Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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91 of 95 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Debunk bad reviews - I'm a satisfied customer, October 11, 2008
I almost didn't but this unit because of bad reviews and that it is more expensive that most recorders. Fortunately, I was able to get the unit for $179 at a local retailer who was willing to match Amazon's price. The bad reviews caused me to buy several units, bring them home and test them. I bought the Toshiba D-R560 and the Philips HDD Recorder. I didn't try the Sony because I couldn't find one with the Divx feature. I didn't try any with VHS features because those where more expensive and I don't own any VHS tapes. The Toshiba's recording function was nice. It was quick to respond and easy to use. Unfortunately, I could never get the Toshiba unit to find channels with the digital tuner over my basic Comcast service. It found zero digital channels. This was disappointing because I looked forward to using the Toshiba's QAM tuner to find clear cable channels.
The one thing that I wanted that was missing on the Toshiba was a USB port. The Philips HDD recorder has a USB port. So, I thought I'd consider it along with it's hard disk recording benefits. Unfortunately, the Philips USB port does not read Divx. It only read Jpeg and WMA files. Also, I found the Philips picture interior to both the Toshiba AND the Panasonic. The Philips picture was dark, on all channels, and graining on many SD analog channels. So, I took the Philips back right away. After all of this, it was clear that only the Panasonic had most of the features that I needed. It has a USB port that can read Divx, in addition to reading Divx in the DVD drive. This way, I have a choice to burn a Divx DVD disk or simply save a video (avi / divx) file to my flash drive and save DVD costs on videos that I just want to look at once. The Panny is also the only unit with a SD slot. I have not used it but will in the future. The Panny also gave me S-Video inputs on the front and back, as well as an optical audio output (in addition to a coaxial output) on the back to connect to my Yamaha amps that uses only optical audio connections. The only thing that this unit lacks in a QAM Tuner for cable channels. Regardless, I found that the ATSC Tuner in the Panny was able to display all of the over-the-air HD Channels, as expected. The only thing it might not get is the "cable" HD channels that are "in the clear". Lastly, though the Toshiba picture was good, I think the Panny picture was the best of all three. To top it off, in contrast to the Toshiba (which found zero digital channels on Comcast Basic Service), the Panansonic found many, many digital channels!!!
I want to address some of the negative comments that I have found on this site about this unit: Yes - Channel surfing on this unit is a little slow. But, my research has lead me to believe that many digital tuners and HD over-the-air stations tune slowly because of the amount of information involved. I don't think it's that bad once you get used to it. Regarding the comment that you "can't split titles and chapters". This is not true. People - This is one of the most flexible recording machines on the market. But, you've got to read the manual to learn about it. If you don't like reading manuals, just do simply records - I'm sure you'll be fine.
In summary, I'm one happy customer. This is a qaulity unit that leads the industry in features to price. It's a great value and a quality product!
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47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent DVD Recorder, November 3, 2008
I got the Panasonic DMR-EZ28K for two main purposes: to watch standard DVDs, and to record Digital Over-the-air broadcasts. As would be expected, the EZ28 does a fine job of playing DVDs, so I won't say any more about that.
As a recorder for OTA broadcasts, 3 things seem to matter: How good is the ATSC tuner? How reliable/easy are recordings? What is the quality of the recordings?
As far as the tuner goes, I couldn't be more pleased. The EZ28 easily has the best tuner of any device I own. I have a 5 year old Panasonic Plasma TV, a 4 year old Sony HD DVR, a 2 year old Viewsonic LCD TV, and a 1 year old Panasonic EZ17 DVD recorder. Only the EZ28 can reliably lock the one fairly low power, distant station that I get off the *back* side of my antenna. The EZ28 also reliably locks a very low power "oldies" station from the correct direction that none of the other devices will lock. Clearly, the EZ28 has a superior tuner, even compared to last year's EZ17. (I use the EZ17 DVD recorder as a digital-to-analog converter for an old TV and the EZ28 would be even better, although if I only needed SD output, I'd probably look at the cheaper EZ18.)
On to recording ease and reliablity. The EZ28 is programmed VCR style. The menus are completely adequate, though a few things could have been improved to reduce the number of button presses. All in all, nothing to complain about. So far, recordings have been 100% reliable; I haven't missed anything I've programmed. I have used single use 16X DVD-R disks (completely reliable and convenient), single use 16X DVD+R disks (require 30 seconds of formating before use), and multi-use DVD-RAM disks. I found multi-use DVD+R/W disks to be unreliable in the older EZ17, so I haven't tried them in the EZ28. The RAM disks are more expensive, but do allow "DVR like" functionality: chasing playback, watch one while recording another, etc. I did encounter a one lockup, which was easily cured with a front panel reset button. For the record, I've has a few lockups with the EZ17 as well, but so far the EZ28 is better.
I've viewed disks I've recorded on both the Panasonic Plasma, the Viewsonic LCD, and an old fashioned analog TV. One and two hour recordings are superb, and even 4 hour recordings easily beat VHS tape recordings. I prefer the "up scaled" out put to the SD output, not because I see any real improvement in detail on my plasma TV, but because the color and contrast seem better, though this may simply a difference in the way my TV processes a 1080i input versus a 480p input.
I've also used the EZ28 to record some of my old HI8 home videos to DVD, using the front panel S-Video input, and the results are as good as the original tapes (though that doesn't say too much). I've copied a few things from my HD DVR to DVD via the back side SD S-Video input, and the results are once again, quite good.
One of my favorite features is the Flexible Recording length. This is particularly nice when my HI8 tapes are 2 hours and 2 minutes long, or when I'm recording a 2.5 or 3 hour segment from my DVR. If I used the 2 hour record setting, I'd miss some of the material. If I went to 4 hours, I'd waste quite a bit of disk space and the quality would be reduced. With the Flexible Recording, the disk is filled with exactly the amount I specify, giving the best available record quality.
Summary: I highly recommend this DVD recorder, particularly if you want to make recordings of Digital OTA TV.
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Problems solved, very reliable., November 16, 2008
The DMR-EZ28K is my second DVD recorder from Panasonic. My other DVD recorder is a DMR-E55 that my wife and I have used on a daily basis for over four years without experiencing any problems. We bought this second recorder to use with the television set in our bedroom. When I read some of the reviews on the DMR-EZ28K I was concerned about the freezing problem. I read reviews about other recorders and they all seemed to suffer from some type of problem, so I decided to go with the Panasonic since I was familiar with how to use it and I had no problems with our other Panasonic recorder. Well, the first week after I purchased the DMR-EZ28K I began to experience the freezing problem when using RAM discs. I had no problems with any other types of discs. The problem was so bad that I considered returning the machine. But before returning it I decided to try reformatting the RAM discs using the new DVD recorder. After I reformatted the RAM discs using the new recorder I have not had any problems with it freezing for the last five months, so I expect that I found the solution for the freezing, at least for the recorder that I purchased. The machine is faster and the menu is easier to work with than my older model DMR-E55 recorder. We use both machines on a daily basis to record and play lots of DVDs. We always check any discs that we rent for grease or dirt, and we are very careful when handling discs to make sure they are not covered with any grease or dirt. I believe that may be one reason why we have had such great performance and reliability from these two recorders. I highly recommend this recorder and I am looking forward to several more years of problem free usage from this machine.
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