[rf75]

My DMR-ES40V creates DVDs that are unreadable in PC using any software I try. Usually the PC DVD drive does not recognize the disc. These DVDs play alright in a Sony DVD player. Using various +R media. Have not had much luck with -R DVDs, they tend to fail finalizing. Want to "remaster" VHS tapes I have dumped to DVD, i.e. chapters etc. Is this a problem with all DVD recorders?

Would love to just cap on the PC but getting any cap card software to work consistently has cost me many many hours and dollars (3 HD cards including Divico Fusion and Hauppage 150) with nothing reliable.

What has anyone found to be reliable with decent quality ?

 

[jjeff]

I've never owned a ES40, but have read horror stories from people that do. Most recently Digado, who's had lots of problems with his. My first question would be, does your PC play DVDR's from any other DVDR? or at the least does it play commercial DVD's reliably? If the answer is no, I'd suspect something on your PC drive.


If the answer is yes, I'd suspect the ES40 is recording a poor signal, that is somehow being read by the Sony. I also have a Sony DVD player and like it because it seems to be able to play just about any disc reliably. I also suspect your es40 since you said you've been having problems with -R discs failing to finalize. That should not happen with a good working DVDR.


If you want to stick with Panasonic I'd suggest the EZ-47(5) which is available at Costco and some Sams for under $300. There is also the EZ-37 w/o HDMI and upconversion, which is a little harder to find, and may be about the same price as the EZ-47(5). The 5 just means it comes with an included HDMI cable, sold mainly at Costco/Sams.

You could also get just a DVDR and separate VCR. Either way you should get reliable burns that should play just fine on your PC.


Lastly if you don't want to get into making menu's and just want to do a little editing, you could get a VCR and hook it up to a Philips 3575 DVDR W/HDD ~$300. Just copy your VHS's to the HDD, edit them, then burn to a DVD of your choice. Another thought that would eliminate the PC all together.

 

[rf75]

I've 4 PCs in the house and all of them have trouble reading DVDs made by this machine. I just tried another DVD-r and only the first VOB appears when being read by the PC - which PC plays all other DVDs well, including really scratched ones from the library. I have done a lot of DVD authoring, mostly downloading video from a ReplayTV. Don't want to go VCR-Replay-PC because the Replay isn't too happy with the shabby video signal I get from the old SLP tapes. BTW the Panny DVDR also makes these "odd" discs from very clean tapes as well as off-air too. And no not commercial (Macrovision'd) tapes, my own off-air or cable.


This being my second DVDR (the first a refurb Toshiba that went back for further refurb and came back unfixed - more postage ain't worth it), I'm about ready to settle on using the Fusion card to cap to WMV high quality and transcode to MPEG2 using Nerovision. Can't get the Fusion to capture to any other quality format that Nero will process and don't want to start diddling with other converters (I know there's a ton of them free to expensive).


It's actually encouraging to hear others having trouble with the Panny since it means I'm probably doing it right and its the hardware hosing me down.


Thanks.

 

[DigaDo]

I had a conversation with a Panasonic engineer, a member of the design team for the DMR-ES40V, who called me in response to a letter I had written concerning a variety of problems with my DMR-ES40V.


During that conversation I mentioned that I had noticed that DVDs that had been partially recorded on the DMR-ES40V showed a significant difference in the amount of remaining time when placed in a DMR-ES30V set at the same speed. I believe his response had something to do with a different compression standard than that used in the rest of the Panasonic line.


One of the problems I had with the DMR-ES40V was its frequent inability to successfully finalize its own DVDs. I found it necessary to finalize the DMR-ES40V DVDs on my DMR-ES30V.


My other Panasonics (DMR-ES35V, DMR-ES15) have had no trouble reading, finalizing, or playing DMR-ES40V recorded DVDs.

 

[rf75]

For under $50 I can try the Dazzle Video Creator, vastly cheaper than yet another recorder - and the disc can be on the computer where I want it to be (for further finagling).