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Panasonic DMR-E60S DVD Player/Recorder (Silver)

Panasonic DMR-E60S DVD Player/Recorder (Silver)

List Price: $549.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good except for one thing
Review: I purchased this DVD player back in November and it has done everything that I have needed it to except play JPEG disks. What really gets me is that is $70 players can do this but this expensive one does not. I know it has other ways to load pictures, but it would be simpler for my application if it could play JPEG disks.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good except for one thing
Review: I purchased this DVD player back in November and it has done everything that I have needed it to except play JPEG disks. What really gets me is that is $70 players can do this but this expensive one does not. I know it has other ways to load pictures, but it would be simpler for my application if it could play JPEG disks.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Can You Say "BROKEN"?
Review: I sure wish I had the fantastic experience other reviewers had with this unit.
I won't address the features or picture quality. They're fine.

The problem I've had is it breaks.

I got mine in 9/03. It is residing in my local Authorized Repair facility. For the third time. Here are the details:
1. Firewire input failure. Repaired.
2. Remaining inputs failed. Repaired.
3. It's 1/19/04 as I write this. The unit has been in the shop since late Dec. '03 with its latest hissy-fit. This time it refused to burn-most of the time-and when it did the disks came out hotter than fresh asphalt and wouldn't finalize. The repair guys tell me it is taking so long because they cannot get the necessary part(s) from Panasonic.

I've complained to Panasonic via their website. Twice. They reply with a canned (read meaningless) reply within a couple of weeks. They don't seem to be terribly interested.

My advice: consider another brand.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WOW! Very pleased!
Review: I've been extremely happy with the DMR-E60S so far, since I have tons of digital video that I want to archive, and was not about to sacrifice that sweet digital source quality to a standalone DVD burner with S-Video or (perish the thought) analog-only inputs.

I connect my Sony camcorder with the DV cable into the front DV input, pop in a DVD-R (if I am just doing a straight-to-disk dump) or a DVD-RAM (if I want to create a basic navigation menu, etc), and start recording. The quality of the transfers is fantastic (when using brand-name DVD media) and the finalized discs have played back smoothly and clearly on both my standalone Pioneer player and my computer's DVD drive. To these eyes, the DVDs I've created so far are about as close as one can get to making an identical copy of the source. No artifacts, no pixel drag, no hesitations, nothin'.

If you're familiar with connecting a VCR to a TV, and know your way around your digital camcorder, it will take you (I kid you not) fifteen minutes to get this up and running. It's THAT simple. I had a finalized DVD ready to test within an hour of removing the unit from the box. The manual is reasonably well written, but the instructions most tangible to this device (the ones specific to RECORDING) do not exactly jump out at you.

I do suggest spending some time with the documentation just to acquaint yourself with the unit's on-screen options display. It's a fairly easy menu to follow, but learning about the available options ahead of time will make the experience smoother (hunt-and-peck won't be very rewarding here).

The remote control provides access to the most common and most useful operations, so you won't be spending all your time hovering over the actual unit trying to get something done.

Naturally, creating elaborate menus and doing sophisticated edits (as can be done on a computer system with the appropriate software) are beyond this device's capabilities. But it is possible to create a basic menu of entries on a DVD-R prior to finalizing, and for my purposes that will do just fine (NOTE: this unit was previously rated as 4 stars because I was under the impression that a menu could not be created on DVD-R. Further experimentation showed that this IS possible, and so this unit gets the extra star).

To be certain, if your source material is primarily from analog sources, or from a standard broadcast source (cable or satellite TV), there are cheaper units by the same manufacturer that may be better suited. Be warned that making recordings at a low-quality setting (anything less than XP or SP) will disappoint the lines-of-resolution counters out there (grin).

If you're shopping for a DVD-based VCR (in other words, you're less interested in resolution quality and more interested in exploiting DVD's generous storage capabilities), again, keep shopping.

However, if your primary goal is to transfer video from a digital source to a DVD, you insist on pure digital-to-digital quality, and you don't have the time or interest to do computer-based DVD recording, then THIS is the DVD recorder for you, hands down.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Panasonic DMR-E60 @ Bytesector.com
Review: Panasonic has been great at designing and applying aesthetic principles and creating user satisfaction over the past decade. When it comes to their DVD recorders, these qualities are not forgotten. From the DMR-E series recorders, we will be looking at the DMR-E60 model from Panasonic. The E60 is packed with features; it is an mp3 player, DVD-RAM player/recorder, and picture viewer plus a still capture device, and much more. Let's take a look at some of the features this product has to offer......in-depth review @ Bytesector.com


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