Panasonic DMR-EZ17K DVD Recorder with ATSC Tuner Black

by Panasonic

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10 x 17 x 2 inches ; 6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 11 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000NWZP5U
• Item model number: DMR-EZ17K
• Batteries: 2 AA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,967 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
  • #81 in Electronics > Televisions & Video > DVD Players & Recorders > DVD Recorders

Product Description

DVD Recorder, With ATSC Digital Tuner, DV Input

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great features for the price, April 27, 2007

By 

vacuumtubejazzpro "rich" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic DMR-EZ17K DVD Recorder with ATSC Tuner Black (Electronics)

I've been using my new DMR-EZ17K for around a week now. As expected for the price, it's got some features that are great, and some that are not. Here are the unexpectedly positive highlights:

(1) The ATSC tuner picks up perfect widescreen digital over-the-air channels, under conditions where an analog NTSC tuner can receive mostly only static and snow. This feature alone - even without the DVD recorder - nearly justifies the cost of this unit.

(2) The quality of the recorded image in LP mode (4 hours) is truly exceptional - it's nearly indistinguishable from the original 480p off-air HD digital signal. Kudos to Panasonic for this one.

(3) Using 480p outputs, and playing a downsampled off-air digital HD widescreen recording (EDTV), the recorded image quality nearly equals that of a 780p digitally-upsampled standard (non-HD) DVD. From 8 feet away on a non-huge screen, the image looks nearly as good as a true HD broadcast.

(4) Plays and/or displays JPEGs and MP3s burned to CD (but not DVD).

(5) With a certain amount of fiddling, and the use of the proper recordable medium (DVD-RAM), you can achieve chase-playback and "pause live TV" capabilities. While not nearly as convenient or seamless as a TiVo, it *can* be done with this recorder.

(6) With the use of the proper recordable medium (DVD-RAM), you can record one TV program while watching another (or the same) recorded program. Combine that with the 60-second commercial-skip button, and you might just never have to watch another commercial again. Nice!

Negative highlights:

(1) Panasonic seems to have maliciously omitted certain 'free' features merely for marketing parity or to cost-justify the other products in its lineup. Examples include an HDMI output connector and digital upsampling - features found even on $35 Chinese DVD players.

(2) Even though this unit includes an ATSC tuner, which picks up high-definition terrestrial signals by default, Panasonic has chosen to disallow the received high-definition signals from being passed through to a connected HD monitor. Live signal video quality is needlessly reduced/downsampled to 480p, which is standard definition (but digital) EDTV.

(3) It literally takes 10 seconds to change digital channels.

(4) The ability to record the free, on-air Dolby-Digtal 5.1 signal broadcast with certain HD programming seems intentionally crippled, perhaps for anti-piracy reasons. This recorder down-samples the 6 digital channels to only 2 (ordinary stereo) when recording. So you can never record off-air Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. You can, however, play it back when viewing commercial DVDs, using the built-in optical output (no cable included, of course).

(5) No digital inputs OR COMPONENT VIDEO inputs; the highest quality external video you can record is S-Video! There are also no digital video outputs whatsoever, although the component video output quality is decent, and there is a DV input for your camcorder.

(6) The manual is sketchy; while comprehensive and well-illustrated, it still contains some remnants of Asian grammar, and resolutely refuses to explain any usage models or DVD recording theory, focusing instead on acronyms and a context-free explanation of the minutae of each individual button and menu option. You will need to be thoroughly familiar with DVD recording and digital video concepts and theory BEFORE attempting to use this unit effectively, or the manual WILL NOT make complete sense.

(7) No digital zoom during playback means you can't always eliminate the horizontal or vertical black bars present on most widescreen analog (NTSC) broadcasts or recordings.

Overall, due to the ATSC tuner and superb EP recording quality, this recorder is a fantastic buy. I would buy it again.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Performer Not Trying To Be Blue Ray Like, July 13, 2007

By 

J. DeStefano - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic DMR-EZ17K DVD Recorder with ATSC Tuner Black (Electronics)

After much research and in store model checkouts spanning Samsung, Sony and others I finally decided to go with this unit.

As many of the unit's advantages have been accurately covered in other reviews, I'd like to go into more depth regarding some of the unit's supposed shortcomings:


1.) Channel changing speed - having timed it, it takes some 2-4 seconds to change channels. This is about average for the three other ATSC tuners with which I've had experience. You simply can't channel surf the way it is possible with some NTSC and analog cable channels.

2.) Higher quality inputs - given the unit only records at 500 lines, having component video inputs wouldn't yield any better results. Super video connection is more than enough to get the maximum quality attainable.

3.) Start up disc motor noises - yes, the unit makes a few chirping noises starting up - just like a typical laptop computer does. Afterwards it is essentially dead silent. No big deal.

4.) Operator manual comprehension - it does take awhile to read through a fairly convoluted manual which has a number of cross references to other pages. However, it's a fairly complex unit and I found all the information for which I was looking.

5.) Fitting the picture to the screen - unlike my older, but also excellent standalone Samsung ATSC tuner, this unit doesn't have multiple zoom options to fit the picture to the 4:3 screen. This is probably the unit's major shortcoming, but much of the blame can be placed on the private broadcasters who intentionally send shunk images. The PBS stations are full screen on all channels.

6.) No HDMI - considering this isn't a Blue Ray resolution model, having HDMI does nothing to improve outputted image quality. I can't see why many buyers are so willing to shell out so much more for the EZ27 for a feature which is of no practical use whatsover with 500 line resolution. Neither the unit's DVD nor ATSC output is 1080 which unfortunately is due to legal copyright issues beyond Panasonic's control.

7.) NTSC tuner quality - the ATSC is better than any of the three other ATSC tuners (Samsung, Tivax) I have, and the NTSC also has better sensitivity. Understandably, the NTSC picture doesn't come close to the ATSC, but it's much better than the native NTSC in the Sony and Panasonic analog tvs for which I'm using this unit as a digital tuner, as well as competitive with my brand new 46" Samsung LCD HDTV's ATSC.

8.) Heating up - considering this unit only consumes about 14 watts it gets surprisingly warm and has a cooling fan. The operator's manual explains there is a visible error code given when the unit overheats. Not clear why getting warm, and needing a cooling fan is the case for a unit that only draws so little power.


All in all very pleased with the unit and glad I didn't waste my money on the HDMI EZ27 model. If it proves to be as reliable as other Panasonic products I've had, no real complaints. My Panasonic analog TV is a good 20+ years old with only an RF input which required an FM modulator for connectivity with this unit.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hangs. Had to return. Easy return., September 3, 2007

By 

NHguy "NHguy" (NH) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Panasonic DMR-EZ17K DVD Recorder with ATSC Tuner Black (Electronics)

The box would randomly quit responding to the remote control commands and I would have to pull the AC plug and re-plug to recover. Even the unit's on/off switch would not respond when the box was in this condition.

Digital TV was fine. Recorder function was also fine. Just the hanging was too much.

Amazon made the return very easy with even a UPS pickup at the house ! Full refund including return shipping.

I will probably buy a HDTV through Amazon because of their excellent customer service and white glove delivery service.