Just taken advantage of a Sky offer which gives me movies for the next 3 months for 75ppm and have been busy recording films for the past week. Have just tried to copy a few off to DVD and noticed that I cannot highspeed copy true widescreen films (ie. gap at top/bottom of screen). I've trimmed the film, there's no adverts in the film etc. Have double checked on other sky films I have recorded with are full screen (cinema mode on my TV) and they copy fine.

anyone else got the problem and/or a resolve?

If you want to retain WSS when you copy to dvd-r you need to copy onto HDD first.
WSS is not retained in real time copying either from HDD-DVD-R or directly to -R.
Ensure you transfer to HDD at the correct quality setting to enable high speed and WSS will be retained.
If you continue to have problems(you shouldn't) you can copy the squeezed image to a -RW,then using a PC rewriter you can copy to PC HDD,add WSS manually using IFO Edit,then burn it back to the same -RW.
You can then check that recording works as it should on your other players,then use the Pioneer Disc Backup feature to clone the -RW disc onto a -R.

The films are coming straight off Sky onto HDD and being transferred to -R. When I click on the film to copy I get a notice saying cannot high speed copy, realtime only. Already edited front and back (no ads) so it's not a mode change at fault. Only certain films seem to be affected (those that seem to be genuine WS)

If you are unable to high speed copy you need to switch off "frame accurate editing" in the intial setup menu.
This may not enable HSC with the films you've already edited(but it might) but it should for future recordings

It's not on. Just had another play and noticed it isn't just WS films that are effected. Just recorded Ladder 49 in LP (which is full screen ie. cinema screen) and tried to record it to a DVD and got the same message and yet Sky Captain which I recorded earlier is the same setup but doesn't give the message. Problem only seems to occur on films recorded on sky movies, never had the problem on any other channel. Can/are they transmitting something that stops you making a decent (read WS) recording of a film?

Possible solution,

You may have 16:9 and 4:3 material in the film (e.g. stuff just before may be in 4:3), see if you can high speed copy a short chunk from the middle of the film ?

Keith

Could this have anything to do with Sky not transmitting line 23 widescreen signals, instead relying just on Scart pin-8 signalling ?

No mixed material on the film as I've edited front and back and Sky movies does not have ads during the film. One of the things I thought of.

Have devided a film from last night and both halves say 'cannot highspeed copy'. It's not to do with length, mixed format, mixing a SP and LP film on 1 DVD or anything obvious (I think)

Cobson, doubt it is Sky not transmitting line 23 as the film is in WS on the TV. Did wonder If sky were transmitting some sort of protection signal to stop you making a good copy though. Sunds odd but at the moment haven't got any other ideas.

Maybe an obvious question:but what recording quality are you recording the movies onto the HDD in?
If you are recording to HDD in XP+,this goes beyond the quality of dvd and any recording of any length,no matter how short,will need real time reencoding.
Was "Ladder 49" an LP recording on HDD,or trying to burn a dvd recording of it in LP?

Nope, either recording in SP If the film is advertised as < 2hrs or MP19 which is 2H20mins which by the time I top and tail the flim is usually < than 2hrs.

Has knowone noticed the same problem? Anyone got Sky movies?

Without line 23 signalling the film would still show as ws on your tv because it will be detecting the scart pin-8 signal. TVs should be able to respond to both line 23 and pin-8, but should give line 23 priority. Most digi boxes produce both signals, but I am sure I heard somewhere that the Sky box only does pin 8.

I wondered therefore whether the Pioneer only recorded line 23 signals, and ignored pin 8 signals. But if this was so, you would expect it to affect all Sky recordings - not just movies.

Try recording something in widescreen from another channel like ITV or BBC.
WSS either way should make no difference to whether high speed copying works or not.
Sounds like an operational fault with your Pioneer recorder.

It could be copy protected!
Do you have an exclamation mark or yellow warning triangle on the thumbnail in disc navigator?
DVR433 manual p 63, or DVR530 manual p71 explains!
Basically copy protected material can only be transferred from HDD to DVD not copied! and even then the DVD needs to be in VR mode.

Mongosito, I can copy WS programs etc. without problems from other channels.

DeeWee, no exclamation or yellow triangle on programs. You have no idea that you cannot HSC until you tag the film and it then come up with the notice about cannot HSC, will copy in real time. Did wonder If it had something to do with copy protection but thought it odd that is didn't stop you copying just stopped you having a WS version.

530 working fine in all other respects just copying certain films from Sky Movies is the problem

Copy protection would prevent a transfer from Sky+ to the Pioneer.
CP would not affect high speed copying.
What is the difference between "transferring" fom HDD to DVD and "copying"?
Answer:no difference.
Is the manual entry you refer to not the CPRM reference that concerns material that you can only copy once?
IIRC there is no CPRM material aired at the moment.
This problem is intriguing.
Buelligan,can you tell us the film titles you are having trouble with as I wish to try it myself

The Magic Roundabout, Shrek 2, Spider Man 2, Blade Trinity. Have also noticed a couple of other programs doing the same such as West Wing.

Have also just checked the settings and the disc has been initialized in Video mode, am trying to copy/transfer in video mode, Bi-lingual is off, PCM.

Is knowone else recording films or are you recording films and not having problems?

Am also defragging the disc incase there is an issue in the films being to fragmented to pull off the HDD at high speed.

Hi

Maybe can throw some light onto this.

First of all are you editing? If so you must make sure edits are in Video compatible mode.

Is the recording too big to fit onto the disc, if it is then it will be done in real-time in order to recompress.

If you are editing, and leave in a split second or two of 4:3 aspect material, i.e. the ads or the beginning or end intros that are 4:3, then the recorder may refuse to high speed copy as it can't split up just a couple of frames of a different aspect ratio.

Regards

Phil

Sorry Phil, been dodging showers in the New Forest all day.

Right, editing - yes. Taking front and back off films. Films are on sky movies so no ads in different persepctives. Recording in various modes LP, SP, MN20 (2hr10). Also no exclamation in a yellow triangle comes up when you highlight the film before tagging it. Watched one of the culprits last night (Ladder 49, naff film btw) and double checked, no aspect changes anywhere.

Off camping for a week in Cornwall tomorrow so won't be able to do any testing this end.

Starting to get suspicious that is might be a setup issue as have noticed the probelm occuring on a couple of programs ie. West Wing and yet other programs HSC fine?!

[/camping on] Ooh Matron!! [/camping off]
Had a similar problem some time ago with Jurassic Park - I think it was Ch5.
Did everything you did without a result.
Eventually found that part of the title was in a different screen format and the main film went back to 4:3 - it was difficult to spot the black bars in the title sequence!
Crafty!

If you are trying to add a title with mixed aspect ratios to your copy list,the Pioneer will show an exclamation mark onscreen,so its not possible to make this mistake.
Although a transmission fault or glitch can accidentally switch ratios mid broadcast,the oncreen mark would show this up also-the only problem would be tracing the glitch to edit