I have an old Panasonic DMR-E20 (not ES-20) set-top DVD recorder. It records to DVD-R at 1x (real-time). I've finally run out of my inventory of 1x and 2x DVD blanks. Does anyone still make reliable 1x~2x DVD-R media?
I'm concerned about using faster-rated media in the Panasonic, remembering Pioneer's warning that their early-model PC DVD-R drives needed a firmware upgrade to handle faster media. I don't know if there is a firmware upgrade for the Panasonic.
Does anyone know if the DMR-E20 has a maximum recommended media speed for DVD-R?
I have tested numerous versions of 16X DVD-R discs on the DMR-E20 and found that not only do they work, their performance was better at 1X than 8X DVD-R media. My guess is that the flatter 16X discs outperformed the 8X media even at 1X. Pioneer's problem was early 2X DVD-R drives that did not understand the field code numbers for 4X speeds and would hang up and burn out their recording lasers if the user did not intervene within a reasonable time. Panasonic firmware worked differently, and there is no problem.
Panasonic replied today (wow!) that a firmware upgrade will be needed and they will send it to me in 7~10 days. If I can, I'll post it somewhere for future users and link to it from this thread.
Panasonic Answer Center sent me a firmware update CD for my DMR-E20 but the recorder displays "U11" upon reading the disc. I believe that means either the disc is unsupported or the firmware on the disc is the same version as the firmware on my recorder.
The firmware update CD is unreadable by Windows Explorer, but Roxio Creator 8 says that there is a file on the disc.
I'm going to give Verbatim 4x DVD-R media a try. Hope nothing smokes...
The Panasonic DMR-E20 I've used for testing records all major MID codes of DVD-R 4X, 8X, and 16X without a problem. The "U11" is Panasonic's code for an error. For firmware updates, that means that the existing firmware is the same as the one being installed or is newer than the one being installed. You should have no problem with Verbatim 4X DVD-R media--or 8X or 16X for that matter.
