Panasonic Plasma TH42PV500 questions

LBC8556

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Having just taken delivery of a TH42PV500 I have a few questions which I hope someone can answer.

1) I received a Panasonic DMR-ES10 DVD recorder and am currently using this with a 17” LCD Freeview tv. I was a bit disappointed to discover that the player will not record tv content in widescreen. Also, when watching tv via the recorder, a 4:3 picture is displayed despite choosing 16:9 in the players set-up menu. Although viewing is not really relevant here, recording is. I don’t want to sound ungrateful but what’s the point of selling a 42” widescreen tv with a dvd recorder unable to record in widescreen???

2) What is the best way of making this player region free?

3) I don’t yet have a dvd player with HDMI output yet but when I do get one I presume the best way to connect it to the plasma is by using the HDMI output. How much better is this than component? How much of a leap forward is component over RGB scart? On a scale of 1 to 10 and assuming RGB scart is 3 then where is component and where is HDMI?

4) Will there be any noticeable degrading in picture quality if I connect the plasma to an AV amplifier using a HDMI link, rather than connecting it directly to a dvd player?

5) Using the DVE disk I notice that the “Joe Kane Productions” logo is too far to the left and a small part of the letter “J” is off the screen. What does this mean and does it need correcting?

6) What’s happened to “Panasonic Auto”?
“Panasonic Auto” on my previous tv meant the picture would be seen as transmitted but “Panasonic Auto” on my new tv means something different. Selecting this option on the Plasma means that 4:3 broadcasts are blown up to fill the screen and are, therefore, distorted. But according to the book “Panasonic Auto switches to the appropriate aspect ratio”. So, what’s going on here??

7) I have a Thomson DHD4000 connected to the plasma (well, I will have when it comes back from repair) and was wondering about the RF cable connecting it to the tv. This also applies to the dvd recorder mentioned above. We are forever being warned against using the cheap phono and scart leads that come with AV gear but I don’t think I’ve ever been advised to ditch the RF cable. To me this cable looks just as cheap and shoddy as the usual free cables but why is it less important than the other cables?

Thanks for your help

Stan
 
Stan,

I can answer the first question. The ES-10 will record in 16:9 but only if you use DVD-RAM disks. Maybe thats a way of Panasonic shifting a load of RAM disks!

Al.
 

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