Customer Reviews

Panasonic DMR-ES45VS DVD Recorder / VCR Combo with HDMI, SD Card, and DV Input

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This is the latest generation (in summer of '06 anyway) of the new DVD recorders / players that upcode to attain near HD quality. (You will need a HD TV for that). It also has a VCR/VHS built in. If you need all that, you can't do better for the price. If you don't expect to connect to an HD TV (now or in the next year) go for a simpler model (eg., a progressive player w/o upcoding or a product w/o the VCR).

This product has lots of bells and whistles:
- it connects to your DV camcorder,
- you can pop your SD camera cards right in,
- it handles all kinds of DVDs (DVD+R and DVD-R, CDs,and Panasonic's unique DVD-RAM),
- has all the latest connectors (HDMI, optical sound, component video)
- you can record on a DVD-RAM while you are watching that same DVD -- how did they do that??).

If you have piles of old VHS tapes that you want to transfer to DVD, this machine will do it nicely without having to bother with your old VCR machine. It has one-button recording that did the trick for me on the first try.

Also, picture quality when upcoding a regular (non-HD) DVD on my HD TV definitely improved the picture (beyond that of my previous progressive DVD player). (You will need to connect to your TV via the HDMI or an HDMI to DVI cable by the way. No need to get the hugely expensive cables, go for the generic ones you'll find on the Amazon site).

For some DVDs the upcoding improvement was modest, but in other cases it was real noticeable (though not full HD). I guess we'll have to wait till the HD DVD format war (and price point) settles down over the next few years.

This machine is well engineered for humans and has a very complete and readable (if you are patient)users' manual. However, a warning for those who haven't done DVD recording before; this machine -- and all others as far as I can tell-- are not for the faint-hearted. While you can use the "one touch" keys to do the basics, as you will read for just about any DVD recorder review on the Amazon web page, there can potentially be all kinds of compatibility problems between discs, players and PCs. I haven't encountered any yet, and this machine seems to read and write just about any kind of disc. Also, I can tell you that doing anything fancy is somewhat complicated. So be prepared to do some homework and you may have to settle for a bad or incompatible disc from time to time.

All in all, so far (I have had it for 3 weeks) I give this a thumbs up and I would certainly would recommend the Panasonic DMR-ES45VS for those needing its features.

Pro's: Recording controls are intuitive; Quality of DVD recording is very good; Quality of VHS recording is very good.

Cons: My unit would not eject VHS tapes (right out of the box) & I had to return it for a refund. Quality control may be an issue; One of three DVD recordings I made would not play in my other DVD machines.

This machine does a lot. This makes for some complicated instructions and remote control functions. This machine isn't for those who have no patience with reading an operating manual and learning a new remote control. I used the DVD burner to transfer one VHS tape, record one television show from local cable and record one movie from a satellite cable channel before returning the machine because it wouldn't eject VHS tapes properly. For all three experiments I used the same brand of -R DVD blanks.

The quality of the transfer from an ancient VHS tape to -R DVD worked well. The quality of the DVD image was at least as good as that of the original VHS Tape. The recording of a movie from satellite cable also worked well. After finalizing, the other DVD machines in my house read the recorded DVD. However, the recording of a television show did not work out very well. Though I finalized the -R DVD disk after recording, I could not get the recorded DVD to play on two other DVD machines in my house. It would however play on the Panasonic machine it was created with. Given this, it sounds as if the failure was caused by the equipment rather than a bad DVD blank or incorrect operation of the machine.

Use of the DVD recorder and the editing functions is fairly intuitive. Panasonic has tried to make operation of the DVD recorder very similar to operation of a VCR. For example, you can pause the recording when a commercial comes up and restart the recording again when the commercial is over. This is done by pressing the pause button and then the record button to start again just like with a VCR. Unfortunately, there is a two or three second delay in starting the recording again. Therefore, the best way to edit out commercials is to record the entire show and then use the editing functions from the remote control before finalizing the DVD. The ability to play the DVD in the Panasonic machine even before finalizing the DVD lets you fill up a disk with many shows while retaining the ability to edit out commercials, insert titles and insert chapter breaks before you decide to finalize the disk. After finalizing, the disk can't be edited. Also, editing on the Panasonic machine was much, much faster than using my computer and re-burning the DVD.

For the most part, the Panasonic machine seemed to do everything it was advertised to do well. Given my short experience with the machine, it is hard to tell if the one failed DVD copy was the exception or the rule. In regard to the failure of the machine to eject VHS tapes properly, in all fairness to Panasonic, the box the machine was shipped in from J & R Music was really battered and I don't think it had been packaged well. The failure to eject VHS tapes may have been caused by a combination of harsh shipping and poor packing rather than a flaw in the machine. It's hard to tell.

For the kind of money these machines cost and the insane delays in getting service even when a product is covered by warranty, these machines really need to work out of the box. If it wasn't for the failed DVD recording, I would have given this machine a four or five star rating. Perhaps I would have given it a higher rating if I had kept the machine longer and used it more. However, I was unwilling to take the financial risk by waiting to see if the machine really worked or not over the long term.

Wow, I searched alot and read alot of reviews of unhappy owners of other equipment and I chose this one for converting edited home VHS to DVD. My reasoning was that panasonic has alot of experience in both VCR and DVD, their systems sometimes lack extras like zoom but they tend to last a long time and are well built. I liked the extra large fan and cabinet height as compared to the LG 299 and I did not feel LG had to much experience with vcr. I have not tried out all the features yet but right now I am very happy, also I recommend buying the extended replacement warranty on any equipment of this type, there are alot of horror stories out there. I have some gaps between my clips and I was worried the system might stop recording on these but no problem, thanks panasonic.

I have owned the DMR-ES40V for over 6 months. It is a combo DVD/VCR unit. I have had sufficient time to become intimately familiar with the pros and cons of the unit.

The MANUAL: It is imperative to have the manual. This machine is somewhat complicated, and frequent trips to the instructions is necessary. If everything is working correctly, you can usually find the instructions that you need somewhere in it. It is overly time-consuming though, since the items don't seem to logically flow. If you dig long and hard enough though, they are in there somewhere.

The SET-UP: Being somewhat experienced at setting-up a home theater, this was generally easy. The text and pictures were sufficient. Searching through the Function Menu, I learned that to perform the same action and different levels required using different imput buttons. This is needlessly confusing. Of course the auto clock set function isn't very accurate ( I haven't seen an accurate one yet).

DVD PLAYBACK: The general playback is pretty straight-forward. I really miss some of the extra playback features that are on my JVC progressive player (which is 3 years older). Finding a scene in a movie is comparatively difficult. A Zoom feature is missing. Many convenience features are not present.

DVD RECORDING: Recording onto a DVD-RAM disc is a dream compared to old fashioned VCR tapes. I really enjoy using them. A quirk--you must have the unit in stand-by to record from the scheduler. This mandates that to watch a recorded show while recording another(on the same disc) you must wait until the unit begins recording, then select the show to watch from the Navigator. The UHF tuner has some trouble recording somewhat weak signals from channel 19. Other weak channels record but not 19. This problem started about 6 months after initial set-up. There is an annoying bug with Daylight Savings Time, and the newer extended time period. The Panasonic Web Site suggests going into the set-up menu and unchecking the DST box; thus removing the feature. If this did anything, it would allow you to set the clock manually. Being without the automatic DST adjustment would not be annoying, but even though you turn-off this feature it still resets your clock twice a day at noon and at 7pm EST. This ruins any TV scheduling you had set. This malady persisted until the date of the former DST Spring-Ahead arrived. Several weeks of scheduling hell! I requested assistance from customer service but never received the telephone call that was promised. No message, no number to call--just a promise to call again when I was home.

THE VCR USE: This feature is really buggy. You are supposed to be able to eject a cassette with the remote; but this only worked for a month or two. When a TV show is scheduled for recording the unit won't tape it if you merely insert a cassette. It doesn't recognize the insertion of the cassette unless the tape has been made to move--either playing a little or fast forwarding/reversing. This is really annoying.

LAST IMPRESSION: The last movie (Last King of Scotland) I watched took over the machine. The remote control would not function, the disc would not stop, and the disc could not be ejected. It was necessary to unplug the unit, restart it, eject the disc, and totally reset all menu items--which were randomly reset to various settings. Worse some settings are no longer selectable. One other movie would not even play in the machine--forcing me to use the trusty JVC unit.
I must say that this machine has many of the same problems that are still occurring in the new units from what I read at this forum and other ones. These units are being released for sale way before they are ready for public consumption. I recommend looking elsewhere.

Been using now or a few weeks, arrived in good working order, with no problems. Good on dubbing our old home moved from VHS to DVD-R's and such. Have not read the manual yet, so need to learn how to do the chapters but we do like the machine.

One flaw, no high def input, it is not a high def machine, so can't be to surprised, but I did figure I could do a higher resolution input from my HD Sat box, and get at least a decent recording on the DVD, well ya can't. top input is S-Video. So keep that in mind if you intend to take external input and record it. Otherwise fine machine.

I did research for a dvd player combo that can convert my vhs tapes to dvd and also provide an upconversion for my dvd collection to my new Panasonic lcd tv. The tv is great! I thought it would be neat to buy the same brand for the same reason but I was wrong. The vcr seems to work fine it's the dvd player that's the problem! It would load to the dvd menu screen and freeze and stay there. You can't navigate because it just would freeze and leave you frustrated. I've resetted the machine a billion times tried everything even copied a cd-r firmware from Panasonic to the machine and nothing. It would work sometimes and then when you want to relax and watch a dvd it just won't comply. I called Panasonic and they had no idea this was happening...they said they would send me a packaging slip so that I ship the machine to them. It's been over 2 weeks and nothing has been shipped to me.

Panasonic let me down!

Boy, did I hate my old Syvania unit!!!! I tried at least 5 different brands of DVD-R's that met the specs exactly (including the top-rated Taiyo Yuden), I was extremely frustrated with the concept of DVD Recording. Only a couple of the earliest attempts gave me a poor quality but usable disk.
I gave up and bought a new DVD Recorder. After much research on the internet, I bought a Panasonic DMR-ES45VS. (I needed the VCR combo to convert old camcorder tapes to DVD and liked the thought of the HDMI up-conversion for my HDTV. To be honest, I haven't seen much benefit from the up-conversion on commercial DVD's as I had hoped to. The 35VS model doesn't have this. With the 35VS unit I would miss the SD slot, which I wasn't expecting to even use. However, I love putting an SD card from my camera in the unit nand being able to view a slide show on the big screen with remote control input to advance pics. Is it worth the extra $40-50? I don't know, but the reviews are better on the 45VS as well.)
I have been using it for 2-3 months and I love it's DVD recording performance. I have burned close to 100 dvd disks and only created 2 coasters. This while using up the old, cheap DVD-R's I had tried to use on the old unit. The unit is pretty easy to use. I really like the Flex Recording mode on the unit. I transfer movies from my TiVo to DVD frequently. If a movie is between 2 & 3 hours the Flex mode allows a noticeably improved picture quality over the 4-hr EP mode.
Buy this unit if you want a safe bet. You get what you pay for in this instance!

Great features, unreliable POOR design. OK, lets not mince words....it sucks!

Hey, I'm a big fan of Panasonic, but this unit appears to suffer from many problems. Right out of the box, the DVD player hangs and only a complete restart will solve the problem, also the remote has a bad habit of completely freezing which requires you to cycle power to the unit. Not good. But my biggest complaint is the alleged "One Touch" recording...this feature does NOT work at all, and the alternate method requires a PhD. in Rocket Science so this unit is going back to the store. Not to mention how slow this thing is. I've never seen any home electronics device that prompted you to "WAIT", well I cant wait to get my money back.

To Panasonic's credit, this player/recorder has all the right features and outputs like HDMI and Optical audio, and the upconversion to a digital display is quite good, even from old VHS tapes that appear to be near DVD quality. However, this machine is very buggy and the manual (as I have read) is absolutely worthless. If you can follow it, then you don't have to take the Mensa entrance exam, you're already in.

I like to know that I can record to a VCR tape or a DVD. The unit works perfectly. It has a lot of functions to learn, but you just have to read the directions. I recommend the unit highly.

I was originally after the DMR-EH75VS which is the same but with an 80 gig internal drive, but is running around $400. The reviews are great too. I decided to go with this version since it was cheaper, despite the reviews that the VCR was eating tapes fresh out of the box. I bought it from BJ's for $250 (was higher on Amazon at the time, although it is now $200). Wouldn't you know, the first time I put a tape in to copy it to DVD (which works great by the way) the tape got stuck and I got the F06 error. I took it back today and am going to order the original one I wanted. Seems they worked to kinks out of that upper model since the reviews are pretty good.

If you manage to get one of these without having problems with it eating tapes, it is a really nice machine. The recording to DVD seems easy enough and the HD quality upconversion was noticeable from my cheap little APEX dvd player to my new HD Plasma.