Panasonic DMR-ES10 Review

Overall Rating

The on-screen menu is very easy to use and intuitive.
Good video quality.
Extended Play (8 hours) is significantly better than VCR.

Slow to switch on.

I bought the Panasonic DMR-ES10 DVD recorder about 2 months ago. This is my first DVD recorder, but I am very impressed. The whole unit has a well built look and feel. The video quality is very good. The poorest setting will record 8 hours on an ordinary single sided 4.7Gb disc, but it is still superior to VCR. It has a clever Flexible Recording feature which will automatically record at the maximum possible quality to fill the space left on the disc.

Unlike some players it plays most common formats, and it can record to DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and DVD-RAM (but not DVD+RW). The DVD-RAM format is much superior to all the others, but is supported by very few players other than those from Panasonic. Hopefully the use of DVD-RAM will spread, but I am not too hopeful. With DVD-RAM you can even erase unwanted bits of the recording (commercials for example).

I find the on-screen menu intuitive and easy to use. Setting up recordings is easy, especially when using VideoPlus. The instructions are perhaps not quite as clear as they could be, but this is largely caused by the number of formats and functions it supports. The index needs to be more comprehensive. However, I still managed to set it up and start playing discs and recording shortly after it was plugged in.

The unit has a number of different inputs: Scart, S-Video, Audio/Video cables, but there is no digital input. This isn't a problem for us, but it might be an issue if you want the best possible quality from a digital camcorder. It also has inputs behind a flap at the front for ease of recording from a camcorder.

The only real downside is the length of time it takes to switch on. When there is a disc in the drive it commonly takes 25 - 30 seconds to power up from standby. If the unit has been switched off at the mains it can take an extra 60 seconds, since it insists on getting the time before you can do anything. It even takes time to get a disc out of the drive when the unit has been on standby, as it insists on powering up and doing all its checks first. However, I think this has been addressed in the latest models (ours is only 2 months old, but already out of date)!

This unit doesn't support Freeview. We didn't see this as a problem as we already have a set top box, and we intend to get a Hard Drive recorder with Freeview, but otherwise the DMR-ES20 might be a better buy.

All together, this is a good machine and highly recommended.