Panasonic DMR-ES10S DIGA Series DVD Recorder , Silver

by Panasonic

Product Details

Product Manual [3.89mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 3.1 x 16.9 inches ; 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 11 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: B0007WKB14
• Item model number: DMR-ES10S
• Batteries: 2 AA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,839 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
  • #13 in Electronics > Televisions & Video > DVD Players & Recorders > DVD Recorders
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Why wait? Panasonic's high-tech DIGA series DMR-ES10S DVD recorder has everything you need to archive your old VHS and camcorder tapes while taking over any lingering TV-related duties from your VCR and serving as a home-theater-caliber DVD player to boot. The unit records to your choice of DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD+R, or rewritable DVD-RW. For playback, it'll handle those formats in addition to DVD+RW, DVD-Audio (high-resolution 2-channel only), video CD, MP3 CD, and recordable CDs brimming with your cherished JPEG digital photos. DVD-Audio media offer super high-fidelity (192 kHz/24-bit) sound and provides unique bonus materials not available on regular audio CDs.

The DMR-ES10S's virtual Multi-Encode System enables LP mode recording with the same 500 lines of horizontal resolution as the deck uses to encode in the higher-quality SP and XP modes. This is twice the 250 lines of resolution used in conventional Long Play recording. Now you can store 4 hours of full-resolution program material on a standard 4.7 GB recordable DVD rather than merely 2 hours.

Panasonic's Time Slip feature lets you use your DVD recorder like a digital video recorder, viewing the recorded portion of an ongoing program from the beginning, while still recording the program in progress. With Chasing Playback, you can view the recorded portion of a live program, from the beginning, while continuing to record that program until its completion. Simultaneous record and play lets you view a previously recorded program on either a DVD-RAM disc or the hard disk drive while recording a different program.

The DMR-ES10S uses a 12-bit video analog-to-digital converter to provide 4 times the number of possible color gradation (shades) offered by 10-bit converters. This preserves your source images with more detail, more definition, and more beauty. Other enhancements include Panasonic's Real-Time Variable Bit Rate Control, integrated noise reduction (NR), and Visibility Modulation technology.

The DMR-ES10S is also a progressive-scan DVD player for use with both standard- and high-definition or HD-ready TVs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.

Panasonic's Direct Navigator simplifies the process of previewing recorded programs, letting you access recorded material from an onscreen menu that lists recording dates, times, channels, and titles. The DMR-ES10S also offers a feature called high-speed quick start. The unit is ready to record just 1 second after you switch it on, easing your mind on those occasions when you forget (or almost forget) that an important program is airing.

Product Description

Panasonic's budget-friendly DMR-ES10 lets you capture your favorite TV shows and save your precious home movies on compact, durable DVD discs. This recorder's user-friendly features make it even easier to use than your old VCR, with DVD's superior picture quality and playback conveniences. You can record to permanent, write-once DVD-R discs or erasable, rewriteable DVD-RAM discs. Use DVD-Rs for programs you want to keep forever, like a favorite TV series. DVD-RAMs are perfect for shows you want to watch once or twice and then erase. Chasing Playback Simultaneous Record & Play Direct Navigator with thumbnails ProgressiveScan compatible Built-in NTSC CATV tuner MP3 JPEG & TIFF playback on CD-R/RW VCR Plus+ timer, and manual recording Optical digital output / 1 set A/V outputs (composite, S-video, component) / 1 set A/V inputs (composite, S-video) / RF input/output Unit dimensions - 16-15/16W x 3-1/8H x 10-13/16D Panasonic USA 1-Year limited warranty

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

183 of 192 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Panasonic Gets It Right, March 19, 2005

By 

avoraciousreader (Somewhere in the Space Time Continuum) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic DMR-ES10S DIGA Series DVD Recorder , Silver (Electronics)

Don't tell my girlfriend, but I think I'm in love.

I picked this unit up yesterday, so this is obviously a very preliminary review, and I'll update it later if my opinion changes, but this seems like a real winner. And at a list price of $200, a real steal also.

After buying (and returning) one pile-of-junk DVD recorder, I did a fair amount of research and found many horror stories and much dissatisfaction ... except for the Panasonic DMR-E55 (and slightly different models), which almost everyone here and at videohelp.com loved. However, it did have some difficulties for my intended use, in particular that it only wrote to write-once discs and to DVD-RAM. Now DVD-RAM seemed slick as a greased weasel, allowing the DMR-E55 to do TIVO-like tricks such as starting to record a show while you're out, getting home midway through and then watching the beginning while it's still recording the end, but if you wanted to watch the resulting disc on a standard DVD player, or to use your computer to make copies or transfer to hard drive for editing, you were out of luck (or would have to buy a DVD-RAM supporting drive). Plus, forget archiving stuff on DVD-RAM, even for use on Panasonic machines, since they run $4+ per disc.

Nevertheless, with a somewhat heavy heart and plenty of reservations, I decided the E55 was what I'd go for, the least-bad solution, so I hied me down to Best Buy thinking I'd probably come home with one. Alas, they only had a display unit left, with no box, no remote, etc. But the sales guy sort of offhandedly mentioned, "Well, we did get this new model in, there's a stack of them over there." We opened up a box, checked the manual to make sure it had all the nifty features of the E55, and in a kind of daze I walked out with one, all the qualms and the feeling of settling for something that might be a pain-in-the-neck gone.

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening playing with it, and what can I say ... it just works, smoothly and efficiently. I obviously have tried only a portion of the features and possibilities [and of course can't say anything about long-term reliability], but this new machine gets around some of the difficulties with the old E55. It seems like Panasonic was actually listening to the complaints, and came up with solutions ---

-- except for the not widely supported DVD-RAM, the E55 only recorded to DVD-R, and reportedly not to (most) 8X blanks either. The ES10 additionally records to -RW and +R/4X and +R/8X, all of which I tested (and the +R were cheap discs, Teon and WinData). The results play on my computer's DVD drive. Being able to use DVD-RW gets around the DVD-RAM incompatibility for now (I can record, say, a bunch of episodes of Frasier, then transfer to the computer to edit out the ads, and re-use the original disc), though I might install a DVD-RAM compatible drive eventually. [For some reason, DVD+RW discs are not supported for writing.]

-- many people commented on the obtuse manual and difficult to use remote and menus. I can't compare directly, but having been driven to blinking distraction by one bad DVD recorder, I can say the ES10 was a delight to use -- it was easy to find what little I needed in the manual, and I could largely just wing it. I was making "flexible record" discs (where compression is chosen based on total program length to use the entire disc precisely) immediately. If you hit the wrong button by mistake, the unit does not begin to make grinding noises and/or go into never-never land; it's OK to try things to see what they do. And if you're stuck, the "magic" button that gets you out of certain menus or situations seems to be labelled Return.

-- to fast forward/reverse, you had to use and hold the chapter skip buttons; there are now separate buttons.

I have no substantive complaints so far, but here are some annoyances. That most are so trivial speaks volumes --

-- the open/close control is on the opposite end of the unit from the disc drawer; for some reason this is not intuitive to me.

-- there is no on screen display of the record mode (XP, LP, etc, i.e. recording quality). Only the display on the unit itself, which can be hard to read across the room.

-- the unit uses 8.5 watts even turned off; the manual notes this and says you might want to unplug it when not used for long periods. Why can't they just put in a genuine 'off' and a 'standby' if they feel it's needed?

-- some of the remote buttons are too closely spaced for my stubby fingers, yet there is unused or underused real estate in the configuration.

-- 'stop' and some other controls seem to leave the unit in a kind of intermediate state (though they do have the desired effect); to go to a 'neutral' or startup state, I have to hit stop again. (Maybe this is some feature I just haven't figured out yet. Or maybe it's somehow an example of ...

-- the menus maybe go a bit too far trying to protect you against doing foolish things. You get asked twice, not just once, if you really want to format a disc, for instance.

-- the 8-hour/disc mode really is substandard, worse than a 6 hour VHS tape; but the 4-hour mode should be acceptable for many uses. [There is a 6-hour mode, but apparently you have to select that instead of 8-hour in Setup and I haven't tried it yet.]

79 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tested better than Sony & Philips, but DOES NOT WORK WITH DVD+R, May 10, 2005

By 

R. Christenson "SpaceComics.com" (Pine, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic DMR-ES10S DIGA Series DVD Recorder , Silver (Electronics)

If you're going to copy a lot of VHS tapes to DVD-R or DVD+R discs, this is the one to get. I tried both a Philips DVDR600VR DVD recorder/VCR combo and a Sony RDRVX500 DVD recorder/VCR combo. The Philips had a couple problems and I returned it, so I'll compare the Panasonic to the Sony:

The Sony had a lot of nice features and overall good quality, but I found that it had a major problem copying VHS tapes from a separate VCR with a GoDVD device. The quality in that case is substantially degraded, with streaks of interference, as with a satellite dish with the polarity or azimuth tuned wrong. This is either with the composite video connection, or using an S-Video cable from the GoDVD to the Sony. The odd thing is a signal from a separate DVD player comes through the same GoDVD device OK, and the signal from the VCR is OK without the GoDVD. The only way I found to get a decent signal from a separate VCR through the GoDVD to the Sony was through an adapter to the coaxial input, which of course is lower quality anyway and somewhat defeats the purpose.

However, with the Panasonic DMR-ES10, I made perfect copies of the exact same tapes from the same VCR through the same GoDVD device. Additionally, the Panasonic has the following handy features not on the Sony combo unit:
1. Flexible speed recording. If you have a tape that's 2 hours 5 min. you can record it at a speed that exactly fills the DVD-R (or +R), where if you just left it in SP mode it would run out. I tried a DVD-R disc recorded this way on 2 other players and it works fine.
2. You can change the thumbnail images in the menu. With the Sony you're stuck with the first frame. With this model Panasonic you can play the title to any frame you want to select for the menu image.
3. You can store phrases for the titles. For instance, if you're recording Perry Mason episodes, every title starts with "The Case of the ... " You can store that so you don't have to spell it out each time. I like to add previews to the extra space on a disc, so I saved "PREVIEWS."

The only problems I've had with the Panasonic DMR-ES10 is with DVD+R media. When recording stops, it fouls up the disc so it's unusable. I've had this problem with TDK, HP, and Sony DVD+R disks. Once in a while it works if the recording is under an hour. It always works fine with DVD-R.

This isn't a combo unit, so the quality from the VHS tape depends on the VCR. I tried two different VCRs, an old Toshiba and a newer cheaper model, and got great quality DVDs from both. I tried both VCRs with the Sony and both had the problem with the GoDVD described above, but seem fine without the GoDVD. But the VCR built into the Sony combo unit seems to have worse performance than the separate VCRs, causing flickering sometimes.
Because of that I don't see much advantage to the combo unit, and recommend the Panasonic DMR-ES10 as the best option for copying VHS tapes to DVDs.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Highest Quality - Low Price !, April 15, 2005

By 

NYSOFTWAREMAN (NEW YORK CITY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic DMR-ES10S DIGA Series DVD Recorder , Silver (Electronics)

Panasonic DMR-ES10 DVD Recorder

Pros: Great low price. Excellent recordings ,even in the LP (4Hr) speed.

Cons: PIP & Commercial Skip wont work on Finalized DVDs.

Full Review :
Unlike all previous Panasonic DVD recorders. Besides being able to record on DVD-R and DVD-RAM. This new model will also record on , DVD+R , DVD-RW. This is a much needed and smart move by Panasonic.

But a word of caution. Due to strict new copy protection laws. Some broadcasts now contain Copy Control signals. They may have one of three signal types: Copy-Free, Copy-Once, or Copy-Never. The recorder limits the recording according to the copy protection signal. Copy-Free encoded signals can be recorded at any time with any compatible blank disk type.Copy-Never encoded signals can not be recorded on this unit. Many of your premium cable stations(HBO,SHO)are Copy-Once programs. This means you may record the program to a disk. But you are not able to take that disk and then make a copy of it. According to the manual copy once programs may only be recorded using DVD-RAM. I did have some problems finalizing copy protected recordings from HBO using DVD-R and DVD-RW disks.

I highly reccomend purchasing the Sima CT-2 (GO DVD) Video Signal Processor (Amazon Price: $69.49) This will allow you to record any copy protected source (Cable,VHS,DVD).

Being that this is only a $200 unit. It is not made as sturdily as some of the previous models. But the many important new features and low price make up for that.

Panasonic made alot of bold claims about this unit.I was hesitant about them , especially since this is only a $200 unit. While other DVD recorders like the SONY sell for nearly $400.00. But I am happy to report that all the claims are true. The unit works great. Panasonic really backs up all thier claims about this DVD recorder.

All the DVDs I made recorded played back with very high quality. I also found no problems with compatibility when playing those DVDs back on other DVD players. Recordings made in the four (4) hour (LP) speed looked nearly identical to those made using the (2) Hour(SP)speed. The VCR Plus feature is fairly useless if you have it connected to a CABLE box. But if you have it connected to a standard antenna then VCR Plus is a useful feature.

The remote control also controls your TV. It can also be adjusted so that it wont control any other Panasonic equipment you may own. Among the important new features is that all the new Panasonic models for 2005 now have improved horizontal resolution. In the LP (4 Hours) mode, this DVD recorder has images twice as sharp as last year's models. It gives up to 500 lines resolution. This is double the horizontal resolution compared to the 250 lines of conventional LP mode recording. Thanks to this, you now have high quality four hour recordings as sharp as the Two Hour (SP )speed.

Another new feature is what Panasonic calls "VHS Refresh". This feature offers improved quality when Dubbing VHS to DVD. When connecting a VCR and the DVD recorder to record VHS videotape images onto a DVD disk. Something similar to a "Time Base Corrector", helps reduce jitter and also performs signal conversion to create a stable signal.

The unit also has 3D Digital Noise Reduction which detects and virtually eliminates randomly generated noise and color errors to help minimize flicker. This 3D DNR works on any video input source. Thanks to these two technologies, the video input signal is automatically detected and optimum processing is performed to provide an easy way to even more beautiful digital pictures. There is also a Digital Noise Reduction for playback. This helps clear up recordings made in the EP 6 hour speed. This unit has an option to allow up to Eight (8) hours of recording time. Although I really don't recommend recording with the 8 hour speed due to quality issues.

One of the most important new features is the nearly instantaneous response time in start-up and recording. It is as quick as five seconds from the DVD-RAM insertion to Play or Record. The unit has nearly as fast times for other blank DVD media. Disk finalizing takes about four minutes which is a bit slow.But that's a minor trade-off for the very quick disk recognition. The Panasonic DMR-ES10 DVD Recorder also has a "One Touch Record" button. Each press gives 30 Minutes recording time up to 4 hours. The unit then powers itself off after the recording time has finished.

All Panasonic DVD recorders offer all the benefits of the DVD-RAM format. Which include " Chasing Playback". -- This feature lets you view a program that you're currently recording from any point that's already been recorded, while continuing to record the live program in progress. So you no longer have to wait for the entire program to be recorded before watching it from the beginning to the end. Simultaneous Recording & Playback are also possible using DVD RAM. This way you can record a live TV program while watching any other program that's been previously recorded on the same disk. Time Slip Button -- Just press the Time Slip button once during recording on a DVD RAM, to start playing back the scene recorded 30 seconds earlier. You can also use the cursor keys to return to any point from 1 to 360 minutes earlier.

The Panasonic DMR-ES10 DVD Recorder offers a PIP(Picture-in-Picture function) and commercial skip during playback.

Please note : These two features will NOT work after the DVD +/-R/W disks are finalized. These features also wont work on pre-recorded (store bought) DVD movies. They do work on on DVD RAM disks. Since those disks do not need to be finalized.

The unit has a new layout with finalize and disk setup which makes it alot easier to use. Also new is that it goes into record mode and loaded blank and pre-recorded DVDs so much faster. Both are major improvements over earlier units. I also liked the smaller size, and large easy to read numerical readout. Total ease of use is also much improved. But novices will still need to read the manual thoroughly. I like the new sleek look. This model seems very user friendly and priced low enough. So if you haven't already purchased a DVD Recorder. Then this is the unit that may make you put away your VCR. For those who like their components to match. This unit also comes in Black. I have only one minor complaint. There is no disk time remaining display during a DVD movie playback. The time remaining display is viewable during all recording modes to view the recording time left on disk.

Connections - 1 RF(TV) Input/1 RF(TV)Output, 1-Front Panel Audio/Video(S-Video)3-Rear Panel Audio/Video(S-Video),1 Rear Panel component video input. 1- Audio/Video (S-Video)Outputs,1- Digital Audio Optical Output.

If you need even more features than the DMR-ES10 offers. There is the DMR-EH50 model ($500) which features a 100GB hard disk drive. This gives up to 177 hours of recording time using the hard drive.

The Bottom Line :
Low Price with great Quality LP speed video ,new user friendly features. All adds up to an excellent DVD Recorder