I have a DVD player and am thinking of buying a Panny 85 recorder. Will it be possible to backup commercial DVDs onto the Pany hard drive (either from trhe Pany iteself or from the existing player)?
I am expecting that the answer is 'no' because of copy protection. Is there anything available in the UK to overcome this ?
I have seen references to a Sonel Scart lead. Do they work ? Will that work ? If 'yes' will I then be able to copy over from the hard drive to a DVD in the Pany ?
No, the Panasonic 85 will not allow copyguard material to be copied. I have a Sony DVD Recorder that would if you hit "Record" first before the "Play" button on the machine playing the program but the Panny catches the copyguard signal & rejects the recording. You would need to get a copy guard buster.
David---when you say DVDs come out better copied on computer, you are not making it clear as to what you mean. Copying the VOB file directly from the DVD into your computer---or copying the DVD using a Video Card.
Some DVDs (Harry Potter, etc) will not allow you to grab the VOB file from the DVD to copy it into your computer. It rejects it.
I can't answer for Video Cards though since I don't use them but I know it relies on the need of a lot of memory to do movies & TV shows at really good quality. Unless you use compression which if that is the case makes it no different than the home units. Worst of all is the occassional computer conjestion which freezes frames sometimes setting the rest of the audio track off.
You don't have all of these problems with home units especially with built in hard drives where you can easily edit out the commercials, etc.