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From the second trial on, it was smooth sailing. My experience after one week is very positive. This automatically creates a chapter on the DVD. I was looking for a simple DVD recorder that would do the job and that I could also use to copy some old VHS tapes to DVD.I connected the Panasonic DMR-EA18K DVD recorder to my tape deck via S-video cable and RCA audio. No more fast forwarding to find a certain scene.My other DVD player accepts and plays those new DVD+R without any problems.
I just wanted to save the footage on my 15 years old Video8 and High8 tapes from deterioration. (Digital technology makes us almost forget how those old analog tapes worked). I paused and stopped the DVD recorder at the end of each individual scene. I don't need any more bells and whistles. Please understand, I am not an expert regarding the latest video or TV technologies and I have no experience with HDTV.
For the first tape I did not understand that I would have to stop recording after each chapter in order to create chapters on the DVD. My various tapes are now all conserved on DVDs which allow me to access each and every chapter directly and much easier than from a tape.
I got this one only because the very first one I bought finally had to be replaced. I bought my 2nd recorder to use on our 2hd TV in the den so I can record stuff there or edit instructional DVD's I sell at my business- [.].
They have allowed me to build quite a nice library of movies, TV shows/series, home movies and sporting events w/out relying on a computer and programs there. All work on the same basic routine that my original DMR-E30 did so it's a very short learning curve to learn the small differences in this model from that one.
- and the Panasonic DVD recorders are top notch. I've burned hundreds of DVD's over the years on that first unit w/out issue (except for rare tray opening issues) and the second has burned more than 100 already.
My 3rd one in over 9 years. It stopped opening the DVD tray (and repair cost/time without it was more than buying this unit) otherwise I'd still be using it.
One nice feature- the unfinalized discs from one unit will play in the other, so if i need to record something for my wife on one unit she can watch it on the other w/out wasting a disc to finalize it for one show- saves discs.These seem to be very durable machines.
Good value. I have had it 4 mos. Bought this dvd player to free up space on my dvr. Works great for this application, recordings have great picture and sound. with no problems or complaints.
These disks have played back in full wide screen on four different DVD players without problems.Besides the lack of fancy editing features and poor user interface, the biggest drawback of this unit is the exceedingly horrible user manual. I burned around 1,000 disks on that recorder before it died, so I have reason to believe this one will last a while too. Just about any recording, including video tapes, looked fine on the old standard TVs, even on big screen, but on a big HDTV they just look so nasty they are not worth watching. Any successive recordings on the same disk start without any delay. If you value recorded picture quality over all else, this is the right unit. The move to HD TiVo and HD big screen TVs has made me super critical of the picture quality on my archived DVDs, and I have had to replace the majority of them I made before I got my first HDTV. It does have an IR blaster and features that are intended to control a set-top-box as if it had internal tuners (including time scheduling), but I have not tested those features as they are not of interest.
As long as you have the output of the recorder set to use with a 16:9 wide screen TV, it will record a wide screen picture to disk EXACTLY like you see it on your wide screen TV. This thing is thick, and although it has LOTS of information, it is so poorly written and organized, with no explanations of most things discussed, that it has little value. For example, you can choose to use codes 1, 2 or 3 with the remote, but it doesn't bother to tell you what the difference is or why you might want to select one. The start-up time is fine, and it is actually much faster than my other recorders in finalizing a disk.So my bottom line is that you must know for sure what is important to you. The Panasonics generally have a poor user interface(meaning it is harder to understand and use) and many fewer features when compared to other good quality units, but the PQ is better. There is an initial delay of about 8 seconds on the first recording to a new disk, that is not a real problem once you know about it. I tend to record only movies without commercials or other interruptions, so I can live without the editing.
I really miss the editing features of my Philips recorders - You can do almost NO editing at all on a Panasonic unit unless you record with a RAMdisk, and I totally refuse to use a proprietary (and expensive) format.Besides the excellent PQ, the only really nice feature of this recorder is the Flexible Recording, which allows you to keep the highest possible PQ by defining the exact length of the recording to completely fill the disk.
What it REALLY has is EXCELLENT recording picture quality, and this is exactly what I wanted.I do a lot of recording from my TiVo, and I have worn out four different DVD recorders over the years.
So I am very particular about the picture quality from my current DVD recorders - believe me, they are NOT all the same.
Please do not believe the person that says this unit will not record a wide screen picture to a DVD+R or DVD-R disk - that is absolutely WRONG.
If you want to use it like a VCR, to record something when you are not there, then erase the disk and record something else, the RAMdisk features will be of great value to you.
If you want ease of use, lots of editing features and and a slick user interface, better look at something else (but your options are getting few and far between these days).
Know ahead of time what you are buying; of course this unit has no tuners, that is listed EVERYWHERE, so it should be of no surprise.
This is especially true if you want to record anything over 2 hours on a single disk.My last recorder was a Panasonic ES25 - VERY similar to this unit in features and user interface (except with old analog tuners), including excellent recorded PQ.
Other people here have said this unit is slow - I disagree.
I looked at this Recorder online for months and finally ordered it.I read reviews where people said is was bad to freeze up and i read reviews that it had the best pictue quality of any Recorder you could buy.Picture quality is the main reason i ordered the unit and that it had an S-Input to get the best signal to the Recorder.The day i received the product i hooked it to my Directv Receiver's S-output and turned the unit on but got nothing on my TV screen at all.It's not like I've never had any dealings with Video products because it's been my Hobby for years now.I tried hooking the unit to my Directv receivers composite output but still no signal on my TV screen.So after messing with it for around two hours in called Panasonic but they didn't tell me anything i didn't know.I'm not one to give up so i kept trying and finally i got the on screen Menu and Info to show on my TV screen but still no signal.Then about two hours later the signal just came on but then then unit froze and wouldn't do anything by using the remote.I could get it to turn on and off by using the controls on the unit but thats all i could do.I went through the process that the owners manual gave to do if the unit froze and i did it again and again for maybe 30 or 40 times.I unplugged it more times than i can remember but the unit would not do anything but show a display on it that said REC 1 i think it was.Maybe i just got a bad unit,but believe me it was a really bad unit.I could only give it a one star rating on everything because i could never get it do do anyhting to see what it would do.The only good part about the whole deal was Amazon and the Seller and both are first rate.I emailed the seller the night i received the unit and told them i wanted to return it and the next morning they emailed me a return UPS label.I don't like retuning things but with this product i had no choice.
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