Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic DMR-EX75EB-S - DVD Recorder with 160GB Hard Disk - Freeview Tuner - and HDMI With 1080i Upscaling

Bought one of these after much research into the best and most reliable DVD/HDD Freeview Recorder. Had originally wanted a Sony RDR HXD710 but Amazon / Sony could not supply for a period of several months. This was lucky as I now understand it has a lock up problem also it is almost £100 dearer.

Anyhow back to the Panasonic DMR EX75. Have been using it for almost a month and have not found any problems, it works like a dream. The user manual is a bit daunting and hard to grasp but it falls into place quite quickly.

The auto set-up is first class and takes only a few minutes to completely fill all the available TV channels. The EPG is good, in fact far better than the Humax Freeview box I have. Setting recordings is simple using either the EPG or VideoPlus. Understanding the recording mode if you wish to high speed copy to a DVD later is a bit misleading in the manual but easy once you know how. All in all this is a very smooth machine and well thought out.

Incidently I do not understand the first reviewers problem. I have a seperate freeview box that allows me to watch another programme than the one recording. I connected it very easily. I suggest not blaming the machine for not knowing how to properly connect up multiple bits of kit.

Would buy this again.

I have teamed up the DMR-EX75EB-S recorder with my panasonic plasma 37" tv and I am very pleased with the result. Picture quality is excellent with only a scart conection. I now select on a daily basis (viewing the EPG)at what I would like to watch and record, once decided, its a simple job of entering the information into the recorder and let it do the rest. I find that I can record a freeview channel while watching another freeview or terrestial channel without any problems.The combination of recorder and tv has changed my viewing habits as I find that I mostly watch only recorded programs where I can fast forward the adverts.I find the menus simple to understand and I exspecially like the editing facility which enables me to burn a movie to dvd without ads. An excellent machine!Buy one now.

Yes, this is more of a warning to all would be purchasers of this product rather than a full review per se. The product itself is excellant, it does everything is says ON THE BOX. The DV-IN functionality is a stroke of genius and you can't help but feel that this is a high end gadget to suit all your DVD recording needs - HOWEVER and this is a BIG HOWEVER, Amazon claim this product has DivX playback, which is THE MAIN reason I shelled out so much cash on a DVD Player/Recorder in the first place, as I work in television and encode to MPEG4/DivX/H.264 often. I've just inserted a MP4 disc into the system and was informed that it is 'unsupported', Ive tried numerous others and the story is the same. I pulled out the box from storage (I've had the player for a couple of weeks), and there is no mention of DivX support - which I obviously would have seen had I purchased this item in a physical shop. So basically my complaint is with Amazon, not Panasonic, and I'm now left not knowing what recourse is available to me. So, if you want a great recorder and NEVER want to play DivX's, buy this. If you want to future proof, don't. The choice is that simple because it is a solid product despite this glaring share. I hope this has been useful to you.

This is my first dvd player as I have just used my computer in the past. I looked at the cheaper ones but kept coming back to Panasonic from both the recommendations of friends, store assistants and the Panasonic TV, Stereo and VCR I already own.

I decided to go for the hard disk with freeview tuner and am amazed at how easy it is to record for the next week by scanning the freeview guide and simply pressing enter for any program I want to record. I am recording everything in LP mode which gives me much more time on the hard disk and I have not found the quality diminished to the point the it is noticeable as you watch the program - initially you do realise that it is perhaps a little less sharp.

I have had the dvd for a month now, but was able to record, edit out commercials, change the title and transfer to a dvd within the first few days. The manual is long, but this recorder does so much....

My only complaint is 'why did I wait so long to buy one?'

I had a bad experience with HDD recorders and received this with trepidation....
I needn't have worried.
It was ready to use in less than ten minutes of plugging it in!
This is a beast of a machine and here's why:
*160 Gig HDD - this is more than ample for what I need. At maximum quality this gives around 40 hours of recording time. You can reduce the quality to give anything to around 400 hours worth.
*Picture quality - this is the biggest surprise. With Digital signals being more and more compressed they are often blocky. The picture on this is far superior to the one I got from my standalone Digibox, obviously you can't get better than the signal - but this maximises what it is receiving.
*Compatibility - this takes - and + disks, it also uses DVD Ram which means you can use the DVD recording facility almost like a separate hard-disk.
*SD Card slot - watch JPEG images direct from the card - copy them to your HDD recorder too.
*HDMI - DVD upscaling and futureproofing incase I get a HD telly in the near future.
*Simplicity - the menus are intuitive and easy. They are easy to view and the thumbnails of recordings are large and clear. The remote is a simple as they tend to get these days.

The only niggle I had with this was that the EPG output signal was RGB and the TV output wasn't - so I had to change channels to watch the channel I had selected on the HDD Recorder. I went into the settings and this was rectified in seconds.
I give this 5 stars as I think it's the best you can get for the money. Infact, it's better than some more expensive models.