New Walmart HDD/DVDR-Magnavox H2080MW8 - Page 20

Burning question.

I have a Toshiba A3 HD-DVD player I got really just to upconvert my sd dvd collection. I have not even bought any HD-DVD's.

The A3 plays Philips dvd-r's I burned on my previous panasonic ez27.

I burned a sony dvd-rw on the Maggy last night and the A3 won't play it, says it is not in DVD format.

I'm not sure which end the problem is on.

Ideas?

tia

Tomany, you did finalize the disc, yes? P. 56.

Thx c987y.

I was in the dvd title screen and the setup button did nothing, leading me to believe I did not have to finalize.

Turns out you cannot get to the setup screen from the title screen. Seems odd that you can edit there but not get to the setup to finalize.

Anyway once I got to the setup screen and finalized it played fine in my A3.

Thx again.

My brother's unit (bought about three weeks ago)
experienced this exact problem overnight.
I thought it was an interruption in power, but that
was not the case (all the clock in the house were OK).
Has there been a resolution to this, or is it a defective unit?

I agree. The steps to finalize are not intuitive.

Setup - General Setting - Clock

Auto Clock Setting: Off
Daylight Saving Time: Off

I have had my Maggie a week now, no problems.

Keep in mind the auto clock / daylight savings time issue is not limited to these, had the same issue on previous Pannys I have owned.

I was afraid someone would say that.
This machine had been in use 3 weeks with no problems.
My Philips DVDR3575H/37 has been in use since May
and has never had this problem.
BTW, both are OTA only.

Are you saying you have both of those set to off?

I ended up trading it in for the Phillips. Liked the Phillips so much I bought another Magnovox and haven't had a problem with either one.

Both units that I currently have are in the manual clock mode and I think I tried that fix on the one I traded in.

Also, I am OTA only.

Has anyone figured out how to use the auto finalize function when you are recording several titles from the Hard Drive onto a disk? I just purchased this product to replace a Panasonic dvr/hdd (i miss my old machine!) and I never had to manually finalize disks.

OT---would anyone know how to find a replacement dvd burning drive for my old Panasonic? I have checked every techie place on the web and even Panasonic said they did not have a part to recommend for me...

Have you checked the Panasonic section of the DVD Recorder and Home Entertainment forum at CDFreaks?

Out of curiosity, how accurate are the clocks when
setting them manually?

No, but if you send it to the Elk Grove Village, IL repair facility, they are supposed to fix them for a flat fee of $130.00.

It looks like we will be doing just that. My husband was able to take the unit apart and removed the dvd burner, but we were not able to find a replacement. We use this unit for recording homeschool material via a dedicated satellite, so we had to purchase our Magnavox just so we didn't miss classes. The setup and options for this unit are, in my opinion, not as user friendly as the Panasonic and it takes me 2 to 3 times as long to burn a disk...

I am thankful that we found a unit because they are almost non-existant...

Homeschoolmama,

Here is advice concerning DVD drives that seem to be failing but just need a spindle/hub cleaning:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=210507

Following these detailed instructions clean the lens, rubber and plastic spindle parts and hub area, and the circular guide in the DVD drive lid.

Panasonic 2006 and newer DVD drives are easy to service. Remove the case top cover to get access to the DVD drive. Remove the four small Phillips screws and lift the DVD drive top lid. When viewing the DVD drive from the front (where the tray rolls out) notice the roller assembly at the rear of the DVD tray. This mechanism must be positioned to the left corner before reassembly so these parts will be correctly aligned to the guide rail on the underside of the drive lid. With the 2006 and newer models opening of the Panasonic case, removing the DVD drive lid, cleaning the drive, closing the drive lid, and closing the case takes around fifteen minutes.

With 2005 or older models the case cover and the front panel assembly may need to be removed in order to give clearance for the DVD drive lid to be lifted somewhat at the front, slid forward, allowing the rear to disengage, following which the lid may be lifted off. The opaque plastic part at the left rear seems to be a retainer/guide. Allow around 35 minutes for opening the case, removal of the front panel after loosening the snap clips at the top, sides and bottom; removing the DVD drive lid; cleaning and reassembly.

On a combo recorder be sure to hold the VHS door open as the front panel is fitted back into place. This will correctly align the VHS door opening mechanism.

I have an older (2003) Panasonic DVD-S35 player where the DVD drive itself is of a more "open" design, but cleaning access to the rubber spindle is more difficult. Use a long-stemmed cotton swab.

Homeschoolmama,

If the spindle/hub cleaning procedure does not work you might look for a parts machine with problems unrelated to the DVD drive. I have found that DVD drives may usually be swapped between different models of the same year of manufacture.

Parts machines are often found for very little cost on eBay.

What year of manufacture is your Panasonic? (The first number appearing in the serial number is the year of manufacture.) What model do you have?

Besides the length, check the size of the file - generally I can get 2hrs-10min on a DVD, But pretty much usually always just dub 2 hours of tv shows using the high speed dub.

Rick

Reasonable accurate, not perfect. Mine seems to lose less than a minute every few weeks.

Rick

+1 on the clock accuracy

Dubbing question.

I am new to this so I am reading the manual and trying different things to learn what's up.

I dubbed from HDD to dvd-rw, finalized and it played back great in various players.

Then I wanted to try dubbing from DVD to HDD.

I put a dvd-r in that someone gave me and dubbing was greyed out.

I put the same dvd-rw I dubbed earlier back in and dubbing was greyed out.

I unfinalized the dvd-rw and then dubbing was available.

Does this mean you can only dub from DVD to HDD if the dvd is unfinalized?

If so I take it this means you cannot dub dvd's that are dvd-r or dvd+r because you can't unfinalize them?

tia

Sometimes it takes a minute for dubbing to become
active. Try waiting a little longer.

You should be able to dub non-copy-protected finalized DVD to the HDD by using DIRECT DUBBING. The Philips 3575 has a dedicated button on the remote for this, maybe the Maggie does too... or look it up in manual?

You start the DVD playing then press the DD button.

Correct.
From the manual:

Thx all.

Waiting did not make Dubbing available in the Setup menu.

Playing the dvd then pressing the DDubbing button on the remote did start the DVD-HDD dubbing process.

They sure split things up on this unit:
- To edit a dvd you have to be in the title screen
- To finalize a dvd you have to go to the setup menu
- To dub from HDD to DVD you have to go to the setup menu
- To dub from DVD to HDD you can use the setup menu except if the DVD is finalized
- To dub from a finalized DVD to HDD you have to play the DVD then press DDubbing on the remote

BTW

You cannot finalize a DVD if you have a scheduled recording. Just found that out.

Thx again for your tips.

I am trying to understand what happens when you record a 1280 x 720 (16:9) program.

Since it records as 720 x 480 (4:3) what happens to the rest of the picture?

Is it cropping the top and bottom?

tia

It's letterboxed.

Interesting.

I recorded the grammys (1080i) and last night the new Terminator series (720p).

Neither has letter box when I play them back.

Well it's definitely not cropping.

I just recorded the news (1080i) 16:9, chased and toggled back and forth between the tv and the Maggie.

Both were 16:9.

From cable the tv is getting 1280 x 720 and from the maggie the tv is getting 720 x 480.

I think the gist of it is that the 720 pixels are not the same "size" as the 480 ones...at least that's how I interpret it. Take a look at this post by Kelson in another older thread. You can also look up "anamorphic widescreen" on wikipedia for some more info. So if you record a HD show, it makes "fatter" pixels so that the resulting frame will still fill up the 16:9 screen. If you burned this to a dvd and tried to play it back on a computer, it would probably look weird b/c most dvd recorders don't properly set the 16:9 anamorphic flag and the computer will interpret the pixels like it would from a 4:3 frame, thus you'd get a horizontally compressed image on playback.


The original thread is here, and Kelson's was the #12:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=890880
wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphic_widescreen

A 16:9 program recorded and played back from the HDD (from the recorder's digital tuner) on a widescreen TV will remain in 16:9, but when recorded to DVD will be letterboxed 4:3 on the same set.

Those resolutions are full HD, straight from the cable, and the highest the Maggie can put out - 480p (which leads me to the suggestion of trying 480i instead - 480i on my display from the Maggie looked slightly better than 480p -YMMV, but others have had the same experience, so you might want to at least give it a try).