Panasonic DMR-ES40 DVD Recorder / VCR Combo

A new Panasonic DMR-ES40VS is a DVD-recorder and a VCR combo that sells for less than $300 and is an update to the Panasonic DMR-ES30VS. The device records to DVD-RAM discs, DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD+R (but not to DVD+RW) and has a FireWire (DV) input.

First Impressions

The ES40VS is pretty heavy and feels solidly-built. The DVD part of the recorder has a disc tray, which accepts caddy-encased or caddy-less (regular) DVDs. The remote control looks stylish and nice; it resembles the remote control of my Panasonic XR55 receiver in both color and button layout. Both the remote and the recorder look well assembled. The controls and buttons are clearly marked and the same can be said about inputs on the front and rear panels.

Features

The ES40VS is a combination DVD recorder and VCR. Its DVD sections can record to DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD+R and DVD-RW. It cannot record to DVD+RW, but it plays all formats.

The ES40 comes in silver color. In addition to all recordable DVD formats, the recorder can play store-bought movies on DVD-Video as well as Video CD, , Audio CD, Audio CD-R, Audio CD-RW, MP3 CD-R and MP3 CD-RW as well as CDs with JPEG pictures.

The DVD section can output progressive (if you have and HDTV or EDTV television) or "standard" interlaced signal (480p/480i). It has a remote control that can also control different brands of TVs (power, channel, TV/Video, volume).

The 4-head Hi-Fi VCR section features quasi-SVHS playback and VCR Plus+. The VCR Plus+ is also featured on the DVD section of the device.

The recorder has a built-in NTSC tuner, VCR Plus+, timer recording and manual recording. The DVD section has more speeds/modes than the VCR, and much better picture quality in top quality modes. The available modes for DVD are: XP, SP, LP, EP-6H, EP-8H and flexible mode (FR).

As a DVD/CD player, the ES40 does what other DVD payers do and has things like parental control, angle select, soundtrack select, subtitle select, still, slow and fast motion, resume, virtual surround sound, zoom, etc. It also has dialogue enhancer and dynamic range compression for night viewing, black level control, slide show for JPEG images, zoom and rotation of images.

The combo features easy copying of DVD discs to VHS and vice versa, provided there is no copy protection in the source.

Connectivity

The ES40VS has two sets of A/V outs (composite video out and an analog stereo out), one optical digital audio out and component video out, S-Video out. The component video out can be switched between interlaced and progressive scan mode.

There is an RF input and an RF out for antenna or analog cable. The VCR or DVD signal can be output through it as well.

There are 2 sets of A/V inputs, one of which is on the front panel (composite video, analog stereo audio and S-Video). The front inputs are located in the lower left of the front panel and are covered by a lid.

Unlike the previous model (ES30VS), the ES40VS has a FireWire (DV, i.Link) digital audio/video connection for direct recording from camcorders - located under a lid on the front panel.

VCR Section

The VCR section can play SVHS tapes (in addition to regular VHS), albeit at the reduced resolution. The image quality/resolution is similar to VHS and is softer than SVHS playback on a SVHS VCR.

The recording quality of the VCR section is as good as you can expect from VHS. The image is noticeably softer than DVD recording if recording from a good source (e.g. DirecTV or DVD). The stereo Hi-Fi sound is recorded with near-CD quality. Overall, if you need to make a VHS copy of your DVD footage or vice versa (provided the material being copied is not copy-protected), the VCR section is more than up for the task.

DVD Recording Modes

The DVD section of the ES40VS features several recording modes with varying quality and capacity. The XP mode lets you fit about 1 hour on one single-sided disc at standard DVD resolution of about 540x480. The SP fits 2 hours with very similar image quality (more on this later). The LP fits 4 hours and, unlike most other DVD recorders, it preserves the horizontal resolution of over 500 lines (about 540x480). The tradeoff is encoding artifacts.

The EP modes fit 6 and 8 hours respectively and feature reduced resolution of 260x240 (as they do in other DVD recorders). The sound quality is about the same in all modes. The audio is recorded in 2-channel (stereo) Dolby Digital AC-3.

The flexible recording more adjusts the recording parameters (bit rate) so that the program fits on the disc at the best possible quality. Obviously, the longer the program that fits on the disc, the worse the quality gets.

In Operation

The DVD recorder section is very responsive in operation (both recording and playback) and faster than a VCR. It is more responsive than my Panasonic DVD player.

Based on my experience with the ES10 and ES20 models, I was able to use the ES40VS without opening the manual. In fact, the ES10 was also so easy to use and I only had to open its manual for about 2 minutes and after that, I could use the ES20 and ES40VS easily.

The DVD recorder section is just a little more difficult to use at first that a VCR, mostly because of its added functionality. For example, you can start recording a program onto a DVD-RAM disc by pressing [Rec] button and then later start watching the same program from the beginning while still recording the rest of it by pressing [Play]. In order to stop the playback of the program you press [Stop] once, and if you want to stop recording this program, you can press [Stop] again, 2 or more seconds after you pressed it the first time to stop the playback.

There is a specific step that you have to perform after the DVD recording that is absent in VHS world. The DVD-R/RW/+R discs have to be finalized before you can play them in other/standard DVD players. DVD-RAM discs do not have to be finalized but can only be played in DVD players that support them - mostly relatively recent Panasonic DVD players. But the power DVD-RAM format is its flexibility when used for re-recording. They work faster and Panasonic claims high durability in re-recording. This is a claim I have no time or desire to evaluate as I am not going to try to re-record the same disc a thousand times, but DVD-RAM discs seem to work well and provide features that other formats cannot provide (e.g. chasing playback).

I have tried both the Panasonic DVD-RAM and (to test the ability of this recorder to work with less than ideal media) a DVD+R disc made by CMC Magnetics - a company not known for making the best DVD media. Even the CMC disc worked well and played in other DVD players and DVD-ROM drives after finalization.

I mostly tried the manual recording. You basically select the recording mode (XP, SP, LP or EP) and hit [Rec]. You can pause and restart recording at any time by hitting [Pause]. You stop the recording by hitting [Stop]. With DVD-RAM, there is no waiting after the recording is stopped. With other discs, you might have to wait while the recorder finishes the recording of the current segment - just several seconds.

When using pause during recording, the recorder was very responsive and there were no delays in either stopping recording or restarting it. The recorder was very responsive overall reacting to commands (record, pause, stop, etc.). When you record several programs on one disc, it creates titles for each one (T1, T2, etc.) automatically, so there is no need to look for empty space. You can specify different recording modes/speeds for different titles by pressing the [Rec Mode] button. If you change the recording mode while in Rec Pause state, a new title will be created.

At any time you can see the remaining free space in hours and minutes for the currently selected recording mode by pressing the [Status] button twice. I could combine several programs recorded in LP and SP mode on once disc with no problems and the disc played in my standalone DVD player well too.

The [Rec Mode] button cycles through XP, SP, LP and EP mode. EP mode can be selected between 6-hour and 8-hour mode in the setup menu ([Function] button).

At any time (while not recording) you can hit [Direct Navigator] button to get to the screen which lists thumbnails (video) and descriptions of the titles recorded. From there, you can select a title and play it or select it and edit title or other information by hitting the [Submenu] button.

The title editing is slightly cumbersome as you have to select letters, digits and numbers from the onscreen selection. But it works and there is no way around this, unless the DVD recorder came with a keyboard.

Non-erasable formats can have commercials removed if you watch the program while recording and use the [Pause] button to stop and restart the recording. The re-recordable formats let you erase commercials after the recording.

I discovered that the titles have chapters created automatically at intervals of about 3.5-4 minutes, which can be either good or annoying, depending on your preference.

Non-DVD-RAM discs have to be finalized before you can play them in a standard DVD player. The process is accessed through the [Function] button, then Disc Management menu. You can specify if playback will start from the first title or from the menu/list of titles.

The finalization of my DVD+R disc took less than 3 minutes and I could play it in my Philips P642 DVD player. The menu with thumbnails and descriptions of the programs appeared and I could select the program I wanted to see.

Picture Quality

The picture quality in the XP mode is outstanding and is virtually indistinguishable from the original. The edges of objects are sharp, there is no video noise and there are no problems with fast moving objects. Since only 1 hour fits on the disc in the XP mode, I would mostly use SP mode for high-quality recordings. In the SP mode, the picture quality is almost as good as in the XP mode. In fact, I could see no perceivable difference.

I find the more economical LP and EP modes decent, especially the LP mode. The EP modes are mostly suitable for either video programs with mostly static content or programs where sound matters more than the video.

The LP mode has the same resolution as the SP/XP, but its lower bit rate makes for encoding artifacts, especially in scenes with a lot of motion. The ES40 itself and DVD players that have MPEG noise reduction fight artifacts pretty well, but the details get lost and the softness appears.

The EP modes have lower resolution and artifacts. If you look closely, the LP mode adds some artifacts/digital noise at the edges of objects whereas the EP makes the picture less detailed, softer overall and features some artifacts even in solid surfaces.

Sound Quality

The sound is indistinguishable from the original in all recording modes. As far as sound playback, be it Audio CD or DVD-Video, the ES40VS produces excellent sound through its analog audio outs. You can also use its optical digital audio out to have your receiver do decoding, in which case the sound quality will depend on the receiver and speakers. I always use the latter approach and liked the fact that the recorder has an optical out instead of the coaxial (it would be ideal to have both).

Warranty

The recorder comes with a 1-year warranty for both parts and labor.

Bottom Line

The Panasonic DMR-ES40VS is an excellent DVD/VCR recorder. I like its high feature content, build quality, excellent performance, format versatility, connectivity and low price. It even has a digital DV input. I highly recommend it.


Other Panasonic DVD Recorders


Panasonic DMR-ES40VS
Panasonic DMR-ES20
Panasonic DMR-ES30VS
Panasonic DMR-ES10
Panasonic DMR-E55