|
I looked at this Recorder online for months and finally ordered it.I read reviews where people said is was bad to freeze up and i read reviews that it had the best pictue quality of any Recorder you could buy.Picture quality is the main reason i ordered the unit and that it had an S-Input to get the best signal to the Recorder.The day i received the product i hooked it to my Directv Receiver's S-output and turned the unit on but got nothing on my TV screen at all.It's not like I've never had any dealings with Video products because it's been my Hobby for years now.I tried hooking the unit to my Directv receivers composite output but still no signal on my TV screen.So after messing with it for around two hours in called Panasonic but they didn't tell me anything i didn't know.I'm not one to give up so i kept trying and finally i got the on screen Menu and Info to show on my TV screen but still no signal.Then about two hours later the signal just came on but then then unit froze and wouldn't do anything by using the remote.I could get it to turn on and off by using the controls on the unit but thats all i could do.I went through the process that the owners manual gave to do if the unit froze and i did it again and again for maybe 30 or 40 times.I unplugged it more times than i can remember but the unit would not do anything but show a display on it that said REC 1 i think it was.Maybe i just got a bad unit,but believe me it was a really bad unit.I could only give it a one star rating on everything because i could never get it do do anyhting to see what it would do.The only good part about the whole deal was Amazon and the Seller and both are first rate.I emailed the seller the night i received the unit and told them i wanted to return it and the next morning they emailed me a return UPS label.I don't like retuning things but with this product i had no choice.
Hence, I'd like a continuous program without having to go back and edit later.On a positive note, finalization of a recorded DVD is quicker than my older unit. You must start the process over, which means creating another program segment on the DVD.
I try to stick with all Panasonic in my house so all the remotes will be interchangeble (and I've had generally better luck historically with reliability than with Sony).The new unit does the job I expected it to do, however, the one word I'd use is SLOW. It is very slow to boot up at turn on.
Bought this model around Xmastime 2009 when my old "first generation" Panasonic DVD recorder (circa 2004) died unexpectedly. Another anoying thing, if you pause the recording process and walk away for more than 10 minutes, it will not restart.
Getting the DVD drawer to open at start up is a two minute ordeal. Also, it is slow to recognize some commands from the remote.
I'm primarily using the recorder to copy many years worth of home video to DVD to preserve it from deterioration. It is also much lighter and slimmer, and was cheaper than the 2004 unit.
First of all this is my third stand-alone DVD recorder Samsung, Toshiba 410.The Toshiba is very good in SP not so good in LP. And 5sec delay when hitting record button. Can use all brands of blank media.
The good: excellent picture in SP and good in LP. Can copy movie from cable box and it looks close to the quality of my blu-ray movies. The reason I bought the Panasonic I wanted an AVCHD dvd stand alone recorder, there are none.Reseach for two months came up with the professional reviews which the Panasonic were far and away the best.
With the upconvert pictures come in near blu-ray quality. Multi DVD formats including DL, which come in handy when recording 2 plus hour movies. Compatible with many brands of DVD and blu- ray players.
This is important considering the cost of Blu-ray movies.The two things I do not like no eject button on the remote. Having copied over 500 movies from cable on 3 different DVD recorders I rate the Panasonic the best.
Everything seems to be good except display pics (JPEG) on data CDs and slow turning on.- Displaying high res JPEG pics from CDs will eventually cause it to hang. Can play all of my DVDs. But if you copy the pics to a USB flash drive and display the pics from there, it will be ok. My current regular DVD player (Toshiba) cannot play some DVD smoothly without hipcups or pauses. CAn record everything as stated. May be my CDs cannot be read at high speed.- Slow turning on. Even if I set it to quick start it is a little faster but still annoyingly slow getting in ready mode when turned on.
They could have had the perfect product. Why would they force you to use their non standard format to record wide screen. In other words you're SOL if you want to record a wide screen format program on a standard DVD. Didn't they learn from the Sony BETA format. I returned this unit for only one reason. This unit can not record wide screen programs on anything other than with their own ramdisk format. What the hell were the Panasonic engineers thinking. I couldn't believe they pulled a SONY on me.
I did like the menu and ease of use with recording and finalizing and was thrilled with the SD card slot on the front of the recorder. I am an electronics sales person and have been selling various Panasonic products for over the last 20yrs. I also have to give kudu's to Panasonics operating menu system which is much easier to use then the Toshiba DR420 DVD recorder I replaced it with. I was HOT when I called Panasonic and gave them a piece of my mind. I am a longtime Panasonic customer from phones to CRT Panablack TV's. Beta died and so will ramdisk no other manufacturer is going to use this format.
No other product could have been better had they included that one feature. No one could answer my question. On the positive side, I guess if you're ok with recording standard 4x3 ratio on standard DVD's then this would be an excellent unit to purchase. In the end though, the Toshiba does exactly what I wanted my recorder to do, record in any format I wish on a standard DVD.
|
