Flexible recording problem-Panasonic DVD Recorder

[statl]

I am having a problem with my Panasonic DMR-ES20 DVD Recorder. The flexible record setting is supposed to fill up the disc no matter what the length of the recording. However over the last couple of months, longer recordings (2 hours or more) are not filling up the disc. Sometimes only about half the disc is used, and I am left with a very poor quality recording.

Panasonic tells me there is no firmware update to fix this problem. Does anyone have any ideas for a solution?

[Scour]

I´m not sure if I understand exactly what u mean

If u use FR to record 1 hour on a DVD, the FR-Mode always try to use the whole space for the recording.

If u use timer, could it be that u programmed some other timer-programms or only one with the FR-recording?

[statl]

Thanks for your reply. I have double-checked my recordings, and they indicate they are "FR" recordings. I had this happen again last week. A 2hour and 8 minute programmed FR recording used only 25 per cent of the disc!

Strange that this does not seem to happen with recordings of under two hours.

I even contacted my local Panasonic service center, and they haven't seem this problem before. They thought there was a Firmware update that would fix this, but Panny tells me there isn't

[Scour]

Question: Did u program only 1 FR-timer or more than 1? I think it causes probs when u program 2 or more timer-recordings with FR

[statl]

I only program one FR recording at a time. This is the record mode I use the most often, and it worked fine for about 7 months. Then all of a sudden, FR recordings were not completely filling up the disc. It's almost like it's recording on the EP mode rather than FP.

I tried restoring the default settings, and I thought that had fixed the problem. However, a short time later it started happening again.

[Scour]

Thats crazy, first time I heard this. Maybe a defect?

[chicagopunkie]

I am having the same problem. I recorded two 45 minute programs off of cable and used the F Record and it took up less than half the disk.

Also - is there a way to tell which mode (other than FR) a DVD is recorded in? I was trying to figure out if it was in XP, SP, etc. When I took the DVD out after recording and finalizing, I turned it over and saw there was more than 50% room left on it.

For some reason I thought by using FRec, most of it would be recorded in XP and the rest in SP if it was under 2 hrs. Obviously I was wrong.

Thanks![/quote]

[Scour]

Panasonic shows only "FR" when it´s recorded in this mode, all speeds are lighted (XP, SP, LP, EP)

AFAIK FR only works ok when one timer is programmed in FR, it´s not working correct if u programmed more than 1 timer

[chicagopunkie]

Thanks so much for responding, Scour.

Sorry - just to clarify - I pressed "pause" between the 1st and 2nd programs. To avoid confusion, I should have just written that I recorded a 90 minute program.

I am also wondering if F Rec works better with scheduled (using the timer) recording rather than recording it live.

So in other words - I recorded a 90 min show from cable in FRec mode and recorded in "live" versus using the timer. I did use the Pause button. It ended up taking up less than half of the disc.

Thanks again!

[statl]

Since I originally posted this problem, I found the specific cause. The trouble seems to be if I am recording a program that has an AM starting time and a PM ending time (Or a PM starting time and an AM ending time). So a show that is on 11am till 2pm recorded in FR mode would only use a small portion of the disc resulted in poor picture quality. Again, this is only when doing a timer recording utilizing Flexible recording. I'm not sure if the problem is with my specific Panasonic DVD recorder, or if this is a common problem. But but not using FR in this situation, I have not had anymore problems of this type

[chicagopunkie]

Since I originally posted this problem, I found the specific cause. The trouble seems to be if I am recording a program that has an AM starting time and a PM ending time (Or a PM starting time and an AM ending time). So a show that is on 11am till 2pm recorded in FR mode would only use a small portion of the disc resulted in poor picture quality. Again, this is only when doing a timer recording utilizing Flexible recording. I'm not sure if the problem is with my specific Panasonic DVD recorder, or if this is a common problem. But but not using FR in this situation, I have not had anymore problems of this type

Thanks, statl! Glad to hear you resolved your problem and thanks for the info.

I have been experimenting the last few days and I should have known this before but just realized that the F Rec should only be used if you are going to use the timer or "Schedule" programming.

Even by using the Pause button only and not using Stop, the DVD reverted to EP (and the 8 hr, not the 6 hr I have set up) when I recorded "live".

I guess this makes sense because you have to tell the DVD Recorder how much time you will be recording so it knows how to record in the best mode in order to fill the DVD. So one (scheduled) recording only is what I can figure out.

I am going to throw out the DVD+R's I used before that only used up a small portion of the tape and go back and re-record what I did before and this time just record in SP for the 90 mins. If I do the scheduled recording, I cannot edit out the commercials.

Thanks to all, for your help!