Panasonic DMR-E80H Review

Overall Rating

HDD is a lifesaver.
Backup recordings to DVD to play on other machines.

No EPG (Electronic Program Guide).
No DV-in.

I have had the Panasonic DMR-E80H for a few weeks now and have already got to the point where I could not live with out it. I have had DVD players for a 4 or 5 years now, so all my movies are on disk. My VCR has been redundant for the last few years and I can't even remember the last time that I bought a tape. But this led to an expensive problem. When there was a show on TV that I really wnated to see or keep, I could never find a tape and as I was used to DVD quality figured there wasn't much point in keeping it on VHS anyway. SO I wouldn't bother watching it and would wait until its DVD release.

Sorry guys, those days are gone. On the current mode I am getting just under 40 hours recording time on the HDD. Picture and sound quality seem identical to that at broadcast level. Edit out all the bits you dont need (frame acurate) and burn to DVD-R. Finalise the disk and there you have the stuff to keep.

Already I have transered my Wedding video, the stuff of the kids parties and birthdays etc to dvd, just by plugging the camcorder into the front of the deck and hitting the record button. Again the quality matched the original and as I now have a digital copy that will not degenerate.

I had originally looked at picking up one of the cheap DVD-recorders for about £150, but figured it would be too much effort to record stuff to disk, rip it to a PC, edit it then burn it again. The extra money for the HDD is worth the investment. The TimeSlip featre is superb. Watching a program when the phone rings and you end up missing the rest of the show? Just hit record and as soon as you have finished the call you can carry on watchin from where you left off, even while the rest of the nights entertainment is being recorded.

As a dvd player the unit is great. It has played all the media that I have thrown at it, even some very cheap DVD+Rs that won't play on most of my other machines.

The only things that I wish Panasonic had included was a DV-in so I could transfer from my mini-DV camcorder in pure digital and some sort of EPG to give it a Sky+ simplicity to record from TV, but overall these are minor niggles.

The User Guide isn't the friendliest document I have ever seen, but the actual functions of the unit are fairly logical, so unless you are a complete technophobe, you should get to grips with this fairly quickly. At first look the remote control is also a little busy, and would have benefited from a little more design work, but it is functional and only takes a little getting used to.

In sort, while the idea of a DVD-Recorder is good the limitations of a regualr VCR are still there. In many cases, DVD-Recorders probably have more limitations with diferent formats, some machines unable to use re-Writable disks etc. If you're serious about going for a DVD-Recorder, go for the HDD - It will make your life so much easier!