Panasonic DMR-HS2 Progressive-Scan DVD Recorder/PVR with 40 GB Hard Drive (Silver)

by Panasonic

Product Details

Product Manual [3.35mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 12 x 17 x 3.2 inches ; 11.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 13 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: B00006IIV1
• Item model number: DMR-HS2
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #151,870 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com

Talk about "all in one"--the Panasonic DMR-HS2 is not only a full-featured progressive-scan DVD player that handles DVDs, CDs, and JPEG-filled recordable discs; it's also a DVD recorder that happens to store more than two days' worth of audio/video programming on its built-in memory. The DMR-HS2's 40 GB hard drive provides up to 52 hours of recording time, plus the unit can record up to 12 hours on a 9.4 GB double-sided DVD-RAM disc and six hours on a DVD-R (in Extended Play mode in both cases).

The DMR-HS2 offers the flexibility of recording on both DVD-RAM--perfect for instant chapter access and for multiple rerecordings--as well as DVD-R, widely regarded as the most widely compatible of the many DVD formats (great for sharing camcorder footage with loved ones).

Panasonic's Time Slip feature lets you use your DVD recorder like a personal video recorder, or PVR. Because of DVD-RAM's extremely fast transfer rate, you can view the recorded portion of an ongoing program from the beginning, while still recording the program in progress. You can even replay a scene recorded 30 seconds earlier without disrupting the recording process, simply by touching a button on the remote. Using Auto Renewal Recording, the deck will automatically record favorite show every day or every week right onto the hard disk.

In addition to recording new video content, the DMR-HS2 lets you transfer favorite VHS recordings to durable, space-saving discs. You can easily archive, preserve, catalog, and access your movie libraries and family videos. Picture-enhancing technologies include 3D noise reduction, block noise reduction, and mosquito noise reduction. Store and view digital still photos through the built-in memory card slot, compatible with standard PC Card, SD Memory Card, CompactFlash Card, MultiMedia Card, Smart Media Card, and Memory Stick.

The recorder's DV input terminal and IEEE cable allow recording of digital images directly from a digital camcorder onto either a DVD-RAM or DVD-R. To simplify video editing, a feature called DV Automatic Recording automatically creates a playlist consisting of still images representing a sequence of scenes. High-speed recording from the hard disk to a DVD-RAM disc occurs at the touch of a button, give you up to 12x speed in the EP mode at its quickest--that is, it will burn a one-hour program in just 5 minutes. You may also record from a DVD-RAM disc to the hard drive.

When you've programmed a recording for a DVD-RAM or DVD-R disc, the relief recording feature automatically checks to see if there's enough disc space remaining to complete the recording. If there isn't, the unit will record the program onto the hard disk to assure that it gets recorded in its entirety (provided there's sufficient hard-disk space available).

With the Direct Navigator you can instantly access recorded material from an onscreen menu that lists recording dates, times, channels, and titles. Finding and viewing recorded material is simple because there's no need to search, fast-forward, or rewind.

From the Manufacturer

Progressive-scan DVD video recorder with 40 GB hard disk and time slip playback records to DVD-RAM and DVD-R discs.

Features:

• Recordable disc type: DVD-RAM, DVD-R
• Time slip function: chasing playback, simultaneous recording and playback, time slip roller, and button control
• Rapid random access, recording, and playback
• Built-in hard disk drive: 40 GB (stores up to 52 hours of recording in EP mode)
• Relief recording
• Auto renewal recording
• Playlist playback
• Direct navigator
• One-touch record and play
• Selectable recording modes: XP/SP/LP/EP/FR
• Picture quality improvement functions: input TBC, 3D Y/C separation, 3D noise reduction, block noise reduction, mosquito noise reduction
• PC card slot: compatible with standard PC card, SD memory card, CompactFlash card, MultiMedia card, Smart Media card, and memory stick
• DV input terminal
• Dolby Digital (Dolby AC-3) 2ch audio recording
• Bilingual recording (DVD-RAM only)
• MPEG2 encoding with Hybrid VBR (Variable Bit Rate) technology
• Commercial skip
• Playable disc type: DVD-video, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, Video CD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW
• DVD-RAM video playback capability
• DVD-R playback capability
• CD-R/RW playback
• Progressive scanning
• Video D/A converter: 54 MHz/10-bit
• Picture control: brightness, color, contrast, gamma
• Frame advance (forward and reverse)
• Advanced surround (V.S.S.)
• Cinema mode
• Dialogue enhancer
• Audio D/A converter: 96 kHz/24-bit
• Power source: AC 120 V, 60 Hz
• Horizontal resolution: more than 500 lines
• Input: DV in (x1), composite video in (x3) (RCA jacks), s-video in (x3), composite audio L/R in (x3) (RCA jacks), RF in (x1) (UHF/VHF)
• Remote control: universal
• Composite audio L/R out: x2 (RCA jacks)
• Component video out (Y, PB, PR): switchable (480P/480I)
• S-video out: x2
• Composite video out: x2 (RCA jacks)
• Hi speed smooth scan: 5 speed up to x100
• Model color: silver
• Picture mode selection
• On-screen menu icons
• Optical digital output for DTS and Dolby Digital surround sound
• Digital audio out: optical
• Photo viewer/storage (for memory cards): JPEG files
• Dimensions (H x W x D): 3-1/8'' x 16-15/16'' x 12-1/16''
• Weight: 11.20 lbs

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

158 of 159 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Panasonic DMR-HS2, November 16, 2002

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic DMR-HS2 Progressive-Scan DVD Recorder/PVR with 40 GB Hard Drive (Silver) (Electronics)

THE Home Theatre Appliance

WOW! What a concept. A DVD-R burner with a 40GB Hard drive. The "concept" is a good one, and since this is the FIRST appliance of its kind (Panasonic's E-20 and E-30 are its older brothers, without the hard drive), there are some things you should be aware of before you plunk down...for the DMR-HS2.

Its NOT a TIVO

While the TIVO and Replay PVR products may sound similar, the DMR-HS2 does not require you to subscribe to any channel update service, so you save.... dollars per month OR... for lifetime subscription. Its built in VCR Plus service is free. The VCR Plus service is not nearly as extensive as the TIVO or REPLAY subscription services, which cover literally hundreds of channels. The DMR-HS2 has a built in 125 channel tuner, so it will work fine with your local channels, and most cable systems, but DIRECT TV and DISH services will not. If you currently have TIVO or REPLAY units, you CAN archive from them. Just run an Svideo or composite cable from either unit, to the front panel input of the DMR-HS2, and capture to its hard drive or DVD-RAM in REAL TIME. Then, the DMR-HS2 will allow you to do basic editing on the material. From there, you can archive your finished product on either DVD-RAM, or to DVD-R media. By archiving to DVD-RAM, you can always make another DVD-R copy, should your original get damaged! PLUS, if you have a PC with a DVD-RAM compatible drive and the requisite software, you can refine and edit the source on your PC even further, then go back to your DMR-HS2, and burn your DVD-R!

In fact, you can do that with ANY source material fed into the DMR-HS2, including the programs you have time-shift recorded for later viewing: put them on the built in Hard Drive OR slip a DVD-RAM disk in, and record to it.

SORRY: You cannot copy DVD's to the hard drive and make copies, so dont even think about making illegal copies of copyrighted material on this rig! That's not what it was designed for. Copy protected data cannot be transferred TO the internal Hard drive.

OK, so you can do recording to the built in hard drive or a DVD-RAM disk, or DVD-R disk from any input source on the DMR-HS2. The best way to do it is this way:

Source (TV,Mini DV Camcorder, Replay Unit, etc) to Hard Drive---> Edit on Hard drive---> Archive on DVD-RAM disk OR Burn on DVD-R disk.

If you burn directly to DVD-R disk, it will be in REAL TIME: However long the source material is on the Hard Drive, will be the burn time to DVD-R. If you archive to DVD-RAM, the transfer from hard drive to DVD-RAM will be a true Digital transfer, faster than REAL TIME. If at any time in the future, you wish to burn a copy of your archived DVD-RAM source material to a DVD-R, you will have to transfer to hard drive first (faster than real time), then from hard drive to DVD-R (Real Time). Once the DVD-R burn is completed, you choose the option to FINALIZE the disk, which will make it playable in just about any existing DVD standalone home player. The DVD-R disk becomes a DVD-Video disk. DVD-R player compatibility is still superior to the DVD(Plus)R competing standard.

I transfered several types of source material to hard drive, then burned DVD-R (finalized to DVD-Video), then played them on several types of DVD players ( Panasonic, Toshiba, and Playstation2). They looked GREAT! While the DMR-HS2 does give you options for menus at the beginning of your DVD-R's, they are NOT extensive...very simple. If you are looking for more control over chapter stops, editing, menu structures and appearances, you may be better off with a PC based DVD editing/Burning system. IF you already have a DVD-RAM capable drive in your PC, you can bring your source material into your computer, and using whatever editing program(s) you prefer, edit and refine the source further. Then, save to DVD-RAM, insert into the DMR-HS2, transfer to its hard drive, then burn a copy or two to DVD-R.

It Can read Memory from your Digital Camera Too

There is a PC card slot on the front that will accept a PC Card adapter for Compact Flash. Several other memory types are supported as well, each needing its own PC Card adapter. The Compact Flash adapter is the cheapest ($7-$9 for the adapter). When inserted, the DMR-HS2 will give you the opportunity of taking all the JPEG files on the flash card, and generating a slide show, and saving it to the hard drive or DVD-RAM. I have not used this feature yet, but those that have says it works very well, rendering terrific looking images.

Flexible Recording Speeds

There are 4 recording speeds available on the DMR-HS2:
XP, which will give you one hour on DVD-RAM and DVD-R media, and 8.5 hours recording time on its hard drive. In my opinion, you should use this for archiving and editing your source material. The next speed, SP will give you 2 hours on DVD-RAM/DVD-R media, and 17 hours on the hard drive, and will give you perfectly acceptable SVHS like quality. LP and EP speeds will give you 4 hours and 6 hours on DVD-RAM/DVD-R media, and 34 and 52 hours of recording time on the hard drive respectively, in VHS or lower quality.

There is also a feature called Flexible Recording, which will calculate the highest recording quality, based on the length of your source material...very useful feature, and works quite well.

By the way, its a Great DVD Player TOO!

Oh, yes..its a great quality DVD player as well, for your DVD movie collection. It has Digital Audio OUT connections if you have a receiver so equipped (DTS, Dolby 5.1 Digital). It has Progressive Scan capability, and takes advantage IF you have a Television/Monitor that does Progressive Scan. If you aren't familiar with this, your TV/Monitor probably does not have it, so don't worry about it.

It has a plethora of audio and video outs and ins. I had no problem integrating it into my Home Theatre system consisting of another DVD player, Sony Laserdisc player, Panasonic Showstopper PVR, Panasonic SVHS Cassette Recorder, Sony Digital Satellite Receiver, 2 Sony 200 Disc CD Changers, Yamaha 6.1 Receiver, and a Sony 36" Wega XBR400.

"Black Level" Bug??

It has been reported,the DMR-HS2 has a Black Level Bug. You supposedly only notice the bug in the form of a "washed out" or "brightened" looking DVD-R recorded on the DMR-HS2, and played back on DVD Players other than Panasonic. It has been documented on the AVS Forum, and seems to exist when carefully measured with test equipment, but some believe that, rather than a bug, it was intentionally designed into the unit, to compensate for various DVD players than might play the media recorded on the DMR-HS2. It has to do with the "IRE" levels the "finalized" DVD-R discs are encoded with from the DMR-HS2.
I have had NO experience with this, and I used 4 different players to play my DVD-R's burned on the DMR-HS2. Compared to my source material, the DVD's burned looked qualitatively exactly the same. If you are concerned with this, I suggest you purchase your DMR-HS2 from a supplier who has a fair and liberal return policy (I bought mine at Crutchfield.com), not that you'll have to avail yourself of the return policy!

Transferring DV from your Camcorder is Easy!

You will be happy with this appliance, especially if you own a DV Camcorder! You plug your camcorder into the Front panel Firewire port using a 4 pin Firewire Cable (not included), then put the camcorder on pause. The DMR-HS2 recognized my TR-900 after a few seconds. You use the DMR-HS2 remote to start transfering to the hard drive or DVD-RAM/DVD-R media, and it even automatically takes your DV camcorder OFF PAUSE for you! What great transfers of my 14 month old grand daughter! Something I can show at her wedding, and embarrass her with to no end!

Tech Specs, and where to Buy

I could go through the tech specs, but the best place to find those are at crutchfield.com! Buy your unit there too ( they may price match...just ask!). They have been in business for over 25 years, for good reason!
The DMR-HS2 is a great "Video" appliance! And it works pretty well too!
If you have loads of VHS archived footage you have been itching to put on DVD, this is a great way to do it!! And, its very handy to have a Firewire port, S-video and audio ports on the Front of the unit!

It ain't perfect, but pretty close

It does have its negative points: menus that are not very intuitive, manual that leaves a lot to be desired, mirror silver finish that does NOT match all your black components.
But, all in all, you will be pleased with the DVD's of your dusty VHS tapes...and being able to share them with family and friends is a priceless feature! Plus, you;ll find other uses as well: home inventory, Video Greetings. Lots of possibilities!

68 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended with a couple of drawbacks., November 10, 2002

By 

"eric15185" (Plano, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic DMR-HS2 Progressive-Scan DVD Recorder/PVR with 40 GB Hard Drive (Silver) (Electronics)

I purchased the DMR-HS2 primarily to convert my 80 tape VHS collection to DVD. The editing functions on the unit are perfect for doing this. You can record the entire tape to the hard drive (or DVD-RAM) and then use the "divide program" feature to split up the six hours into individual programs. The "shorten segment" feature is easy to use and allows you to cut commercials or other sections you don't need. Entering titles is a bit tedious and they are limited to 64 characters (40 on DVD-R), but Panasonic did the best they could short of having a keyboard port.

Once you have all of your programs divided and titled, you can dub them to DVD-R. A well thought out menu lets you pick the programs and order to dub and tells you the length of each program. After adding each program, you are told how much time is left on the DVD-R. This allows you to make very efficient use of the remaining time. Dubbing occurs in real time for DVD-R and 3x for DVD-RAM.

After dubbing to DVD-R you can enter a title and finalize the disc which takes about 5 minutes. You have a choice of 9 menus. The menus are pretty basic, but work well.

There are four recording modes (XP, SP, LP and EP). The SP mode is excellent, but only allows for two hours per 4.7 GB disk. The LP mode is of good quality, allows for 4 hours per disc and is what I use for everything. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed with EP and don't record anything in this mode.

One other major drawback is that you are unable to dub from DVR-R back to the harddrive. If you need to make a copy of something you've burned to DVD-R, you need to play back with a DVD player and suffer the associated quality loss. After figuring this out, I decided to put my entire collection on 9.4 gig DVD-RAMs. You pay about a 40% premium over purchasing two 4.7 gig DVD-R, but you 1/2 the number of discs you need and can make unlimited copies.

One other note. If your VCR doesn't have SVideo out, plan to purchase one that does along with a high quality SVideo cable. It is a small price to pay for a huge improvement in picture quality.

60 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars new technology is shaky but well worth it, better than VHS, November 12, 2002

By 

Laurel (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic DMR-HS2 Progressive-Scan DVD Recorder/PVR with 40 GB Hard Drive (Silver) (Electronics)

Although I'm ashamed to say, I did buy this purely on impulse and at time of purchase knew absolutely nothing about DVD-R/DVD-RAM/HDD recording. All I knew was that I HATED VHS quality and I wanted to transfer my VHS to DVD, record shows from my digital cable to DVD, and transfer DVs from my camcorder to DVD. Ok, I love technology (I burn CDs, have an stellar entertainment system, etc) but this tested my patience. After painstakingly reading the manual time and again, I realized that DVD recording is still in it's infancy yet my goals were possible except there were going to be drawbacks.

First and foremost, even after you finalize a DVD-R for playback, the DVD-Rs you make using this unit WILL NOT PLAY BACK IN EVERY dvd player...it's too new. DVD-RAM discs will only play back in your unit. The hard drive (known as HDD) allows you to record from TV/cable/VHS/camcorder, store your shows there inside the unit (like a computer) until you want to watch them (as many times as you want), burn them to DVD-R or DVD-RAM, or erase them. There is a limit of recording hours depending on the kind of quality you want (just like VHS) XP is the best quality mode for the hard drive (HDD) and allows 8.5 hours. Then SP (17 hrs), LP (34 hrs), and EP (52 hrs)

With DVD-Rs and DVD-RAM, XP only allows 1 hr and a max of 6 hrs. EP mode is AWFUL!! I only record on XP and I'm still not 100% satisfied with the dvd-r quality but I think that'll improve vas the companies perfect making them (like CD-Rs)

Also, once you make a DVD-R, you cannot dub it to make another DVD-R. If you already erased the program from the HDD, you have to go through this long frustrating process involving DVD-RAM to make another copy and quality suffers. Plus, in most cases, you have to play the show/movie/vhs tape/whatever when recording onto HDD & DVD-R...no quick copy except for when I record from my camcorder and occasionally when I use RAM. It doesn't sound like a problem but believe me, it is.

You can't use DVD+R or DVD+RW with this unit. I believe those are used with the Philips Recorder. Be careful, it's an easy mistake to make.

Also, when recording from VHS (you need your own VCR), I expected the picture to somehow improve once in DVD format but it really didn't.

I still love this beautiful machine, though. It's definitely the future of recording, no question. With a little practice, you can easily title your programs, choose a menu color, FF & rewind up to 100X, shorten segments (skip commercials), divide programs, and retain decent clarity unlike VHS. I was able to toss out all those clunky VHS tapes, buy standard DVD cases & even make DVD labels on my computer so that my new DVD-Rs blend in my DVD collection. Right now as of 11/02, DVD-Rs go for about (Money) a piece.