Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic DMR-E50K DVD Player/Recorder , Black

I bought this unit with the intent of copying my VHS collection and using this recorder in place of my VCR. After reading reviews from various sources, I bought this model over the next closest - Philips. (By the way, what's up with few brands providing black cabinetry?)

This unit is very easy to use. To get the most out of the unit READ THE MANUAL! One of the best features is the flexible record, allowing optimum recording for those more-than-2 hour-programs. This feature provides the highest quality recording available for the time that you desire to record. Unlike the VCR, where you'd have to record on the LP (or SLP) mode if a program is more than 2 hours, this option will give you the best picture it can in the disc-space provided. To my eye, programs of 2:20 look no worse than if it was recorded on SP.

Of course, some of my prerecorded VHS tapes are copyrighted (but not all) and can't be recorded - this was expected.

There is some concern regarding DVD-R playback on other machines. (Don't forget to FINALIZE. This is all covered in the manual.) IF you have problems, try various brands of media. My JVC player had no problem with Verbatim, Memorex or TDK. However, only the TDK would playback on my Toshiba player. I loaned all three brands to a friend and all 3 played on his Philips and Panasonic players.

My only complaints are:
- Can't record on DVD-RW.
- No (audio) digital input (no brands I could find had it)

I had considred buying a PC-based DVD recorder, but based on the complaints of various friends who have PC-based DVD recorders, I made the better choice by buying this product - MUCH easier. Now my friends are considering buying a DMR-E50.

The wife & I decided to hold off on buying a DVD player until they could record, and those units were more affordable. To the DMR-E50K I can only ask: "Where have you been all my life?!?"
This is a great concept and a wonderful machine.
I currently have 2 VCR's slaved to one another then channeled through this unit, the satellite receiver and either the DVD player from my home theater, my camcorder or my digital camera connected to this machine. It is not an overstatement to say that this device is the workhorse of our Media Center. And it's up to the job.
Until I brought this out of the box, my wife was recording her craft shows to video tapes. Twenty-some of them, to be exact. This means that on a 6 hour tape, there might be 30-40 minutes of stuff she wants to save for future reference. Now, she can use the timer to record the whole show, but edit out the stuff she doesn't want to keep. Also, all those tapes will, someday, have the parts she wants to keep transfered to DVD.

As other reviews have noted, I am also transfering my old video tapes to DVD and simply based on the space I'm clearing up, this machine is worth the price.
The only media problem I've ever encountered was when I bought the wrong format. Other than that, all the media I've used have worked well.

Picture and sound are first rate. I am using the unit for backups of my video tape collection and for dumping programs off my Tivo unit. I am completely satisfied with the results except that I have also had the problems experienced by several of the negative reviewers. The unit worked fine for me on Verbatim, Sony and Panasonic disks but rejected 1 out of 3 of Fujifilm DVD-R. When it locked up on the Fuji disks it went into a "death spiral" where it would attempt to recover, fail but would not allow you to eject the disk. I had good luck unplugging the unit for 10 minutes and then holding the open button during the recover phase. This allowed me to remove the offending disk. Seems to work fine afterwards. Lesson is good disks mean good results. Anything else is at your own risk.

If you're looking for a DVD Recorder to transfer over non-copyrighted material, Panasonic's DMR-E50K does the job without a hitch!

If you're new to DVD, I wouldn't recommend this as your first player. The instruction manual is a little confusing if you're not already familiar with wiring and general setup. Recording a DVD is similar to recording a CD-R in a CD Recorder. You must finalize the DVD-R before it's playable on (most) other DVD Players. If you don't, it won't play on any other machine other than the DMR-E50K.

The picture and sound is very good. Recording time varies from 1, 2, 4 or 6 hours on a single sided 4.7 GB DVD. The top two speeds (XP & SP) look great! The two low speeds (LP & EP) really looks like the VHS equivalent.

After reading other reviews and specifications with other DVD Recorders, my main concerns were disc and player compatability. The DMR-E50K works with Panasonic's DVD-RAM (playable only in the DMR-E50K), and offers editing and re-recording on the same disc over and over again. As for DVD-Rs, the DMR-E50K has no problems recording with TDK brand DVD-Rs. I have 3 DVD Players (not including the DMR-E50K) and after finalizing a DVD-R, the finished DVD worked on all of them: Audiovox, Panasonic (different model), and a high end McIntosh.

The Panasonic DMR-E50K does exactly what I expected it to do. It offers Progressive Scan, S-Video, Composite video, DTS Output, Dolby Digital 5.1 playback (on pre-recorded discs), and the convenience of recording over and over again on a single DVD-RAM disc.

On the negative side, it only records in Dolby Digital two channel stereo (Pro-Logic compatible), and only offers an optical digital output (not coaxial).

I wouldn't consider this player to the "causal" viewer. However, if you're into DVD and want recording capability, Panasonic's DMR-E50K may just be what you're looking for.

I brought this from Amazon a month ago and it works just as easy as a VHS recorder. All you need is a blank disk and tell it when to record and it will record with it's built in timer. I have been using several brands of DVD-R disk and only have problems with the cheap ones(i.e. no name brands). The problems only happen rarely. For example, the recording will stop and go to recovery mode. But don't worry if goes to recovery mode, previous recordings are not destroy. However, you can't record anymore to that disk. The recorder also uses DVD-RAM disk and this is my most favorite type of disk. It treats a DVD-RAM disk like a hard drive. There is no recovery mode or hiccups that I have seen happen to a DVD-RAM disk yet. ...