Questions

[tblack]

Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for letting me on your site. Here's my equipment

1. Dish Satellite Receiver ViP 622 DVR (High Def)
2. Plasma TV Zenith model Z50PX2D (only one HDMI connection)
3. Pioneer Surround Sound Receiver VSX D912
4. Sony 5 Disc DVD Player DVP-NC615

All this was hooked up fine until the arrival of:

5. Panasonic DVD Recorder DMR ES25

We have the Gold Package from Dish Network with HBO and Showtime and want to keep all of our HD and premium channels. When I tried to hook it up it changed the picture dynamics (size, quality) Please provide a diagram that would optimally hook all this up. Should I get rid of the 5 Disc DVD Player? I will if that makes it simpler. On your diagram can you tell me the best quality type connections to do (remember I only have one HDMI input on the TV)? I appreciate you once again allowing me to ask these questions and I hope you can provide the solution.:)

[Jonathan Kramer]

Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for letting me on your site. Here's my equipment

1. Dish Satellite Receiver ViP 622 DVR (High Def)
2. Plasma TV Zenith model Z50PX2D (only one HDMI connection)
3. Pioneer Surround Sound Receiver VSX D912
4. Sony 5 Disc DVD Player DVP-NC615

All this was hooked up fine until the arrival of:

5. Panasonic DVD Recorder DMR ES25

We have the Gold Package from Dish Network with HBO and Showtime and want to keep all of our HD and premium channels. When I tried to hook it up it changed the picture dynamics (size, quality) Please provide a diagram that would optimally hook all this up. Should I get rid of the 5 Disc DVD Player? I will if that makes it simpler. On your diagram can you tell me the best quality type connections to do (remember I only have one HDMI input on the TV)? I appreciate you once again allowing me to ask these questions and I hope you can provide the solution.:)Hi Theresa:

The issue you have (changed picture size, quality) is becuase hte DMR ES25 is not an HDTV DVDr. It only supports the legacy NTSC picture format. That's why when you add it inline with your equipment, the picture is not the same as HD directly off of the satellite receiver.

Sorry, I wish I could give you a diagram to overcome this, but no such luck.

All that said, the ES25 looks to be a very fine DVDr, and certainly suitable for over-the-air and NTSC recording/playback.

Jonathan

[tblack]

So what kind of DVDr should I be looking for. I thought this one was HD it says HDMI High definition (720p/1080i) Up-conversion. Now I'm really confused.

[Jonathan Kramer]

So what kind of DVDr should I be looking for. I thought this one was HD it says HDMI High definition (720p/1080i) Up-conversion. Now I'm really confused.Theresa:

Yes, your DVDr will take a video and up-convert it to 720/1080, but that doesn't necessarily improve the picture quality. Upconverting a lower resolutions signal means that the player interprets the signal and adds pixels to raise the video format up from NTSC (525 lines).

According to the specs of your player (found at http://panasonic.co.jp/pavc/global/diga/usa/es25/high_picture_quality.html):

Connect an HDMI cable to your TV and you can enjoy a beautiful, high quality picture on a par with High Definition images when playing DVDs and DVD software. You can also convert other non-HD signals to the near HD level for playback with improved picture quality. Better still, as well as with DVDs, the converter provides more detailed images when viewing VHS tape recordings.

So at the end of the day, your player doesn't appear to record HD, but it will play HD DVDs and up-convert normal TV signals to HD format, but not necessarily HD quality.

As for what player to buy, I'm ask other members of the forum to weigh in with their own experiences. You can do some snooping yourself by looking at the messages that are brought up by THIS LINK (http://cabletv.com/search.php?searchid=2496).

Best,

Jonathan