DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-Ray Players/Recorders/etc

[bmwracer]

dochira wrote:

I think the best way to shrink videos down to 4.7GB is to use DVD Shrink. Simply author the DVD as you would normally do so to create the TS_VIDEO folder. Then run DVD Shrink on that folder.

Once again, great minds.

That's exactly what I'm going to do once I've joined and chapterized the whole gol' durn thang...

DVD Shrink supposedly has some kinda neato compression algorithm that should not degrade video quality very much... Proof is in the pudding, though.

[olnil]

This is why I like having a dvd recorder with a hard drive. I can record everything to the hard drive in XP mode. Then usually when I decide how many episodes I want to put on a dvd-r. I usually use SP or FR mode. Also a lot really depends on the length of a episode.

On my panny e-80 if I record 2 hours and 59 minutes or less to a dvd-r. I will be able to keep the 720X480 resolution.

I hear the LP resolution on the new ES10 and EH50 is 500 lines. Almost double what my E80 LP recording can do.

I fimd the only acceptable way to record a vhs tape whether it's in SP or Ep mode is record to the hard drive in XP mode. In fact I find it a waste of time to record any of my EP tapes to the hard drive and then a dvd-r. The only ones I have been doing is the SP ones.

Have any of you tried recording in FR mode to dvd-ram?

I been reading on other forums that people have been finf some great deals on ES10 open box specials at BB using the 30% off open box coupon code. Some have been getting them for as low as $104.

[bmwracer]

olnil wrote:

This is why I like having a dvd recorder with a hard drive. I can record everything to the hard drive in XP mode. Then usually when I decide how many episodes I want to put on a dvd-r. I usually use SP or FR mode. Also a lot really depends on the length of a episode.

That's essentially what I'm doing without the hard drive: recording in XP mode.

Thing is, is there more degradation compressing the recorded XP video to fit more shows/episodes/etc. to a single disc or compressing it at the beginning and packing in the episodes during recording?

Quote:

Have any of you tried recording in FR mode to dvd-ram?

Not yet. Maybe this weekend as an experiment.

[dochira]

olnil wrote:

This is why I like having a dvd recorder with a hard drive.

The hard drive feature is nice on a DVD recorder, but increases the cost.

[bmwracer]

dochira wrote:

The hard drive feature is nice on a DVD recorder, but increases the cost.

By double. Or more.

[amrayu]

olnil wrote:

Have any of you tried recording in FR mode to dvd-ram?

I use the FR mode every weekend. I use it mainly for KTSF dramas, since starting time and ending time is inconsistent.
Usually I start the recording at 7:55PM - 9:05PM. [This is in SP mode]
Then it's time to record again at 9:30PM - 10:40PM [This is in FR mode]
I use the FR mode to max out what I have left of the disc, since I'm recording 20 minutes over the 2 hour mark.

If I were to record more of American TV, then I would've bought a hard drive model. But American TV is so crappy recently...
The Panny w/DVD-ram + an already existing PC is good enough to get the job done.

[olnil]

amrayu wrote:

I use the FR mode every weekend. I use it mainly for KTSF dramas, since starting time and ending time is inconsistent. Usually I start the recording at 7:55PM - 9:05PM. [This is in SP mode] Then it's time to record again at 9:30PM - 10:40PM [This is in FR mode] I use the FR mode to max out what I have left of the disc, since I'm recording 20 minutes over the 2 hour mark. If I were to record more of American TV, then I would've bought a hard drive model. But American TV is so crappy recently... The Panny w/DVD-ram + an already existing PC is good enough to get the job done.

You might want to try this next time if your actually watching the programs as you record them to dvd-ram or even a hd if you have one in your dvd recorder.

Since you know the length of both shows. I would set up a FR recording time of 2 hours and 20 minutes. Start it at 7:54pm and stop the recording at 9:05pm when the first program ends. Once again start another FR recording time of 2 hours and 20 minutes. This time start it at 9:29pm and stop it at 10:40pm when the second program ends.

I d/l korean and japanese drama avi files from d-addicts. I use to play these files from my dvd player to the the dvd recorder hd in XP mode. Then Fr them to dvd-r or dvd-ram. But that means I was recording in real time both times. So that was a total time of 6 hours or more. So now I just FR all 3 episodes like I explain above to either dvd-r, dvd-ram or the hd.

Here is one big advantage of having a dvd recorder with a hd. Say your recording shows off the tv and to a dvd-r, +r, or dvd-ram. What happens if the disc fails after you finalize it. You lost everything.

I have known people who say record 2 episodes to a dvd-r one week, the next week they record one or 2 more to the same dvd-r. When they went to finalize the recording it failed. They lost everything they recorded for 2 weeks. It does happen.

Just today I recorded 5 episodes of a daily drama from the hd to dvd-ram. I took the dvd-ram to my computer and started to transfer the episdodes over to my compute hd. But there was a problem with the 2nd episode. It only copied over like 3 minutes of the 34 minute episode. Good thing I still had the episodes on my dvd recorder hd. I put the dvd-ram back into my dvd recoder and erased and formated the dvd-ram disc. I then dubbed the 5 episodes back over to the dvd-ram. And then stuck it back in my computer and copied the episodes from the dvd-ram disc to my computer hd.

[bmwracer]

Yet another problem: now that I've managed to join all three files into one giant 9GB file, TMPGenc refuses to allow authoring of such a large file since it exceeds even the DL size of 8.5GB...

Ahh, the trevails of DVD recording.

[bmwracer]

Whoa: got my five bonus DVD-RAM discs in the mail already... That's less than two weeks after I mailed in the form.

[dochira]

Cool. If only rebates were as efficient. Any progress with that 9GB file size problem?

[bmwracer]

dochira wrote:

Cool. If only rebates were as efficient. Any progress with that 9GB file size problem?

Nope. Working on an alternative plan... I'll let you know how it pans out.

[bmwracer]

Now here's question for you ES-10 owners: Is recording two hours at the SP speed equivalent in quality to recording two hours in the FP speed?

[dochira]

bmwracer wrote:

Now here's question for you ES-10 owners: Is recording two hours at the SP speed equivalent in quality to recording two hours in the FP speed?

Now that's a good question... My gut instinct says yes, they would be the same.

[bmwracer]

dochira wrote:

Now that's a good question... My gut instinct says yes, they would be the same.

I would think so as well, but the manual doesn't mention this. Time for more experimenting, I guess.

[dochira]

bmwracer wrote:

I would think so as well, but the manual doesn't mention this. Time for more experimenting, I guess.

....Unless, it uses a better compression in the beginning, then lowers it as the disc space shrinks. I thought I remember reading that it makes best use of the remaining disc space then adjusts the compression as it fills.

[bmwracer]

dochira wrote:

....Unless, it uses a better compression in the beginning, then lowers it as the disc space shrinks. I thought I remember reading that it makes best use of the remaining disc space then adjusts the compression as it fills.

Yeah, that's what it said alright... Does that mean the video quality gets progressively worse near the end of the recording? And at what point or how does this transition takes place?

First hour: DVD quality, second hour: a snowstorm of pixellation.

[dochira]

bmwracer wrote:

Yeah, that's what it said alright... Does that mean the video quality gets progressively worse near the end of the recording? And at what point or how does this transition takes place? First hour: DVD quality, second hour: a snowstorm of pixellation.

I would hope their algorithm is better than that. I envision it to be sloping rather than abrupt changes in the compression. So the latter parts will be more pixellated than the beginning, but hopefully by not much.

[bmwracer]

dochira wrote:

I would hope their algorithm is better than that. I envision it to be sloping rather than abrupt changes in the compression. So the latter parts will be more pixellated than the beginning, but hopefully by not much.

I wonder if Panasonic has support that would/could answer that question.....?

[amrayu]

olnil wrote:

I d/l korean and japanese drama avi files from d-addicts. I use to play these files from my dvd player to the the dvd recorder hd in XP mode. Then Fr them to dvd-r or dvd-ram. But that means I was recording in real time both times. So that was a total time of 6 hours or more. So now I just FR all 3 episodes like I explain above to either dvd-r, dvd-ram or the hd.

Ehh?? You know you are going from digital->analog->digital?? With a computer you can get better results by converting the avi files to mpeg2 files. I see absolutely no point in recording downloaded avi files that way. What takes you 6 hours +, only takes 3 hours or so on a decent PC...

olnil wrote:

Here is one big advantage of having a dvd recorder with a hd. Say your recording shows off the tv and to a dvd-r, +r, or dvd-ram. What happens if the disc fails after you finalize it. You lost everything.

I haven't had a disc fail on me yet. This really depends on the media that people use, plus how they take care of their already burnt/recorded (unfinalized) discs. ALSO, I must mention DVD-ram discs do not need to be finalized... so there's no way you can lose the recordings on a DVD-ram.
What happens if the HD fails? You can potentially lose months worth of programming.

[bmwracer]

Latest findings: if you set the recorder for FR mode and choose a two hour recording time, it just records in SP mode all the way through.

So if you were to set FR to four hours, it would most likley record in LP mode all the way through.

Looks like FR is only useful when you're recording odd times like 1.5 hours or three hours, etc...