Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic DMR-EX77EB-K - 160GB Hard Drive DVD Recorder - With 1080P Up-Conversion & Freeview - Black

I looked at this model for some time before buying, I read all the reviews I could find on here and the net and decided, after I learnt it had won a few awards, to take the chance. Well what can I say apart from I'll give it a strong 5 outa 5 (had the player for a few weeks now). Once set-up it automates searching for channels, this was a painless process and took no time at all. It's very easy to use, mind you, I did take 1 look at the manual and thought sod that, it's like a book, so I just dived in and had a play around. Navigation via the remote is easy, all the functions, TV guide and recording, even the editor is all simple. Example; I love the editing functions on chapters; you are able to move the picture frame by frame in still motion which enables simplistic editing from 1 scene to another.

Setting timer from guide is easy also, just press Guide button, choose which program you're going to record then its takes you to next page options where you can alter the start/stop time and which record option you want to use SP etc. I was a little concered about the size of the HDD, but now that i have it, it's more than enough for what we need.

The picture is 2nd to none. Our signal in the area is so so, but what I immediately notice was the picture improvement from the Freeview tuner over our Sky box, so much so I have cancelled my Sky subscription, yeha. Playing from a DVD, picture is perfect, the only way I think I could improve on it would be to buy a new LCD display.

I can't comment on the SD reader as I have a PC with good editing prog so prob will never use it.
Reading through some of these comments I see people are unhappy with the fact you can't watch 1 channel and tape another, well that simply because it doesn't have a twin digital tuner, I don't think there is a model on the market that has a twin and also 1080P Up-Conversion and with Freeview. What we have done so far is, watch a DVD while timer is set/recording. Play a pre-recorded program from the HDD while timer is set/recording.

Booting up, this device has a power saving mode which is factory enabled, well it was on the one I received. This however means it does take a while to boot up or close down, but me being a miser and all, I don't really mind this one bit. So overall I'm very happy with my purchase.

Very easy to use, love the fact that you can watch one recorded programme while recording another and chase playback of a programme you're recording. Also very easy to add chapters etc.

Only two minor gripes, which may be a bit unfair because I don't know if these are features on any other comparable machines...

I would like to be able to sort programmes stored on the HD into folders, so that my son's programmes can be kept separate from mine.

Also I can't get it to play video recorded on my stills camera (sony) when I copy the files to a SD card. Maybe there's a setting I haven't discovered so any advice would be appreciated. I can always play through the cable but I was hoping to avoid doing that.

Other than that, I love it. Only got an old 14" at the moment so looking forward to buying a 32" Panasonic LMD70 after Christmas!

UPDATE Jan 08
Now have a 26" LMD70 (32" too big for room). I would make these comments now that I have a decent screen.
1. Record in at least SP: less than that you can see the MPG compression on Freeview.
2. When transferring from DV use XP otherwise it goes very blocky (at least it does from my 5yr old JVC camcorder)
3. Connect the TV to DVD by HDMI. It is very noticeably better than Scart. I got a premium 1m from hdcable.co.uk for less than £20.

I bought this to replace a LiteOn machine which I had to return as it froze after 36 hours! This machine however, is incredibly easy to setup and very easy to use. It has feature after feature and the build quality and play/record quality is top-knotch!

Well worth 5-stars!

I have just bought this kit and so far I'm very impressed. One query - I have a Sky box (but not Sky+)which I have connected to the DVD by scart. Is it possible for me to watch a differnt Sky channel from the one that is recording onto the DVD?

Had this for a week now and found it very easy to setup and navigate via remote. Tranfer of copies from HDD/DVD extremely easy also I have a top-up tv box with hard drive that produces as good as broadcast quality pictures, but "i'm not sure if it is my signal strength" but picture quality on the Panasonic recordings are not as sharp as my top-up tv copies, even on transfer from top-up to the Dvd recorder the quality of the picture gets noticeably degraded. That is why i have only given 3 stars.
Has anyone else found this problem?