Panasonic Hi Definition Recorder Available August

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389 posts

Ultimate Geek

#255832 15-Sep-2009 12:03

benfolds, are you talking about Freeview Satellite or Freeview UHF? this unit is useless for Freeview satellite.

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sbiddle

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#255838 15-Sep-2009 12:31

benfolds: I'm wondering if this Panasonic Recorder could help with an issue I have..my freeview picture degrades significantly through my current hd/dvd recorder. It is connected by rca cables which I assume is the issue. Would a s video cable be any improvement?

This recorder would bypass this step as it is all in one so to speak.

S-video will stop the dot crawl but won't result in any significant differences other than that.

The simple reality is DVD/HDD recorders are obsolete technology, I don't know why appliance stores are still even bothering to sell these things!

RustyViewer

296 posts

Ultimate Geek

#255841 15-Sep-2009 12:50

Well...a few people still want to record in analogue. Some channels are still only broadcast in analogue at the moment.

benfolds

32 posts

Geek

#255845 15-Sep-2009 13:19

My Freeview is Terrestrial UHF..one of the ET boxes.

So can anyone confirm that these Panasonic Recorders will record Freeview in HD?

hamisht

389 posts

Ultimate Geek

#255846 15-Sep-2009 13:21

sbiddle:
benfolds: I'm wondering if this Panasonic Recorder could help with an issue I have..my freeview picture degrades significantly through my current hd/dvd recorder. It is connected by rca cables which I assume is the issue. Would a s video cable be any improvement?

This recorder would bypass this step as it is all in one so to speak.

S-video will stop the dot crawl but won't result in any significant differences other than that.

The simple reality is DVD/HDD recorders are obsolete technology, I don't know why appliance stores are still even bothering to sell these things!

what? thats got to be the stupidest comment ever. why are they obsolete? because one Blu-ray recorder is out that only benefits people in the bigger cities? puh-lease

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hamisht

389 posts

Ultimate Geek

#255848 15-Sep-2009 13:22

benfolds: My Freeview is Terrestrial UHF..one of the ET boxes.

So can anyone confirm that these Panasonic Recorders will record Freeview in HD?

yeah it does, and you wont need your STB after you buy it.

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Jaxson

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#255853 15-Sep-2009 13:33

Benfold....

The non hd output from the ET boxes is not very good quality. Sorry but no, going s-video between the ET box and your hard drive recorder will not make much of a difference. The official Zinwell HD set top boxes have good analogue outputs, but not the ET and some other brands.

This Panasonic recorder is an all in one box. It plays blurays and DVD, and it records HD freeview onto it's own internal hard drive. It's real big plus is that it can write recorded files back onto a blank bluray/(and blank DVD?). It's big negative is that it doesn't have a proper MHEG5 EPG (as freeview are a pack of ..... and won't broadcast more than 3 items ahead on the HD/UHF service just to spite us...)

Personally I don't think this Panasonic thing is worth it, but that's just me. A standalone bluray player is $500 now and an HD PVR is around $800. There are some that can be connected to a computer via ethernet network to copy the saved files off now as well, but no official freeview certified box will ever do this.

Actually I take all this back having just seen the recent prices commented on here. At $1600 it starts to look very good. I think the only rival really will be the PS3 with PlayTV but a, this isn't out yet, and b, it's still going to not have an EPG and c, it's going to require an internal hard drive upgrade as well.

Anyhow, there's your options mate. $800 or so for an official freeview PVR which you can't copy the files off, or $1,600 for this panasonic all in one. Hope this answers your questions.

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benfolds

32 posts

Geek

#255863 15-Sep-2009 13:52

Thanks for clarifying...

The cheaper non-blue ray recorder is around $1000 which seems reasonable although the HD is only 250GB....I'm wondering what's the advantage of the more expensive one except being able to play blue ray discs and having a larger HD. I haven't gotten into blue ray as yet and wondering if it is worth it.

I see the blue ray recorder can copy onto a blue ray disc but wouldn't this only be worth it if the material being copied was blue ray quality to start with?

RustyViewer

296 posts

Ultimate Geek

#255876 15-Sep-2009 14:38

How many people are in your family that you need to record for? The 250GB records about 40 hours HD. Shouldn't that be enough? On top of that, you can convert files later to XP, SP, LP or EP in either HD or SD format to save space. Also depends whether you usage is about recording weekly programs which you wipe as soon as watch (like me), or whether you are trying to collect programs or movies.

With my old Pioneer 400GB, which can record about 90 hours in XP, I never had more than about 10 hours on at a time with one exception - when I recorded the 23 hour telethon recently, which, BTW, was cool to be able to do without having to change tapes etc.

Now then - here's a question. How do I record TV3 in dolby digital? It will only record in 5.1 and also it keeps defaulting to same when I switch to the channel through the recorder though I can manually change it to dolby, but I have to do it each time I switch. I don't have that problem with my Panasonic plasma TV.

It's also puzzling that the guide can't be for the full seven days. The plasma shows the full seven days no problem. It's from the same company and uses the same technology so what gives here?

Jaxson

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#255880 15-Sep-2009 15:00

Rusty:

I'd be certain that the recorded file is just the transport stream itself. ie it just saves whatever is being broadcast at the time. Therefore on TV3 you'll probably have both audio formats saved with your show. You will have to switch to Dolby if you want 5.1 sound output. The unit appears to default to AAC audio which is the standard base audio format across all freeview channels. This will be a decision Panasonic have opted to make.

Second. The EPG. The inbuilt freeview tuner in your TV will use the MHEG5 official EPG. This is broadcast in full by freeview on both satellite and UHF/HD formats of freeview. The EPG on the panasonic recorder uses the EIT data to fill in it's EPG. This EIT data is broadcast in full on the satellite service but only a small amount of the available data is broadcast on the UHF/HD format.

Freeview in all their infinite wisdom have decided on the UHF/HD service not to broadcast any more EIT data than 2 or 3 programs ahead. This means this is all your expensive new PVR can display. There's a hole thread on this, with some saying EIT is old fashioned, and the rest of us saying that the vast majority of PVR's (including windows media centre and Sony's PlayTV PS3 addon) still use this EIT format.

Fundamentally the reason it doesn't work is that Freeview don't broadcast enough of that type of data to fill in all the slots. Why? is a question they have never answered.

old3eyes

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#255933 15-Sep-2009 18:58

hamisht:
sbiddle:
benfolds: I'm wondering if this Panasonic Recorder could help with an issue I have..my freeview picture degrades significantly through my current hd/dvd recorder. It is connected by rca cables which I assume is the issue. Would a s video cable be any improvement?

This recorder would bypass this step as it is all in one so to speak.

S-video will stop the dot crawl but won't result in any significant differences other than that.

The simple reality is DVD/HDD recorders are obsolete technology, I don't know why appliance stores are still even bothering to sell these things!

what? thats got to be the stupidest comment ever. why are they obsolete? because one Blu-ray recorder is out that only benefits people in the bigger cities? puh-lease

Not really when you consider that analog TV may only have 4 years left in this country. The way to go now is a BD recorder, TiVo or MySky. I'm looking at getting a MySky by the end of the year so my DVD recorder will like the VCR before it gather dust until I want to transfer something to a DVD to keep..

Like Steve said. I can't understand why these things are asking about $500 + for a DVD recorder with no digital tuner..

Regards,

Old3eyes

hamisht

389 posts

Ultimate Geek

#255934 15-Sep-2009 19:03

Freeview Sat aint going anywhere anytime soon... a DVD/HDD recorder has multiple inputs, its not like its just being used for analog tv.

A BD recorder is only good if you have an HD signal, untill HD goes nationwide like Sat (ie; never), DVD recorders will still be sold.

ps- I got MySkyHDi in the lounge and its a fantastic machine, series link, rewind, pause etc.

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sbiddle

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#255952 15-Sep-2009 20:34

hamisht:
sbiddle:
benfolds: I'm wondering if this Panasonic Recorder could help with an issue I have..my freeview picture degrades significantly through my current hd/dvd recorder. It is connected by rca cables which I assume is the issue. Would a s video cable be any improvement?

This recorder would bypass this step as it is all in one so to speak.

S-video will stop the dot crawl but won't result in any significant differences other than that.

The simple reality is DVD/HDD recorders are obsolete technology, I don't know why appliance stores are still even bothering to sell these things!

what? thats got to be the stupidest comment ever. why are they obsolete? because one Blu-ray recorder is out that only benefits people in the bigger cities? puh-lease

Quite simply because analogue TV is near obsolete. Once it goes the majority of people with one of these will find the units of absolutey no use.

You will never get a HDD/DVD unit that has a Freeview tuner in it because DVD's are MPEG4 and NZ has chosen MPEG4/H.264 as our Freeview|HD video format. The only format capable of supporting HD content is Blu Ray.

Unless you're going to hook one of these up to a Freeview STB and manually change the channel on the STB they'll be a brick and absolutely useless in ~4-5 years time when analogue broadcasts are shut down.

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#256046 16-Sep-2009 10:39

sbiddle: The simple reality is DVD/HDD recorders are obsolete technology, I don't know why appliance stores are still even bothering to sell these things!

I think that's an exaggeration. DVD/HDD recorders may be OLD technology, but they are not obsolete yet and they won't be until analogue broadcasting ends - that is some years away.

In fact it could still be a few years until the date for analogue switch-off is announced, and then there will be a further period between the announcement and the actual switch-off. So at most we could say that we expect that DVD/HDD recorders will obsolete in several years time.

RustyViewer

296 posts

Ultimate Geek

#256064 16-Sep-2009 11:22

Well, I have at least three uses for my 400GB Pioneer that I can think of.

1) While analogue is still being broadcast, I can use it to record analogue-exclusive channels or possible a third channel if there happens to be that many program clashes or for minor channel overlaps. Note too, that some programs are broadcast in 4:3 on digital, and so it wouldn't make much difference in quality to record those program in analogue.

2) The Pioneer is still a very good DVD player. Furthermore, the Panasonic can not play DivX files while recording. I may have the urge to play such a file while recordings are in progress, so it's good to have the flexability of a separate player for that purpose.

3) The 400GB can be used for storage of SD format files if necessary and I can create SD format files from the Panasonic which can then be copied onto the Pioneer.

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