Customer Reviews

Panasonic DMR-EZ17S DVD Recorder with ATSC Tuner Silver

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I needed a replacement for a Pioneer DVD recorder that died after only 2 years of great operation. This unit replacement was actually for my mother and not myself, so it needed to be at least as user-friendly and capable as the Pioneer.

I was reading various positive reviews on Amazon and other sites about this Panasonic unit. The DMR-EZ17S boasts of its many DVD format capabilities, including DVD RAM - and it looks very nice, so I ordered one. The DVD RAM appealed to me since my mother uses the unit exclusively to record TV shows - usually over and over on the same media.

My expectations were dashed into pieces when the unit arrived. I set it up while going through the manual. The problems I found with it that make it very inferior when compared to the previous Pioneer unit are as follows:

1. New/Blank DVDs must be formatted prior to use/recording. This takes anywhere from 15 - 70 minutes, depending on the media, says the menu guide.

2. The recording schedule did not appear to have a means of either weekly or daily execution of a TV recording session. So all recorder programming would need to be individually done for each time slot.

3. The remote has only the "power", "ch up", "ch down", "vol up", and "vol down" (arrow buttons) to control the TV. Therefore, you cannot comfortably use the remote as an "all in one" for both the DVD and TV.

For example, you cannot directly access a random TV ch number from the key pad but must arrow up/down, one at a time. Same with the volume - You have no mute button, etc.

This makes it bad for using this unit with CATV, you still need your TV remote close by. In our situation, the integrated ATSC tuner did not benefit, since my mother has cable and only a std. definition 4:3 TV at this time. Additionally, local HD stations are available on CATV and SATV in our area, so over-the-air tuners are not required if you are a subscriber to either.

The order of the user manual was illogical to me and hard to interpret, leaving holes in the basic info. (one small example: The unit tells you formatting is a must for new DVD media, but showed "SP" speed for formatting - even though the recorder recording mode was set to EP. No explanation of this is given, nor does it say if that even matters).

You might have to search several different sections to glean bits of info on the same topic. Basic setup info is strewn all over the manual instead of beginning with the basic ops and then progressing through the pages to the more sophisticated ones.

However, to set up the time, do quick recording, program a single TV show, or other basic one-time functions, it seemed to be OK and relatively simple. But coming from the Pioneer menu system and setup, (which I have no loyalty to, other than to say it was MUCH more logical, intuitive, and friendly to use) the Panasonic unit was painful and this unit will be returned, if they will give me a refund.

Personally, I prefer a DVR (hard drive) unit for TV recording. I do my DVD recording on my PC. But to each his/her own.

I must admit I am baffled by so many positive reviews for this unit. Being in electronics for most of my life has perhaps set the bar very high for my expectations of "user friendliness" in consumer electronics. My HD hardware at home, (Toshiba, Denon, JBL, etc.) is all "no brainer" stuff when it came to setup and operation.

I am not against Panasonic or the other reviewers of the unit, but this is my unbiased opinion of this recorder and I offer it only as a possible help to others considering it for purchase.

I bought this, along with a new TV set last month, had it professionally hooked up. I use it mainly to record daily shows I like. I found it complicated to program, but what do I know, I'm used to a 10-year-old VCR recorder. So time to bite the bullet and learn the new technology. Fine, but you know, the old machine did not take nearly as long to turn on. I hit the power and I had lights! Numbers! A picture! Not with this. Black nothing. Wait. Up to a minute. Maybe something will happen, maybe not. Because here's the other thing - it freezes up. When it does, we (my much more geekish son & I) would shut off the power strip, then turn it back on. I got sick of doing that, got out the manual. Absolutely the right thing to do - the manual addresses the fact that the unit freezes up in on two different pages. No, this is not an abnormality; this is what it does.
I had a very busy week this week, came home this evening and sat down, ready to watch some of my favorite shows. Oh oh, the DVD recorder is frozen. Do the power thing, get it running again - oops, it's been frozen for 2 days, and the last 2 episodes of the shows I had set to record are, of course, not recorded.
This is nuts. I'm taking it back and not buying another Panasonic product.

I believe the previous poster had a deffective unit because the quality of this Panasonic ATSC/QAM tuner is exceptional! I compared with Sony, and Panasonic clearly could find several channels that I didn't even know that existed before.

Most importantly, picture quality was excellent. I thought changing digital channels in a Panasonic was much shorter than any other competitors, including LG.

Ijust bought this recorder at the great price of $160.00 with free shipping. I was surprised at the quality! It is very easy to use. I recorded 2 movies the first night I had it using DVD+RW media and they came out great! I highly recommend this recorder, you can't beat it especially at this price!!

Let me first say that my tv is older than the sales person who sold me the DVD recorder. After setting up the recorder and playing it through the svideo input of the tv, my old Zenith was suddenly playing over-the-air HD channels. Quite amazing. I then watched a movie and the picture quality and sound quality were great. I played the audio through a Nakamichi receiver and a pair of Beyerdynamic headphones and the audio was amazing.

The remote is also reasonable, though not perfect. I still have to turn the lights on in the room to see what I'm doing. After entering the correct code for the TV set, the remote was able to control the tv to the extent of turning it on and off, control the volume, and change the channel, as well as change the active input to the tv. That makes it possible to use one remote for the TV and the DVD Recorder. Not bad considering I bought the tv in 1984.

Caveats:
There is no hdmi output, but that isn't important to me since I don't have an HD TV.

I haven't tried to record yet, but for a couple hundred dollars I've already got my money's worth. An HD tuner alone is more than that. I'll get back to you when I've tried recording and some of the other features.
So far so good.

got this DVD recorder yesterday, after simple setup, it auto-tuned 15 digital channels, and all work while other Sony HDTV can't receive some digital channels, or unstable (in and out), I never tried recording capability yet
pro
excellent tuner reception
pretty simple setup/operation
con
long startup time (up to 1 minute)
very strict HD recording rule (DVD+/- R/RW won't work as stated on manual, requires DVD-RAM, though my desktop can play, this is a hassle)
if you want this DVDR for HD OTA TV upgrade if you want to keep current TV, go for it, you won't go wrong

I had hundreds of hours of home VHS tapes that I wanted to copy to DVD and purchased this recorder to do the job. It works great! All of my vacation videos are now on DVD. I have played them on my DVD player and on my notebook without any problems. I hooked an amplified set of rabbit ears to the recorder and I am now getting several local digital broadcast stations that look as good as cable. It has a very good digital broadcast receiver built in. 2 thumbs up!

I have use this product for a month and its very good. It comes with an ATSC Tuner so you doesn't have to buy a new TV for a few years. The recording is smooth, no noise, if you close the recording session it can be played in other dvd players. Better if you use the component cables for a nice picture quality.

Well worth getting. Can record to Dvd -/+ RW and Dvd-Ram. Use Dvd-Decrypter to edit out commercials or unwanted footage on the RW disks. Use Nero to burn to Dvd -/+ disks. Unfortunately, Panasonic does not provide software to allow computer editing of their .VRO Dvd-Ram files which is a drawback.

I bought this unit for the digital tuner. It replaces my similar Panasonic DMR ES15. Basically except for the tuner, setup, operation and remote are the same, so for me it was easy and works beautifully. I use only DVD-RAM and had no problems, although I haven't tried to format it and play it on other players. The reason I'm only giving it 3 stars is I can't help comparing it to the less expensive ES15 and even to an older Panasonic VCR. The S15 is idiot proof. No need to remember to turn the power off so it'll record, it just records. If you're watching something on the disc, it warns you and starts recording. When setting up future programs to record, the unit indicates by blinking that there is a time conflict if you overlap 2 programs. Even my VCR did this! When searching forwards and backwards the unit displays where you are minute/sec. wise. None of these things are true on the EZ17. If you forget to turn the power off, are watching something else or overlap programs, you're screwed. The unit won't record. Trying to search for something? Forget the convienience of a time indicater. It just shows a + or - 1. My advice is if you don't need the digital tuner go for the DMR ES15.