I wonder if anyone with the Panasonic DMR-EX75/85 can answer a few questions.

I hope to attach my Freeview PVR to the player via Scart to then get an upscaled picture through HDMI to my plasma. I think (even though it is not mentioned in the manual) that it will do this when the player is on and not doing anything, but I cannot find any info that states if this is possible when the player is recording from the internal freeview tuner to the hard drive/DVD. I just assume that you would need to press the input button on the remote, once the recording had started? Can you also tell me if the player will loop through a scart input and then out of the HDMI output (obviously not upscaled) when the player is in standby. I think that it will loop through from scart input to scart output when the player is off, but I will be using HDMI?

Hopefully someone out there who is lucky enough to have one of these machines can answer this. Thanx

I'm sorry I didn't reply when you asked me this question the other day. The guy in the shop where I bought it said that it would only upscale the picture from a dvd I played on the machine, not the picture from the digital tuner. For an upscaled picture on tv channels I would need HD software such as a Sky HD box. Maybe he's wrong? The HDMI connection means I don't use a scart lead anymore. I have to admit I'm new to this advanced technology and still getting to grips with it all so maybe someone with alot more knowledge than me can answer your question fully.

Hi mikeyAB, If you are only connected using only HDMI, and you are still getting a picture from the external connection on the Panny, then the picture is obviously being routed correctly.

However the received images maybe being sent down the HDMI cable in in low-definition form rather than being upscaled.

Can you get the TV to tell you the type of signal that its being fed? If your TV can report its current signal type and its low-def this will appear as 576i or 625i or something similar.

If your TV can report the feed type this will answer peTTes question.

This is only curiosity because I don't have HDTV, nor any plans to get it, but what are you trying to achieve? Freeview isn't broadcast in HD, so providing the picture fills the plasma display area, that's as good as you're going to get. Upscaling can't add definition that isn't there.

I am interested in this because the recent review of this player in Home Cinema Choice states that the Freeview picture is one of the best that the reviewer had ever seen. This must be down to the upscaling in the player and the HDMI digital connection. To show a non HD picture on a plasma the signal must be upscaled, usually by the plasma itself, but from this review it seems that the Panasonic may be doing a better job than most plasmas do. Also, on the Panasonic Japan website it states that the 75 and 85 will also upscale any signal which is received by the player. See the website here http://panasonic.co.jp/pavc/global/d...e_quality.html

So, as you can understand, I would like to attach my twin tuner PVR to the Panasonic via scart and then use it to upscale the image and send it via HDMI to my plasma, but I was interested to see if it would do this if the Panasonic is already recording something. Hopefully someone may have already tried this configuration.

Thanks. I think I see.

the answer is yes! I view output from the dvd recorder on the HDMI output on my tv, and when I look at the signal info for that it says 1080i. So therefore I guess it upscales all output from the Panny. I haven't noticed a significant difference to the normal picture from my idtv, but I have when I play a dvd (pre-recorded or even copied from an old video tape ) - the picture is stunning.

Cheers mikeyAB. Do you have any external equipment (i.e PVR) attached to check whether the HDMI still works when you are recording from the internal Freeview to the hard drive?

no I haven't sorry...but I noticed from the manual that if I wanted to connect an amplifier, for example, it shows an HDMI cable from the dvd to the amp and from the amp to the tv.. Therefore I'm wondering if an additional HDMI cable would be necessary for any additional equipment to maintain the HDMI link.

Logically you're correct. But the fact is that upscaling does "seem" to add more detail even though it plainly can't. It's like interpolation in digital photos. You make the picture bigger and software fills in the extra pixels in an intelligent way. The brain is fooled into thinking it's seeing more detail. It does work I can assure you.

MikeyAB, this is for when you want your amplifier to auto switch when using the panasonic, so it is later in the chain of components. I think that attaching components to input to the panasonic recorder would just require a Scart input and then just The HDMI output. Hopefully someone else may have tried this setup