Panny BWT850 - How many DVDs to record a series.

Pineman

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I am in the process of recording the entire series of a program, which comprises 40 minute episodes in DR mode, to my Panasonic BWT850EB.

Is there a simple way of estimating how many episodes can be copied from that device to a DVD, which is labelled as 4.7GB, so I can get sufficient DVDs for the whole series?

I know they could be copied to an Ext HDD but then they could only be played on the registered recorder so I want them copied to DVDs that can be played anywhere.
 
Think it would depend on how many episodes there are.Dont have the manual to hand,DR cant be recorded to DVD as far as I remember,top option would be a XP mode conversion which will be able to fit 1 hour of recording time per disc.Is using a BD-R an option?,that can remain DR mode 6.5 hours in HD,13 hours SD.If using XP should fit 5 hours 15 minutes on 1 disc,BD-R times based on using a 25GB disc.
 
I'm not an expert but I thought that all recordings to the HDD were carried out in DR mode by default.

I then assumed that the recorder would automatically copy those DR recordings, making what ever conversions necessary, to a DVD.

The recordings will be from a Standard Definition source.

You seem to be suggesting that each DVD will only allow for 1 hour of recording time, which seems extremely low to me. I may have to look at BD-R.
 
Found the manual.Hope it helps.Not an expert either just a longterm user.Pages 27,44 and 92,93 seem relevant to you.Made the assumption you wanted best quaility,if not take your pick from 1 to 8 hours then,in varying degrees of quality to suit.
 

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Thanks ever so much for going to these lengths for me.

So, by the look of it my Panny will record in DR mode. When complete I then need to carry out a conversion to a different mode before I can copy it to a DVD/BD. The mode I choose to convert to 'might' be allowed but is relevant to the DVD/BD I intend to use and how much each will hold, with no indication of the likely picture quality resulting from the use of that mode.

So sticking a DVD in the tray and hitting a single 'magic' button to copy the program from HDD to DVD isn't really on the cards!

Probably quicker and cheaper to order the whole series second hand from Music Magpie.

Thanks once again it really is appreciated and Simple probably wasn't the most appropriate word to have used in my original post!
 
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Yeah,almost as if they went out their way to make things much more complicated than needs be.I have a house full of Panasonic blu ray recorders/players so just tend to leave recordings to BD-R/RE as DR mode.Unless strictly needed I dont record DVD,havent done so really for years.Roughly speaking the longer the recording on the same disc the lesser the quality,basically XP is broadcast standard SD quality equivalent for 1 hour on a DVD.
 
If I REALLY need to copy anything in future I'll use your settings for BD.

Many thanks.
 
The absolute best quality would be to not re-convert at all - keep DR mode. The problem with that is - broadcast streams (which is what DR mode represents) are not DVD-Video compliant so the resultant DVD is likely to be unplayable on some/many/all DVD players.

Thus you have to choose a re-encoding level. Personally, I don't think there is much visible to be gained by heading straight to the "best" setting (~1 hour per 4.7gb DVD). I'd tend to stick with SP (~2 hours) which will be quite acceptable in my experience. Or put 3 episodes per disc and tell the machine to optimise file size to fit (IIRC "flexible" mode).
 
As you are "in the process" you have already recorded some episodes.
Look how large they are on the HDD then calclate.
To see how big they are, start the setup to copy them to a blank DVD, then as you select each recording its size in mb is shown.
 
Didn't quite work out as you suggested, suffice to say it was happy to have one episode per DVD and any attempt to copy 3 episodes resulted in an offer to convert them to fit them all on.

I must confess that I only bought the BWT850 for recording TV and playing DVDs and BDs. Never gave much thought to copying to DVD and BD until now - and probably won't again unless we get put into lockdown again and I'll have some time on my hands!!

Thanks for getting back.
 
Didn't quite work out as you suggested, suffice to say it was happy to have one episode per DVD and any attempt to copy 3 episodes resulted in an offer to convert them to fit them all on.
Yes - sorry if I wasn't clear. It would have to convert, which takes real-time to do. I was supposing that you wanted to strike a balance between quality (which would be fine at 3 x 40 minutes per disc) and number of discs. But of course "time" is only material if you are impatiently sitting and watching while it does it. If you set it running while you are doing something else then it's largely irrelevant.
 
There is an option to pre-convert all the titles you wish to move to disk so that they will therafter copy at high speed.
The machine will do this invisibly in the background whenever it is not being used for something else.

It is an option to consider - but the optimal compromise between space and quality is, as has been suggested above : to put three titles on a disk in flexible mode.

But three times 40 mins = 2 hours which a DVD will hold at SP mode so it is highly likely that 3 titles preconverted to SP mode will go onto a DVD at high speed and be virtually identical in quality to a flexible mode transfer.
 
to put three titles on a disk in flexible mode.

I'm looking at a minimum of about 30 episodes and, for the time being, I will probably keep them on the HDD until I need the space then, probably, put them on an external HDD. Hopefully my BWT850 (second one!) will keep going for a few more years than the last one did.

I have well over 40 years of experience on Macs & PCs and copying stuff to a DVD couldn't be easier. Everything about the use of the BWT850 to copy to a DVD seems counter-intuitive to me.

Anyway, thanks to all of you who have given their time to help guide me through the copying process. It is much appreciated.
 
As an aside - I m presently working through the entire 7 series box of an old TV show - and I decided for space reasons, to put these, at their original SD resolution, onto BDs. 171 episodes = 5 discs; 35 or so episodes per disc. I am using a PC to master the discs, though.
 

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