1341 replies to this topic

[diesel]

Announcements are starting flow regarding the new range of Panasonic DVD and Bluray Recorders. The two big new features are DivX playback and Vieracast (online content viewing)

Quote

HD Recording With Panasonic DVD Recorders

The new DVD recorders from Panasonic can record shows in high definition and will give users easy access to online content.

The two new DVD Recorders – the DMR-XW450 and DMR-XW35 offer up to 240 hours recording capacity, High Definition recording, and comes with Panasonic's Viera Cast function for online access to popular entertainment sites.

The DMR-XW450 comes with 500GB, storing up to 240 hours of High Definition content. The DMR-XW350 is a direct replacement to the DMR-XW300 and features a 250GB HDD capacity, recording 120 hours of High Definition content.

Both DVD Recorders have an integrated Twin DVB-T High Definition (HD) Tuner and can simultaneously record two Digital TV channels. The DMR-XW350 and DMR-XW450 also support the 7-day Electronic Program Guide (EPG).

The DMR-XW350 and DMR-XW450 DVD Recorders feature Viera Cast, SD Card Link with AVCHD playback compatibility via their SD/SDHC card slot, as well as DivX playback.

The Panasonic DMR-XW450 (500GB) will have an RRP of $1,319 is hits stores on May. The DMR-XW350 (250GB) has an RRP of $1,099 and will also be available in May.

Edited by diesel, 20 October 2009 - 07:17 PM.

[diesel]

I notioce there is no mention of the EX89 DVD recorder. I wonder if they are dropping the EX89 model as it would be very close in price to the XW350, and that is why they have introduced two models for the HD Tuner equipped XWs?

[peterca]

"The DMR-XW450 comes with 500GB, storing up to 240 hours of High Definition content. The DMR-XW350 is a direct replacement to the DMR-XW300 and features a 250GB HDD capacity, recording 120 hours of High Definition content. "

Recording 240 hours of HD content on 500GB and 120 hours on 250GB sounds a bit optimistic.  

[pneu]

peterca, on Mar 27 2009, 07:07 AM, said:

Recording 240 hours of HD content on 500GB and 120 hours on 250GB sounds a bit optimistic.  

As are the RRP's  

[gregy21a]

pneu, on Mar 28 2009, 05:23 PM, said:

As are the RRP's  

I have a 1 TB drive in my tivo and  the tivo says i can record 220 hrs HD (1080i) so what hope has the panasonic have of recording 240 hd on 500 gb?

[pneu]

gregy21a, on Mar 28 2009, 09:13 PM, said:

I have a 1 TB drive in my tivo and  the tivo says i can record 220 hrs HD (1080i) so what hope has the panasonic have of recording 240 hd on 500 gb?

The figures are obviously based on using compression which is completely pointless as our TV broadcasts are already over compressed.

[diesel]

pneu, on Mar 28 2009, 06:23 PM, said:

As are the RRP's  

But it makes good sport when it comes to negotiating

[diesel]

CNET preview of the XW450

[shortlived]

"Panasonic has given both players a more efficient H.264 encoder and so the DMR-XW350 can now record up to 120 hours of content. If you have a lot of DivX movies, you can now watch these via the on-board USB slot or when burnt onto a DVD."
On the DMR-EX88 which has DivX support you cannot record while watching a DivX DVD and the USB port is not powered.   I hope Panasonic have fixed these deficiencies in the XW350/450.

[diesel]

shortlived, on Apr 6 2009, 04:59 PM, said:

On the DMR-EX88 which has DivX support you cannot record while watching a DivX DVD and the USB port is not powered.   I hope Panasonic have fixed these deficiencies in the XW350/450.

Was the DivX DVD NTSC or PAL? I know that watching NTSC DVDs meant you couldn't have any timers firing

[shortlived]

diesel, on Apr 6 2009, 06:48 PM, said:

Was the DivX DVD NTSC or PAL? I know that watching NTSC DVDs meant you couldn't have any timers firing

Good point, the avi  files probably are ntsc.  Not sure how to tell the difference between PAL and NTSC in an avi file.

[diesel]

PAL 25 frames per second
NTSC 30fps

[taffy62]

Excuse my ignorance but what is this div x I keep reading about .

[pgdownload]

DivX (one word). Its an extremely common digital format.

Basically as MP3 is to music
DivX is to Video.

For anthing more I suggest you check out wikipedia or google.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

[taffy62]

Thanks I understand now  

[The Maso]

Do these machines record only in SD to the DVD drive, or can they record in HD DivX straight to the DVD? Also, on the same subject, can these machines read HD DivXs (from DVDR, USB or external drive) and output to TV the signal in HD (1080i or 1080p)?

Cheers,

Greg

[diesel]

They can record to HDD in DR mode for HD FTA content. You can (I believe) record to DVD in DR mode, but this will only be playable by other Panasonic XW and BW recorders. To make DVDs that are playable by all DVD players, they need to recode to SD DVD quality

They cannot record in DivX

Not sure if they can read HD Divxs, but what ever they can read, they can upscale to 1080p

Edited by diesel, 21 April 2009 - 07:04 PM.

[maggie]

diesel, on Mar 26 2009, 01:37 PM, said:

Announcements are starting flow regarding the new range of Panasonic DVD and Bluray Recorders. The two big new features are DivX playback and Vieracast (online content viewing)

Other than the Panasonic DMR-XW350 and DMR-XW450, are there any other products in the market which is a PVR + hard disk + DVD recorder + integrated high-definition tuner?

If not, can anyone recommend a good and cheap PVR + hard disk + DVD recorder + integrated standard-definition tuner?

[wheelz]

maggie, on Apr 30 2009, 09:33 PM, said:

Other than the Panasonic DMR-XW350 and DMR-XW450, are there any other products in the market which is a PVR + hard disk + DVD recorder + integrated high-definition tuner?

If not, can anyone recommend a good and cheap PVR + hard disk + DVD recorder + integrated standard-definition tuner?

Panasonic make the only HD twin tuner dvd recorder and also a blu ray models with prices starting from about $770(xw300) tho if looking for a cheaper option pioneer,panasonic and a few others have a SD single tuner dvd recorder with hdd.

SD examples expect cheaper street prices.
http://www.pioneer.c.../DVR560HXS.aspx

http://panasonic.com...m?objectID=4287

[diesel]

maggie, on Apr 30 2009, 11:33 PM, said:

can anyone recommend a good and cheap PVR + hard disk + DVD recorder + integrated standard-definition tuner?

If what you are after is a DVD Recorder with SD Tuner (DVDR), then Panasonic (EX78/EX88 - both in runout, EX79), Pioneer 560HXS, Sony have good models as well as Samsung and LG, though I would stick to Pio or Panny.

Do you really need a DVDR? Do you need a new DVD player and do you need to transfer shows to removable disc?

Do you normally watch and delete? If yes, then a twin tuner PVR maybe better. They allow you to record two shows at once, (happens very often these days) whilst watching back a third prerecorded show. We don't watch much live TV in our household anymore. All our viewing is prerecorded shows from a few days before. This way you get to watch what you want when you want, and you can skip all the ads meaning a 1 hour show becomes ~42minutes

Have a read of the various stickies on the top of this subforum if you are unsure - Diving into digital etc

[pneu]

Does anyone know if these new models allow you to record 2 different channels while watching any 3rd channel provided it is on the same multiplex as the ones being recorded?

eg.  if you are recording ABC1 and TEN, will it allow you to watch ABC2 and OneHD?

Thanks

[diesel]

The previous model XW300 did not allow this. I doubt that the new models will Pneu.

The workaround is to use the tuner on your TV for a third (live) channel.

[The Maso]

diesel, on Apr 21 2009, 07:03 PM, said:

They can record to HDD in DR mode for HD FTA content. You can (I believe) record to DVD in DR mode, but this will only be playable by other Panasonic XW and BW recorders. To make DVDs that are playable by all DVD players, they need to recode to SD DVD quality

They cannot record in DivX

Not sure if they can read HD Divxs, but what ever they can read, they can upscale to 1080p

Thanks diesel - yeah, what I'm after is a way of playing HD content from "other" sources, such as H264 encoded HD saved to DVD (rather than straight Bluray), effectively allowing the DMR to be a full HD (albeit compressed) playback and recording device for every medium except Bluray.

Sounds like it could work with a bit a faffing about re-encoding where necessary.

Anybody know anything about Sony PlayTV for Playstation?

Cheers...

[diesel]

You'd be better off leaving the content on yopur PC or external HDD and playing them via a mediplayer like the Popcorn Hour or WD Mediaplayer.

As for PS3 PlayTV - read this Wiki

[maggie]

Before I go out and get the Panasonic DMR-XW350 can I know anyone's opinions on this? I don't care too much about the DVD recording facility, I just need a high defintion PVR. Internet connection is a problem, so TiVo is out for me.