Can anyone tell me if the new Panasonic units are capable of taking a 16:9 recordings from external (Sky+ box) or internal (Freeview) sources and storing them on DVD discs as 16:9 recordings?

They will be capable of recording in anamorphic widescreen just like the older panasonic dvd recorders did.

Or a widescreen picture with black top and bottom depending on how you set up the sky box or internal freeview tuner.

I used to feed mine an anamorphic widescreen signal from my old freeview box before i bought a pvr recorder.

Hope that helps.

Yes, thanks, that does help.

I was getting confused after downloading the various versions of the manuals on the Panny web site they were all consistent about rapid recording from HDD to DVD would record 16:9 as 4:3 with letterboxing, but I couldn't find any reference to standard-speed copying anwhere in the manuals.

Can you tell me if discs carrying anamorphic recordings automatically toggle 16:9 behaviour on other players after they've been finalised?

As long as the 'Rec for High Speed Copy' is set to off then the widescreen flag is recorded.

With it set to on recordings to the HDD don't have the widescreen autoswitching flag.

I have always tended to use DVD-Ram discs with mine as I have tended to record short programs and then transfer them to my pc to be sorted. I know the flag is preserved when using DVD-Ram.

I think as long as Rec for High Speed Copy is set to off the flag should be transferred ok.

Perhaps someone who has this new machine will be able to answer properly.

Hope thats of some help.

Thanks, very informative. I think I'll place an order now as it ticks all the boxes that I was interested in.