Big Picture Big Sound

Home DVD Recording has arrived

When Panasonic introduced this unit in the summer of 2003, I had been Jonesing for a DVD recorder for a while, to archive my old S-VHS tapes, VHS tapes and laserdiscs to DVD. I also time-shift a lot of TV and loved the idea of a hard drive recorder, but didn't particularly relish the idea of Tivo's monthly fee. When I heard that Panasonic was releasing a DVD recorder with a massive (at that time) 120 Gigabyte (GB) hard drive, I snatched it up for the then "bargain" price of $830. And I've never looked back.

The Panasonic does an excellent job of transferring over S-VHS, VHS and Laserdisc to DVD with virtually unnoticeable picture quality degradations, particularly in XP or SP mode (or "Flexible Recording" mode below 2 hours). I even tested out recording some anamorphic HDTV content from my Samsung Set Top Box (via it's S-Video output, so we're not talking "true HD" by any means) and the quality of this recording was phenomenal, with excellent resolution and good, if somewhat muted, color rendition.



For time-shifting, the unit does not have a built-in program guide, but I'm used to programming timer recordings on VCRs so there was no learning curve involved. One nice feature is that, if you notice that a show is running late (due to unscheduled programming changes), or you've forgotten to extend the timer to record a longer season finale, you can go into the timer function while it is still recording and extend the recording time.

Also, as with other hard drive recorders, you can begin watching a program while it is still recording and skip through commercials while you "catch up" to real time. Try THAT on a VCR!

The editing function is extremely intuitive - you go into "Shorten Segment," mark a start and end point, and the Panasonic eliminates the section you mark. I was a little surprised that the recording is not frame accurate (not even close) so you do need to leave a frame or two of extra space at the beginning and end of an edit point, otherwise you might clip off a bit of prgram material. Some Pro-Sumer S-VHS decks I have used have been more accurate in the editing department.

Also, the "flexible recording" (FR) mode is really handy for squeezing the highest possible quality out of blank DVDs. Let's say you're recording a show which is 2 hours and 10 minutes long and you want to put it on DVD. The closest standard speeds are SP (2 Hour) and LP (4 Hour), but recording in 4 Hour mode would suffer noticeable quality loss and would waste nearly half the storage on the DVD. Using "FR" mode instead, you can tell the Panasonic to optimize the compression rate so that it will fit exactly 2:10 worth of material onto the space available on a blank single-sided DVD-RAM or DVD-R. This gives you quality virtually indistinguishable from SP mode for recordings a little longer than 2 hours.

Also, the unit's digital (firewire) input means that it's able to transfer home movies from digital camcorders with minimal quality loss. There is no need for additional digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversion processes - the signal stays digital through the dubbing process.

The player's performance on standard DVD playback is adequate, with good progressive scan performance, but it's a bit limited in the feature department (no SACD and only two-channel DVD-Audio support). If you're a true home theater and surround sound nut, you'll probably still want a dedicated DVD player with more advanced features.

There are a few notable limitations in the unit:

• It cannot dub from its own internal DVD drive to the Hard Disk Drive, except with DVD-RAM discs. If you want to copy from a standard DVD (non-copy-protected of course) to the hard drive, you'll need to use a separate DVD player


• The unit cannot record on DVD+RW, DVD+R or DVD-RW discs. Panasonic chose the DVD-RAM format as its erasable removeable media, which is not compatible with most standalone DVD players. I do like that you can use double-sided cartridge-protected DVD-RAMs which can hold twice the capacity of a standard DVD-R blank but I don't like the reduced compatibility with other players and computer. Of course, you can record on standard DVD-Rs which are compatible with the largest percentage of home DVD players and computer drives.


• The unit has some blank disc compatibility issues. I have had a couple of blank DVD-Rs cause the unit to enter self-protection mode. Panasonic recommends only Panasonic, TDK and other 1st tier brand names for blanks. Before you buy a large spindle of no-name blank DVD-Rs, buy a small quantity that you can test on your specific unit. I have had good luck with Panasonic, TDK, Memorex, LiquidVideo, and ProDisc brands of DVD-R plus Optodisc and Panasonic DVD-RAMs, but your mileage may vary.


• There is limited control over the DVD menu when finalizing a DVD-R. You get a user-selectable thumbnail for each video segment, which is nice, but you can't select a custom background for the menu - just one of a list of 9 stock backgrounds; and the text labeling is a bit awkward, without the option for an external keyboard input.


• The unit sometimes does not respond well to the remote. This may be a sample problem with my specific unit, but after a few months, the unit would sometimes become less responsive to the remote control (with fresh batteries). In this case, you'd have to get closer or aim the remote right at it in order for it to respond. This situation usually resolves itself.

Final Thoughts

As a demanding videophile with an extremely high resolution display (Loewe 38" HDTV-cable widescreen monitor) and a penchant for recording a lot of TV, I have to say I've been quite happy owning this unit for the past 8 months. Picture quality in XP and SP modes are better than S-VHS without the annoying tape glitches that can happen with tapes. The editing is very intuitive and the "flexible recording" mode squeezes the absolute highest quality out of the available space on a blank DVD. It's not perfect (no program guide and no +RW or -RW compatibility), but it's among the cream of the crop of DVD/HDD recorders on the market today. If you buy one... you won't be disappointed.

UPDATE:
This review was first written in May 2004 after 8 months of ownership. Now, in June 2005, my opinion has not changed much. It has held up well over time except for the sporadic lack of remote sensitivity referred to earlier. Of course, technology marches forward so now you can get the DMR-E85HS with comparable hard drive space for less than half the price I paid for the E100HS. The current Panasonic DVD recorders (DMR-E85HS, DMR-E95HS, etc.) include a free program guide (TV Guide Online) but the big news is that the upcoming next generation recorders will record on both DVD+R and DVD-RW (in addition to DVD-R and DVD-RAM) making the Panasonic HDD/DVD recorders an even easier choice.