Page 1 of Panasonic E55 - A couple of quick questions

Does anyone know if every speed mode (SP, LP, EP etc) recorded with the E55 will play back correctly on standard DVD players?

Also can anyone suggest the best and hopefully cheapest blank DVD-R and DVD-Ram disks? RAM disks seem to be awfully expensive compared to RWs.

Any advice would be appreciated.

My thanks

Recording modes should make no difference on playback compatibility.One thing Panasonic recorders do not like is cheap blank discs.As you can get quality blanks (-R)from Verbatim,JVC,TDK and Sony for about £1 you may find those cheapo ones are a false economy.

Thanks for that, phelings.

You and others might be interested to know that The Computer Shop (high street chain) is selling Verbatim DVD-Rs at 12.99 for a pack of 25. Not bad. They seem to work well so far.

I also ordered 25 Datawrite Yellow disks from Burn Media. I hope they`re good. I`d still love to know where I can get cheaper RAM disks.

Yesterday, based partly on views expressed here, I bought an E55. Up to now, it seems like a wise purchase, so thanks to all on the forum. I just (rather selfishly) hope that -R wins out over +R in the long run.

Cheers

DVD`s recorded onThe 8hr EP mode will not playback on other DVD players. You can change the EP mode to 6hrs & this is OK to playback in other DVD players.

Of course,if you use the 8hr level,you may as well use vhs.Those Verbatim discs are certainly well priced.
I would not be surprised if you get some failures with those Datawrite discs. Let us kow how you get on

I`ve recorded several hundred datawrite yellows on an E50 with no problems.

Thanks guys

Actually, I`ve found that all of the E55`s record modes on DVD-R will playback on both my Mico Diamante DVD and my PC. No sweat.

Well, I`ve had the E55 for a few days now. It`s a good machine. Initially, I was blown away - I`m a recordable DVD newbie afterall.

BUT...

I have to say that the E55`s LP and EP recording modes are, frankly, not good enough. Someone on another thread said that EP mode was equal to VHS. This is not the case. In fact EP is MUCH worse than VHS`s LP mode. There are pronounced mpeg artifacts below the E55`s SP mode: aliasing, blocking, sparkle and a subtle, but very irritating frozen image effect that lasts for a fraction of a second on any image not moving beyond a certain speed (I hope I explained that clearly). These artifacts are starkly revealed on a hi-res PC monitor. Ouch!

I`m sure these effects aren`t specific to the E55. The technology is young, so I`m sure things will improve. However, because XP and SP only provide 2hrs max, and because DVD-RAM is expensive and not universally compatible, I`m beginning to feel that convenience and cost is compromised. I can now see the benefits of a hard drive.

Well, I could go back to Richer Sounds and exchange the E55 for a hard drive model, but they only have the Panny DMRHS2 (now discontinued by Panasonic) and the Toshiba RDXS30 (region 2 only) in stock. At over 450 each, that`s a big price hike.

Does anyone know anything about those two units? I`ve got about ten days to make up my mind. Advice would be welcome.

Having said all that, the E55 really is a good machine above a certain threshold. Playback is ravishing, especially compared to my cheap old Mico.

My thanks

I find the LP mode good enough for everyday use, & better than VHS quality. If you want to record say a 3 hour long movie with better than LP mode quality then you can use the variable bit rate mode (FR) for your recordings.
DVD-RAM discs are very cheap at £7.99 for a pack of 3 at Panasonic.co.uk. You can re-write them 100,000 times & they have a 30 year shelf life. I prefer to use DVD-RAM discs for daily recordings & DVD-R for movies & other materials I wish to share with friends.

I`ve just bought an E-85 and find LP quite horrible on some parts. I recorded a very old VHS to the HD in each mode - SP was excellent, LP introduced artifacts around objects in certain light conditions - sound was fine and most of the video was no worse than the VHS but some of it definitely was.

I`ve stuck to SP since. If the source material is really poor I might go for LP, otherwise I`ll stick with SP.

http://www.electromancer.com/artists/flip_martian

This item was edited on Monday, 3rd May 2004, 18:16