Getting a Panasonic DMR E85 for Christmas... (1 Viewer)

[Stephen Orr]

Wife bought it for me at BB this weekend, but I can't touch it till next month. Besides the fact it only records to DVD-RAM and DVD-R, is there anything else I need to know about it?

 

[Hank E]

Just a warning: I bought the DMR85E and had to take it back 3 times. I got three defects in a row: bought from different retailers, all with the same problem. The hard drive kept crashing and it would burn defective discs. I haven't been able to find anyone else who's complained but I find it hard to believe I'm the only one who's had this problem. I decided to wait for the next model and hopefully the problems will have been fixed.

 

[Paul Clarke]

Stephen,

Heed Hank's warning. That is the problem with these 'tuck-away' gifts. My wife likes to do the same thing with big ticket electronic items as Christmas presents but she now understands they need to be opened and played with for awhile to determine their fitness. The usual return window for over the counter is 30 days.

Open that booger up!

 

[Stephen Orr]

She has a gift receipt for it, so we should be alright. BTW, between the 12% discount from last weekend's coupon and their price drop on it this week to $569, she ended up paying about $470 for it.

Does it come with a DVD-RAM?

 

[alan halvorson]

My E80 came with one DVD-RAM disc, so I assume that the E85 should also. It's the only one I own; I do all editing on the hard drive and burn what I want to save to DVD-R right away.

 

[Elliott Willschick]

My 85 didn't come with a Ram disc. The manual didn't seem to refer to it being included either.

 

[WilliamS.]

Any updates on this model?

 

[Stephen Orr]

Okay, I have my E85 hooked up, I've already done some recording and dubbing. How long does it take the TV Guide function to fill in the rest of the TV schedules? I hooked it all up on Saturday, but as of Tuesday, I only have complete listings through Wednesday.

 

[Bill Will]

Check over at www.avsforum.com because there was some talk about the "TV Guide" feature not working with some companies Cable Boxes.

 

[Mike Levine]

I have the Panasonic DMR-E95H which features the TV Guide utility which I have found to be more trouble than it's worth and ended up disconnecting it.

It seems to download program info only sporadically and will suddenly change channels while viewing cable if the Panasonic unit is turned off.

It's nice for one button copying with the DVR but that was it and it was just too troublesome to keep connected.

 

[Stephen Orr]

I actually went back and read in the manual (SHOCK!). From what I gather, I need to let the machine stay in standby mode for at least 24 hours before everything downloads...

 

[Paul Clarke]

Yes...sad but true. Same for all units offering TV Guide service. What's weird is my Harmony 688 remote downloads this stuff in a few minutes every week.

The manual business must be a guy thing for us...I know it took me a few days to get through the one for my XS32...and then only when absolutely needed. Of course most of the truly useful 'must know' stuff is contained in the voluminous footnotes...naturally.

 

[Jeff_HR]

I'll be using mine to transfer films I've recorded on my TiVo & Cable DVRs. I don't have any need to use its TV Guide function. I've already dubbed one film from my TiVo. It worked pretty well.

I was originally going to purchase a TiVo enabled DVD Burner, but when I read that programs recorded on other TiVos could not be burned after be transfered to the TiVo enabled DVD Burner, I decided to go the way of a separate DVD Burner.

 

[WilliamS.]

Just want to report that I've bought this unit and I'm finding it to be a great recorder for someone who hasn't ever used one.

It takes a while getting used to, and a lot of it is instinctual and just foolin' around ("let's see here. what happens when i do this?" - type of stuff).

I've made over 10 successful copies (out of 10 attempts) from my hard drive to a dvd-r disc.

I've noticed that even though the manual says it doesn't play DVD+Rs, I've played a couple of DVD+R discs in there with no problems. So that's kind of cool.

I was able to -- by the grace of God -- record from a VCR to the hard drive. I just fiddled around with the cables. (I'm electronics illeterate...no, really.)

So far (knock on wood) I'm happy with this machine.

The only knock on this is that the remote doesn't have slow motion or zoom. It would've been nice to have this feature, but I guess a second dvd player would be great for this. (That way I can make the other one region free eventually, as I don't think dvd recorders with hard drives are able to be dvd free. Anyone know the answer to that?)

 

[Stephen Orr]

Nice to know about the DVD+Rs. I haven't even tried it yet. I have a Sony DVD player in the configuration with my 85E, and haven't even used the Panny to play anything except for off the hard drive, and to burn a couple of TV eps of House and Lost to DVD-R.

 

[Elizabeth S]

The newly announced DMR-EH50 for May release sounds like Panasonic is moving in the right direction. It will record DVD-RAM, DVD-R, +R and DVD-RW discs; and can play back DVD-RAM, DVD-R, +R, DVD-RW, +RW, DVD-Audio, DVD-video, video CD, audio CD (CD-DA), and CD-R/RW2 MP3/JPEG formatted discs.

When RAM was their only re-recordable format, I didn't consider buying a Panasonic, but this one sounds pretty good (if I ever want a 3rd recorder) with 100 GB hard drive and a $499.95 MSRP.

Press release with details:

http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs...tGroupId=23261

 

[Stephen Orr]

I tried playing a DVD+R in my E85, and it hung completely up. I had to unplug the unit to get it to un-hang...

 

[Phil Tomaskovic]

Funny that they went from 120G HD on the 85 to 100G. Although the MSRP is lower too, HDs have been dropping in price that you would think they would keep the size the same or bigger to compete with other models.

Hope they did something about the tv guide/manual programming interface to give you the best of the older model programming options before the 85.