DVD Recorders For Dummies…
 

OK, I am the dummy.

My Question Is The Panasonic DMR-E50K vs. Philips DVDR985? Which one would you choose for:

Uncomplicated USE
Quality of Recordings
Compatibility W/ Other DVD Players

Any insight would be appreciated

Thanks

(And Yes, before you flame me I have been doing searches on this topic. Most seem to become a war between DVD-R vs. DVR+R)

HELLO....Newman :)

the Home Theater Forum is a good place to check..however the answers may be a bit technical. Good luck, and I am interested to hear the answers because I'd like to get a DVD burner eventually.

-pedagogue

Both of those are good machines.

Ease of use is about the same, the quality of recordings is about the same, compatibility on single use discs is about the same, blank discs cost the same. The Philips will allow you to record erasable discs which will play on other players, the Panasonic will not. The Philips has a firewire input and is progressive scan.

DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R will play on most DVD players made in the last three years. DVD-RW playback is not quite as universal (thought he best recording mode seems to be pretty compatible, and DVD-RAM will not play on hardly any players.

There was some concern about DVD-R being washed out on some early models, but I think Panasonic has the bug fixed on the new model. It wasn't THAT bad to begin with.

I use both the "minus" and "plus" formats and have no problems whatsoever with my $100 Sony DVD players playing them.

Either way you go you'll get a nice machine. The Panasonic is now selling for under $400, and Philips has said they will follow suit with a lower priced model. This Xmas will likely see these babies selling at even less.

Panasonic DMR-E50K
 

My vote is for the Panasonic DMR-E50K. I've had it for three weeks and it hasn't missed a beat. The recording quality on the 1and 2 hour speeds are perfect. The four hour mode is still better than the SP VHS and I have not used the 6 hour mode yet so I can't comment. The recordings will play back on my Zenith, Go-Video, and Lasonic DVD players with no problem. I do recommend that you use quality blank DVD-Rs like Ritek.

All things being equal the Panasonic E30 and now E50 is the better choice for many reasons, some listed below.

1. DVD-R is most compatiable with DVD players.
2. Flexible recording allows the highest bit rate for recordings over two hours long. This ensures the best recording possible. With other recorders a movie 2:15 long would have to be recordered at the fixed 3 hour bit rate.
3. RAM provides excellent editing features making it very easy to delete commercials when recording movies such as "Children of Dune", "Napoleon" and this weekend "Helen of Troy".
4. Progressive scan player.
5. Very easy to use designed very similar to a VCR.
6. Blank DVD-R's cost $1.00 - 1.30 depending on the brand.

I have recorded over 150 movies from VHS, SVHS, Laserdisc and DirecTV with excellent results. I have never experienced the washed out look that I believe is a result of either the TV or DVD player needing video adjustments. The same as the so-called chroma bug, another illusion I have never experienced with my Panasonic, JVC, Pioneer, Samsung and Akai DVD players / recorders.

Watch out for the wonderful Panasonic "black level" bug...

haven't heard if they fixed it on the next generation of players...but who knows with them...

It's fixed
 

I have the new 2003 model E50 and I'm VERY happy to report that they did fix the "black level bug". I've had the unit for 3 weeks and it has recorded flawlessly. A really great piece of electronics that I would recommend to everyone.

Can you hook these up to computers or are they standalone recorders.

It's a standalone unit.
 

It's a standalone unit and works just like a VCR.

I purchased the DVDR-985 back when it was first released, but returned it because at the time the units had a problem with the progressive scan output (this has since been fixed). Other than that it was a pretty nice machine, except for a couple of things: The editing features were clunky, and the edits sometimes weren't recognized by other players. Also, it was very sensitive to imperfections in the source material - when recording from vhs, it would completely lose the signal for a few seconds if there were any audio/video dropouts, if the picture jumped or there was a tracking error, etc. It made archiving older or worn tapes very frustrating. The firmware has been upgraded since then, so these problems may have been fixed.

On the other hand, the quality of recordings made from dss, DV tapes, etc. was fantastic - pretty much identical to the original.

Panasonic did fix the black level bug on the new model.

DVD-Ram and PC DVD drives
 

I have a PC with a DVD drive and a Sony DVD Writer (DRU500AX) - if I purchase a DVD recorder, can I then use the DVD-Ram disks in the PC to edit stuff and write them to DVD-R? Some reviews of the Panasonic DMR-E30 say that the DVD-Ram disks can only be used in the machine that generates them - does that just mean other DVD players, or would it include a PC?

I'm looking to take the plunge shortly... and I really have my eye on the Panasonic DMR-E50K. If anyone wants to sway me in a different direction -- speak now. ;)

Seriously, if there is anyone out there with DMR-E50K horror stories or any reasons I should consider a different make/model, I'd love to hear your input. Just looking to start weighing the pros and cons here... I'm mainly concerned about picture quality and disc compatibility with other machines. And it sounds like the DMR-E50K scores highly for both of those...

Great player
 

I've had my Panasonic DMR-E50K for 3 months now and it's been great.

Re: It's a standalone unit.
 

Can you add chapters & menus on these things? Or do you need a PC version for that?

Say I have home video of my daughter. If I want to slap it all on a DVD, could I have chapter stops for different events?

Yes, most (nearly all) set-top recorders offer at least rudimentary chapter stop/menu creation. Some are better than others.

What's this new Panasonic DVD-RW with the built-in Tivo? This looks cool.

http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_el...ss_release.asp

Love my Panny DMR-HS2.

So, I'm poking around on Google, looking for info/reviews about the Panasonic DMR-E50K. And I come across this Usenet posting:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...com%26rnum%3D2

"I likewise have many laser discs and tapes to copy, just
picked up a Panasonic DMR-E50K and it's w o n d e r f u l
as in side by side comparisons of an LD copy, Indiana Jones
to be specific, actually show the copy to be of better
quality due to the image spiffing up circuitry the unit
has."


Now, what's the deal with this. "Image spiffing up circuitry"? Is this true, or is the poster confused? And can I turn this off and/or adjust it myself?

I'm just a little concerned about a recorder arbitrarily making choices about how to alter ('spiff up') what I'm feeding it. For example, if I'm recording a laserdisc where the material intentionally has desaturated colors, I wouldn't want the DMR-E50K coming in and attempting to make the colors richer or more vibrant.

That's just some poor soul who is of the belief that simply because it's on DVD, the picture is improved. Pretty much what a lot of people thought when the DVD recorders started dropping below $800. Of course the difference some see, can be attributed to the connections (ex. coax vs. S-video), or the recorder's settings options (color, sharpness, etc.).
I'm sure there's other things that could play a factor (prog. scan, line of resolution) in giving the perception of an improved picture, but it's not some magic chip that knows how to beef up the image. I'm an owner of an E-30, and very happy with it. And the E-50 is, for the most part, the E-30 with the bugs worked out.
Besides, you would think if it did have "Image spiffing up circuitry", it's something that would be used to advertise the product.
I don't think you'll ever get a uniform answer on this question. Too many different players, tv's, media brands, and recorders; and most importantly- too many different eyes.

I had the Philips 985 for a year. I just sold it on eBay yesterday. I hated it mainly because the clock was not reliable: it was always 10 or 15 minutes fast so I couldn't trust it to record a TV show on time; and because it recorded everything off center. I transferred the Star Wars movies from VHS to DVD, and the THX logo at the beginning was cut off the left side during playback, so I knew the whole movie was off center. I also didn't like the fact that if I wanted to zoom in or out during playback, I first had to pause the disc. (I have a JVC player that will let me zoom in or out during playback, so that's what I expected with the Philips.) The DVD+R and DVD+RW recordings on the Philips were compatible with some players like my JVC and Xbox... but not all!

Why would anyone want Panasonic's machines if the DVD-RAM discs are not compatible with most stand-alone players? It's nice that the Panasonic's DVD-R discs are widely compatible, but these are record-once discs. I want to be able to record over and over again on the same disc like videotape AND be able to share that disc with others.

DVD+RW seems like a better choice because those discs are more widely compatible and rewritable. For that reason, I'm waiting for the new Apex DRX-9000. It uses DVD+R/RW, it's progressive scan, and it's only $378 on Wal-mart's web site.

You may want to think long and hard about that decision. In my opinion, APEX rarely manages to make a reliable player. There's no way I'd trust them to make something as sensitive and complicated as a DVD recorder.

A few threads that are worth reading:

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/cgi/forum/i...4;t=7287;&#top
http://www.dvdplusrw.org/cgi/forum/i...=ST;f=4;t=7197

Thanks! I read all the posts concerning the Apex. Seems there's no DVD+R/W recorder on the market that doesn't suck for one reason or another. I'm afraid to buy another Philips model because of the problems I had with the 985, and I assume Magnavox recorders will have the same features, menus and problems as the Philips recorders because Philips = Magnavox, right? I like Sony as a brand, but it looks like their upcoming recorder has some limitations too. Think I'll hold off and see what the future brings.

I just looked at a new Sony recorder and it says it can record on both the +R and -R formats, but it's about $700 right now (still a good deal considering the first Betamaxes were around $1200, but I'm still too poor to get anything above $400 at this point.)
I was going to get the Phillips for $400 because my friend has it and it works pretty well (I already have a few discs made with it) but I'm still waiting for more improvements. Did someone say newer machines will have more recording levels for more time and better quality? I wouldn't use anything lower than the 2-hour mode on the Philips based on the picture quality.
Also, does anyone make 2-SIDED blank discs?? All the ones I saw said "Single-Sided", I'd like to use 2-sided ones if they exist for at least 2 hours on each side. Also will it ever be possible to make blank dual-layer discs? It doesn't really seem possible, but is anyone working on that?

I've only seen 9.4's in dvd-r, never +r. Then again I stopped looking after I got rid of my Philips.
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