Hi Dave

I presume you mean the front display on the actual unit. ...AFAIK there is no way of controlling it. The display changes all the time acccording to the mode the machine is in... I think it displays time when off and in timer mode and during timer recordings.

You may find after you've had the machine a few months that the remaining time display is less useless than it currently appears

I hope you enjoy it. Have fun

I just bought mine from empire direct for £390, although it went up to £414 just after I'd ordered. The best way to check price comparisons that I found was to google the model then check the different sites. I went for the eh60.
Dave

You are aware that the EH50 does not have a digital tuner so is scarcely an equivalent machine in terms of end usability?

Thanks Gavtech, the only reason that I think it may be useless is because I will never fill the disc, even in sp.
I bought the first panasonic dvd recorder many years ago and yes I think I will enjoy this as much.
Dave

Yes.

The cheapest I've seen the EH50 is 230 for multiregion

The EH60 is 414.

So the difference of 180 pound, I'll be able to cope with an external Freeview box and connect that to the EH50.

But if the EH60 was cheaper.........

Yes - Thats what I thought ... but its so useful for so many things , that I am getting close.

Incidentally - I use SP all the time .... I have not found it necessary to go to XP and I've found the quality compromise with lower settings just a little too much to bear.

You seem very knowledgeable, except when widescreen comes into it. It surprises me that you have such a superior machine but without a widescreen TV.
It was stored on Sky+. When the first attempt crashed I recopied from Sky+ with that setting Off and re-edited the top and tails as my first attempt did not appear to be very good anyway.
I've not had any trouble with HS mode, only with normal mode.
Well that solves that one instance.
You may be right there. If it happens again I'll have to try that.
Regards
Peter

Ah Ok... Now I understand.

When you dub that way, i.e. NOT at high speed, the material goes through the encoder again and is recoded.

When you dub a HS, a straight digital copy is made so your chapters etc. shoud be retained.

I'll address your other points in a future posting.

Regards

Gavin

I risk going off-topic here.
I can perhaps justify it on the basis that these issues get into the philosophy of the design and use of these machines.

There are a number of contributory reasons why I don't have widescreen and I am not particularly interested in ever getting it.

Widescreen was a largely artificially driven TV development. Artificial in the sense of there being no real need.
It was largely motivated by the content providers of the film industry, but a cosy cabal developed which included the broadcasting industry and hardware manufacturers.

None of this essentially serves my end user experience as a watcher of TV ... because I am aware that the message is more important than the medium.
Many tend to lose sight of this... The same problem exists in the Audiophile world. [ AKA Audiophools].

Essentially , the biggest justification for widescreen came from attempting to closely match film formats... and this is where I have a personal problem....because, as a generalised statement, I do not watch films.
The reason for that is a cultural one.... because films means Hollywood and Hollywood means America ... and that is a culture which has serious problems and which is spreading around the world like an virus.
The bulk of films made are produced for commercial reasons, not because someone had something interesting to say.

So from that point of view , I am not motivated to go widescreen.

But there are other major factors. The issue has become confused because of display developments in recent years in the form of LCD and Plasma.... and also the gradual change to digital transmission.

Sadly the digital transition is another area that is being corrupted by the same 'Hollywood Values', where, what might be a good system, specifically in regard to DTT [ Freeview], has become so diluted in terms of quality as the broadcasting interests try to get blood out of a stone and cram far too much down the pipe. [ Please forgive the mixed metaphors].

The CRT is such a mature very highly developed product that, the fact remains that a properly set up glass screen [ i.e. CRT] receiving a good quality analogue signal will still always be better than any of the modern screen technologies displaying a digitally transmitted picture.
[ Note to others: This is a fact ... Not a point for debate].

That is not to say that digital does not have advantages. A debate about that is pointless anyway. We are stuck with it.

So - I have not been induced to the other screen technologies simply because I would be paying a lot more for poorer performance. Future development may change that... but it has a long way to go.
At the moment the plasma industry appears to be struggling hard to keep the lid on the 'secret' that there is a serious reliability problem emerging.

There is one coming development which will probably change my point of view and that is High Definition, which in theory at least should provide a quantum leap in terms of quality, albeit I have worries about the way that will be corrupted too by commercial interest.

At the moment the foreseeable route for that is via Murdoch... and as I remain a champion of Public Service Broadcasting and the principles it upholds, I wont touch it with a bargepole.

I hope that adequately explains my 'dont know / don't care' attitude to widescreen.

The views expressed here are necessarily my own.
Last edited by Gavtech : 05-01-2006 at 08:16

I notice on the DTG website there is a provisional update to v1.11 software for the DS20S and EH60D from next Thursday to Monday.

http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/download_schedule.pl

Anyone any ideas what it is?

Why do I get a sinking feeling - like Panny are going to do a "Sky" - F**k up a working system with a crap update. I do hope not.

is there a window or anything which tells the user of the update and what it does.
dave

I'd hope that at least the 'Info' function on the EPG will work in the new release.... or do I have an exceptionally old revision?

I've turned the autoupdate on my DMRES20D off until I see what it does to other peoples' on here

It is to "update information for the digital channels" according to Panasonic. Whatever that means! When pushed they could not or would not indicate the difference between 1.08 and 1.11

Hi there, me again.
Is there any way to remember the position of playback if the machine is turned of. The book is very poor (as most are) and on my old machine there is a mark position button.
Otherwise getting on well with it and finding it fairly user friendly, except having to remember to use the timer button (panasonic only feature), neither of my other machines has this, you just set the record list and forget it.
Thanks Dave

I don't believe there is. The easiest way to get back to your position is to mark it with a chapter by pressing the "create chapter" button whilst it is playing (however you can't do this whilst it is also recording). You can then use the skip track/chapter button to get back to it quickly.

Thanks for that, this is going backwards, but never mind i will try your suggestions.
Dave

I have had my eh60 since the start of the year. A couple of times when playing back from the HDD I have seen a momentary 'freezing' of the picure, less than a second, and then it resumes. This is has been observed oon material recorded from E4 and channel 4. At least that was the only time I noticed it. I guess it could be the programme itself. Has anyone else observed this or is it worth me taking it back for a replacement?

I don't think so. I really doubt that this is any problem with the machine. It is almost certainly a freeview reception issue....especially as it appears to be limited to some channels only

It is possibly a problem that could be improved by a better aerial signal.

But if these incidents are isolated, it is likely due to transient interference such as Aircraft or Mobile communications or Mobile Phones.

You might want to look at your reception prediction using the DTG postcode checker. Some parts of Chippenham are not rated as suitable for DTT reception at all! (I tried the Council offices as an example.)

Use the retailers' version of the checker http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/coverage.html . This will tell you if certain channels are suspect. The consumer version will just give a "yes/no" answer.

(The council offices seem not to recieve C4 & E4 - the very mux you're experiencing glitches with.)

I've bought another brand and so far they are OK so I suppose it was the cheap disks that it didn't like.


I look forward to hearing these further comments. Perhaps you can see the effect on widescreen if you set your configuration to "Letterbox" rather than 4:3. I had hoped for a response from someone with widescreen. See below for further update.


Thanks for extended comments. IMHO Widescreen is British led and High Definition is American led. We only get widescreen American inports when they produce a series for HD. If they don't it still seems to be 4:3 (at least a fairly recent one I caught sight of was).

Now for the update: Widescreen programmes copied from Sky+ to the HDD with "Rec for HS dub" OFF gives a widescreen picture when played back from the HDD but when dubbed to DVD-R it loses the widescreen flag and the chapters. Oddly it still has a chapter view which is useless as there are no chapters, nor option to create any.

Has anyone been able to dub to DVD-R maintaining widescreen?

I don't suppose the update will make any difference. It does appear to have arrived so far.

Hi Peterpr

There is a note in the maual on Page 41 under the 'Dubbing' heading , in reference to -R +R and -RW that says:
16:9 format programmes [ widescreen] are recording {sic} in 4:3 format .

So it would appear that it is not possible.

Hal_Loe {Phil} has some interesting things to say about this and related matters in post no, 242 on page 10. A number of other postings after that spreading on to page 11 deal with the widesceen 'problem'

Regards

Gavin

Comicsansserif, thanks for the chapter tip, I tried it today and found it quite easy, so that sorts out that slight problem.
Dave

That paragraph is rather confusing. It starts off about copying in High Speed mode, then goes on about recording from an external unit (where your quote comes in) but recording from an external unit to the HDD does get recorded in anamorphic widescreen. There is no mention in that paragraph about dubbing in normal mode. I concluded it meant that direct recording from an external unit to a DVD-R would be in 4:3 format. Maybe it is an error that you marked "{sic} ".

Hal_Loe does not say in #242 whether he is talking about recording on the HDD or DVD. However comicsansserif does say in reply "it will only allow a 16:9 anamorphic dub to -R". It is this I can't achieve. But then later he says he doesn't have a widescreen TV.