Question Panasonic DMR-BWT850

[LicensedTaximan]

I posted this on another thread but no replies as yet, so I will try this one...Ok hear goes.

Unbelievably both my "Sony" RDR-HX710 and my Panny DMR-EX75EB DVD recorders have decided to pack up at the same time (spooooky) so I want to replace them with the Panasonic DMR-BWT850. I realise (unfortunately) that this model has no "external in" like the others I have so i'm unable (as far as I know unless anyone can tell me if there is a way but I don't think so) to transfer any content from the hard drive of those two DVD recorders to the hard drive of the 850. From what i've read it seems I can only record from TV transmissions and edit on the hard drive then record content onto DVDR or BDR, but my main question is this.

Can one transfer content from a DVD-R or +R from my other machines to the hard drive of the 850 and then back onto another disc, either a DVDR disc or BDR disc? Thanking you in advance LT.

 

[thegeminiman]

Unless things have changed , its not possible to copy material from finalised dvd's onto the hard drive. It seems to try but then stops.
Not tried it for ages but it might be possible with an unfinalised disc. Of course the main problem there is that an unfinalised disc might not play. Discs recorded on the Sony almost certainly won't but previous experience shows there is a possibility that something recorded on your other Panasonic recorder might.

I have to ask: why do you need to transfer content from one machine to another? These devices are not designed to keep recordings forever as they will always fail eventually which is why the recordings should be put on a disc.
If you are able to get content from the old recorders to a blank disc I would do it asap.

My Bluray recorder is several years old and even on that the input scart will not accept an RGB input meaning that if you were able to play your old recorders directly into the new one the quality would suffer. It does have an s-video input but few other devices have an s-video output these days.

I'm not technically minded enough to know the specifics but it's likely you could copy recordings on your old machine to a computer (in real time) and then burn them to disc that way although this would require leads / adapters to do so and then knowledge of which would be the right dvd burning programs

 

[jonoro]

On the assumption that your old units can still playback then:
On a BWT700 I have copied recordings from a DVD onto the HDD, I don't see what the 850 would be different.
Attached is a page from the manual.

Another option would be a digital modulator - Technomate do one for around £120 which you feed in via HDMI and it spits out a UHF signal on the digital terrestrial standard and in HD.

IF on the other hand you want to lift the HDD from the old DMR (I don't know re the Sony) and copy the recordings from the HDD then it is possible but not easy I believe. You would need to copy them to a PC. I have posted elsewhere how to do this on a 720 and it should be similar.

 

[thegeminiman]

And the PDF instructions show that copying from -R, -RW or +R to HDD is not possible. Curiously you can copy from +RW - perhaps because that format didn't originally need finalising to be made compatible (not on Philips recorders at least)

 

[jonoro]

That is fascinating. I did remember copying from a finalised DVD back to the HDD. But as you point out the manual says otherwise.
However I was convinced that I have done it before so this morning I took a finalised DVD-R that I had recorded to on the same BWT700 and set it to copy back from the DVD to the HDD.
No problem, it sailed through and copied successfully. The only drawbacks were that the copying seemed to be in real-time and that the title information was not copied but the programme recording itself was there.
For info, the DVD-R had been recorded in EP (8 hour mode) and I was not given the option of high speed copying. The copying is controlled just by time and the programmes copied are recorded as one recording, but easy enough to split them later and insert a title.
But it is definitely possible to copy from a finalised DVD-R to the HDD.