Question Help from owners of Panasonic DMR-BWT850 Blu-ray Recorder

Sidewinder3

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I have used my Panasonic BWT850 almost to capacity in recording and am now ready to copy things of the hard drive to blu-ray. I have never done any recording (dvd or blu-ray) so am stuck on a couple of basic issues. Firstly, I have read a lot about the various options of speed of blank blu-rays (4x, 6x etc) but everywhere mentions the importance of matching the disc speed to your particular drive speed. I assume people meant that most blu-ray recorders will tell you that they copy in 4x, 6x etc?? There is nowhere online or in the manual that tells me the panasonic's drive speed. The copy options are either 'normal' or 'high speed'. With no specific information of what speed this is, how am I supposed to know what blank disc speed to buy? I don't want to wing it and hope for the best. So I am hoping there will be an owner out there who knows what the panasonic's actual copy speed is in either normal or high speed mode?

Also, again to any panasonic blu-ray recorder owners, which mode is better to copy in anyway- their high speed mode or normal? I am not bothered by length of time taken. All my recordings for copying are HD. I can't find info as to whether either mode reduces the original quality in any way, but suspect one is probably better than the other. Any ideas?

In case it is of any use I will be using BD-R single-sided discs, (preferably Panasonic if I can find any non-Japanese import ones)
 
Welcome to the forum.

To answer the first part of your query - basically it does not matter what speed of discs you get and you do not need to concern yourself with it at all. Any and all speeds will work.

Regarding copy modes, Hi speed copy is always preferable IF you can do it , because it is lossless, and very space efficient.

However if you may want to play those discs on other machines, then use a real time copying mode - You need to do this to make the discs playable elsewhere.

Historically discs made in Taiyo Yuden factory in Japan have always been the most reliable.
It is the factory, not the brand that matters.
They are sold under many brands including TY itself, but are most commonly available under the JVC brand.
 
Thanks Gavtech, that's really helpful.

When you say copying would need to be done at normal speed in order to be playable elsewhere do you mean even on a different panasonic player/recorder? In other words, if this machine breaks and the specific model is no longer available, will any high-speed copied blu-rays I have made become defunct because they can't be played anywhere else? If so I'd rather do it on normal transfer mode and risk loss of quality as I'd want to keep the recordings well into the future, beyond the life of this recorder.

Also, what did you mean when you said that using high speed mode was space efficient? Apologies, I am a total ignoramus when it comes to this world:D

In terms of the discs and brands- does the factory thing still apply in relation to the info in the link below where they found panasonic to be the most reliable? I.e. were those panasonic disks made in the TY factory?
What's the best bluray blank discs / media?
How do you determine whether a disc was made at the TY factory, e.g. if I find some JVC ones? If you have any links about the factory I'd be happy to read about it.
 
Thanks Gavtech, that's really helpful.

When you say copying would need to be done at normal speed in order to be playable elsewhere do you mean even on a different panasonic player/recorder? In other words, if this machine breaks and the specific model is no longer available, will any high-speed copied blu-rays I have made become defunct because they can't be played anywhere else? If so I'd rather do it on normal transfer mode and risk loss of quality as I'd want to keep the recordings well into the future, beyond the life of this recorder.

To explain further - based on the assumption that you recorded your programmes off-air in so called 'DR' mode ( Direct Record), which is probably the normal default, then what you have recorded is the transport data stream exactly as it came from the broadcaster.
The broadcasters use very expensive and extremely efficient compressors so these recordings use the smallest amount of disc space, and when you play them back, they are exactly as they were broadcast - as good as the quality can be.

The problem is that the DR mode of recordings is not an accepted disc standard.
You can put these recordings onto a disc, but only machines that support this non-standard DR mode will be able to play them back and not all machines do.
ALL Panasonic bluray recorders, past and present and future will play them and some more recent players will support them.


Also, what did you mean when you said that using high speed mode was space efficient? Apologies, I am a total ignoramus when it comes to this world:D

I hope the above explains that... although of itself it is not the high speed copying that achieves that - It is the optimised compression used by the broadcasters.
Whenever you do a copy in real time, you are 're-encoding' the recording using the machines on-board compressors , which although extremely good in these machines, could not match broadcast standard compression.
In terms of the discs and brands- does the factory thing still apply in relation to the info in the link below where they found panasonic to be the most reliable? I.e. were those panasonic disks made in the TY factory?
What's the best bluray blank discs / media?
How do you determine whether a disc was made at the TY factory, e.g. if I find some JVC ones? If you have any links about the factory I'd be happy to read about it.

I don't have any links at present - but every and any decent online supplier will always give the disc manufacturer information for every disc type. Avoid any that do not.
 
I think I get the overall picture. It's bloody complicated for the newbie that's for sure! This must be how my dad's generation felt when the internet was explained to them :laugh: All this is making me pine for the simplicity of my clunky old VHS..!

I was thinking I could just experiment and copy a DR file to blu-ray as is and then convert the file into HQ or whatever then copy again and compare the results to see if I personally am bothered by the difference in quality. Even with a larger file and a reduction in broadcast quality I am leaning towards conversion simply away from DR simply because it lifts a certain level of restriction in playability.
I don't suppose you know if once you have copied a DR file to blu-ray on a panny machine whether it automatically gets deleted, thus rendering my experiment to compare the 2 copies impossible? I know certain BBC programmes (and films) are 'copy once', and this is marked next to the recordings, but I am meaning for the ones which aren't exclusively marked as copy once? I would hope this wasn't the case, but I don't want to make any assumptions.

Also, could you tell me a few names of online suppliers that you know mention the manufacturer info that you'd personally rate? I am not keen on buying via amazon as it seems to have a higher risk factor for not getting what is advertised. I'd rather buy anywhere else for this kind of thing frankly!

I did a brief search for that TY factory discs and found one which was a JVC TY disc, but it was LTH. I am keen to only go for HTL after what I read, do the TY factory only do LTH discs?
 
Before burning to Blu-ray make sure ALL your content is converted from DR--->>HQ.
BBC programmes are NOT encrypted, they are not allowed to do so however ITV1 HD, Channel 4 HD & Channel 5 HD programmes can only be recorded to Blu-ray in HD quality once.

When setting the timer on your unit be sure to select the conversion option DR--->>HQ, as soon as your machine is in idle mode the recording will be converted.

The difference in quality between DR & HQ is negligible, and Blu-rays burnt in HQ can be played on any player.

Using DVDs is pointless, they are no cheaper than Blu-ray discs and are only standard definition, TDK 25GB discs cost under £1 each and are very reliable. :)
 
What are the most reliable discs to use for recording on the Panasonic machines please and the best place to get them.
Many thanks
 

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