Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic DMR E50EBS DVD Recorder

I have had this recorder for just over a week (unfortunately I bought from a well known high street retailer for £350 before I saw it here) and I am sorry I didn`t get it sooner!! It is easy to use, with controls being similar to a video. But it is of course much more advanced. I no longer have to trawl through my Video tapes looking for last saturday`s Fools and Horses, or the late night film. The recorder gives a list of all recordings on the disc at the touch of one button, including date,time, tv station and program title. All added automatically!! Simply pick what you want to watch and push play.

The time slip functions are simply excellent. I can record a program by pushing the REC button and go out. If I return before the program has finished recording I simply press the play button to watch the program from the beginning while it is still being recorded. I can also choose to watch a previously recorded program from my list of recordings while the unit is in record mode, by just pressing the menu button and choosing what I want to watch. I can also watch segments of a recording and rewind or fast forward to a certain point while recording. (great for replays in football!) It also has direct recording, which means it will record whatever channel you are watching on the TV, without the need to change the channel on the recorder. (A scart connection is needed for this) All in all, a nifty piece of kit and well worth the money!

Now for the down points.. The manual, although explaining everything needed, can be confusing. The remote needs to be pointed at the unit to register a command.(A bit picky, that one!) Media is still a bit pricey (£5 upwards. Cheaper on the net though)...Buying from the high street...DOH!! But these are cancelled out by the sheer quality of the machine so it gets 5 stars.

I agonized for months about laying out the best part of £300 for this machine, especially as players had dropped drastically (and I already had a player). Also I was worried about the compatability of the DVD RAM discs. I shouldn't have worried. This is probably the most useful piece of kit after my dishwasher!!
I finally realized that I didn't want it so that I could share discs etc, I wanted it because it could record and play at the same time, ( DVD-R/RW machines can't do this),which it does beautifully. It is simply amazing and it really has changed my life. I come home halfway through some progs I am recording and start to watch the first one while still recording the second and third. Also I can skip the adverts with the 'time slip function' (which can help you catch up on the actual recording). So now I get to bed hours earlier. No more waiting until all recordings are finished before watching, plus I can effortlessly skip all adverts saving an average of 16 minutes per recorded hour. No searching for the start of progs and the quality is amazing also. Four quality levels: XP (1hour), SP (2 hours), LP (4 Hours) and EP (6 hours). LP is better than top quality video so there is little need to use the higher quality XP and SP. One fly in the ointment though you need to be careful using the FP feature which fits whatever you want to record onto the disc at the optimum quality....Only use this feature for a one off recording. Don't try to tag another recording onto the end at say LP quality as it probably wont fit but will record what it can and you are left with half a prog.
In conclusion: this is simply a magical machine at a reasonable price, it WILL change your life, so don't just sit there...Buy one now before everyone catches on!!

This DVD recorder is a phenomonal piece of equipment. Other reviewers have mentioned its features, ease of use and as a superb DVD player as well and a recorder excellent value.

The great beauty with this equipment, especially when coupled with SKY+, is the ability to make DVD`s of movies at a fraction of the price in the high street.

Many films, especially classics and older titles, are unavailable on DVD. This machine will make DVDs in exactly the same quality as the source material for a fraction of an equivalent retail one.

If you`ve pondered about dvd+r or dvd-r, then be satisifed that the dvd-r format is the one. Greatest compatability is with dvd-r and the blank discs are less than half the price of dvd+r.

Incidentally, I have found BULK-PAQ blank dvd`s to be the most reliable, compatible with other machines and cost a little over £1 per disc.

If you do buy DVDs from the US then go for RCE friendly and region free.

You will notice I didn`t mention any negative points,that`s because there are not any!

This Panasonic DVD Recorder is buy far the best thing i have purchased in a VERY long time.
Recorded picture quality is the EXACT same quality as if you had watched it, no loss what so ever.Video is simply awful in comparison.

For all those who want to copy VHS to DVD, if its copyright protcted and aint as easy as plugging the vcr into the dvdr in scart.Although its a breeze if its not copyright.All you need is a scart from the vcr to the dvdr then from the dvdr to the tv.

Dont buy 4x discs to record on , use cheaper 1 or 2x as you can only record at 1x anyway.I use Nanya discs from somewhere else and found them to be very good.

The time slip function is brilliant,watch the proram your recording even if its still recording, it carrys on recording til the end while you begin to watch it from the start.No waiting for it to finish recording first then rewind it.

I've had one of these for a few months now and I am more than satisfied with it, although I have found some limitations/deficiencies.

First, the plus points are that DVD-RAM is excellent, with the partial delete function a revelation, if sometimes laborious. Plus you also get automatic titles for everything you record via the VideoPlus and the timeslip function is also simply used to flick past the adverts. Picture quality on LP, my most used recording format, is the same as VHS LP and you can record your old videos to DVD with no problem whatsoever.

The limitations are that not many older players will play DVD-RAM so that, like me, you may have to buy a new player if you want to keep DVD-RAM recordings by re-recording them onto DVD-R (for example if you record a film onto DVD-RAM first in order to edit out the adverts). Also you'll need a box of tricks to be able to record from an official pre-recorded DVD-video (in your player) to DVD-R (in the recorder).
On LP DVD-RAM has a maximum recording length of 4 hours, 8 if you have a double-sided DVD-RAM, however you have to manually take out the disc and flip it over to use the other side, so if you were on holiday you'd only be able to get 4 hours of decent quality recording (8 hours on the very inferior EP mode).
I was also disappointed that the unit didn't come with component video output as it seems standard for most new units these days, so I still watch DVD-videos in my player.

That said the unit has replaced my old vhs recorder with aplomb and at the current price of under £300 new technology doesn't come much more useful or more reasonably priced than this if you want my opinion (although if you have the money a hard disk recorder would eliminate all the issues I've mentioned).