Customer Reviews

Panasonic DMR-ES30VS DVD Recorder/VCR Combo

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this item after my RCA vhs/dvd player bit the dust only after 2 yrs. This is my first experience with a Panasonic model and I was pleasantly surprised with it. Not only was it very easy to set up (less than 15 minutes), it starts up very quickly and the dvd playback quality - even in LP mode the picture is very good. The one touch vhs to dvd dubbing button is a definite plus as well. The only negative I found was on the universal remote. When you are using just the TV you only can switch channels by hitting the + or - buttons and there is no 'go back' button to switch back and forth between two channels. So I have ended up using my other remote for tv viewing. Also, I do wish you were able to use scheduled recording on both dvd and vhs at the same time as there are occasions where there are two different tv shows/movies (on at the same time) and I am not home to watch them. The DVD menu is very visually friendly but the VHS menu is like the old vcr menus from 15+ years ago with the big white lettering. However, these 'cons' are not enough to bring my review down to 4 stars because this recorder does what it's supposed to do (records dvds and vhs) and does it well. It is worth the money!

I had to return this machine after a week because it had a little bug in scheduled recording. It recorded the wrong channel (and no, it wasn't "pilot error". The thumbnail in the title menu says one channel, but the program recorded is something else. Very strange). I guess even Panasonic isn't perfect.

However, to tell you how impressed I am with this machine, I exchanged it for the exact same model. And bought another one for my office.

Some highlights:
This new model will record on +R disks.
It has a very solid feel.

Recording in LP mode is a little blocky. EP mode is TERRIBLE. but in SP, the picture looks great.


I also own a Toshiba DR2. I was in for a big surprise when I called up the disk menu on this new Panasonic. The thumbnails are animated and have sound (silent stills on the Toshiba). Pretty cool.

The Panny also seems to load faster than the Toshiba.

The machine lacks firewire. The Panny's CM Skip only skips forward (the DR2 also skips backward 10 seconds in case you over-skip). The Panny's skip seems to only work on disks recorded on it (it will play but won't skip on finalized DVD-RW disks).

On the VCR side, the rewind is blazing fast. There is a setting mentioned in the manual that allows you to run the vcr through the component connection. I've never seen a vhs picture this clear.

Be sure to read the manual and learn how to deactivate the rf connection so you don't have to push the vcr/tv button every time you turn on the machine.

All in all, a well made, well designed machine with options to record/play just about every format except DVD+RW.

Okay. Here are some important notes if you plan to buy this product:
1) The manual is not hard as some people said if you read it while doing what it says at the same time. This is called Kinetic learning.
2) The DVD Burner is great with the Flexible recording feature, 1 button recording and a nice interface. That's why I give it 3 stars.
3)If you press Stop instead of Pause while recording, this will produce a short pause when playing back that DVD on some models of players. It was no problem on my Sony player or any Mac computer but did it on my portable. So if you can, just pause if you can.
4) Remember to Finalize to play a DVD on other players! It's in the Disc Management window.
5) The VCR part of the unit crapped out on me. In the middle of recording it would sop and rewind a little. Where this happened, there was a double-take in the recording. I was also getting random pauses in the middle of some DVD's when I played them back on other units.
6) I called Panasonic about this and was on hold for an hour!!!! The guy had no idea how to fix he problem.
7)The Tapes started showing snow. I thought it was a little early for the heads to need cleaning so I took the unit back.
8) I still liked the Recorder part of the unit so I got just that part by itself (Panasonic DMR-ES20S) and a Sony VCR separately.
9) I still got some random pauses when I played the DVD's on other units. THEN I thought. Hey! The DVD RW's have never been a problem, just the DVD-R. The RW are TDK brand! the DVD-R are Phillips! I went out and bought some Memorex DVD-R (because I've played those on the portable at one time with no problem and now the recordings are great! Even on the portable! Woo-hoo!

So, even tough I would have returned it because of the crappy VCR part, a lot of the problems came from cheap blank DVD's! You get what you pay for.

Hope this helps.

After hearing all the negative reviews here, I figured I should avoid this
particular model. But then I noticed ALL the units I was considering
had lots of negative feedback, so I had to dig a little deeper. I finally
found a review from a professional, and he recommended this model,
especially over the es40v, which apparently took out some features.

I was pleasantly surprised by how simple and easy it was to use this
unit. Pop in a tape, pop in a DVD, and hit the dub button. If you hit
stop on the VCR, it ends that "chapter", and separates the title on
the DVD. You can change recording modes in between, and once
you're done recording, you just finalize and play it on your DVD player
or watch it on your computer.

For all the people complaining about having to finalize, it's just a fact
of life, you have to do it or else it won't be readable. I had absolutely
none of the "problems" described here, like freezing, having to reboot,
etc. In fact, I had about 150 hours of VHS tapes to convert, and I
pretty much did them straight through for a week. I started a 6 hour
tape at midnight, and I would wake up at 6:00am to "flip" the tape
and go to the next one. I did have a fan going, as I didn't want to
have heat related problems, but it performed very well, like a workhorse.

When my old VCR finally went to electronics heaven, I decided to take the plunge and buy a DVD recorder. Since I have a lot of VHS tapes that I still watch from time to time, a DVD/VCR combo was a logical choice, since it would eliminate having two different machines.

I am extremely pleased with this Panasonic model. I was able to complete 90% of the installation on my own; luckily, a very helpful (and patient!) Panasonic technician guided me through the last few steps to make the new machine compatible with my cable system (steps that are never included in the instruction manual, or if they are, they are incomprehensible to the average person).

The picture quality from the DVD recordings is good (I use the second slowest speed), as are the recordings to tape. The machine is easy to program and watch. I don't know if this is common to all DVD recorders, but this machine gives the viewer a visual preview of all the programs recorded, which is very helpful.

There are a lot of bells and whistles on this machine that I will never use, much less understand (and which have been described far better by other more technically-savvy reviewers than I); but the best thing about this model is that you don't have to be an electronics wizard to get it up and running to play and record whatever you wish.

We saw this unit on display and the remote caught our eye. We had looked at five other major brands and all of their remotes had very small any not very legible buttons while the Panasonic had larger, color keyed and very legible buttons which were layed out an intelligent grouped-by-function arrangement. We have found it to produce great pictures from both the VCR and the DVD even when recorded in the long playing modes. And, the crowning touch for us is the DVD-RAM recording mode, an option we didn't see on any other machine. With DVD-RAM we can watch a program from the beginning while it is still recording the program, like TIVO and a DVR recorder provided by our cable company. And a double sided DVD-RAM disk can hold as much as 12 hours in the longest playing mode.

To date, we have found no negatives.

I am NOT techno-savvy. I read several reviews of this product here and other sites before buying. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was for me to set up and learn to operate this equipment. I have not had a second's trouble with it. I also found that some of the things reviewers complained about could be found in the manual if one bothered to read it.

After fussing and fighting and finally sending back the piece of junk that I bought from Phillips, I am pleased with the Panasonic DMR-ES30VS DVD Recorder/VCR Combo. I am barely scratching the surface of what this unit does but so far I love the easy to use One-Touch 2-Way dubbing which starts the dubbing from VHS to DVD exactly where you want it to - not a second before or after. I also love the Flexible Recording feature in which the movie or program fits on one disc perfectly for excellent quality. The editing features are very user friendly, including Finalize within Disk Management. The only downside is it does not record on +RW's which play on all my other DVD players. Fortunately, Phillips sent a replacement DVD recorder for the +RW's but I do not record keepsake DVD's on it. I use the Panasonic DMR-ES30VS DVD Recorder/VCR Combo for all my permanent DVD's.

I have owned this unit for approximately 9 months. For the first 6 months it worked very well. However, for the past three months we will be watching a dvd or vcr movie and the screen simply goes blank. We can hear the sound, but no picture. In order to get the video back, we have to reboot the system which is a pain in the butt. So far Panasonic has no response.

Unless you are a video geek that requires perfection on the smallest of details, this unit is an all out winner. It is easy to set up, easy to use, and does an excellent job on recording and playing of both VHS and DVDs. For the price you can't go wrong.