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I also own two Panasonic RP82 players that play RAM discs. I have recorded 119 movies from VHS, SVHS, Laserdisc and DirecTV to DVD-R without any washout problems. The DVD-R's finalized to DVD-Video play back with excellent black color.
I am very happy with the Panasonic EM30 recorder /player and have not experienced the so called washed-out problem in al my recordings.
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I'm sorry that you do not believe me, but I absolutely guarantee you that every single one of your DVD-R recordings have a 'washed-out' picture. Even Panasonic acknowledged the problem, and that they can't fix it with a firmware problem so the E50 will be the first player without the problem.
The difference is a few IRE and many people are simply not going to notice it.
If you don't believe me, record a test pattern (say the needle pulse in Avia or VE) onto both a DVD-R and a DVD-RAM. Compare side by side and you will see. An even better way is to take screen grabs on the PC of both sources - that's what I did. I have LF-D321 and SD-M1612 drives in my PC that read DVD-RAM.
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Statement from Panasonic USA (January 8th 2003):
Over the past few months Panasonic has been following the discussions about our DVD recorders, specifically those discussions focused on the video level at which "black" is recorded. We greatly appreciate the time each of you took to share these comments.
For the benefit of those who may not be aware, NTSC recordings that originate outside North America typically record black at 0 IRE, while here in North America black is recorded at 7.5 IRE. This portion of the video signal is often called "setup." Given the reality that the majority of consumer TVs are adjusted "by eye" most consumers would not notice such a slight variation unless an accurate alignment of the TV was attempted. Our Call Center has received a few calls from customers who, after reading this forum, contacted us for additional information. In general, they were very pleased with the products performance and contacted Panasonic more out of curiosity than concern.
In our research we discovered that these issues are mentioned in the operating instructions of some models made by our competitors. We also noted that while some DVD recorders may add 7.5 IRE to the native signal, others do not. Most manufacturers, Panasonic included, address this variable situation by including a feature in DVD players that allows the user to darken the playback picture by 7.5 IRE. Those manufacturers that don't have suggested a simple and effective solution, to slightly decrease the TV brightness. In either example, the level of black at 0 or 7.5 IRE is more of a personal viewing issue than one of performance.
This afternoon, a press conference was held in Las Vegas at the CE show that will open tomorrow morning. There, we announced our new DMR-E50 DVD recorder, the newest addition to our product line. The DMR-E50 retains the features of the DMR-E30 and adds new features such a MP3 playback as well as independent control of black level for both record and playback. This feature will allow the user to correct for variations that cannot be corrected when the DVD player does not offer the feature. We've also requested that this new feature be included in all subsequent models.
This feature was the result of extensive design changes, certainly beyond the possibility of adding this new feature to existing models. Information on the new DMR-E50 will be posted on our web site very soon and it should be in the stores sometime in February. Customers with questions can contact our Customer Call Center at 1-(800) 211-7262 |
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=231435
They were (sadly) a bit misleading on implying that the 'darker/lighter' section on a player can 'correct' this. Of course, you can use this feature on the player but it still doesn't bring burned discs into spec with pre-recorded discs - if you make the system darker to 'compensate' for the fact that the burned discs are 'too light', then all the regular DVDs will play as 'too dark'. The truly correct solution is the independent black-level control they are adding to the new models. At that point it will be possible to burn DVD-R (not just DVD-RAM) on a Panasonic that will be
truly in spec with other DVDs.
But if it doesn't bother you that your DVD-Rs are out of spec, and you don't notice, my honest advice is to just ignore it.
