Panasonic DMR-ES15S DVD Recorder with DV Input

Other products by Panasonic

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10 x 17 x 2 inches ; 6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 9 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000F4C2AM
• Item model number: DMR-ES15S
• Batteries: 2 AA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (139 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 25, 2006

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Record your home movies and your favorite TV programs easily to DVD disc with the Panasonic DMR-ES15S progressive scan recorder/player, which provides ultimate flexibility in recording media options. You can choose write-once DVD+R and DVD-R discs or rewritable DVD-RW/+RW and DVD-RAM discs (the latter being a great choice for temporary storage of recorded material as it can be rewritten more than DVD-RW). It's easy to record TV programming with the built-in analog TV tuner with RF pass-through. In addition to standard DVD movie and CD audio discs and its compatible recordable formats, the DMR-ES15S 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
• Digital audio output: 1 optical

Tech Talk
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.

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

Product Description

Panasonic, DVD Recorder, DV Input

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

106 of 109 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Product!, June 2, 2006

By	Gregory Gilbert (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having grown weary of dragging my home video collection (which is very important to me) all over the place, and knowing that my wife and I both enjoy making films, we decided that we'd like to get a DVD recorder. The first one that we got was a piece of junk from Samsung (I normally like Samsung, but not this time) which I got rid of immediatly, and replaced with this one from Panasonic. I was not at all disappointed.

The DMR-ES15S is a fantastic, very easy to use DVD recorder. It is extremely versatile as far as what kind of media it will accept: DVD-RAM, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW as well as other types of media. Most of the menus and functions are very self-explanatory, but if you do need the instruction manual it's laid our very nicely. The S-Video and DV inputs in the front of this unit (as well as the standard AV inputs) are very convinient and make this unit very user-friendly.

In the month or so that we've had the unit I've already recorded about 30 DVDs, and have had no trouble at all. Do note that this unit will NOT record copywrited material: in fact most DVD recorders wont, so don't be too disappointed in this one. This was an excellent product for the price as well - I highly recommed this unit!

192 of 203 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best hundred fifty bucks I've ever spent..., November 29, 2006

By	Eduardo Nietzsche (Houston) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

...after scouring several online audio/video discussion boards like AVS Forum, I chose this player for its acclaimed reliability, ease of use, and compatibility. Almost a year later and over 200 recorded DVDs later, I am happy to say that it has not disappointed me in the least.

I have had zero problems with playback on dozens of other people's DVD players and computers, and a grand total of 2 coasters (only with the cheapie Phillips brand DVDs, none with the Taiyo Yuden blank DVDs which were also an online-discussion-board word-of-mouth selection).

Three caveats:

1. Panasonic is known for making outstanding bang-for-the-buck mass products, but their user manuals have never been very well written as say, Sony's manuals (if only Sony's price/performance ratio were anywhere as good, unfortunately). So read and reread it as you go along, many things are not very clearly explained but quickly become clear after a little trial and error. For instance, one of the reviewers here claims that this player cannot play back widescreen material in widescreen format...absolute rubbish!

2. Consumers who are buying a DVD recorder to duplicate copyrighted DVDs will sometimes blame the DVD recorder when they cannot do this. It's not the recorder's fault, it's the electronic copyright protection on the DVDs, stupid! You're NOT supposed to be able to do that, because it's illegal, duh! There are semi-legal ways around this using certain additional hardware but you'll need to Google that up yourself, I don't want the Feds coming after me, lol.

3. Use decent quality blank DVDs...it'll cost you what, an extra ten cents or so per DVD (buy bulk quantities online at specialty sources like Meritline, for instance) but is well worth the time and trouble saved by avoiding coasters. Taiyo Yuden is well-known among the online forum community as having the best coaster-proofing, that's the one brand that has yet to ever let me down.

And lastly, if you have trouble programming your VCR to record TV programs, you will probably not have the easiest time with using ANY dvd recorder to do so. So just take a deep breath, reread the very imperfect manual many times as you go along...it'll come to you sooner or later!

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Give it a Chance, May 27, 2007

By	Richard L. Steiner (OREGON United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

After weeks of research I purchased the Panasonic DMR-ES15S DVD Recorder last February, but came very close to throwing it into the trash shortly afterwards. This compact machine is full of fantastic features and I was extremely pleased with it for awhile. I even bought a Panasonic DVD-S52S DVD Player to use in another room with the DVD disks I hoped to make with the recorder. I was committed to moving from the old VHS tape recording technology to the more contemporary DVD equipment.

I used the proprietary DVD-RAM disks to schedule/record TV shows from my cable service for their versatility and advantages over the more common DVD-RW and DVD+RW disks for recording. This was a "no brainer" choice of recording media since the Panasonic DVD system offers so many advantages when using DVD-RAM disks and they can be used over and over thousands of times. I bought a dozen of them even though the recorder can handle a wide variety of other disk formats.

Eventually I started to notice that my recorder was having difficulty recognizing the RAM discs. I blew a number of recordings and saw frequent error messages advising me of some vague problem and that I should try a different disk. I unsuccessfully followed a number of instructions in the owner's manual in order to solve that problem. Everything else on the machine was working just as it should and I couldn't believe the brand new RAM disks I was using were faulty.

I telephoned the Panasonic support line and also contacted the support service online, but received no help at all. I was told to take my machine to an authorized service center for repair. Because the closest approved shop was miles away that didn't appeal to me very much.

I continued to doggedly search for a solution or a work around and finally discovered a fix. It occurred to me that this DVD recorder and others for that matter were inherently somewhat slow to read disks. I had the Quick Start function engaged on my recorder and got to thinking that such a speedy boot up (one second) might not give the machine enough time to do what I had programmed it to do. I turned off the Quick Start feature and the Panasonic DMR-ES15S DVD Recorder began to work perfectly. It was just a matter of using the Setup Menu to cancel the Quick Start function. It isn't all that essential anyhow. I don't know if anyone else has encountered the difficulty I had with the DMR-ES15S, nor do I know if my simple discovery will work for others, but it was certainly an easy and effective resolution in my case.

After a month of frustration, tinkering and getting the recorder back to behaving properly I am now extremely happy with it. The price was right, the quality of construction seems good and the number of features the unit has is unbelievable. I recommend this recorder as a great way to enter the world of making DVDs at home.

There is a newer model of this machine available now (the Panasonic DMR-EZ17S DVD Recorder), but it is somewhat more expensive. I doubt that it is a significant improvement over the DMR-EZ15S that I have been describing.