 (704X480 LP) with high action clips. Will report back.

TDA accepted a full rez SP VRO from the EH75V and I successfully authored/burned a DVD-R from the DVD-RAM source file.

My next trick will be to feed a combined contiguous Broadcast D1/Full D1 clip (i.e, a Full D1 clip combined with a broadcast D1 clip using MovieAlbum) into TDA to see if it chokes...

Once quirk - there is no one touch dubbing (Panny calls it "copy" on this machine) button on the remote, only on the unit's front panel although you can access all copy functions via the menu system using the remote. So far, though, I like the layout and the UI is practically the same as the EH50's (which I like).
Vic
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post #8 of 144
4/23/06 at 10:47am
Thanks Vic,
That all makes sense wrt DVD Movie Album. It was built to handle VR mode file editing and .VRO files can be multi-resolution. I remember in the early days of my E-85 experience I recorded some programming with the hybrid VBR turned on. Although DVD MA had no trouble with them, the version of TDA I used at the time choked. I seem to remember the titles were divided on import every time a resolution switch was made. It's been a while and I've never bothered playing with it since.
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post #9 of 144
4/23/06 at 10:54am
Thread Starter 
TDA Choked on the multi-resolution clip. Not suprising. Jury is still out on the relative picture quality in LP mode between the EH75, EH50, and the E95. I'm still searching for a good reference clip.
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post #10 of 144
4/23/06 at 11:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by vferrari View Post

TDA Choked on the multi-resolution clip. Not suprising. Jury is still out on the relative picture quality in LP mode between the EH75, EH50, and the E95. I'm still searching for a good reference clip.

One possible test could be a channel with a moving ticker at the bottom, such as ESPN*, CNN, CNBC, CSTV, etc. The tickers are quite sensitive to compression, and I noticed that NR seems to smoothen/obliterate them a bit if they use small fonts, and they are crowded and moving fast :-)
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post #11 of 144
4/23/06 at 4:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vferrari View Post

TDA Choked on the multi-resolution clip. Not suprising. Jury is still out on the relative picture quality in LP mode between the EH75, EH50, and the E95. I'm still searching for a good reference clip.

I see hoops has posted something similar to what I'm going to suggest.

Record a NASCAR race and observe the detail of the continuously scrolling running-order banner at the top of the screen. In SP mode (or XP) on my E-85 it is perfectly legible and the PQ is as good as the original broadcast (on a 32" sony TV). I don't know about LP because I never use anything less than SP, but my boss gave me a recording in EP mode to try on my player, and you can barely tell there are even letters there.

Since a NASCAR race lasts for over 3 hrs, you will have plenty of identical source to do all kinds of tests on.
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post #12 of 144
4/23/06 at 5:23pm
vferrari...thanks for the reply, that was exactly the information I was looking for.
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post #13 of 144
4/23/06 at 7:47pm
Thread Starter 
WildBC - glad I could help. You were headed in the right direction based on ncaa's help and I just wanted to back up what he was saying.

ncaa/Kelson,

Thanks for the tip re the tickers, I'll check that out next chance I get. I've run out of testing time this weekend tho...

Vic
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post #14 of 144
4/23/06 at 10:30pm
VF Have you confirmed my contention that the 2006 HDD pannys will not make a DVD'R lossless from the 2006 panny non HDDs using RAM. Excuse my apostrophe instead of a dash' my keyboard needs replacing.
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post #15 of 144
4/24/06 at 3:43am
Thread Starter 
Quote:


VF Have you confirmed my contention that the 2006 HDD pannys will not make a DVD'R lossless from the 2006 panny non HDDs using RAM. Excuse my apostrophe instead of a dash' my keyboard needs replacing.

No, I don't have a non-HDD unit (don't ever intend on buying one by the way). Since the EH75V has a HDD, I couldn't test this issue. As I discussed above, discs recorded in the EH75V were able to be HS dubbed to DVD-R in all my legacy Panny HDD based DVD recorders.
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post #16 of 144
4/30/06 at 1:40pm
As my dvd burner of my Acer Laptop was broken and I needed a new TV and DVD player anyway. I bought yesterday the DMR-EH75V because of all its features. Really great thing, I love all the functions.
As I am fairly new to this stuff and the circuit city sales guy told me I could hook up my laptop and burn directly files to the dvd writer, I am trying to use the DV IN but no recognition on my laptop of the dvd drive.
I am wondering now if it really is possible to do this or if I just have to by a new Laptop DVD writer for my Aceter travelmate.

Any input welcome!
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post #17 of 144
4/30/06 at 1:53pm
Is there a USB connection to the recorder? DV In definitely won't do it. Other than USB connection or a Network connection, I don't think this will work. I've only heard of one other unit with a connection that allowed access to the video on the hard drive, and it was only at reduced quality.
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post #18 of 144
4/30/06 at 2:02pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:


As I am fairly new to this stuff and the circuit city sales guy told me I could hook up my laptop and burn directly files to the dvd writer

You were misinformed by the sales guy. This is simply not true. The DV port allows you to import DV video from a camcorder. Theoretically, you could import DV video from a PC, but Panasonic has traditionally not supported DV via PC, I have yet to test it out myself. You can't simply use the DV port to directly burn "files" from the PC.
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post #19 of 144
5/7/06 at 4:10pm
Thread Starter 
I posted this in another thread, but I found to little known features on the EH75v that are intersting:

mpeg2 video file copy from SD card. Sort of useless since my PC has DVD-RAM, plus I could not get it to work even with mpeg2 files generated by the recorder itself.

divix playback support: plays back divx files burned to DVD-R just great. Neat feature.
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post #20 of 144
5/7/06 at 6:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vferrari View Post

I posted this in another thread, but I found to little known features on the EH75v that are intersting:

mpeg2 video file copy from SD card. Sort of useless since my PC has DVD-RAM, plus I could not get it to work even with mpeg2 files generated by the recorder itself.

divix playback support: plays back divx files burned to DVD-R just great. Neat feature.

Thanks! The divx playback may bode well for the people wanting divx playback on the EH55.

Does the SD video copy work for the HDD or the DVD-drive as well?
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post #21 of 144
5/23/06 at 8:01pm
I just purchased a ES45VS last night. I have it hooked up to my 42 PX60U. All is well but please tell me that there is a way to get rid of the annoying black stripes at the top and side of the screen (?)
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post #22 of 144
5/23/06 at 10:14pm
If the video you are watching is of a wider aspect ratio than your display, then you must either have black bars above and below (letterboxing), and lose some of the sides (pan/scan). 4:3 displays have an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. 16:9 displays have an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. So if you are watching something with, say, a 2:35:1 aspect ratio, the black bars are necessary if you want to see the full width of the video.
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post #23 of 144
5/24/06 at 6:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobkart View Post

If the video you are watching is of a wider aspect ratio than your display, then you must either have black bars above and below (letterboxing), and lose some of the sides (pan/scan). 4:3 displays have an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. 16:9 displays have an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. So if you are watching something with, say, a 2:35:1 aspect ratio, the black bars are necessary if you want to see the full width of the video.

If that's the case then why am I able to watch my regular cable with the screen filled at either zoom, stretch or normal? All I want to do is reproduce what I see when I'm watching cable on a DVD or HDD.
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post #24 of 144
5/24/06 at 11:00am
No doubt regular cable is sending you 4:3 or 16:9 content only.
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post #25 of 144
5/24/06 at 12:19pm
How does the DMR-EH75 handle dubbing VHS tapes from the internal VCR to dual-layer media? Does it require that layer 1 be finalized before recording can continue to layer 2? What I'm getting at is can I start dubbing a 4-hour tape to disc without stopping halfway through to finalize the first layer, or would I have to dub first to the HD and then to disc?
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post #26 of 144
5/24/06 at 2:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dmeader View Post

How does the DMR-EH75 handle dubbing VHS tapes from the internal VCR to dual-layer media? Does it require that layer 1 be finalized before recording can continue to layer 2? What I'm getting at is can I start dubbing a 4-hour tape to disc without stopping halfway through to finalize the first layer, or would I have to dub first to the HD and then to disc?

To record to double layer, you need to record to HDD first. Then you can dub the whole thing in one shot.
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post #27 of 144
5/24/06 at 10:30pm
Thanks guys and I need to apologize - I am getting local and non-HD channels in full screen. I guess I panicked when I wasn't able to get the channels I wanted the most and didn't bother checking the others. Once I get over the buyers remorse and accept the fact that I just paid 480.00 for a DVD VCR Ill be just fine.

I had a feeling it was a simple error on my part. One thing... what difference does it make it the cable coming from the wall goes into the cable box first instead of the DVR first? Ive tried it both ways and there isn't much difference that I can see.

I'm going to leave it alone for the 24 or so hours to see if the TV Guide works.
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post #28 of 144
5/24/06 at 11:19pm
I'm sorry for this noobishness but what is this [b]EZ-Sync[/B] and... cant I just use that?

Quote:
With EZ Sync HDAVI Control, you can switch on EZ-Sync-compatible Panasonic DVD recorders and TVs (connected via an HDMI cable) to their proper settings with a single button on the remote and still have a hand free for popcorn.

And... if I reset my DMR-EH75V will I lose whats on my hard drive?
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post #29 of 144
5/25/06 at 5:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Docism View Post

I'm sorry for this noobishness but what is this [b]EZ-Sync[/B] and... cant I just use that?

And... if I reset my DMR-EH75V will I lose whats on my hard drive?

Don't know about the EZ-Sync, but resetting the recorder will NOT affect any programs on the HDD.
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post #30 of 144
5/25/06 at 12:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rgazzara View Post

Don't know about the EZ-Sync, but resetting the recorder will NOT affect any programs on the HDD.

RG - I know you don't have satellite, but was the option for D* or E* in the TVGOS setup mode in the Panny? And do you know if it's IR blaster will work with a Dish 322 receiver ( I would assume so, but my E85 doesn't)? I just want to be sure, because I may get the EH55P when (if) it comes out.
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