Panasonic DMR-E50M DVD Recorder

I was getting tired of juggling tapes around... putting them in to see what was recorded on them to make sure I didn't tape over anything I hadn't seen yet, etc. Then having a bad recording because the tape I used several times was worn out. Plus I just wanted to step into the 21st century. First I don't watch a lot of TV... a few weekly shows and college and pro football, but with working 50 hours plus a week, a teenager and an 11 month old at home I prefer to record shows and watch them when the kids are asleep. After researching different recorders I decided on the Panasonic DMR-EH50.

Whether you are planning on spending a couple hundred dollars or a couple thousand, I think it's important to really think about how you use a recording device. At first I was looking at the VCR/DVD recorder combos. They offered some nice features including 1 touch dubbing from tape to DVD. But I don't have a large collection of tapes that I want to transfer to DVD so that didn't seem to fit my needs. I like to record shows so I can watch them when it's convenient for me and then erase them. Which that meant a TIVO type device would suit 90% of my needs, but there is a monthly fee associated with that (something I do not need) and I do want to have a permanent copy of my favorite football team's (The Colts)playoff games, so I decided the machine that best fit my needs was one that had a harddrive and DVD burning capability. After three weeks of use, I must say this machine is so cool and does exactly what I wanted it to do.

Here's what Panasonic says about it.

"Find and Record Your Favorite Programs Easily with TV Guide On Screen. Your hectic schedule isn't always compatible with TV program schedules, so being able to quickly locate your favorite shows and record them for later viewing is important. The TV Guide On Screen Electronic Program Guide lets you easily find your favorite programs and set up your DVD recorder to record them unattended. Explore program listings up to 8 days in advance, searching by genre or keyword to help narrow down your choices. Once you've found what you want in the listings, simply select the program and your DVD recorder will automatically begin recording at the preset time. What this means is you have an interactive TV Guide screen that let's you see what's on. You can then click one button and go to that program or you can click another button and it will automatically record that show at the correct time. For example, yesterday I recorded a Colts game, two episodes of "Reba", a "Charmed" episode and "Crossing Jordan". It took all of 2 or 3 minutes to find each program and hit the record button. I understand other people have had problems with the TV guide working with their cable box, but I just have basic cable so, per the directions, I went through the set-up turned it off over night (it was off for approximately 10 hours) and in the morning the TV Guide had downloaded and was available for viewing. The bad about the TV guide... it's not in the same order as your channel lineup and so far I have not been able to see program listings more than 3 days in advance. But overall I would give this feature a 4.2 out of 5 star rating.

Watch and Record At the Same Time
You sit down to watch this week's episode of your favorite show and realize that you never got around to watching your recording of last week's episode. Not a problem with Time Slip™, featuring simultaneous record and play. Select this week's episode in the program guide, start recording, and as it records you can watch your recording of last week's episode.

What if you set up your DVD recorder to record a movie from 8:00 to 10:00 while you're out, but dinner was faster than you expected and you get home early? With our Chasing Playback feature, you don't have to wait for the program to finish recording in order to watch it. You can begin watching the portion of the program that has already been saved while the DVD recorder continues recording the remainder of the program.I have not started watching the same program I'm recording yet, but I have watched a recorded show on the harddrive, while recording another show on the harddrive and I have also watched a DVD movie, while recording a show on the harddrive. This feature is one of the biggest reasons I chose the Panasonic over some other models, because not all models have this feature. For someone like me who wants to watch shows when it's convenient for me, this was a must and I have not had any problems with the playback or recording while doing this. I give this feature a 5 out of 5 star rating.

Avoid Accidentally Recording Over A Program
If you own a VCR, it's almost certain that at some point someone has accidentally recorded over a movie or show that you wanted to keep. One-Touch Record will save your favorite programs from the same fate by automatically scanning the disc for blank space before starting the recording process. No more worries that your favorite sitcom's season finale will be overwritten by a family member's Sunday fishing show.This feature, in my opinion, is what will make the VCR obsolete. It's a big reason why I got tired of the VCR and got tired of recording shows. All this means to us users is... it will record the show in the blank space on the harddrive or DVD. If you don't have enough blank space it will tell you. Otherwise it will record it and sit there and wait for you to view it. I give this feature a 5 out of 5 stars.

Browse Through Your Recordings Using Thumbnails
You and your family are sure to enjoy the convenience of your DVD recorder so much that you'll have a large library of recordings in no time. Keeping track of all those programs would be difficult if it weren't for our enhanced Direct Navigator, which displays thumbnails of every program on the disc as you browse, making it easy to identify the contents of each recording. The thumbnails are great, especially for items that are manually recorded (rather than through the TV Guide). It's possible to watch the entire episode in the thumbnail, although I don't know why anyone would do that. It's a nice convenient way to see what was recorded for easy viewing. The bad is there are only 6 thumbnails per page, so if you have a lot of recordings you have to scan through a few pages, but even that is just a minor annoyance, not really a negative. I give this feature a 4 out of 5 stars. And I would really miss it, if it wasn't there.

Built-In 100GB2 Hard Disk Recorder
The massive capacity of the built-in hard disk means you'll have plenty of space to record shows for everyone in the house. Record lots of programming, figure out what you want to keep, then move it to DVD in minutes for long-term storage. I am amazed at how much a 100 gb Harddrive will hold. At the lowest quality setting you can record up to 177 hours of programming. But I would not recommend the lowest setting. Things get fuzzy and pixelated and becomes the focus of your eyes during a program. The second to lowest setting, however, will allow you to record about 90 hours of programs and I cannot really tell the difference between that recording and the normal broadcast. If it's a recording you are planning on burning to a DVD than I would recommend using the 2nd highest quality setting because you will lose some quality during the dubbing if you use the high speed dubbing (which I will discuss later). This will ensure a quality DVD recording. Plus at this setting you can get up to 8 hours of programming on one(1) standard 4.7 GB DVD. You can manually set up the recording quality (recommended) or let the machine automatically pick the recording quality based on how much disk space is available. I prefer the manual set up so I can see exactly how much space is being used and because for most TV programs I don't need great quality, but I want it for things like football games. I give this feature a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Film-Like Image Quality
The goal of any playback device should be accurate reproduction of the original content. In the case of DVDs, most of that content is film-based. Utilizing advanced progressive scan3 playback techniques and very accurate MPEG video decoders, this DVD recorder provides an image that faithfully represents the image you see at your favorite movie theater."Playback of recorded programs I discussed above. Playback of DVDs (ie purchased or rented) provides a super clear picture that does rival what you see in the theaters. Some of that also depends on the type of TV you own and whether it's a standard or wide screen, but the picture quality is superb. I give this feature a 5 out of 5 stars.

Some other features that weren't mentioned on the http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vModelDetail?storeId=15001&catalogId=13401&itemId=89308&cacheProgram=11002&cachePartner=7000000000000005702&surfModel=DMR-EH50S&catGroupId=24987&surfCategory=DVD%20Recorders&displayTab=O

High speed dubbing. This feature allows you to burn a recorded program to a DVD much faster than 1 to 1. For example, this morning, I burned the Cardinals vs Colts game to a DVD. The game was approximately 3 hours long. It took about 5 minutes to burn it to a DVD, another 1-1/2 minutes to finalize the disc (you must finalize it to be able to play it on other DVD devices). Setting up the dubbing was easy as well. The total time from putting the blank DVD into the holder until I was taking out the finished DVD was less than 10 minutes. I give this feature 5 out of 5 stars.

Media: The player will play any type of DVD media (as long as it was burned properly) and will record to DVD ROM, DVD RAM, DVDR-(negative), DVDRW-(negative), DVDR+(positive). According to the manual it will not record to DVDRW+(positive) so I have not attempted it. It will also play VCD(video CDs), CD-R, CD-RW and MP3 discs. You do have to be careful when you select a DVD to burn to, but it accepts so many, chances are you won't make a mistake. I give this feature a 4 out of 5 stars (would get 5 if it burned to all DVD types)

Remote Control. The remote takes a little getting used to, but it can be very easy to use. The important buttons (TV guide, navigator, schedule, etc.) are big and easy to find. And one thing I really like, which I've read other people complain about, is the wheel. I find this very easy to use and very convenient for many features like fast forwarded/rewinding, adding text to the DVD titles, flipping channels, etc. The negative about the remote control is the TV control. The remote is very limited in the TVs available (only about 12 brands are supported) and it's very limited in the TV functions you can control. The TV functions are limited to on/off, volume, and channel surfing. You cannot even punch in the number of the channel you want to go to (in TV mode only) you have to surf through the channels to get to the one you want. Overall I give the remote 3.5 out of 5 stars. Would be higher if my TV was supported.

SD card slot. If you have a digital camera with a standard SD memory card you can put the card in the recorded and copy the content to the harddrive or DVD. Personally I think this is easier on a computer, but that could be because I'm used to doing it on a computer.

Connections: I don't know the technical terms for the wires, but are are 3 locations (2 in back and 1 in front) to hook up the red/yellow and white wires. There is a coaxial cable input and output, a firewire input(for camcorders) and other inputs for higher picture quality. The picture quality through the red/yellow and white wires is better than through the coaxial cable. I have both hooked up to the TV so I can watch something while recording a program (you cannot change the channel on the recorder while it's recording a program). Since the recorder is on my "Input 1" channel, I can record a program then flip through the rest of the channels on the TV like normal. The front panel connections are nice because I hooked up my old DVD/VCR and recorded a program from a VCR tape to the harddrive. The picture quality was as good as it was on the tape. I will not be transferring many (if any more) tapes to the harddrive, but I did want to test the feature and found it easy to do. Overall I give the connections a 4.5 out of 5 stars. The different connections really add some versatility to what you can do.

Set-up: To set up the recorder for viewing, recording, dubbing, etc. is very easy to do. The manual looks to be quite extensive, but so far I have not really had to open it up. The menus are set up in a logic fashion, it's easy to find what you're looking for and easy to navigate. You have to play around a little bit, but it took less than 3 minutes for the initial set up, and it has taken me less than 5 minutes each time to figure out how to do something new. I give this feature 5 out of 5 stars.

Sorry for the long review, but there is a lot to the recorder and a lot that goes into picking the recorder that is right for you. I spent about 3 weeks researching different products, different brands and different models. I chose the Panasonic DMR-EH50S because it offered the most features for the price range I had set. And I have been very pleased with the purchase and even a little excited about some of the things I will be able to do with this device. With machines like this available, I really don't see the VCR lasting much longer.