Panasonic E-85 and New Generation recorders coming April/May. Any reviews yet? (1 Viewer)

[DeanR]

Ryan,

It's a little strange seeing you post outside the Friday the 13th thread . Anyway, as some one who hardly ever records TV programs does the TV Guide ergonomics inhibit
or make more difficult the ability to record programs from another vcr or dvd player? I have the E-100 and it's a breeze to use, just pick the proper line level input and hit play on a vcr and record on the burner, done. Do you find there are extra menues to deal with than on the E-80 because of the TV Guide feature? It's too bad they saved a few pennies and removed the open/close button on the remote. I bet if you had an E-80 remote and clicked on the open/close button the drawer on your new E-85 would open/close as long as the code was the same in your remote as the E-85.

 

[Ryan Wishton]

lol Dean.

Lets just say you wouldnt want to know my opinions on how Paramount is handling the Godfather re-issues or The I Love Lucy controversy. I have purposely avoided those topics. Plenty of people annoying them about that already. I am just not very crazy about the company or the way they handle their products or the outrageous prices on less than average products to say the least. But, thats for another time so no need bringing that up here. lol.

Anyways, the remote does have the room for the open/close button I believe. They just chose not to put it on for whatever reason. Bad choice. They need to put it back for next years model I hope.

The guide. I was very excited about this feature. It was one that I thought would be great. It ends up being very disappointing, annoying, and is also just slow for nowadays. The sad truth is, I would rather not have the feature at all. I would rather have the open/close button back.

My biggest problem with it is that half the channels of our lineup dont show up on the guide. This makes it difficult to record on a channel that is not on the guide. You have to work through the guide to set a regular timer recording like Rick said before. Unless there is some easier way we have not figured out yet.

Once again, the manual is useless just like the E-80's. You basically have to figure out everything on your own.

Recording to the Hard Drive from a VCR is just as easy as before, so no need to worry about that. The picture seems a touch off, but it's probably just settings. Havent adjusted the settings to my liking yet.

This player does have improved features and is still good for transferring (Even better due to the improved dubbing times). But, I would not recommend using this as your sole unit for the guide, etc.

But, it still does everything like the E-80 and more.

It's just timer recordings are a pain as is the guide. If you dont intend on using the player for these features (if you are using it solely for transferring and playing), then you most likely wont even notice.

 

[Phil Tomaskovic]

Found the following on the AVS Forum. Not sure if it only works on first time or if you can disable the tv guide anytime from its review options??

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http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0&pagenumber=2


2) Yes, it's possible to disable the guide. During the initial setup, it asks "Do you have cable service connected to this DVD Recorder?" and "Is a cable box connected to this DVD Recorder?" Answer no to both.

Then go into the TV Guide and navigate to the "SETUP" tab, and then go to "Review options." There, select "Off." This will prevent the TV Guide from appearing automatically whenever you turn on the E85 (and complaining that it can't download guide data).

Since the TiVo does all my timer recordings, I have no need for the E85's guide, and these settings effectively turned the guide off for good.

 

[Ryan Wishton]

Thanks Phil.

It did work. I followed the instructions exactly (re-setting the system to say I dont have cable as well) and it worked.

Unfortunate the guide is lackluster, but the player makes up for it in other ways.

Thanks.

 

[Phil Tomaskovic]

Yes, I need to see how this guide works too. It would be nice to have the old programming as an option. Will manual programs still get the title from the guide? I guess you can't input the title as part of the programming, only from the properties after it's recorded.

 

[andrew markworthy]

I guess I must be missing something here. If you're concerned about saving money, wouldn't it be better to buy one of last year's models *after* the prices have plummeted? Instead, you're buying a new model (when the prices are highest) *every year*.

 

[Brian Co]

Andrew he means selling his existing one when the new models have been ANNOUNCED i.e. not yet released or just trickling into stores. This way the older model will still go at or near a premium price.

 

[DavidAnthrope]

I wanted to offer some feedback in case anyone is interested in hearing from an experienced owner. This is my third Pana unit, and I'm about to switch brands. Here is why:

I started with an HS2 (when they were $999).
I have a library over 1200 SVHS and VHS tapes to dub, along with making recordings of tv-shows and movies from satellite. I have done over 1500 DVD-R recordings with the HS2, and the E80 I replaced it with. I am now on my third, the E85.

The HS2 lasted exactly 90 days before the 40gb hard drive died. (I didn't realize it had a 90 day warranty by the way, so I was a dumbass and waited a few days and by then it was too late to slide in with that 1-2 day grace period). The symptom was that, all my recordings on the HD were gone and it wanted to reformat. And reformat. And reformat.

Had it repaired, and kept using it for 6 more months. I will point out that the user interface was pretty decent, no complaints, and editing a recording was very simple and straight forward. Also, once I figured out what brands of blank DVD-R's worked well, I had VERY few coasters. Typically, 0-1 in a spindle of 50. I used Fuji's (at $2/ea then) for my high-end stuff and Ritek/Ridata's at $.85/ea for my less valuable stuff. All in all, I wasn't unhappy.

Skip forward, sold the HS2 and upgraded to the E80. Same interface for the most part, a few minor improvements, but twice the hard drive capacity. This one I've had for just over 4 months now - and the hard drive died. Again, symptoms, loss of all recorded content, reformat, ok, then failure again, reformat, and refusal to reformat with errors.

I'll add that, yes, I probably am using my recorders more than the average joe as I am still dubbing many SVHS/VHS tapes to DVD-R and also recording broadcasts. I do perhaps 5-6 recordings a day. But usually the unit is off by 9pm and not back on until 8am. I don't leave it on, and this unit actually puts the drive (and unit) to sleep after a period of time.

I will add that, unlike the HS2, this unit does NOT over-heat. The HS2 DID over-heat frequently, refusing to burn a DVD and requiring powering off and waiting 10mins for it to cool down. The E80 is much better that way.

Ok, so my E80 is busted. Still, it's done a fair amount of work for me and the interface was pretty good, and I had VERY few failures. AND a bonus - I just found out thanks to some nice member here that Panasonic increased the warranty to 90 days!!!

In the mean-time I bought an E85, with a 120gb drive, I expected to have the E80 experience with more space.

WRONG

They completely reworked the user interface.
And it's HORRIBLY BUSTED. I mean BAD.
The timed recordings REFUSES TO RECORD arbitrarily.
Got daily recordings you want to make? Forget it.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't.
Oh, and if you have "DAILY" - meaning EVERY day, not M-F but S-S, forget that too, they don't have that option. You have to put in 3 entries to get that, M-F, Sat & Sun.
And there's LOTS of less critical issues, stupid stuff, like the navigator listing your recordings, try scrolling down the list to get the next page, forget it, no scrolling. There's supposed to be page up/down buttons, forget those too. I could go on for pages, but the point is that it's a complete rework and nothing like the E80 and HS2, and it's absolutely horribly broken (IM[!]HO of course).

There you have my feedback - 3 machines - 2 busted hard drives within 3-4 months - and a completely busted UI on the new one. All in all - it's time to look for a new brand. Too bad too, I was liking the E80.

I'm submitting this NOT to bash Panasonic - but to hopefully help some new buyers be forewarned. Anyone interested can PM me for more info if they wish.

 

[DavidAnthrope]

I'm curious to know if you guys who just upgraded from the E80 to the E85 are seeing the same horrible interface problems that I've been seeing - or is it just me?!

Biggest issue for me is arbitrary timer events not firing and programs not recorded. I have yet to determine anything about this other than it DOES happen, but when/how I don't know.

But also, things like, in the navigator, you preview a program you have recorded but it doesn't allow skipping forward/backward like the E80. Also, if you press ENTER on an item it restarts from the beginning even when you were in the middle previewing that same item! And STOP used to take you out of the nav also.

And how about that scrolling crap? How retarded is THAT?!
Or the size of the tumbnail in listing mode of the navigator, it's so small, even on my 53" tv I can't see it!

What about creating timed recordings? Painful or what? And no Sun-Sat (or every day including weekends) option.

Has anyone else noticed these or aren't they as big a deal to you guys? These were all things that the E80 did properly, so it was a huge disappointment for me as I've been doing a ton with the E80 (and HS2 before that).

Personally I'm dumping my E85 and going back to the E80 until I can find another brand. I think Pana really screwed the pooch on this one.

 

[alan halvorson]

Criminy, David, after reading your posts I am so glad I never "upgraded" to the E85 from my E80 (which still works great although I don't record near as much as you). The main thing I wanted was faster dubs; maybe I'll look for a E120 instead, or another brand.

 

[DavidAnthrope]

Hey Alan I actually restrained myself in my posts compared to what I was saying in my living room when I saw all this stuff!!!

In all seriousness I see almost no similarity between the E80 and E85. The user interface is a complete rewrite, even the remote has all the buttons moved and some missing! And as for the DVD drive itself, all I can say is Fuji DVD-R's have always burned flawlessly in my E80 and HS2 prior to that. The E85 just gave me my first coaster on the first 8x DVD-R of the spindle after error-ing out midstream and rebooting itself! Very curious.

Unfortunately the E80 lacked some features of the E85 that I've really craved - like DVD-R-->HD dubbing (then again I consider that a fairly major oversight, with the HS2 I can forgive them, but honestly they've been in the game too long to throw the E80 out there without it!).

In any case- I'm reading like mad and monitoring the forums for feedback about other brands. I tend to upgrade every year so maybe I'll come back to Pana but for now, they've lost a good customer between the downgrade of the E85 and the poor lifespan I've experienced.

 

[Hank E]

My main problem with the E80 was with the editing. When using the Playlist to splice two scenes together the audio drops out about half a second before and after the edit points. And you'd think since there's a frame by frame advance you'd get exact edits, but that's not the case: a few frames are always lost.

So a question to the owners of the newer E85: do these problems still exist or have they been fixed?

Thanks.

 

[Brian Co]

There are NO standalone DVDR units which edit on exact edit points, nor do I see this capability coming anytime soon. The only way to edit directly using I-Frames utilizing exact edit points is with a computer. The advantage the E-85 has over the E-80 in regard to Playlists is that Playlists may be High Speed Losslessly dubbed to DVDR, whereas on the E-80 Playlists can only be dubbed in realtime.

Additionally, I just read here in an earlier post that Panasonic has a 90 day warranty on their DVD recorders. This is incorrect, as the manual states quite clearly that DVD recorders have a 1 year warranty. The 90 day warranty is for DVD players.

 

[Alan Lee UK]

I've found none of the above problems with recording, however there are a few frustrations when using it to play pre-recorded DVDs.

On my old player, there was an 'AUDIO' button on the remote which cycled through all the audio tracks - useful if you want to drop into a commentary quickly - and a 'SUBTITLE' button - useful if you didn't quite catch a line or two. On the E85 you have to go into a menu to change the audio track or subtitle, which is far too unwieldy.

Most frustrating of all, the STATUS function will only display time elapsed in a title - there is no option for displaying the total time, or time remaining in a title. It is useful to know this information if you are browsing through extras on a disc.