Panasonic DMR-EH55S DVD Recorder with 200 GB Hard Drive, HDMI, SD Card, and DV Input

by Panasonic

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 13 x 16.9 x 2.3 inches ; 9.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 15 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000F4CVE4
• Item model number: DMREH55S
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,093 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

With the Panasonic DMR-EH55S, you'll never by bound by TV schedules again. With the 200 GB hard drive and DVD recorder combined with PVR (personal video recorder) functionality, you can save all your favorite shows for later, more convenient viewing. It includes the TV Guide On-Screen programming guide, which lets you easily search through programming and set up either the DVD or PVR (hard drive) recorder to record them unattended. Explore program listings up to eight days in advance, searching by genre or keyword to help narrow down your choices. Once you've found what you want in the listings, simply select the program and the DMR-EH55S will automatically begin recording at the preset time. The 200 GB hard drive can store up to 355 hours of programming (when recorded at the most compressed EP setting).

This unit also includes an HDMI digital audio/video output, which can "up-convert" standard DVD movie discs to near HD resolution. Where standard DVD players (even progressive scan models) provide just 480 lines of resolution, the DMR-EH55S up-converts the picture up to 720p and 1080i high-def video formats--taking full advantage of your HD television's sparkling resolution. (Note that your TV must have an HDMI connection; HDMI cable not included.)

Choose from a full spectrum of recordable DVD media--write-once DVD+R and DVD-R discs or rewritable DVD-RW/+RW and DVD-RAM discs. (For temporary storage, such as your favorite weekly shows, DVD-RAM discs are a great choice as they can be rewritten more times than DVD-RW/+RW discs.) In addition to standard DVD movie and CD audio discs and its compatible recordable formats, the DMR-ES25S can play back CD-R/RW, dual layer DVD-R/+R, and VCD disc formats as well as JPEG, and MP3 digital formats.

Panasonic's Time Slip function consists of two features designed to give you added flexibility and control when making DVD recordings: Chasing Playback and Simultaneous Record & Play. With Chasing Playback, you don't have to wait for an entire program to be recorded before watching it from beginning to end. This feature allows you to watch a program that's currently being recorded from any point that's already been recorded--while continuing to record the live program in progress. Simultaneous Record & Play allows you to record a program onto a disc while simultaneously watching any other program that's previously been recorded on the same disc.

You can set your recorder to one of five different recording speeds, each varying in recording quality and length. EP mode yields the most recording time, LP & SP modes provide less recording time with higher quality recording, and XP mode gives you the highest quality recording. There's also the FR (Flexible Recording) mode that lets you record with the best picture quality possible for the recording time and remaining space on the disc.

The Direct Navigator feature makes it easy to find a previously recorded program on a disc. A list of recording dates, times, channels and (user-entered) titles are shown on screen. With the Playlist Playback function, you can perform simple non-linear video editing using, such as rearranging the order of scenes, skipping over unwanted scenes, or copying selections

Jump directly to any spot on a disc and begin playback or recording right away with the Rapid Random Access function when using DVD-RAM discs. Even if there is no sequential area of empty space available, this DVD recorder can record data on available space throughout the rest of the disc. You will also avoid searching for a blank spot to start recording, or accidentally recording over desired material.

Enjoy a great picture on you flat screen LCD or plasma HDTV using the component video output, and immersive surround sound via the optical digital audio output for Dolby Digital and DTS home theater effects. It also offers a FireWire port (also known as IEEE1394 or i.Link) for direct connection to a digital video camcorder, enabling you to download footage directly to disc. The full lineup of video and audio connections includes:

• RF input: 1
• Composite video/audio input: 2 (1 front)
• Composite video/audio output: 1
• S-Video input: 2 (1 front)
• S-Video output: 1
• Component video output: 1
• HDMI audio/video output: 1
• Digital audio output: 1 optical

Tech Talk
HDMI is a lossless, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface to link any audio/video source (such as a set-top box, DVD player, or AV receiver) with your TV--all over a single cable. It provides up to a 5 GB per second bandwidth for transmitting pure digital video and audio signals with no degradation in the transfer. It can carry up to eight discrete audio channels, making it compatible with 7.1-channel surround sound systems. Signals are encrypted with HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) to prevent recording. HDMI is fully backward-compatible with most DVI connections .

Component video (also called Y/Pb/Pr) features a three-jack video input, which provides separate connections for luminance (Y), blue color difference (PB) and red color difference (PR). This results in increased bandwidth for color information, resulting in a more accurate picture with clearer color reproduction and less bleeding than you would get with S-Video or composite (RCA yellow video plug) connections. You will need a separate RCA left/right audio cable for sound.

High Definition Formats: The most common high-def (HD) video format is 720p, which displays video at 720 vertical by 1280 horizontal pixels. The "p" denotes that it is progressive scan, meaning that all video lines are filled at the same time. The 1080i format displays video at 1080 vertical by 1920 horizontal pixels, and the "i" means that it is interlaced (the old-school way of presenting video where the screen scans the odd-numbered video lines first, then the even-numbered lines). The 1080p format has the same pixel resolution as 1080i, but it is a progressive scan format and thus has a constant vertical resolution of 1080 lines.

What's in the Box
DVD recorder/hard drive, remote control (with batteries), AV cable, RF cable, power cord, one DVD-RAM disc, printed operating instructions

Product Description

When it comes to multiple ways to play and record programming, the DMREH55 is hard to beat. It not only records DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD+R discs, it also has a 200 GB hard disk to store up to 350 hours of programming in EP mode. There's even an SD memory card slot and SD viewer for JPEG images. Oh, and it also plays CD-R/-RW discs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

98 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reasonable alternative to subscription DVRs (UPDATED 9/14/06), September 11, 2006

By 

G. Gillen "daddy-oo" (Northern Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic DMR-EH55S DVD Recorder with 200 GB Hard Drive, HDMI, SD Card, and DV Input (Electronics)

Note: After a week, so far, so good. Originally gave this 4 stars...would give it 4.5 if I could. I was gonna drop the rating to 2 or 3 stars if the TV Guide features did not work well, but I'm getting to like it a lot.

Why did I buy this product?

1) Picture quality.
It was time to upgrade my DVD player. I heard HDMI capable players did a pretty good job of "up-converting" DVD pictures to close to HD quality. It also supports digital audio (TOSLINK) to my A/V receiver, which does not have HDMI.

VERDICT (UPDATED): Very Good.

- Recently got and installed HDMI (to TV) and optical digital audio (TOSLINK to A/V receiver).

On HDMI Video, my father had claimed his Panasonic does a nice up-convert job. It is a *slight* improvement over component video, but it does a nice job. My test case was "War of the Worlds", which is shot a bit rough and grainy. Picture was much better on HDMI and new DVD player. Ditto for 2nd test case, anniversay DVD of "JAWS".

On digital audio, can't say the TOSLINK is any better than my coaxial digital, but it handles 5.1 surround from DTS or Dolby Digital very well (it also looks cool - red fiber optic - and sure beats old analog Dolby which is what I had to put up w/ temporarily).

P.S. at my father's recommendation I got HDMI and TOSLINK A/V cables online at prices about 1/3 to 1/5 what you might pay in stores for "name brand" cables. I must say he was right. The cables were very good quality and they work perfectly.

P.P.S. (off topic) it was a challenge to figure out how to enable the HDMI input on my Mitsubishi WD-52525 on my own. Mitsubish TV support was *very good* (as has always been my experience).

2) Free TIVO or TIVO-like service.
My cable company is rich enough. The idea of paying an extra $21 / mo (cable box / dvr, digital service fee, dvr fee) as an "improvement" do recording stuff to my old DVD player/recorder was not appealing. Panasonic unit uses the *free* TV Guide service.

VERDICT: Good, unless you just *have* to have TIVO

- I have many friends who have and *swear* by TIVO; from what I have seen, it has a nice remote, great interface, including the "sliding time bar" feature (you TIVO guys know what I'm talking about). You TIVO addicts will find the interface and functions lacking in the TV-Guide / Panasonic combo. In fact, many rental DVRs from cable companies don't stack up well to TIVO either.

- *However*, as long as your cable operator passes along the TV-Guide signal to your DVR, I have found the *free* TV-Guide programming service is pretty good (I have Cox Cable and it works fine w/ TV-Guide). For the first time, I can search for all Sci-Fi movies for the week and decide if I want to record some of all of them to the hard drive, then burn to DVD if I want to keep them. Also, watching playback / fast forwarding / skipping commercials is definitely easier w/ something recorded to hard disk than a DVD+/-RW.

3) Home video use and format compatibility
- My old DVD recorder uses DVD+R and DVD+RW; I have some old VHS to DVD home movies and wanted something that could still play them and I wanted to be able to still use my remaining DVD+R and /RW discs.
- I have also multiple digital video / picture cameras - some using MiniDV and some using mini SD cards. I wanted the option of transferring recordings to DVD w/o necessarily having to do use my PC all the time.

Verdict: Very Good..so far (partially Incomplete)

- I watched my old DVD +R home movies and they work just fine (whew!). Apparently this handles, DVD-RAM, DVD+/-R, and DVD +/-RW. This also supports recording for the hard drive to dual layer +/- DVDs....so pretty much all the current bases are covered, format-wise.

- Have not tried the Firewire or SD card inputs yet, but as with my old DVD recorder, I expect no problems w/ transfer and recording to DVD. Apparently, you can also do some minor editing on the hard disk source prior to burnign to DVD...usually this is kludgey, but nice to have once you learn how to do it. Makes for better home movie archives w/o "junk".

Any downsides?

- HDTV on my 52" is stunning; non HD signals vary from poor to mediocre (good enough). This unit does not have an HD tuner and total time would be limited (even w/ 200GB HD). This is most notable on sports event where HD is stunning. On standard digital cable, the results are good enough (for now).

- Every DVD remote should have a button to instantly access the top menu.

OVERALL:
This unit is great if your needs are like mine above and you are not a TIVO fanatic. I paid $420 for this unit, which is fair value (aside from the DVD playback, the other functions will probably pay for themselves in about 8-10 mos. - faster if I end up not buying 2-3 DVD movies because I was able to find / record them using this unit).

I expect prices may continue to drop. If you could ever get it for about $100 less, it would be a great deal and that alone could warrant 5 starts vs. 4. If my TV-Guide experience over the long haul is bad (i.e. incorrect timing, problem w/ updated information), then this would drop to 2-3 stars.

Wild card: cable companies have been rumored to be working on playing back recordings from a single DVR to any TV in the house. This would be a nice capability that would really threaten commercial-based TV and gives really lets you watch what you want, when you want, how you want. Duplicating this yourselve would currently require a lot of know-how and $$$$. This would give DVR rental a unique benefit...Of course, this capability would be only available to cable customers for another "additional fee"... ;-)

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good. No glitches, reliable, and many features, with some serious limitations., March 11, 2007

By 

Lawrence Brown "Larry Brown" (HOUSTON, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic DMR-EH55S DVD Recorder with 200 GB Hard Drive, HDMI, SD Card, and DV Input (Electronics)

Pansonic: Good. No glitches, reliable, and many features, with some serious limitations.
Phillips and Polaroid (these two units are identical for reviewing purposes): Inexpensive and has some great features. However, half-baked software is buggy, glitchy, feels klunky, missing essential features, and crash prone resulting in trashed DVDs. However I have heard from one person who reports that his unit has updated software and works better.

This review covers three DVRs for comparison purposes:
Panasonic DMR-EH55S (200 GB hard drive) (Most expensive)
Phillips DVDR3455/37 (160 GB hard drive)
Polaroid DRM-2001G (80 GB) (least expensive)

Here are some of my observations on these three DVRs. I would call the Phillips and Polaroid "half-baked" and I returned them and would not recommend them. The Panasonic is nice and I recommend it, but it's not perfect.

In my review, strengths are marked with a +, weaknesses with a -.

Panasonic DMR-EH55S
Over all opinion: Great. Reliable, high quality and studded with features, although missing some no-brainers. After daily heavy use for several years I can tell you: it works perfectly all day everyday. I've had only two glitches: the DVD spindle gets dirty and it fails to write DVDs*, and it sometimes aborts recordings after 10 seconds with an unexplained "error**." Probably the best available at this consumer level price point, but unfortunately has many limitations that reduce its usefulness to a heavy editor like myself.
*SYMPTOM of this problem: grinding noises from the DVD drive and fails to finalize the disk. SOLUTION: open the unit and clean the spindle with 97% alcohol. Don't touch the middle hole of DVDs inserted into the unit. WORKAROUND: Use DVD-RAM, which is easier for the unit to write and doesn't need finalizing.
**No solution found yet.

Many of my comments are critiques as to how things could have or should have been done better, drawing on my experience as a software engineer. Since Panasonic has discontinued making hard disk DRVs these critiques are kind of pointless since I'll never have a chance to send them my comments to help them improve later products. The comments might give someone insight in to how some other DVR got it right.

+Text entry is very good, with great use of the remote control buttons to allow hot key shortcuts for various operations and screen positions. It's a clever system and fast and fun to use.

+Remote control is strong and the unit responds to its commands without fail.

+The scrubber for finding an edit point is great.

+The manual is very good, 77 packed pages with detailed technical information on all aspects of operation. It's much better than the "user friendly" Sony manuals that avoid tech talk. It also carefully lists the many limitations of this unit and the technology, including what burn speeds you can expect.

+The on screen TV guide is da bomb. It's far superior to the scrolling cable channel we have been watching for the last ten years. In spite of reviews here to the contrary, it worked perfectly for us, setting up with just few easy questions, one minor glitch requiring a glance at the manual, and then video nirvana. It finally makes it possible to reliably set programs for a recording device. I love it!

+The fan is whisper quiet.

+The manual warns you that high speed burn will be louder than normal. For me it's not bad. The high speed burn usually sounds like someone running water in the sink, with loud portions sounding like an electric shaver.

-In some disappointing passages, the manual points out that although this unit is "compatible" with 16X recording speed disks, "this is not the copy speed." (However, in many cases it can get better than 16x speed if you record at lower quality.) The manual also points out many other limitations such as: you can not record to the SD card, movies can not be played from the SD card, the Firewire port can only be used with digital video equipment and not computers, pre-recorded DVDs and even some of your own burned DVDs are copied to the hard drive only in real time*, the advanced feature "flexible recording" fits the highest quality footage possible filling all DVD space but only burns in real time, the system is not smart enough to juggle overlapping record programs and will just drop earlier programs even if there is only a small overlap, it can not play DIVx files while recording other programs, it can not play still pictures while recording other programs, you can not rename/delete/edit/divide titles while recording other programs, it will drop scheduled recordings if you have the unit busy editing photos, finalizing the high speed burn may take four times longer than estimated on the finalize screen HUH? and various other limitations. I don't want all that...just make it work!

-Multi-tasking challenged. You can't edit any previously recorded tracks, not even renaming them, while the unit is recording. You can't even watch tracks while high-speed burning a DVD with finalize, which is silly, since you can watch without finalize. What's in this thing, an 8080 microprocessor? During high speed burn with finalize it won't even play TV from the tuner! This is a serious limitation for me, greatly reducing the utility of this expensive device*. Even the useful (and hidden) "create chapter" screen is unavailable during recording.
*Not being able to edit tracks while the unit is busy recording is a real disappointment. It's a nasty cycle because the more you record, the more you need to edit but then the more often the unit is busy recording. The only editing function available during record is to mark chapters, and that's a partial life saver. You can shift some of your editing time into setting chapter marks around your "cut" and "save" segments. Later when the unit is free you can use these as guide marks to make your editing faster.

*Here's a super useful "create chapter" hidden function. While viewing tracks in the track listing, select a track for editing and go to "sub-menu" and then "view chapters." The DVR will bring up a screen and show each chapter mark on the track as a thumbnail. Since you can't set the thumbnail snapshot for chapters, this view is not as useful as it sh/could be. Now cursor over to any chapter and then go to "sub-menu/create chapter." This will bring up a useful preview screen. Below the preview will be the familiar program timeline, but a bonus here is that all of your chapter marks will be indicated on the timeline. I wish all the other preview screens, especially "shorten track" included these track marks, and they should. Seeing your entire program with the chapter marks all at once is useful. You can scan through the program and set new chapter marks or delete chapters. If you want to delete a chapter mark, "exit" the preview screen and you will get back to the chapter thumbnail view. Select a chapter, go to "sub-menu," and there is a "merge chapters" button there.
* Here's a useful way of editing (like cutting commercials) that is not obvious. The normal way of cutting the commercials is to use the "shorten track" function. To do that, you scan to a commercial, hit "start," scan to the end of the commercials, hit "end," then hit "shorten now." You click "confirm," wait several annoying seconds, then do it all over again until done. It's annoying to have to do it one by one. Here's how you can do them all at once. Go to the hidden timeline with chapter marks function mentioned above. Scan through your program and set chapter marks before and after all your commercials. Double checking your work in this view is easy until you're sure you've got it right. Then "exit" to go back to chapter thumbnail view. Now you can select each chapter you want to drop by selecting it with the "pause" key, one chapter at a time. Once you have them all selected you can go to "sub-menu" and then "delete chapter," and it will delete them all in one swipe. It's very good!

-Copies pre-recorded DVDs (and some others) to the hard disk (HDD) only in real time and with loss of a generation. The Pioneer DVR also copies in real time, I assume also losing a generation. I think what they are doing here is playing the DVD and routing its signal through the analog circuitry to allow any copy protection scheme on the DVD to confuse the input circuitry and cause that brightness fading in and out and color shifting. This is another serious limitation for me since I like to consolidate my home movies and etc. I make sure that I will not have this problem with my home movies by using the DVD-RAM or whatever. If this limitation bites you it's a disaster.
*The DVD-RAM avoids the real time limitation, so using that for your own editing purposes is a work around.

-Will not pause live TV! Instead you have to start recording and then chase playback. That's an odd oversight on Panasonic's part and a sorely missed feature.

-When you divide or edit a track you have to do it in a small preview screen. That's silly, sacrifices a lot of usefulness, and so needless. They sacrificed screen space for useless stuff, including a useless title bar at the top, another one on the bottom, useless edit/divide preview windows, and huge on screen buttons for "divide" and "preview" operations. I like to edit and divide my programs while watching them, but since Panasonic has a special screen for editing/dividing, where the program is shown only in a small preview window, I have to view my program once, then go back and edit or divide it later. If you edit much video you know that editing time is a big problem, e.g. another reviewer mentions fifteen minutes to edit the commercials out of a one hour show. If you record many... Read more ›

51 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Replaced my VCR, DVD player - Love it., August 15, 2006

By 

A. W. Moten "Will" (Cambridge, MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic DMR-EH55S DVD Recorder with 200 GB Hard Drive, HDMI, SD Card, and DV Input (Electronics)

Got it last week, and I love it. This is my first experience with a DVD recorder. Easy to set up.

I have not tried recording on a DVD yet; I am too excited to just use it as a VCR. All the programs record on the 200G HD (2-4 days worth of video), and I delete them after watching it. The TV Guide feature is great, especially to program the recording. BTW, it also works as DVD player.

Easy to skip commercials! I record the shows even if I am home at showtime; I start recording them, and start watching it 20 minutes after a one hour show's start time. This way I can skip the commercials and "chase" the show. This also allows you to pause "live" TV, or rewind if you think you missed something. I believe that's how "TIVO" works also. My cable company was offering something like that for a $20 monthly fee, plus it had no DVD recording feature.

It lets you "edit" the commercials out of a show, so if you want to put your favorite show on to the DVD without the commercials, it is possible. I plan to do it with music videos.

The only thing that was a disappointing was the LED Display in front of the player. From today's advanced standards, it looks primitive (80's style), and the light stays bright even at night (no auto dimming). For a $450 price tag, they should have updated that.