Customer Reviews

Panasonic DMR-EH75VS DVD Recorder / VCR Combo with 80GB Hard Drive, HDMI, SD Card, and DV Input

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I have been holding out on buying a DVD recorder until one came out with VHS, DVD, and a hard drive (HDD). This unit finally delivers! It definitely has some cons, but this unit is the best you'll get if you want to record onto a hard drive first, edit out the commercials, and then transfer to DVD. The advantage to this method is that you can record say 2.5 hours in SP mode (2 hr mode), edit out a half hour of commercials, and then transfer to DVD. If you have to record directly to DVD before editing out the half hour of video, you would have to use a longer recording mode and therefore reducing the video quality.

Some of the things that can be improved upon:

- Consistency of auto-chapters: When copying directly to DVD, I've gotten chapter stops at 5 minutes and 8 minutes. When copying to the hard drive, there is no rhyme or reason. Why is this not consistent?

- Chapters are not maintained when copying from HDD to DVD in different recording mode: After copying to the hard drive, you can set your own chapter stops. These chapter stops are maintained when the video is copied to DVD in high speed mode (and therefore at the same video quality setting). However, if you record to HDD say in XP mode, edit out commercials, and then copy to DVD in a mode where it fits onto one disc (say, SP mode), it makes the DVD without any chapters! It should maintain the chapters that it allowed me to create. (The reason you would use this method to make a DVD is because you might not know how long the program is without commercials prior to editing them out. So you would want to copy to HDD in the highest quality mode possible)

- Loss of sound when "shortening a title": When you edit out a section of video, I have sometimes noticed a loss of sound for a few seconds before and a few seconds after the edited section. It also pauses briefly during the removed section.

- Can't copy a VHS to HDD or DVD and edit commercials on the fly: I should be able to easily play a VHS tape and record it to DVD and press the PAUSE button at the start and end of a commercial to edit it out. My old Go Video VHS to VHS deck has this simple feature... why wouldn't a brand new $500 VHS to DVD unit be able to do this? Are you listening, Panasonic?

- TV Guide built in DVR is not easy to navigate: If you want to skip ahead through 3 days of listings, it's not so easy to do. But for a DVR with no monthly fee, I can't complain too much here.

- Need to use both coax AND RCA cables: Most combo units allow you to use only the coax connections in case you have an old TV. With this unit you are REQUIRED to use both, which doesn't make any sense.

- Bad remote layout: The 'Function' and 'Navigator' buttons are too close to the directional wheel which is used for editing your videos and typing title names. The result is that you will often hit the wrong button by accident and leave the screen you were working in.

There were a few other basic features that you would expect to have, but I can't think of any other drawbacks right now. Overall, this is actually a really GOOD UNIT, certainly the only one of it's kind... I just figured I should tell you of the drawbacks to make sure you can live with them before buying it.

I've been using the DMR-EH75VS recorder for about four weeks now and I love the quality of the picture, the ease of copying from HDD to DVD, and the quality level of VHS transfers (recorded LP) to HDD or DVD. This is with the unit connected to a 20 year old Sony Trinitron television with an RF Modulator. I've also used the fire wire connection to connect my Sony MiniDV camcorder to transfer footage to DVD and it worked beautifully. I would give the unit 5 stars if the manual were better and if I had successfully installed the included feature of the TV Guide listings.

First about the manual: I work as a television editor and even I had trouble with the manual. The terminology is vague and the procedures often assume a level of knowledge that is unrealistic. The glossary should make up for the terminology problem, but does not. I did email questions to Panasonic and received satisfactory answers, but the manual should be self-explanatory.

Regarding the TV Guide listings I have yet to get them. I followed the procedures from the beginning and the unit searched for them, but after the prescribed 24 hours of having the unit off (I did this several times), the unit kept telling me that it could not find the listings. I have talked to Panasonic several times, have changed configurations, then tried getting the listings a few times (which is annoying because I can't record anything during the 24 hours it's off), and finally Panasonic did a software diagnostic that they are sending off to TV Guide and they said they would get back to me.

To be fair, I started off when I first got the unit with Cablevision and a Scientific Atlanta cable box, and last week I switched cable services and now have Verizon Fios fiber optic television service with a Motorola cable box. With both boxes, Panansonic had me reset the unit, adjust the settings and turn the unit off for 24 hours. I still don't have listings, but I hold out hope.

In the meantime, in between testing for TV Guide listings I have done many manual recordings direct to DVD and direct to the HDD, and am very happy with those functions. If you have problems manually setting up a vcr for programmed recordings and you can't get the TV Guide listings either because of the type of cable box or satellite service, think twice about getting this unit, because manually setting up programmed events might give you trouble.

Previous comments about the remote and the menus are ligitimate. It takes a little getting used to them, but if you're not a techno-phobe they shouldn't be a problem. Getting rid of the commercials can be tedious, but once again when you get how it's done, that's not a big deal.

Though free Panasonic help has been available online and by phone, the technicians I've dealt with have ranged from fairly knowledgeable to not so much.

In closing, after all these problems with the listings and the manual, why don't I give this unit a lower rating? The reasons are because the quality of the picture is really fabulous, the ability to record to a hard drive and delete commercials as well as come in on a program that's already started and watch from the beginning while the machine tapes the whole show is really great and I'm getting a big kick out of that, and I love that I can do all this without paying a monthly fee.

So even if I never get the listings because they are not available with my service, I'm still happy with the unit and will either manually set up recordings or attempt to use the VCR+ option. If I finally do get the TV Guide listings, I'll write a supplement to this post, but overall the DMR-EH57VS is a really great unit.

Several people have written excellent reviews of the Panasonic's ability to edit and record TV, in addition to VCR-DVD archiving, and I suggest looking at those reviews below. I would just like to add a few comments on my, so far limited, experience with this deck.

-HDMI upscaling is very good, and in my opinion is as good as my stand-alone Toshiba DVD player with HDMI upscaling. In addition, all video is upscaled to the format of your choice, and is a nice feature. Because of this, I found video playback of recorded shows to be of excellent quality. Very close to actual broadcast, if not the same on certain channels.

-TV Guide setup was simple, and asked for your postal code. The deck takes around 24 hours to get guide data, and I recieved 2-3 days of programming after about 18 hours. You must also periodically place this unit on standby in order to recieve updated TVGOS content, which is sent over the cable during late evening, and early morning hours, from my observations. My setup: analog cable directly fed into the Panasonic deck (no cable box), HDMI out to HD-ready TV. After reading the manual, TVGOS is not available to everyone, please be sure to check with your local cable co. just in case, if this feature is important to you. In additon, do not autotune this deck for channels, doing so loses the TVGOS capability, unless you do not want TVGOS.

-DVR capabilities: excellent video quality, TVGOS does a decent job of organiziation of channel listings and recording que. Recorded shows are shown as thumbnail videos and is a very nice feature of this unit. You can watch any thumbnail video saved on the HDD. The deck also has VCR+, but I do not use this feature, however some you propective buyers may like this feature.

-The deck is silent. the fan is quiet, there is little to no noise (just HDD noise at startup) emanating from the unit at all. very nice to see imo.

-The deck can record when in standby mode, thereby conserving power consumption, again a nice feature.

-The manual is not an easy read. Very technical, however this deck is not for the average user. Be prepared to spend some time reading certain parts of the manual in order to setup this deck properly.

-You can watch a DVD movie or VHS movie while simultaneously recording on the HDD, in additon to watching HDD content you have previously recording while the deck records. Nice feature, and for me, was a must have.

-This deck has high speed DVD burning built in, and allows for 1h-2h of content to be burned in 20 min or so. One caveat: For example, if you have high speed recording set to "on", you can burn a DVD fast, but you cannot record in dolby audio, nor widescreen. Therefore if you are recording a show (say CSI in widescreen) and you have this unit set for high speed recording, the picture will be in 4:3 format on the DVD. Something to consider.

-This deck cannot simultaneously output digital audio from HDMI and Toslink. you are made to chose one or the other. If you want Toslink, the unit disables Audio from HDMI, and vice versa. Not a big problem, but an annoyance when I want to watch a DVD movie through my DTS decoder (that does not have HDMI inputs).

-This deck has component inputs for recording, but only supports 480i (normal NTSC) and 480p (enhanced TV). so if you wish to record HD content, you are out of luck. I recorded OTA HD content in widescreen into this deck and found it to look and sound excellent, even though it was recorded in 480p.

-Last but not least, This deck is not constantly recording to the HDD, therefore TiVo-like features such as pausing live TV is not possible with the touch of a button. You must first record what you are watching to use the pause feature. I own a TiVo box and I love its capabilities, and the fact that anyone from young to old can use the TiVo interface within 30 min to an hour, but I don't like the monthly fees. If you are like me, and wanted to break free from the monthly fee, then I highly recommend this deck.

It is a good VCR-DVD video recorder, by far its working ok...Good image on VHS, fast and easy one touch recording.
The manual is awful. I own a Sony RDR-HX900 which has a much better owner manual, and even so, it is not as good as expected.
It lacks an eject button on the remote, but do we need it? Anyway you have to stand up and go for the DVD or VHS...
It is quite slow in activate TV functions, and its TV Guide panel and Setup tabs and steps are a little tortuous with sub menu and sub-sub menus anywhere.
Anyway it has one of the best image available on DVD and VHS. Dubbing to DVD a VHS is a breeze and the image obtained is superb
Recommended

The instruction manual is complicated and poorly compiled, lots of symbols and page re-directing, illogical order, etc. At first I was very frustrated. I found Tech Support to be extrememly patient, if not impressively knowledgable. I appreciated their assistance. But mostly I just spent several hours at a time over the course of a couple weeks to learn each feature one at a time. Some things do make sense and can be learned through playing and trial and error.

But now that I've got the hang of it - I love it! Granted, this is my first DVD recorder and I've never had TIVO so I am extra impressed with how easily and well the TV Guide works (again, after some initial frustration to set-up). I had originally bought the step-down version of Panasonic's DVD/VCR recorder, but as I had been warned by other reviews, it ate my VHS tape within the first week of use. So I returned that - Amazon's customer service was exceptional - and opted for the new improved and w/ hard drive version. I am so glad I did!

I also am using it to record old home videos from VHS to DVD; I love being able to set-up chapters with titles. Too bad it doesn't let me record my old store-bought VHS movies onto DVD, but those are copyright-protected so I guess that's only fair.

I have to confess, I haven't even hooked it up to an HD TV yet - I'm saving to buy one in the next few months. So for me, picture quality is fine but nothing to rave about. If I had to nitpick, besides the terrible manual (there are multiple typos in confusing context!), I really wish I could watch something on TV while recording another channel. And I wish I could watch DVD RAMs on other DVD players without finalizing the disk so they can still be recorded over after. As is, I have to watch everything that I may want to record over on this player and TV. And I think the price is a little steep, though i couldn't find any cheaper alternatives available. I also really miss my multi-disk DVD changer since this is just a single but, again, I couldn't find any comparable options that featured that.

All in all, a terrific purchase!

UPDATE: 9/14/07 - Like so many other Panasonic reviewers warned me, it's off to the repair shop. The DVD stopped playing or recording on DVDs. Luckily it's still under warranty, but after unhooking everything, sending it in, waiting 3-5 weeks, and having to go through the complicated process of re-setting it up, I don't feel confident that it will working in stellar condition. Starting to regret this purchase - though I had mostly postitive experiences with it until recently. Bummer!

Just a quick note for anyone who is thinking of purchasing this unit, if you plan on using the DVR using the TV Guide function, make sure that you check that your digital cable box is compatible. I have Comcast, and am using a Motorola cable box, model DCT700. After three days of wondering why the TV guide would not download, I called Panasonic. It turns out that only the following Motorola cable boxes work with this unit:

DCT1000
DCT1200
DCT1800
DCT2000
DCT2224
DCT2500

The TV guide downloaded fine when I didn't use the digital cable box and ran the cable directly into the unit.

With VCRs rapidly fading from the scene, I was looking for a DVD recorder that would allow me to "time shift" my viewing as I had with VCRs, and also allow me to copy my collection of video tapes to DVD. The DVR feature was a bonus for me when I bought it, but in fact has become about 95% of what I use it for.

About the DVR:

I hadn't considered a DVR because I refuse to pay TiVo a monthly fee for them to spy on my activity. This unit gets around all of that - no fees, no spying. Now I've got almost all of the advantages of TiVo without the disadvantages.

I find the "LP" mode to be quite satisfactory for everyday recording. From a normal viewing distance it looks just fine, although from a closer viewing distance I can see squiggles running through it. I find EP mode to be unsatisfactory due to the amount of squiggles and jerkiness. The DVR can store about 70 hours of LP mode recordings.

Like all of the TiVo fans, I've really enjoyed being able to watch something at the same time that I'm recording. And especially to be able to watch the same show that I'm recording, just starting late on my watching. Unlike TiVo, though, pressing the "pause" button won't start recording whatever you're watching while simultaneously going into paused playback. You have to do that by hand.

A minor annoyance: you can't change anything on the DVR's hard drive while it's recording. You can't delete shows, you can't rename them, you can't do anything to change them. You can look at the list of shows you've recorded and you can watch shows on the hard drive, but I have a notepad where I keep track of which shows I've watched that will need to be deleted the next time the recorder is idle.

Another minor annoyance: you can't use the "Time Slip" button to jump back and forth (mainly back) in a playback while the DVR is recording. You can fast-forward or fast-reverse, you can "commercial skip", but you can't time slip. What's up with that?

Another minor annoyance: if you're watching a show recorded on the DVR when a new show is about to be recorded, you'll lose closed-captioning display until you press STOP and PLAY. This loss occurs 2 minutes before the new show's scheduled start time, when the recorder goes into "flashing REC" mode.

About the TV Guide Electronic Program Guide (EPG):

As a DVR, my main complaint is the flakiness of the recording schedule system. It's tied very closely to the EPG, which is a bit flaky in itself. Updates only seem to come in overnight, and the unit MUST be turned off in order to get the updates. Updates seem to be for "today, tomorrow, and one week from today". If you miss Monday night's updates because the unit is busy recording or otherwise was left on, next Tuesday's listings will not be available until they get filled in next Sunday night.

More frustrating is that when you set up a program to record the unit ties the recording to the EPG listing, even if you simply set a time and channel. The good thing is that if the EPG shows that the time has been adjusted a bit - it still has to overlap the original time slot - the recording is adjusted as well. The bad thing is that if that listing temporarily disappears from the EPG (an annoyingly common occurrence), the recording won't happen at all. This is infuriating when EPG shows "no listing" and you specifically requested a recording on that channel at that time - if it doesn't know what's on, it really should just go ahead and record. But no...

Since the unit will lose its EPG memory if there is any interruption of power, this is a real problem if you have occasional power interruptions. Even a fraction of a second "glitch" in the power can make the recorder skip a day's worth of recordings, or more. I now have mine on a small UPS.

Furthermore, every now and again the unit completely drops a recurring scheduled recording - one that is supposed to record every week, for instance - for no apparent reason. I have to keep a close eye on what's scheduled to record to be sure that nothing has disappeared. I'm really concerned about an upcoming multi-week vacation that I'm taking; I simply cannot depend on the unit to record all of the shows while I'm gone.

A minor EPG annoyance is that programs appear exactly on the hour and half-hour in the listing, even if they start or end at different times. The recent trend for some network shows (especially ABC) to run "one minute over" makes this a problem. You can compensate for it by modifying the recording to start or end a minute late, but it is something that you have to do yourself.

When the EPG works, which is maybe 98% of the time, it's great. But when it doesn't work, the recorder's heavy reliance on EPG makes me crazy.

About the DVD Recorder:

It works. It does what needs doing.

But my big complaint with the DVD recorder is that it is WAY too complicated. They provide way too many different ways to do things, and those all have different side effects. You can read and reread the manual a dozen times and never understand it all.

So much of it just doesn't make sense. I can copy a DVD to the DVR's hard drive in high-speed mode, unless the DVD is a DVD+RW? If I copy a program from the DVR to the DVD it can be copied in high-speed mode unless the DVD is a +R and the program is over 5 hours long? Sometimes when you copy the chapter divisions and thumbnail are kept, and sometimes they aren't? I can copy one FR program to DVD in high-speed mode, but not two?

If you use the simple "Copy" operation you can't watch DVR while recording to DVD, but if you do the exact same operation using "Advanced Copy" you can? And if you use the front-panel copy buttons you can? What's up with that? Why bother with the simple "Copy" operation?

About the DVD Player:

Functional but seriously lacking in features. You also can't watch DVD while the unit is doing anything else, including recording to DVR; the unit outputs the program being recorded.

I consider the DVD Player to be barely usable. I don't use it at all, instead using my previous DVD player.

About the VCR Deck:

A very nice VHS system that appears to be have been grafted on with little thought. Things get really weird when you try to deal with VHS. For example, there are two sets of output connectors on the back of the unit; one allows you to watch VHS while recording to DVD or DVR, the other does not, and the S-Video connector is on the "no VCR" side.

Ironically, you can set up recording using "VCR Plus" on the DVR or the DVD but not on the VCR. In fact, as Sam already noted in an earlier review, you can't do scheduled recording to the VHS deck at all! The best you can do is "record now" or schedule a recording to the DVR (or DVD, but why?) and then copy to the VCR.

I've had a lot of trouble copying from the VCR, and to be fair it's my own fault. There are a LOT of things that you have to set up ahead of time: tracking, black level, audio channel selection, recording for high-speed copy, etc., and I always miss one or another. Which means that after an hour or two of recording from the VCR, I end up with an incorrect copy and have to start over.

The quality of the copy from the VCR is quite good, with some excellent noise reduction. I find the choice of black level to be limited, though; there are only two settings which I call "too dark" and "too light".

There is at least one weirdness in the VCR copy operations. Depending on how you copy, the copy may be broken up into separate titles at each VSS index mark or it may not.

In the end, I've done very little of my planned copying of my VHS collection to DVD. The main limitation is time. Since the unit has to be off overnight in order to pick up the EPG listings, I can't do my VHS copying overnight as I had originally planned.

About the SD Card input and the DV video inputs:

I haven't used them.

About Cabling:

I've had to cable this unit up three different times before I was satisfied. I had assumed that the inputs were "pass-through" when the unit was off, but they are not. I now have this unit, my DVD player, and my old VCR all separately connected to my TV set with no "chaining" of one unit through another. My set is an older one with limited input options, so this was a challenge for me.

About the IR Blaster to control cable boxes etc.:

I haven't used this. I'm still on analog cable and use the built-in tuner.

About the HDMI connections:

I haven't used them.

About the Remote Control:

The remote is fairly comprehensive for the unit itself, but the TV controls are quite limited. You can turn the TV on and off, toggle the input (antenna vs. video), and run the volume up and down. You can also change the channel up and down, but you can't enter a channel number so that's pretty useless for most of us.

The "commercial skip" button skips 60 seconds, which some people will find to be too long.

The bottom line:

I'm glad that I got it, and I enjoy it every day. But there are weak spots - notably the reliability of the EPG and its effect on scheduled recordings - that occasionally drive me nuts. And quirky little limitations leave me scratching my head.

The DVD drive is nice for making permanent recordings if you can figure out all of the zillion variations - or just find one variation that works for you and stick with it - but the DVD drive is not very useful as a player.

I don't use the VHS drive nearly as much as I'd planned (for copying) because I need to keep the unit turned off overnight for EPG updates.

Edited 29 January 2007: see comments for an update.

I've used my Panasonic EH75VS DVD Recorder for 3 weeks now.
I bought it for only one purpose: create my kid's Spanish project without using any of my PCs.
With this machine and my camcorder I can record my kid's skits into a 3" DVD-RAM with my DVD camcorder, reading the recorded 3" DVD-RAM directly into EH75VS hard disk (copy from 3" DVD-RAM to EH75VS's HDD), making a playlist with the scenes and the order I wanted, and then burning the playlist onto a DVD -R, a final product to submit as my kid's school project.
For this purpose, this machine does the job.

I also recorded a TV cartoon program in SP mode on HDD, cut off commercials, inserted chapter breaks, and then burned to a DVD-R in SP mode too.
I then play it on my PC. I will rate the result A-.
With full screen, to both me and my wife the picture is little bit grainy.

I then try to record TV onto VHS tape.
This machine only allows you to record to VHS tape on the fly, not with scheduled recording.
Menu has instructions for recording using "VCR Plus +". However this is for using "VCR Plus +" method to record TV program onto the HDD, not onto the VCR VHS tape.
You may say why record to the VHS tape while you can record it to HDD.
Well, you can't take you HDD to your bedroom and contune to watch the program you recorded.
VHS tape can.
I bought EH75VS instead of EH55S (one with 200 GB HDD but no VCR) is because I wanted to have one machine to do it all and get rid off all the cluter under my TV.
On this account, this machine surprised me that it can't really replace my VCR completely.
For this, I take away 1 Star from my rating.
It seems to me the VCR feature is an after thought to Panasonic.
It does not integrate well with the rest of the machine.

I have been using my DMR-EH75VS for about a week and love it. I have standard analog cable and the TV Guide function works perfectly. VCR plus also works provided you program in all your channel conversions. I can easily program a show to be recorded in less then 10 seconds.

People keep criticizing the manual but I have found it to be complete and accurate!

Burning DVD's and DVD-ram is super easy and the VCR works perfectly.

My only real complaint is the editing functions which are tenuous at best. It is time consuming to edit out the commercials before burning a disc. It can be done but it requires good mastery of the remote.

Happy here and no $13 - $20 per month fees! Seems like a lot of money to me to pick a TV show.



Update 1/29/07 I have successfully edited out commercials and burned a few DVD's and the editing works fine if you are patient. My one wish to make this unit an A+ is a "skip a day" button on the remote for the TVGuide. You have to scroll ahead to move to upcoming days. I wish they had made that easier!

I knew up front that I wanted a device that combined VHS, DVD, and HDD, and this may be the only device that fits that bill to date. But it has significantly surpassed my expectations. There are lots of little things the specs just can't or don't tell you about...
- The TV Guide feature is wonderully integrated into the overall functionality of the device. Gone are the days of having to figure out the nuances of programming your VCR, and possibly making a mistake like putting AM instead of PM. Now you scroll through channel listings, or search by title name, or search by genre of program, and whatever you like, you click record once to record once, or click again to record weekly or every weekday. So easy... and the search capability lets you see what's going to be on, in a much more friendly and better-organized manner than a paper TV Guide. You find out about interesting programs you would have otherwise never known about.
- You can have the device off, on, and/or be watching another recording when a show you've set to record comes on, and it doesn't cancel the recording.
- Your already-recorded shows on HDD or DVD are browsable via a menu that can show thumbnails of the program (it automatically generates a thumbnail from the start of the program but you can change it) or not, and you can sort it several different ways to get to what you want easily.
- It comes with a handy IR thingy that lets it automatically control your cable box.
- One reasonably-easy-to-use remote for HDD, DVD, VCR, cable, and TV!

Okay, I do have a small wish list:
- The device could be a little quicker. For example, when I want to delete multiple programs, each deletion takes a few clicks, and there's just enough response time lag in between those clicks to make it annoying.
- The remote lacks a Mute button for the TV.
- Idle power consumption of 16W... isn't that kinda high? Add to that the fact that you must leave your cable box turned ON.
- Make it a little smaller... the depth was about an inch more than our entertainment center allowed.
- It has an SD memory card slot... but I wish it had CF.
- I'm also hoping the next generation will have WiFi, to stream video or audio either to or from a PC.

Overall, the pros far outweigh the cons. Nobody else even comes close to what Panasonic has delivered here.