panasonic dmr-e50 ebs review

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By sabanathan on 15th Oct 2004

sabanathan's Ratings

Time DVD Recorder Owned	Over 1 Year
Image Quality	10/10
Sound Quality	8/10
Features	6/10
Ease of Use	9/10
Value for money	10/10
Overall value	9/10
sabanathan's recommendation

Good Points

+ RGB IN & OUT
+ RGB pass-through when in standby (e.g. link sky digibox RGB socket through DMR-E50 and onto TV)
+ Timeslip is great (DVD-RAM only)
+ Easy to use
+ Connectivity (2 scarts, s-video, front RCA phono, ...)
+ DVD-RAM editing is easy with powerful onscreen menus

Bad Points

- Pre-recorded DVD-VIDEO functionality is basic
- No hard drive - Limited use for editing without one. You can record to DVD-RAM and edit on a PC, but this is very time consuming
- Issue with VHS > DVD archiving when FR mode selected. An extra track is sometimes created, causing a glitch in the recording on track transition. The recorder has been replaced and still exhibits this floor (only observed on VHS > DVD-R)
- Slow power-up time - easy to miss start of programme due to taking much longer than a VHS recorder to power up and be ready to record a programme

General Comments

The Panasonic DMR-E50 is a great entry-level DVD recorder. Ideally suited for recording digital broadcasts. Simple to use, thanks to powerful, yet logical menus. Ideal for connecting to a source (such as a sky digibox) where there is only 1 RGB output, as the DMR-E50 will pass-through this signal when in standby. Time slip is absolutely great, allowing you to start watching a programme that is still being recorded (DVD-RAM only). My main regret is not spending the extra money needed to buy a model with a hard drive in it, as without this editing options are much more limiting. Still, it is a great starter deck for those wanting to replace their VHS recorder with something better suited to digital broadcasts. Think carefully if you are buying this deck to archive a large amount of existing VHS to DVD-R and plan on using the Flexible Recording (FR) mode, as there appears to be a "feature" when recording VHS > DVD-R in FR mode, where an extra track is sometimes created, causing a glitch in the recording on track transition and leaving you with a wasted disc (my recorder has been replaced and still exhibits this flaw, leaving me with a whole pile of wasted media). I have used TDK DVD-R discs and (aside from the issue with VHS > DVD-R) I have found them to be reliable (2 failures out of 100+ discs used).

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