[gary miller]

I'm considering purchasing one of these in a clearance sale. My primary purpose for DVD recording is to transfer older VHS and newer DV home movies to disc. Compatibility is important since every brother, sister, cousin, etc. uses a different player. I remember reading a post several weeks ago that suggested the consumer version, (DMR-E30?), had a black level bug. How does this manifest itself and can it be compensated for? Are there significant quality differences between the SP and 1 hour recording speeds? Are there any other issues with this unit I should be aware of? Thanks in advance.

 

[dgb]

The T3040 was the equivalent of the HS2, and both of those came after the T3030/E30 models. The E30, HS2, and T3040 all had the black level bug, so I'd expect that the T3030 does too.


Prior to the E50, Panasonic elected to encode a 0 IRE video level at a digital value of 16 (digital black.) This results in 7.5 IRE (North American standard black level) being recorded at a digital value of about 34. If you play an E30 recording on a player set to output digital black (16) at 7.5 IRE, the original 7.5 IRE (34 digital) is output at somewhere around 12 IRE. The result is a lighter output. On a player set to output 16 digital at 0 IRE the original 7.5 IRE video level will be reproduced, but not all players provide this option.


One way to compensate for it is by using a processing amp, like the PA-1 to reduce the input black level to 0 IRE (but one of those probably costs at least as much as the T3030.)


I'd recommend one of the newer models without the black level bug over the T3030. If you can afford it, the E80 (with a hard drive) requires less user attention when transferring tapes to disk .


David