12 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
Nice idea but poor performance
Date of Review: Feb 17, 2006
The Bottom Line: Not recommended unless the chasing playback (delay) is your main use for it.
Being able to start recording a show, and then start watching it while still recording (chasing playback) is what makes this and other Panasonic recorders stand out. If I did not want this feature, then I could have saved some money and gotten a more reliable recorder elsewhere. The features listed are impressive, but the performance is lacking in some respects.
Before recording you have to decide how you want to use the DVD that you will record. If you want to start playing while still recording, you must use DVD-RAM. The disadvantage of DVD-RAM is that it will not play back in other players - not even a computer with DVD-RAM. Perhaps there is some software that will allow you to play DVD-RAM on the computer, but I have not found it.
DVD-R and DVD+R will play in most other players. DVD-RW will play in many newer players.
Before you record on anything, you have to format the DVD. Before you can play a DVD in another player, you have to finalize it. Some DVDs that I have recorded refused to play in the recorder saying that it cannot be played in this region. However, those usually will play in other players. Near the end of the finalizing process, the recorder will often lock up. When this happens there is no response from pressing any key on the recorder or remote. You have to unplug the recorder in order to reboot it. The DVD has always been successfully finalized whenever this happens unless I had tried to create my own chapters or name titles.
The book says that it is possible to create your own chapters, and delete chapters. If that were true, then you could delete the commercials, or do other simple editing. I have not been able to achieve this because during the chapter creation and deletion process, the recorder will lock up. After rebooting, the DVD is not recognized. You can reformat the DVD and use it again (if using DVD-RW or DVD-RAM), but anything recorded on it is gone. Simply finalizing what you recorded results in 5 minute chapters - even though you did not create any chapters.
Several events can be programmed in the timer (schedule). If the recorder locks up, all the schedules will be missing after rebooting.
The S-Video connector behind the front door is too close to the side of the connector well. If you have an S-Video cable with a flat top connector, it will not fit into the mating connector on the recorder.
The recorder has DV input (mini 4 pin firewire) for recording DV video. The recorder cannot be used as a DVD-ROM or DVD burner connected to a computer.
The recorder somehow got into the progressive scan mode (maybe when the power flickered). There was a double black and white image on the screen. I had to read the manual to find out how to get it out of that mode. Supposedly it is a menu selection, but I could not get that to work. The work-around is to hold the stop and play buttons for 5 seconds.
The video quality is not as good as a commercial movie. I can see some artifacts when playing video recorded from Hi-8 tape, satellite TV, and off-air TV. The artifacts are most visible on movement and fades to or from black. The overall quality is better than VHS tape though. I was surprised that artifacts do not seem to be a lot worse in the slower modes - even in 8 hour mode. The main difference is that 4 hour mode looks a little fuzzy and jerky, and 8 hour mode looks more fuzzy and jerky. For viewing anything that does not have a lot of motion, and sitting across the room from the TV, this is not really very objectionable to me. If you still frame an 8 hour recording, the artifacts are more noticeable. Perhaps artifacts are somehow filtered in regular play mode? I would not want to use the slow modes to archive anything important that I wanted to watch repeatedly. I think using a capture device and recording on a computer gives better quality. However, it is more convenient to record directly to a DVD.
