Customer Reviews

Panasonic DMR-E500HS DIGA DVD Recorder with 400 GB Hard Drive and Ethernet Port

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't advise buying from this product line for the following reasons. I gave it 2 stars because I really liked the features. I felt that we'd given Panasonic a good heads-up and waited long enough before making this post. They never returned our inquiries or offered anything beyond what you'd hate to hear from someone who's given up on you.

- The manual is not useful to customers that need specific help
setting up the unit in a A/V configuration.

- The Panasonic Customer Support group was helpful but are not
experts. They'll tell you that your repair can be held up to
30 days without their getting involved to help resolve a
problem.

- Experiencing a major repair problem is not something that
one would care to experience so soon into a purchase.

I really liked the DMR-E500HS features and the price was right. I'd researched the product line, consulted several AV forums, and read the reviews. I was throughly convinced that this was the right model for our AV setup.

I was aware of the comments from users about the less than helpful setup and usage information. I agree that it's not as easy as reading the manual. I eventually threw away the manual and the Panasonic Customer Support line help and did the cabling myself. Just as I shifted into a comfortable state, the unit totally froze up... can't turn the unit on/off from the remote or from the deck.

I have to admit that the Panasonic reps are good at reading scripts, as that's all they were able to accomplish, aside from leaving me with the dangerous task of upgrading firmware on a badly behaving unit. Eventually, after a whole week of calling support and trying various things, I was told to take the unit in for repair. I had to drive 65 miles round trip and it took about 2 weeks to replace one of the control boards.

I have the unit back now and (hopefully) I've educated someone about the risks involved with trying out new technology from vendors who don't want to promote themselves as being comsumer-friendly.

Panasonic recorders are great, I have a DMR-80 and the DMR-500.

I purchased the 500 because of the 400gb drive and the fast burn time, 8min to burn a 2hour dvd. Panasonic recorders sadly have poorly written manuals and useless trouble shooting guides. The good news is they have great software features and virtualy self recover from errors. The 3 secrets to trouble free operation with any dvd recorder is to (1)not clutter the hard drive with hundreds of titles (2) buy brand name blanks such as maxell 8X-16X and (3) use a cleaning disk frequently, most burn errors are caused by static cling particles in the unit.

I purchase one of these units when it first came on the market. It worked great so later on I purchased a second unit, that when the problems started.

For no reason I started getting the dreaded U99 error on the first unit I bought and then on the second unit a few days later. I noticed that I could reset either unit in the moring and when I came home, I would have a U99 again. I called Panasonic customer service - no help, tried to do the Panasonic flash upgrade - no help. I did quite a bit of research on the net and found that many people were having the same problem but some had been able to tie the problem together with the TV Guide feature. I noticed that when I had the U99 error, I lost all of the guide info.

I had just about come to the conclusion that I was going to have to live with two bad decisions when VIOLA - the problems on BOTH UNITS WHEN AWAY AND BOTH ARE NOW WORKING GREAT!!.

Based on what I have seen, I feel that all of the problems were related to the programming of the TV guide information which is automatically sent over the cable.

The units work great but to get full utilization, YOU MUST READ THE MANUAL. These units are a bit complicated but considering what they will do, its not a problem.

I really love my Panasonic DMR-E500HS DVD recorder, but it is not without problems. I've had several errors occur into the recording phase. Usually, with the pull of the plug and letting the unit reset, all worked fine after. I have had several problems with the TV Guide disappearing for days at a time, and even up about 4 months this past summer. I've owned my machine for 13 months. One issue I've had with my unit is the fact the right channel on input does not work. That means if I record from a VCR and want true stereo sound, I only get the left channel. It's been this way since I purchased it. It doesn't matter what input channel you use, the right audio track doesn't record into the unit. Beyond that, the unit is great for taping live television. I love the capacity on the hard drive.