Panasonic DMRES20D - Page 3 - Digital Spy Forums

Panasonic DMRES20D

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piper

08-09-2006

Originally Posted by gidmeister:
“This is a known fault with Panasonics - they cant cope with one of the widescreen aspect ratio settings (don't ask me which one) but its the one ITV4 uses and it's apparently not the 'generally accepted' format. Other boxes are evidently written to cope with it but not the Panasonics.

The only way I could find to avoid it is to watch everything in Letterbox mode (settings menu) rather than 4:3 mode. The trouble is my player couldn't even seem to remember to stay in letterbox mode after I switched it off. A similar problem to the way it can't remember what channel profile you're in after you switch it off.

So I complained to Panasonic. They said they could post me a firmware upgrade (which works at a more 'core' level than the stuff they upgrade over the air) which would not only fix the aspect ratio problem but also make it remember whether it is in letterbox mode or not. They said they couldn't do anything about the profile problem.

All I can say is after using the FW upgrade it now does remember to stay in letterbox mode overnight but if I go into 4:3 mode to check, it's done diddly squat about sorting out the AR problems. Mind you that doesn't bother me any more as I'm happy with everything in letterbox (big telly, small room!)

All in all the impression I get is that Panasonic are pretty crap when it comes to FW upgrades. For instance, they seem to have no intention of improving the EPG by adding programme info for all programmes rather than just now/next (which is a rather useful aid in deciding what programmes to record over the coming days!). But their players are cheap - so I guess you get what you pay for.”

From Panasonic I Got:

In response, you have the current version of the
firmware for your unit.
It is not possible to set the recorder to letterbox
as default

C Hawke

07-01-2007

firmware v1.3 is being sent out next week 13-15 according to http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/download_schedule.pl

So make sure you're all switch on and stuff.

waz101

10-01-2007

Originally Posted by C Hawke:
“firmware v1.3 is being sent out next week 13-15 according to http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/download_schedule.pl

So make sure you're all switch on and stuff.”

It's on Multiplex B first 11th to the 12th. (lower down the DTG download page)

Waz
Last edited by waz101 : 10-01-2007 at 12:30

GoochyB

11-01-2007

Anyone yet installed it & found out if anything significant has changed?

barkingboy

11-01-2007

I went from 1.06 to 1.13 and can't see any differences at all.

GoochyB

11-01-2007

Mine went from v1.11 to v1.13 - not identified any changes yet. It would be interesting to know if anything is supposed to have changed functionally, or if it's just a case of trying to iron out disk errors & other "bugs".

Hermy

13-01-2007

One change I've noticed is, that if you choose landscape view on a 4:3 television, it remembers the next time you switch on the machine.

barkingboy

14-01-2007

Originally Posted by Hermy:
“One change I've noticed is, that if you choose landscape view on a 4:3 television, it remembers the next time you switch on the machine.”

I have a question, if anyone can help:

If I set the machine to letterbox 4:3 and make a recording of some widescreen content - will it record the black bars onto the DVD?

Basically I don't want all my old recordings looking weird (with extra bars) when I upgrade to a widescreen TV.

Thanks.

GoochyB

14-01-2007

Originally Posted by barkingboy:
“If I set the machine to letterbox 4:3 and make a recording of some widescreen content - will it record the black bars onto the DVD?

Basically I don't want all my old recordings looking weird (with extra bars) when I upgrade to a widescreen TV.”

No, you should be OK. As with the broadcasts, a flag is recorded onto the DVD to indicate to the player on playback that the image is in widescreen. How it is displayed will depend upon the settings in the player when it is played back.

The letterbox setting in the player controls how it displays DVDs it is playing (as well as broadcasts it is receiving) that have the widescreen flag set.

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