Panasonic DMR-EH80V

I have just read the 1 review that you have received regarding the panasonic dmr-eh80v.I bought this recorder 4 years ago and it is excellent in every way. The best recorder I have owned so far. I have had no problems whatsoever with this unit

DO NOT BUY THIS AT ANY PRICE.

I have this unit & it's so bad I am appalled.

The pathetic limitations are unbelievable in a machine of this supposed sophistication. 'Archive all your tapes' the ad says... forget it. Not with this pile of rubbish, you won't. You can't leave it to transfer a whole tape as the auto track is appalling & at the next program on the tape the tracking goes off & you have an unviewable transfer - so you have to watch over it to track in each new program! Think you can transfer a tape overnight? Forget it!

The last straw was today when it stopped tape to HD transfer AGAIN because it failed to autotrack a VHS tape & interpreted the bad tracking as COPYRIGHT!

what's going on here then? can't it distinguish between a copyright tape & a home recorded 20 year old tape from the BBC? Why won't this piece of junk track it in when my other VCR will?

I'm amazed & disgusted that PANASONIC produce such poorly thought out units.

This also won't let you record onto DVD & HDD at once. Why? you say - the ad says it's got 2 tuners? Yes, but one is assigned to the VCR! In 2007? Oh, I forgot, I could record to VHS tape... you must be joking... in 2007? I bought this thing to get rid of my tapes - not make more.

The VCR is so poor, it takes ages to stop in FF mode so you end up miles past where you want to be & today it's started to chew perfect Scotch tapes which play in my other VCR! Oh, the VCR display (which you're not likely to need for much) is glaring, undimmable & always visible but the other one which is vital & gives you all the info on DVD, HDD recoding, editing etc, is dull orange & even in brightest setting is unreadable on any bright day.

If you are dubbing a DVD you can record to HDD but not the other way round!

You can't add or edit a timer setting if it's in timer record mode.

The one touch record function is pathetic. 30, 60, 90, 120, 180 & 240 minutes or nothing. What's wrong with 10 or 30 minutes every press?

The remote is a mess, one set of buttons need switching to VCR, HDD, or DVD so you can't control more than the one section at a time which means you can't transfer anything manually. No thought gone into this then?!

I could rant for ages but I need to watch the tracking.

BE WARNED, DON'T THINK ABOUT BUYING THIS UNIT AT ANY PRICE!