DVDR with Freeview... do they record widescreen?

I have been looking to get a Panasonic EH60D or sony 710 but I have just read a thread somewhere that said that Freeview recordings will not record in the widescreen ratio?

Is this true?

If so why would you buy one if you have a widescreed TV?

Originally Posted by ABP

I have been looking to get a Panasonic EH60D or sony 710 but I have just read a thread somewhere that said that Freeview recordings will not record in the widescreen ratio?

Is this true?

If so why would you buy one if you have a widescreed TV?

Well for me Freeview was an extra,I have Sky so the Freeview wasn't important to me.

I have Sky+ but would go for a Pioneer recorder and dub from Sky if the recording from Freeview was not widescreen.

[PhilipL]

Hi

Yes they are recorded wide screen, although such a thing doesn't really exist as it is just a 4:3 picture like any other, except widescreen sources are stretched vertically to take advantage of all the resolution available (rather than wasting space transmitting black bars above and below), then it is shrunk by your TV or DVD player if you have 4:3 TV.

The problem is the signal that tells your TV and DVD player to shrink the picture, as when you record to a DVD-R that signal can be lost, but isn't lost if you record to DVD-RAM or the hard-drive so that will be okay.

If you play a DVD-R that has a widescreen film on, because the switching signal is lost, your TV and DVD player/recorder thinks it is a 4:3 film, and so you get tall and thin people and bars to the left and right on a widescreen TV. A widescreen TV though will most likely shrink it down anyway to try an fill the whole screen but then it will apply some sort of processing and stretch the sides more than the middle as it thinks it is squashing a 4:3 film and tries to avoid making people look too squashed in the middle of the screen. You simply need to tell the TV manually you have a 16:9 film playing and all will be fine.

If you only have a 4:3 TV (that doesn't support a collapsed 16:9 mode) then you are stuck with tall and thin people as the DVD Player/Recorder thinks it has a 4:3 film and so doesn’t squash it down itself before sending it to the 4:3 TV!

Regards

Phil

Many Thanks Phil,

I have traded my Tosh XS34 and am now going for the Panasonic EH60D. I loved the Tosh for the editing ability and the fact i could rate convert from HDD to HDD but i just could not live with the fan noise.

I hope the Panasonic is not too much of a let down in its abilities.

Many thanks to you all

ABP