Panasonic DMR-ES10 DVD Recorder

I wanted this unit to help me transfer my old camcorder tapes to DVD and also replace my VCR. I didn't go with a Hard Drive Unit as I will probably be adding an HD PVR to my set up soon and thus felt it would be redundant in the future.

I have digital cable and I, like one, or two of the other reviewers had a little glitch with set up as it wants to go through the Auto Set up Process each time it is turned on. There are two ways around this:

1. Select manual set up and then manually tune it to any channel and then press add/dlt to add this channel. Now the unit thinks it has gone through the set up and will not go to auto set up again.

or 2 (if you have digital cable) Split the cable feed from the wall and hook up the direct coaxial feed to it's built in tuner. Then the unit will go through the auto tune process properly.

I actually have mine split so I can tape basic cable without interrupting my Digital Cable surfing or I can also record Digital Programming.

The features are outstanding. They have been described already by other reviewers. I would strongly recommend that anyone considering a non-Hard Drive unit to get one that is able to record on DVD-RAM. It is an amazingly flexible format.

For example you can set it to record and then use it like a PVR and flash back however long you want while it is still recording (Timeslip). You can watch a show from the beginning before it is completed (Chasing Playback) and you can even watch one recorded show while it is recording a different show! This is not possible without DVD RAM. The only draw back is that it is not readily playable on most other units. Thus for my Camcorder footage or movies I want to keep I record on a fresh DVD-R. This is playable in Grandma's or the van's unit with no problem. I keep a DVD- Ram disk in the unit so I can use it much like a PVR.