Panasonic AV-100 Reviews

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Good Points: Records your DVD quality movies to SD cards, no moving parts except for optical zoom, package contained 2 512 MB cards, ready for use, plus I got a 3rd for free by purshasing direct from the panasonic distributor!!

Bad Points: Package says that it can record for as long as a DV disc, which is true but you have to record at MPEG4 instead of MPEG2, which means less quality recording. It does record at DVD quality (MPEG2) which is equal or better than most DV recorders, but with 512MB disc its only for 11 minutes instead of the 60 minutes that MPEG4 offers.

General comments: Overall the Panasonic AV100 is a great quality product, haven't had it but for 7 days and already have 10 hours of MPEG2 film recorded. It also comes with Panasonic's version of video editing software and 2 512MB SD cards, so you can record good quality movies right out of the box. It also comes with a charging tray and all the hookups you could ever need for this recording device. Example: it has two-way A/V cords, so not only can you use them to play your movies onto a telivision, but you can also record straight from a DVD player to the recorder, thereby bypassing Macrovision lockouts. You would have to buy a 2GB or larger SD card to record an entire movie, but you can use the existing cards and just pause the movie when it comes time to transfer it to the computer. I already tried this and it works, though I gotta say that the only reason that I did try this is because I don't have a DVD recorder already attached to my computer. But no matter how you use this product, it definitely lives up to it's reputation. Also, the charging time is about 2.5 hours, while the recording time varies by the quality and resolution that you choose, anywhere from 1-10 hours.