DVD +/-R/RW Compatibility

[William]

So far the DVD wars have just gotten more amusing as time goes by. From my point of view, compatibility is just not good enough for either format, so I've taken to sitting back and watching the fun. With the release of the A06, I hope the devil has his snow shoes handy

[wkulecz]

Not the first and likely not the last goofy thing Sony has done. Seems they try never to miss an opportunity for selling junk with a lock-in factor.

Who else will be making 3" DVD-R and DVD-RW media if the only market for it is these Sony camcorders? No arguement from me that DVDRAM makes more sense here if you want a camcorder that records mpeg to disk.

I'm opposed to anything than helps inflict unedited video onto friends and relatives!

--wally.

[Dr Mordrid]

I'll second that about Sony. Weirdness with a couple of their cams is why I've been sticking to Panasonic & Canon.

Dr. Mordrid

[Jerry Jones]

Panasonic has certainly been setting the standard within the past year with the AG-DVX100 model and its 24P functionality:

http://www.panasonic.com/PBDS/subcat/Products/cams_ccorders/f_ag-dvx100.html

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[wkulecz]

Yes but.... Does Panasonic have anytihing that can equal or beat the Sony VX-2000 in low light for equal or less cost?

I'd really like to find a review that shows stills from the new Panasonic vs the VX2000 at 3 lux or less -- the "lux ratings" by themselves are basically useless.

The newer Sony 3-CCD "prosumer" camcorders can't match the VX-2000 is low light image quality. I'm waiting as long as possible in the hopes something comes along that is as good but significantly cheaper, or costs about the same but is noticably better.

--wally.

[xortam]

Originally posted by Flying dutchman
... Converting streaming mpeg into regular mpeg is just a matter of doing some de- and re-multiplexing. Can you at least access the HDD from outside using SCSI or USB/FW or even ethernet?

Lossless dubbing from HDD to DVD-R is supported on the DMR-E80H when video is recorded in DVD-R compatibility mode. Otherwise, you can make a lossless dub to DVD-RAM and bring that over to a PC and use authoring SW to do more sophisticated edits and have it do a lossless dub to whatever media it supports. The filesystem on the Panasonic HDD is proprietary so about all you can do with it is install it into a PC and clone it to another HDD.

Originally posted by wkulecz
I don't own a DVDR yet, but from what I've read so far hardware hackers have been unsuccessful in updating to a larger hard drive with the Panasonic units.

I wrote about this in the Panasonic BOMBSHELL - DMR-E100H thread. Essentially that is correct except for one unsubstantiated claim.

Originally posted by wkulecz
Maybe I'm misinterpreting what I've read in the marketing literature, but I think when you export to a DVD-R or DVDRAM disk it automatically erases the file(s) from the hard drive so you can't easily create multiple copies.

Not necessarily ... only if the source is protected. I just received my E80H so I can quote you from the manual. I haven't hooked the unit up yet but this agrees with my understanding from posts on AVS.

This unit is compatible with the Content Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM) system so you can record broadcasts that allow one copy, such as some CATV broadcasts, onto 4.7 GB/9.4 GB DVD-RAM (these are CPRM compatible). It is not possible to record onto DVD-R or 2.8 GB DVD-RAM.

Content is not erased if there is no recording limit set in the source data stream. The one time copy limit set in the source data stream will cause the HDD data to be erased when transferring the video to DVD-RAM. (I imagine that you could take the DVD-RAM to a PC and burn as many DVDs as you want with the right authoring SW.) The video can then be dubbed from DVD-RAM back to the HDD and the video is duplicated but cannot be played. I'll have to test what happens if you then try and transfer this unplayable video onto yet another DVD-RAM.

[Jerry Jones]

Xortam,

Keep up posted on this, please.

This is fascinating.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[xortam]

Jerrold ... I'll try to answer any questions that come up. I haven't attempted any burning yet but I'm very happy with the PQ of the HDD recording off of a C-Band satellite receiver. Good bye VCRs!!!