811 widescreen and DVD Recorders

[ride525]

Will the 811 output widescreen 16:9 pictures to record on a DVD recorder? I was thinking of getting a Panasonic E-95)

Thanks

 

[dfergie]

Yup... I think... I have a 6000u and a 921 and have burned from both... on a E-30... I like the Ram Discs for pq...

 

[noremac]

Assuming you are talking about an NTSC DVR......Yes, the 811 will output NTSC (SD) video which can be recorded. Various screen format options are available from the SD outputs, including letterbox. But keep in mind that SD is still SD.

 

[redline65]

Will the 811 output widescreen 16:9 pictures to record on a DVD recorder? I was thinking of getting a Panasonic E-95)

Thanks

I have the 811 and the E95, and no you won't be able to make widescreen recordings. My understanding is the 811 does not flag 16:9 material on the S-video output, so you will end up with your widescreen TV displaying bars on the sides, and the picture will be letterboxed within the 4:3 window. I have to use my TV's zoom mode to get the picture to fill the screen, which degrades the picture quality somewhat. It's very disappointing.

You can test this out yourself by hooking up your 811 to your widescreen TV with an S-video cable if you want to see what your results will look like.

 

[noremac]

I have the 811 and the E95, and no you won't be able to make widescreen recordings.

How do you define "widescreen recordings"?

..the 811 does not flag 16:9 material on the S-video output

I have no idea what you mean by this. How does the term "flag 16:9 material" apply to NTSC video?

... so you will end up with your widescreen TV displaying bars on the sides

This is a function of how your widescreen TV displays NTSC signals.

... and the picture will be letterboxed within the 4:3 window.

This is the only way 16:9 material can be shown with NTSC.

You can test this out yourself by hooking up your 811 to your widescreen TV with an S-video cable if you want to see what your results will look like.

Yep.

 

[redline65]

I was told in this thread that the 811 does not output anamorphic widescreen on the S-video outputs, but D* HD boxes do output anamorphic widescreen on S-video. I have no way to confirm this. Someone suggested try setting the output to 480i and 16X9, but I haven't tried it.

 

[Carl B]

The 811 will output a 16X9 letterbox image of a digital broadcast via s-video to your DVDR, but it is in a 4X3 window. No combination of settings will change that, which is truly unfortunate. I'm recorded HD that way and zoomed up the image during replay on my wide screen Sammy DLP. It is watchable, but it is no better than what the average SD PQ looks like from E* with an 811.

 

[noremac]

I was told ...that the 811 does not output anamorphic widescreen on the S-video outputs

Ah, key word "anamorphic". No, the 811 will not output an anamorphic signal on S-video. Now I understand what you are trying to do - basically record an NTSC picture on a DVD, then play it back in anamorphic mode via a component video connection on a monitor that will recompress/squeeze the raster back to its original proportion. The percentage of the population that even understands this is about 0.001%. I suspect that if some D* boxes support it, it's only by accident. The D* boxes I've tested have the most bizzare set of distorted aspect ratio options I've ever seen. More on that here.

 

[Ray S]

The 921 can make anamorphic images to a DVD recorder through the s-video. It must be set at 480i and 16x9.

 

[redline65]

The 921 can make anamorphic images to a DVD recorder through the s-video. It must be set at 480i and 16x9.

I was hoping the 811 would have that setting as well, but I could not find it.