Panasonic DMR-ES40 DVD Recorder / VCR Combo

I've always liked dual decks, even before there were DVD/VCR combos. Years ago I thought the coolest thing would be one of those GoVideo dual deck VCRs... Boy was I wrong, what a colossal piece of crap. You can read about that experience Here.

Which Format?!?!

When DVD recorders started becoming more affordable I started to research them a bit. They are a confusing lot, so many different formats, with more appearing every day. You've got DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL, and by the time you're reading this you can probably add a few more, including HD-DVD and BD formats. It doesn't help that no one seems to know which formats are preferable or if it really makes any difference. Well, I'm no guru but I have learned a little bit about this format mess.

The +/-R formats are only recordable once, the +/-RW formats are ReWritable for multiple use. DVD-RAM is a completely different format that operates more like a hard disk, allowing several unique features. The formats with a DL suffix are 'Dual-Layer' for twice the capacity. Some formats are also available in a double-sided disc which also offers twice the capacity of a normal disc, although you have to turn them over to utilize the full capacity, unlike DL formats.

Until recently, most recorders used either the + format or the - format, but not both. Now, many recorders are multi-format compatible but most still don't utilize DVD-RAM. Only the very latest recorders(as of this writing) now utilize the 'Dual-Layer' formats and they're priced a bit higher than their older format brethren.

Choosing a DVD Recorder

I recently purchased a cheap no-name DVD recorder to see what this new technology was all about. WOW! forget everything you know about VCRs, these things are a whole different animal! It's a little daunting at first but once you master the operational theory of DVD recording it's not too bad. You definitely want to have a good user guide and hopefully an intuitive user interface. This cheap recorder was a bit quirky and I wanted a VCR combo anyway so I returned it. It was a good learning experience though.

I was leaning towards Panasonic because they seem to have been a pioneer(no pun intended) in DVD recorders and their recorders have a good reputation among reviewers. Panasonic recorders also are among the few that utilize DVD-RAM which was important to me for reasons I'll get into later.
About the time I was considering a purchase, Costco started selling the DMR-ES40V for $270, which is quite a bargain considering its feature set.

Setup

Setup is fairly straightforward with the DMR-ES40V. A quick-start guide takes you step-by-step through attaching all the cables necessary for your configuration. It's nearly as easy as hooking up a VCR but the instructions require you to make your connections in a specific order. I didn't quite get it right and it still worked fine so I'm not sure all that precision is necessary. Included with the unit is a coaxial cable, A/V cables, remote control, batteries, user guide, and (1)DVD-RAM disc.

One nice feature is that you can attach the ES40V to older televisions with only a coaxial cable. Many DVD recorders require A/V hookups, which would necessitate a $20 RF switch if your TV doesn't have those ports. Those with brand new, fancy TVs should be equally pleased because the ES40V has more than enough connection options for most any configuration.

On the REAR of the unit there are (2)sets of A/V outputs, (1)set of Component video outputs, (1)S-Video output, (1)Optical audio output, (1)Coaxial output, (1)Coaxial input, (1)S-Video input, and (1)set of A/V inputs.

On the FRONT panel there is (1)set of A/V inputs and (1)S-video input under a small door. There is also (1) IEEE1394 DV input under another small door. The DV input door was clearly an afterthought and looks rather awkward.

Operation

I really like the way the ES40V operates, it's complicated at first but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty intuitive. The user guide isn't very user-friendly and requires a lot of re-reading to comprehend some of the more involved instructions. I figured out a lot of functions on my own and then used the user guide to confirm that it was the proper method. In other words, the people who designed the user interface were much smarter than the folks who wrote the guide and I guess I prefer that to the other way around.
I wasn't pleased to find out that the front panel display doesn't provide much information, especially at one time. It does provide most of the pertinent information but you have to cycle it through three different displays to see it. The OSD(on-screen-display) is very well designed and fully comprehensive so it makes up for it but I would prefer having the info on the front panel so I don't have to push some buttons to cycle the OSD on & off.

I really like the remote control. Your first impression is "that's a lot of buttons, couldn't they have simplified this a bit?" but it's pretty well laid out and utilizes three different colored buttons to help group functions and make them easy to find. My biggest gripe about the remote is that it doesn't have a MUTE button for the TV. It has Channel, Volume, TV/Video and Power buttons for most brand TVs but NO MUTE BUTTON!! I hate having to search for multiple remotes so I like having basic TV controls on the VCR/DVD remote but I use mute all the time so it kind of defeats the purpose when I have to use another remote for that one function, VERY ANNOYING! That point aside, it's a well designed remote. Now, let's get a little more in depth on the varied functions of the ES40V.

VCR Features

You might expect Panasonic to skimp on the VCR because it's such a minor part of this package but I've found just the opposite. It has every function I've ever had on any previous VCR, plus a couple of unique functions.

* It's a HiFi 4head unit with VCR-Plus for easy programming. Even the manual programming is relatively easy and it automatically checks to make sure there is enough space on the tape/DVD for your scheduled recording.
* It features a clock that sets itself and it actually works. My previous GoVideo also had that feature but it was hit & miss at best and kept lousy time. During the setup procedure it warns you that it can take some time(possibly several hours!) for it to pick up the time signal that's embedded in PBS stations but it only took a few minutes in my case. If it had taken several hours, I wouldn't be nearly so pleased, so your mileage may vary.
* It rewinds very quickly in it's normal mode, approx. 1.5 minutes for a T-120 but it also has a special "Jet Rewind" mode that rewinds a T-120 in only 30 seconds, that's FAST!
* Whenever you start recording, the VCR inserts a special signal that then allows you to quickly skip to the beginning or end of each recording session on a tape.
* Besides the standard recording modes, SP(2hrs) & EP(6hrs), the ES40V will also record in a unique VP mode that will fit 10hrs of video on a T-120 or 15hrs on a T-180. It's not great quality but it's not as bad as you might expect for that kind of compression. NOTE: You cannot playback tapes recorded in VP mode in other VCRs.

DVD Features

The DVD playback system will be familiar to anyone who has used any DVD player. The ES40V will playback all single layer formats and record on all single layer formats except DVD+RW. One notable feature that I've noticed is how fast you can FFWD & REW on-screen(Search). My other DVD player will only go up to 32X but the ES40V will go up to 70X & 200X, once again, that's FAST. Some reviewers have complained that it doesn't have a zoom function and they are correct. I rarely use zoom on my other DVD player so I doubt I will miss it on this unit.

DVD recording is where things get interesting, and sometimes confusing. First I will discuss recording features that are common to all compatible formats, then I'll get into the unique features of DVD-RAM.

You can record on all DVDs in several different quality levels, XP/SP/LP/EP. On 4.7Gb discs this translates into recording times of 1hr/2hrs/4hrs/6hrs respectively. You can optionally record 8hrs on EP mode but those discs may not be compatible with other players. There is also a 'Flexible Recording'(FR) mode that will base the recording quality on the length of your recording. In other words, if you need to record something that runs 2 1/2hrs, you couldn't use SP but if you used LP you would only utilize a little over half of the disc and your recording quality would be lower than necessary. In FR mode the 2 1/2hr program would be recorded on the entire disc at a recording quality just a bit lower than SP.

Each recording segment will have it's own title on the disc's top menu. You can customize the title name and the thumbnail image displayed on the top menu. You can choose any screenshot from that recording segment for the thumbnail image.
Entering text for the title can be a bit tedious because, obviously, there's no keyboard, so you have to select the characters using an on-screen keyboard with the multi-directional controller and/or numeric keypad. This system, while hard to explain, is much easier to use than the previous DVD recorder I tried.

Before any disc can be viewed on other players, it must be finalized. This is a very simple procedure but it can take some time, up to 15 minutes. While you cannot insert chapter breaks during recording, they are automatically inserted every 5 minutes(approx) during the finalization process.

DVD-RAM is a much more capable media that allows for a number of unique functions.

*Chasing Playback allows you to watch the beginning of a program while it is still being recorded, you can also watch a previously recorded segment while currently recording another program on the same disc. You can use this feature much like TIVO, recording any program you're watching which allows you to pause Live TV or watch at a short delay and then FFWD through commercials.
*You can also insert chapter breaks anywhere you like, during recording or subsequently, during playback. You can then delete chapters from your recording. What this allows you to do is record a program without worrying about commercials, then playback(at high-speed, if desired) and insert chapter breaks before & after each commercial, now you can easily delete each 'commercial chapter', leaving you with a perfectly edited program, free of commercials!
*When you delete titles or chapters from anywhere on the disc, it frees up that amount of recording space for another recording session. Where as, on a DVD-RW disc, only titles or chapters deleted at the end of the disc free up recording space.
*There is a special 1.3X playback mode which allows you to play any program 1.3 times as fast as normal but doesn't distort the audio track, it just sort of deletes all the breaks in between people talking. It's a little odd but it does allow you to quickly get through something like a news program and still catch all the information.
*DVD-RAM discs can be re-recorded up to 100,000 times vs. about 1,000 times for DVD-RW discs.
The only disadvantage to DVD-RAM discs, besides them costing a bit more, is that they cannot be finalized for playback in other DVD players. You can only play them in players that are compatible with DVD-RAM, which are very few & far between.

Dubbing

The DMR-ES40V makes it very easy to copy your VHS collection to DVD, provided it's not copy-protected. You can also easily copy from DVD to VHS although I can't imagine why you would want to. It's as simple as getting your tape cued up to the point you want to begin your copying, insert a blank DVD, select the desired recording quality and then push one button to begin the dubbing process. It will then copy until the end of the tape or until the DVD is full. You can also manually stop the dubbing at any point you desire. Each dubbing session will become a separate title on the disc.

What you CANNOT do is pause the recording while dubbing, so you cannot edit out commercials that may be on the VHS while copying it to DVD. I find this to be a VERY annoying limitation and I don't see any reason for it. If you play the VHS in another player, connected to this recorder's inputs, you can pause recording at any time and thereby edit as desired, but that's the only way it's possible. Theoretically, you could stop the dubbing process at each commercial and then restart it following the commercial but this would be quite tedious and result in a separate title on the disc for each segment.

Overall, the dubbing is very easy and trouble-free but it's just that, dubbing, no editing.

Conclusion

I'm fairly pleased with the performance of the Panasonic DMR-ES40V but it hasn't been without it's rough spots. It has locked up on me a number of times but it can be easily rebooted by following instructions included in a special insert to the user guide. Obviously, this has been a common problem that showed up after the user's guide was printed. I will say that most of these problems occurred while recording on cheap no-name DVDs and I've had very few problems with Maxell & TDK discs. I've also switched from DVD-R to DVD+R after reading about how much better the + format is designed. I don't pretend to know if this is actually true or not but the article made a lot of sense, you can judge for yourself, (http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/113)

After only a few weeks the VHS side started acting weird. When playing tapes you could clearly hear the tape's sound track but there was no picture, just static. I tried several different tapes and spent a lot of time on the phone with Panasonic tech support but ended up returning the unit for exchange. So far, so good with the replacement, but it's a little troubling to have such a problem so soon. I would recommend buying from a reputable retailer with a good return policy.

** Update 5/20/06 **

After just a couple weeks with the second unit, it also had a fatal malfunction. This failure was very different from the last one. The signal from the DVD/VCR started coming through black & white and horizontally rolled half a screen off of normal. Hard to believe, but that's what it was doing. Whether the TV signal passing through or DVDs being played, everything was black & white and off-center.

I've been quite impressed with this DVD recorder but also very troubled by it's problems. Upon returning this unit, I discovered that Panasonic has discontinued this model and replaced it with the DMR-ES35V & ES45V. Hopefully, they've worked out the bugs with these new models. I purchased a DMR-ES35V and will be reviewing it soon. I'm not sure I can continue to recommend this model.