Hardware Forum - RE: DVD Recorder - High Speed Dubbing - Page 2

Someone experienced the following problem:

Also I'm wary of filling disks. I filled disks with my DVD recorder and when they failed I checked them on my Mac or PC it was always the last VOB file that failed. Now that may be a peculiarity of the recorder but DVDs are written from the centre outwards and the outside edge is most prone to damage. As we know DVDs are delicate and tempremental beasts so it seems a sensible precaution.

The following seems to be a solution:

I was given a wicked tip when thinking of filling a DVD. Create a blank five minute clip, and always add that as the last file on the DVD to be burned. Hence, if the last VOB file becomes corrupted, it's not the important material that's ruined. Up to now, it's worked a treat.

I'm thinking of using the FR option my Panasonic machine so I can dub an item onto a full 4.7gb DVD-R (this option uses automatically SP / LP modes to fill the disc). Will this mean that the earliers parts of the programme will be in good quality whilst the sections near the end will show signs of compression, artefacts and a general degrading like LP mode?

SJ,I have a Pioneer HDD/DVD recorder.

Sensibly and logically if the dvd copy is to be the same quality as the HDD recording then only the high speed option is available,a real time dub is not necessary.

I did not realise that Panasonic had this pointless option.

But if you use FR to record to HDD surely the Panny will record at XP unless there is a shortage of space on the HDD.

So as its XP chances are real time dubbing would be needed for the dvd transfer.

Flexible recording is how the Panny alters the quality setting to allow it to fit on a dvd ,or the HDD.

If the HDD is empty then how will it know that your recording should be SP for example.
I think your lack of dvd transferring is showing.

If you have a 4 hour recording to make ,this needs to be LP to fit on single layer disc,so if you use FR for the HDD recording it wont know that it should be LP and if its not LP the HDD to dvd copy cannot be done at high speed.

It sounds very much like the Panny has a high speed option so that when recording on HDD in FR it will ask you first what the length of the recording is to be so that it knows what quality to record at to enable a high speed transfer to dvd

This item was edited on Friday, 2nd March 2007, 21:14

Believe me, I know how it works. FR mode does not relate to how much space is left on the HDD. It is a mode used to maximise the bitrate for when you dub to HDD. To use FR mode you need to tell it the recording time before you start recording. It then makes the bitrate what it needs to be to end up with a size of 4.5GB - i.e. so you can high speed dub to DVD.
Quote:
If the HDD is empty then how will it know that your recording should be SP for example.Eh? The recording is in whichever mode you tell it to be. If you use SP it will allow 2 hours of footage to be transferred to DVD without any more re-encoding taking place - i.e. it can be high-speed dubbed BUT only if you turn the high-speed dubbing ON in the setup (not per recording - it is an option in the setup.) Without turning this on, ridiculously you can't transfer anything to DVD (whether it needs re-encoding or not..) in anything but real time. As I said, a completely pointless option to have it off..
Quote:
But if you use FR to record to HDD surely the Panny will record at XP unless there is a shortage of space on the HDD. So as its XP chances are real time dubbing would be needed for the dvd transfer.Nope - as above it doesn't relate at all to the space on the HDD so unless the programme is 1 hour long where XP would be used, it would adjust to suit. eg the programme is 1 1/2 hours the bitrate would be right between XP and SP - i.e. better than having to drop down to SP..

Ste
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We will pay the price but we will not count the cost..

So the final paragraph of my previous post was right then?

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So the final paragraph of my previous post was right then?Partly I suppose. Very little of the post was right though. The reason it has a high speed option is to allow any recording to be dubbed at high speed - not just FR. Don't know how I can put it any simpler. My mentioning of using FR wasn't directly related to high speed dubbing - more to advise that this fairly unique feature of Panasonics allows the user to maximise the bitrate for any recording being transferred to DVD. High speed dubbing, as on any make of recorder, can only be done if the length of the recorded programme is less than or equal to the times given in the manual for a given recording quality. eg <=1hr for XP, <=2hrs for SP etc.. Of course using FR mode allows recordings with times between the standard ones to have an improved bitrate instead of dropping down to the next quality level. As I have said though, for some inexplicable reason the option to High speed dub ANY RECORDING, by default, is switched off..
The I think your lack of dvd transferring is showing. bit was particularly wrong.

Ste
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We will pay the price but we will not count the cost..

ON the contrary,having owned a Panasonic HDD recorder before I am well aware of how they work.

But the one I had did not have what appears to be a fairly pointless feature of switching off high speed dubbing.

If the assumption in the final paragraph I referred to was not the case then the rest of my post would have been accurate without further info on the Panny.

One thing that you may be able to clear up.

Previous Panny models have had a little operation glitch that seems to be still present.

On my Pioneer if I want to transfer a bulk copy over from Sky+ to HDD of episodes from a series that I will be putting onto dvd at 2.5 hour level,I set Sky+ copy to play overnight then set the 2.5 hour level on the Pioneer and let it record all the episodes,which with ads and padding can often be 6 hours.

However,Panasonic appear to only record for the length of the quality level.
So if you do the same bulk copy and tell the Panny you want the recording at 2.5 hour level it will do so,but after 2.5 hours it stops recording ,leaving hours of material unrecorded.

Have they sorted that out yet?