Just purchased a DMR-EZ49VEB and trying to record a program from my Skybox lasting 138 minutes onto a DVD-RW.

It didnt work because it was set to 'SP' (120mins) but can't see how to alter this setting.

Been through the Function Menu and the one option I can find is to alter EP from 6 to 8 hrs.

But the machine still reads SP on the facia..

Help.....please....

Was this a timer or 'one-touch' recording?

Pages 29 and 30 of the user manual should help explain
http://www.maplin.co.uk/media/pdfs/A73JN%20Manual.pdf

One touch recording....still reading down those pages.

Have read the manual several times also but nothing jumps out at me..

Theres nothing there I can see that changes SP....

Have seen somewhere else that pressing through REC MODE changes SP/LP/XP etc

The attached from the user manual explains flexible recording setting - ideal for your 138min. programme.
This, as I recall, is the way it worked on my Panasonic DVD recorder
http://postimg.org/image/v3wwn8n3v/

Thanks guys, the actual way you change SP to LP/EP/XP is to scroll through the REC.MODE button on the remote...

Now, call me thick but it isn't anywhere in the 95-page booklet!

I only found this from another source

With a Panny the easiest way to record this is to use flexible recording, it will also give the best quality.

I did download the manual and have a look. There is a step by step guide to making a recording that on one step just has a picture of a finger on the REC MODE button and next to it an image that I took to be a representation of some pop up that might appear on screen with the SP/XP/EP etc modes listed.

But nothing to say that you had to press the button repeatedly to select the mode you wanted or use any Up/Down arrow/OK buttons on the remote to do so. So not exactly clear.

Which is what I tried to explain in post 5

BTW - although it's academic now as the OP has found a way to select recording speeds this is covered in the manual

http://postimg.org/image/w27ithid5/
http://postimg.org/image/ri1yx8or9/

Yes I know, I was agreeing with you. I didn't feel the need to specifically acknowledge your post since it was only one earlier in the thread.

To be fair, DVD recorders have always been pretty complicated and confusing to work.

We used to get people coming in the shop, wanting to buy a DVD recorder for their 90+ year old grandmother, because she "can't work her VCR" - we usually managed to talk them out of it.

As many people couldn't ever work their VCR's (my mother was the only one in the village who could set timed recordings - because I gave her a Sharp Talking Handset VCR ), it would have been nice to think that DVD recorders would have been made easier - nope

What is easy of course is a PVR, with Sky+ probably being the best example - even old grandma's can work it (usually). One of out engineers has a TVonics PVR he was given, it had never been used as the elderly lady couldn't work it - he suggested she might like to sell it, but she said he could have it. I've recently got one as well (faulty, customer bought a new one), I just can't believe the crappy green colour of the EPG?.

This is absolutely true. DVD recorders were *never* a good replacement for VCRs. If anything, they were even less convenient. VCRs- despite their occasional flakiness with cassettes recorded on other machines- didn't force people to worry about what disc type, brand or dye formulation would work with a fussy machine.

I've commented previously that (IMHO) DVD recorders were a red herring when it came to video *recording*. You can understand why people thought otherwise early on; DVD players replaced VHS for prerecorded films, so DVD recorders should do so for recording. And- while being more obviously "high tech"- they share the same operational pattern as VCRs (i.e. a removable media model)- making them the most obvious successor.

But they weren't. Most recording on VCRs was timeshifting, and a DVR is far more suited to that. DVD recorders were like VCRs with added flakiness and complexity (and still required changing media). OTOH, a good DVR uses the technology to its advantage, i.e. to hide almost anything technological- even worrying about media- from the user.

I mean, a couple of years back I heard somone ask about buying compatible discs for their recorder so they can record Coronation Street. Which is just ridiculous- you just feel like saying (in a helpful way)... honestly, save yourself the hassle and get a DVR.

I think the public in general have now realised this as they got out of the "video recorder" mindset, though.

I remember commenting to my Dad that- even if you explained what it did- if you'd then asked my techno-phobic Mum if she wanted a DVR/PVR, she wouldn't have. On the other hand, if she actually got one and used it, I guessed, she'd love it.

Coincidentally, my brother got them one for Christmas the same year... and I was spot on.

i've stopped burning DVD's now - but i think the problem is that to fit a recording greater than 2 hrs on to a 4.7Gb disc, will probably need to be done in real time. The panasonic fast transfer just won't fit.

(having said that I'm thinking of a DVD recorder with hard disk - maybe the model under discussion does not have a hard disk)

i agree with comments above. for general time shifting, a PVR is great. Generally records 2 things at the same time, start from where you last viewed etc.

The only slight issue is that you cannot directly archive recordings.