Panasonic DMR E50EBS DVD Recorder Best Buy

best format,best recorder,best buy.NOW! - 08 Aug 2004

23 out of 26 found this review helpful.

i have owned this superb unit for about 18 months and cant find any realistic critisims worthy of note.i have seen some less than glowing reviews and would like to make a few suggestions to get the best from the recorder.firstly use decent scart leads the shorter the better,secondly set input/output to rgb/s video to suit your equipment.composite video phono is also available but why would you use it? playback of prerecorded discs and home recordings is as good as most £150-£250 players.if you have an av system connect audio using optical output to improve already good quality.disc types use dvd-r for once only recording they play in as many other dvd players/drives as dvd+r.earlier panasonic recorders could be fazed by cheap and cheerful dvd-r but all work fine on this.dvd-ram use for recording/playback reusable a million times at £3 each.dvd-ram are more limited in playback compatibility but then a look at your dvd player/drive will settle that.i have a panasonic 36inch widescreen and sky+ the recorder used to free up space on skys hard drive.it has been used heavily since it was bought and has performed faultlessly.cost £350 when new and was worth every penny.bin your vcr now even 4hour mode is as good as vhs gets and 2hour mode as good as sky.using flexible recording 1-6 hours if set to 3hours still equals s-video quality anyway.buy dmre55 if you need progressive scan pal/ntsc or component video output otherwise dmre50 is all but identical.only other point of note dvd/hard drive recorders are more flexible and with plummeting prices maybe a better option,panasonic and toshiba best at present.finally dvd-ram can record and play at the same time much like a 4.7gb hard disc and you can use as many of these great discs as you like,other formats can do this now but dvd-ram always has.

The Best Of The Rest - 18 May 2004

15 out of 15 found this review helpful.

As with all DVD Recorders and Players, there are good and there are bad, there is never going to be a happy medium.
Panasonic are the leaders as far as quality is concerned, and they deserve the credit. I first tried the Philips 880 recorder, I found it easy to use and it had some nice features, the problem was that my stand alone DVD player didn't play the DVD+ discs recorded on the Philips. So I opted for the more universal DVD-R, which to date I have never had a problem with. The RAM discs are fine for everyday use like a videotape but not for archiving. Features and socketry on the Panasonic DMR-E50 are fantastic. Don't settle for anything less.

DMR-E50 Excellent DVD recorder - 25 Mar 2004

21 out of 23 found this review helpful.

This is an excellent cheap DVD recorder. It works well with DVD-R disks (I have used maxell, bulk-paq and princo branded disks with very good results.) Plus the almost infinite re-usability of DVD-RAM makes them almost unbeatable for timeshifting.

Yes I know you cant play DVD-RAM back in a normal DVD player - but unlike DVD-RW they don't wear our after only a few hundred uses... and if you want to timeshift (watch and wipe) then you probably don't need to be able to play them back elsewhere anyway. If you need compatability just use a DVD-R instead....

Anyway back to DVD-RAM... the point is that because of the way they work this machine can managed the rather neat trick of playing back and recording at the same time - just like a sky plus box only without the need for an expensive subscription. so you can use it to pause live TV as well !! all for a bargain basement price ! The only thing missing is an integrated Digital (freeview) tuner. How about it for the next model Panasonic?

Industrial equipment. - 15 Mar 2004

7 out of 36 found this review helpful.

Somebody spent alot of time advertising the Panasonic Dmre-50. And yes, it's easy to buy all the hype. The Ram works like a dream and you find yourself recutting movies so that the bear starts off at the beginning of the movie (12 Monkeys/50 Cent) or the dancing lady/ladies finish before the end credits in Tomorrow Never Dies (respect to whoever wrote that one.)

Industrial uses? Oh, well that's a trade secret.

Timeslip'd Shanghai Nights -but never caught up- playing back 1.3 times faster, over Christmas; didn't get my calculator out before it all kicked off.

Transferring video to DVD is a chore, especially with certain companies videos- ASK!?- "is it ok to transfer my copy of Pulp Fiction to DVD?" I did buy the original after all.

Like Panasonic's little brother company, you will find that messing around with this gear is as entertaining as a couple of Technics Sl-20's and some, er, ambient music.

There are problems with this recorder...... - 10 Mar 2004

16 out of 21 found this review helpful.

There are problems with this recorder which a potential buyer should be aware of.I had mine 12 months ago and experienced the same problems that many have had with this model,my player is now virtually useless at recording as it consistently freezes up or turns itself off(U11 error,this will become a familiar site),finalizing dvd-r's is pot luck sometimes it works most times not and i end up with another silver frisbee....now even the ram recording does not work correctly!All of these errors and problems are well documented on internet help forums(where i've spent many hours trying to find solutions)just search them out on google with the model number.All in all i would not recommend any of these panasonic DMR recorders and have recently shelled out for a new JVC model with the bad taste left by panasonic i'm hoping for better luck with this...