I have a panasonic DVD recorder that can record at settings of 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours and 6 hours on a standard DVD-R disc. The question I have is what do these times coorlate to as far as lines of resolution go? I have several LDs that I want to burn to DVD but what setting is the best to get the max detail without over doing it and getting artifacts? I know the 1 hour setting seems a little high for just about everything but I would like to know what the lines of resolution are for these settings. Thanks.
It's hard to say for sure, but the valid resolutions for NTSC DVDs are 720x480, 704x480, 352x480, and 352x240 (for MPEG-1). I'm reasonably sure that the 1 and 2 hour settings will be 720x480 with the difference between the 2 being bitrate. The 4 hour may be 352x480, but it may go straight to MPEG-1 (352x240). The 6 hour setting pretty much has to be 352x240. If you're in PAL-land replace 480 with 576 and 240 with 288 on each of those resolutions. If you have some time and blank DVDs to test with it might be a good idea to do some tests yourself to find out what kind of resolution and bitrates each one gives you. You can check the results with the free version of Bitrate Viewer which will give you the bitrate, and if I'm not mistaken it also tells you the resolution.
double post _X_X_X_X_X_[small]Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue DVD Rebuilder Guides: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dvd_rebuilder_tutorial.cfm http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dvd_rebuilder_tutorial_advanced.cfm[/small]
with my panasonic the two hour (sp) has great pic quality. you can also experiment with the rewritable dvd ram discs that panasonic uses. also there is a fifth recording mode called flexible recording (fr) which fills up your dvd with a combo of all the different rec modes for the best picture quality. richard
I'm also finding that the best balance of clarity versus cost is the 2 hr setting on the Panasonic. I did a thorough comparison switching between the original VHS recording and the dubbed DVD. I found on the 2hr setting, it is difficult to tell the difference. If anything, the DVD recording appears slightly less grainy than original VHS, with perhaps a very slight sacrifice in detail. On 4 hrs, you do begin to notice the resolution decline, but that might not make too much difference if you are recording TV programs that are not as important as say, home movies, etc.
