Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic DMR-E80H Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with Hard Drive , Silver

First of all, kudos must go to Panasonic for insisting on sticking to the far superior DVD-RAM technology for re-recordable discs since the discs physical surfaces are fully protected and the data is apparently better organized.

I have to say that I absolutely love this device!

Record to HDD, then burn what you want to keep to DVD-R or the far superior DVD-RAM, and finally erase what programs you don't need.

The only limitation is that the DVD-RAM's will only play back on Panasonic DVD players, however, the DVD-R recordings in my experience will play on all modern DVD Players.

The remote control has been fully perfected as opposed to the one they had for this model's 40 GB predecessor which was a horror show.

I liked the look and design of the earlier 40 GB unit a little better and it also had a few more plug in ports for memory sticks and the like, but this one is far more functional in terms of button location, ease of use, and the remote control.

Realistically, you have to use SP or XP speed for best visual clarity so the 106 hours of storage it claims to record at EP speed is not something you'd really be using.

However, with the HDD to DVD-R or DVD-RAM transfer capability (It does this at higher-speed rather then playback speed) you can record, transfer, and wipe.

The next model should have more drive space but this will do nicely for most of us for now.

I will never record to VHS EVER again!

This is a great recorder, the HD space of a Tivo (but no channel guide, bummer), together with the DVD-R/RAM disk read/write capability of the panasonic recorders- a perfect match.

Correction for the posted specs:
the E80H model (w/ hard drive) does NOT have a digital Firewire input, and does NOT have coax digital audio out (optical only.)
The E60S (no hard drive) and the older HS2 model (smaller harddrive, more $$) have firewire input.

This player does play MP3s, and will actually also play DVD-Audio disks (but I think only in stereo , not 6channel sound.)

This is a dual review, for the Panasonic DVD-R Recorder DMR-E80H and the Toshiba sd-h400. Hopefully it can help those deciding between the two. I had done the research and was on my way to collect the Panasonic when the video store I had called told me they were just unloading the new Toshibas. It was a hundred plus less than the Panasonic and included TIVO. My fiscal side took over and I figured I'd give it whirl. I have an extended digital cable box and the Sony KP57WV700 57" HDTV that I was going to interface this with, pretty straightforward system.

Here is the simple layout of what I wanted to do: 1. cable in to digital cable box, out via component cables [red, green, blue] to HDTV [this produces the best signal and HD channel output on the TV]. 2. cable in to Toshiba/Panasonic for recording basic cable Ch. 1-98. 3. Video [composite?] out from digital cable box to Toshiba/Panasonic to record HDTV or whatever channel is on, on the digital cable box.

First off neither the Toshiba or Panasonic boxes has component in, so they couldn't receive the best signal from the component out on the digital cable box.

The Toshiba touts and comes with Tivo basic, which gets you 3 days advance programming via their guide, chasing playback, etc. This was the first experience I had had with a Tivo product. The setup for the Toshiba took a long time [multiple phone calls and data manipulation], and compounding things it was required that a phone line be utilised for the connection. A bad thing if you don't have a jack around, so I had to string one across hallways in ungainly fashion. Not good. I should say, you can buy a wireless USB adapter if you want, or a USB Ethernet connector to get your updates if you want.

Second hit against the Toshiba/Tivo, and this is what bothered me the most: they do not allow recording / timer recording from a second video input source unless you upgrade to the Tivo Plus service. This bit of info is nestled in the middle of the manual during extended setup. So for my set up which had cable signal in via RF and composite video in from the digital cable box, it meant I couldn't record as line in from the digital cable box.

Finally, the recording quality of the Toshiba ranged between three levels, taking their appropriate chunk of the HD. The Panasonic offered more flexibility here with more levels and their times. Tivo also is constantly writing to the HD to maintain their `manipulate live tv' functionality.

The DVD playback output between the two was comparable, you can choose between progressive and interlaced if you have a TV that supports it.

So I took the Toshiba back and got the Panasonic which I should have done I the first place. It has a much more professional finish, there are no fourth grader designed graphics/buttons on it like the Tivo. The Panasonic allowed me to hook up three more video inputs and record against them and do timer recordings on them. Bingo. The picture quality is very close to source using the second to top recording mode which gets you 36 hours of record time, 104 for EP, 74 for the next, and 18 for the top of the line. The Panasonic also has the time slip functions that let you watch a prior recorded item from the HD if you're currently recording, and it lets you watch the beginning of a recorded item *while* it's recording. Nice if you show up for the program 10 mins. late. It also records to DVD-RAM and DVD-R if you want to dub your VHS tapes or something you watch on broadcast TV, but that's a secondary feature to me so I didn't get too into it.

And so, for my setup, the Panasonic was the superior choice I should have exercised the first go around. Be alert to the limitations of the Toshiba if interested in it. I'm definitely enjoying the functions and features of the new Panasonic and can recommend it highly.

I've had the Panasonic E80S for about 3 weeks now, and have had the opportunity to record over 50 programs and movies on it. I have it hooked up to a regular Toshiba 32 inch TV, using Directv (I also have a broadcast antenna), and a Panasonic VCR. I time shift about 50% of the stuff I watch on TV. Anyway, I have very few complaints with this unit so far. It has done just about everything I've asked of it. The unit records in 4 modes - XP, SP, LP, & EP. The XP mode records a picture which is virtually indistinguishable from the original, as far as I can see. The SP mode is nearly as good. The LP mode is probably good for most things, except maybe fast action like hockey or basketball, and probably gives you picture quality similar to SP on your VCR. The EP mode looks terrible and is useless, as far as I'm concerned, so I wouldn't use it. You can record approximately 17 hours worth of video on the hard drive using the XP mode, approximately 36 hours using the SP mode, 73 with the LP and 106 with EP (which I wouldn't use). A DVD will hold 1 hour in XP mode, 2 hours in SP mode, 4 hours in LP mode, and 6 hours in EP mode. This unit programs similar to a VCR, so if you can program a VCR, you should be able to program this unit. It has 3 line inputs, which also have S video, I believe, and also it has component video outputs, which I'll use when I upgrade to HDTV. The line inputs are labeled L1, L2, & L3, and then you cycle through your regular channels - in my case that would be channels 2, 3 (Directv), 4, 5, 9, 11, 30, & 50. I also have my Directv hooked up directly to L1, to try to get the best picture possible, using S video, and a pair of audio cables, and it does a very good job, in my opinion. The nice thing about this unit is that you can play something else you've recorded, while you're recording something else, and also can walk in, say 20 minutes late on something you're recording, and watch it from the beginning, without waiting for the entire program to record. I'm sure it has plenty of other features, which I've not had time to investigate yet.

I was very pleased this past weekend, when I was able to copy a VCR VHS recording of an old holiday classic from the 1940's called "It Happened On Fifth Avenue" onto the hard drive of this unit, edit out the commercials, and make a DVD-R out of it. This VHS copy was 17 years old, & I was always worried that something would happen to it, and you can't buy a copy of it. IMO, it looked every bit as good as the original VHS recording, and maybe a little better (if that's possible). One of the drawbacks I see to this unit, is the speed of dubbing from hard drive to DVD-R. For instance, it took me approximately 51 minutes to dub the aformentioned movie to DVD-R, and the movie was 1 hour & 57 minutes long...and I haven't finalized it yet, which can take up to 15 minutes more. So, dubbing to DVD can be time consuming. The other drawback is that my Mintek 1600 dvd player in my bedroom, which plays a lot of different formats, won't recognize a DVD-R made on this machine, even after finalizing it. FYI, I just bought my brother a Panasonic S25 DVD player, and it plays the finalized DVD's fine. All in all though, it's just a great addition to my home video system. One final note, someone down below had asked if it recognizes channel 503 on Directv and no, it doesn't. You hook Directv up to one of your line inputs, and can see it on that input channel(L1, L2, L3). So, you have to set your Directv to the channel you want to record...that's probably the one "Pro" that Tivo has over this unit.

I had been waiting for DVD-recorder/HDD combo to come out for over 2 years. I had been following the market in Japan since DMR-HS1 and when HS2 came out, I almost bought it. The only thing that held me back was the 40GB HDD that some people seemed to be saying wasn't enough.

So when this DMR80E came out in Japan, I couldn't wait for it to come out here. And as soon as I found out it was out, I ordered it and have had it for 3 weeks.

This was exactly what I had been waiting for!

We record shows regularly and had been using VCR which was really irritating me for the following reasons:
- searching for the right location in tape
- tapes not long enough (I even used those 10hr tapes
but when I'm out of town that wasn't enough to
hold all the shows)
- rewinding (imagine how long it takes to rewind that 10hr tape)
- need to worry about overwriting
- can't figure out what's in the tape unless i play it back.

All these problems are solved with the HDD.

I guess Tivo/Replay is the same and I did consider buying one previously, but I just couldn't agree to the subscription based business model. I know which shows I want to record, so why pay monthly fee (or ont time lifetime fee) for the service? And how many times would the thing really record shows I like that didn't know about??? Besides I have enough stuff shows to watch regularly that I don't need the machine to tell me about other shows.

Anyway, the DVD-RAM/R is handy for shows that you want to keep around. You shouldn't leave stuff on the HDD if you don't want to lose them. So the other reviewer concerned about the warnings should not be because ANY HDD based electronics has potential data failure against power outage.

Regarding DVD-R compatibility warning, I think that can also be said true for any DVD-R drives because some older DVD drives don't read DVD-R disks properly. Most recent models should be ok, but I think there's always that risk. Oh, be sure to turn on the DVD-R compatible mode when recording if you want to play it back on other players.

One note is that if you want to record stuff from HDD to DVD without re-encoding (ie loss of quality), you need to use the fast copy mode. You had to turn on the DVD-R compatibility mode in order to do this.