Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic DMR-ES30VEBS Multi-format DVD RAM Recorder/VCR Combi

I have been very impressed with this Panasonic Video and DVD recorder as it does what it says on the tin! Copying from DVD to Video tape, video tape to DVD, from TV to DVD from TV to Video and also from TV to both DVD and Video at the same time recording different channels!! What more can you ask I hear you cry? Having considered the cheaper Daewoo unit, but having looked at the feedback comments, I chose the Panasonic and have been totally impressed with this slightly more expensive unit. The manual is a bit mind blowing at first, but once I settled down to it and practised a little it all became very simple and logical, so don't be too put off by the manual. A brilliant machine and a welcome addition under the TV as I can now get rid of my DVD player, Video recorder and DVD recorder and replace it with one neat attractive unit which does the lot! Now where is that ebay button?

I had previously purchased a Samsung DVD/VHS combi recorder, and though it is a good machine, I was a little disapointed that it did not support timeslip, which I was lead to believe was a standard feature of DVD-RAM. Also the Samsung is a little picky about which VHS tapes it will play back.

Not so with this Panasonic machine, as it will play anything that I through at it, as well as supporting timeslip on the DVD-RAM, and compatabillity with + and - formats.
It also has two tuners, alowing recording of two chanels at the same time manualy or with video plus. But the most amazing thing is that when recording to DVD, it somehow manages to record the program name whether stated manualy or with the timer.
I only wish that I had bought this machine in the first place, as this is the best combi recorder out there, and at a good price.

Having spent some time in deciding on the purchase of a DVD Recorder/VCR Combi, I used the customer review section of the Amazon site for the top 10 machines. The previous reviewers helped me to decide on my purchase and I cannot be more pleased.
The setting up process was very easy and I cannot find any fault with it. I would certainly recommend this machine and I have no hesitation in endorsing the remarks of those previous reviwers. Well done Panasonic on producing a first rate recorder.

I have now been using this machine for several months and cannot fault it. It does more than everything I require. I previously used a Daewoo Recorder which left a lot to be desired. A highly recommended piece of equipment. Well done Panasonic.

These machines are awesome, I got DVDs mine as a refurb and they gave me a 12 month warantee!!! Not a scratch on it, just like new. The that this thing churns out play great, no jumps when you play it back on my computer like with my dads lite on recorder. I've still kept my Aldi divx player for now to play my downloads and to hook up to my surround as it has a built in 5.1 decoder (not the panasonic) Anyway, I've used this machine to sucssesfully transfer some of my old VHS tapes to as they were gathering dust on the shelf and I want to move into 2007 with them, don't like VHS any more I want everything on DVD, much more compact and better looking. A word on this recorder, it's almost multiformat as in it records on DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-Ram and oddly enough DVD+R but not DVD+RW??? Maybee panasonic will bring out a firmware upgrade for this baby so that it will do DVD+RW. I don't really care for now though, it's a great machine. I know that it has standard analogue tuners (2 tuners, what a great idea, you can record BBC1 on VHS and ITV on DVD! At the same time!) and Analogue is getting phased out soon but you have 2 scart sockets at the back, whats to stop you from pluging 2 digiboxes into it? At just over £0.00 each from Asda you can't go wrong!!! The timeslip function is brilliant. You can record tv onto DVD-RAM (I think timeslip works with other formats too but have not tested it properly yet) press pause, go make a brew and continue on from where you left off, you could even fast forward the adverts if the machine has been paused for a while, have your brew when you want it, not when Channel 4 decide!!! Quality on the VHS is excelent, much better than my old Akai machine (had 4 heads) this machine has 6 heads making for better quality. I was going to buy one of Asdas DVD/VHS combo's but when I realised it only had a mono VHS I turned round and walked away, it was £0.00 cheaper but when your spending this kind of money you want it to be more future proof than that. Chances are everything will come down when Blu-ray and HDDVD starts selling big style but I will still have this machine as long as there still selling DVD-/+R's Besides at 100,000 overwrites my 5 DVD-RAM disks will last me a lifetime!!!