Rating: 
Summary: Great Recorder
Review: This machine has been spectacular except for a few gliches. When you change the inputs it makes a horrible sound. Also the advertisement said that there is a digital input and there isn't so don't be fooled. I have burned a lot of stuff since I got this 3 weeks ago and I am enjoying what I see. The only thing that is bad is the fact that the DVD's do not play in my Mintek DVD player.
Rating: 
Summary: Can't go back to VCR
Review: I had been waiting for DVD-recorder/HDD combo to come out for over 2 years. I had been following the market in Japan since DMR-HS1 and when HS2 came out, I almost bought it. The only thing that held me back was the 40GB HDD that some people seemed to be saying wasn't enough.So when this DMR80E came out in Japan, I couldn't wait for it to come out here. And as soon as I found out it was out, I ordered it and have had it for 3 weeks. This was exactly what I had been waiting for! We record shows regularly and had been using VCR which was really irritating me for the following reasons:
- searching for the right location in tape
- tapes not long enough (I even used those 10hr tapes
but when I'm out of town that wasn't enough to
hold all the shows)
- rewinding (imagine how long it takes to rewind that 10hr tape)
- need to worry about overwriting
- can't figure out what's in the tape unless i play it back. All these problems are solved with the HDD. I guess Tivo/Replay is the same and I did consider buying one previously, but I just couldn't agree to the subscription based business model. I know which shows I want to record, so why pay monthly fee (or ont time lifetime fee) for the service? And how many times would the thing really record shows I like that didn't know about??? Besides I have enough stuff shows to watch regularly that I don't need the machine to tell me about other shows. Anyway, the DVD-RAM/R is handy for shows that you want to keep around. You shouldn't leave stuff on the HDD if you don't want to lose them. So the other reviewer concerned about the warnings should not be because ANY HDD based electronics has potential data failure against power outage. Regarding DVD-R compatibility warning, I think that can also be said true for any DVD-R drives because some older DVD drives don't read DVD-R disks properly. Most recent models should be ok, but I think there's always that risk. Oh, be sure to turn on the DVD-R compatible mode when recording if you want to play it back on other players. One note is that if you want to record stuff from HDD to DVD without re-encoding (ie loss of quality), you need to use the fast copy mode. You had to turn on the DVD-R compatibility mode in order to do this.
Rating:
Summary: i love mine!!!! - best thing I ever bought for myself
Review: Actually, I have the next bigger model DMR-HS2, and have had it for several months now and love it love it love it. I think the main difference between these models is the larger hard drive in the E80HS and the JPEG capability of my model. Anyway, I wanted to respond to the person who was not sure if they liked theirs because of copyright scheme, power failure warning, etc. First of all, yes, of course for DVD your are going to be up against copyright protection enforcement with DVD burners so this should not have surprised you. (I have not had any problem recording movies from cable or regular TV at all so far.) Secondly, don't worry about the power failure warning. I have had several power failures at home in my presence, and there were probably more than I know, ad I have yet to lose anything that was already recorded on the hard disk. Cannot ask much more than that from electronics. Also, I have played the DVDs that I have burned on several different players and they have worked about 90% of the time so far. (I have burned about 175 DVDs so far with my DMR-HS2 and a lot of that is condensed material from the hard drive where I have removed commercials, etc.) Here are two different things I like to do before going to bed: scenario 1. set the timer to record something in the morning (and it is nice that you can set the time while something is recording without interrupting it). Then when you are finished recording what is on right now, then set the unit to burn stuff from you hard drive that you have edited to a DVD-R, and go to bed. 2 hrs after the unit finishes burning your DVD it will auto shut off from inactivity. Then in the am it will fire back up and start recording your am show. Pretty neat! Scenario 2 - Here is another (one that I am doing tonight actually): set the unit to record on L3 where your cable box is tuned to a movie channel and have it record right to DVD-R (since there are no commercials) using FR speed (optimum for time selected), then set the timer to record on another channel now or some other time (could be regular broadcast) to the hard disk. It will switch from DV, L1, L2 or L3 on its own. (Of course with a cable box, I am using a splitter on the coax cable at the wall so that I can route what is coming in on L1 around and bypassing the cable box, whereas L3 comes right from the cable box's RCA outputs.) Can't wait to upgrade my TV - although my current Sony looks great with the output from this thing. I usually record on SP, XP and mostly FR (variable) speeds. Also archive a lot from VHS - works great. A real solid piece of electronics!
Rating:
Summary: Good bye VCR
Review: I just got this recorder and it was easy to set up. It has many features but it can't do everything. The best thing about this recorder is the 80 gig hard drive. You can record programs using vcr plus codes and watch them while it's recording or later if you want by using the navigator playlist.
The best things about this recorder:
1) ease of use
2) commercial skip button
3) you can record up to 99 (i think) programs
4) you get your line up recordings on the hard drive using vcr plus and no more need to channel surf aimlessly.
5) When setting up to record you have your choice recording on drive or dvd-r.
6) dvd-r after I finalized played in a laptop, playstations 2 and 7 inch portable dvd player.
cons:
You can not convert store bought vhs tapes to dvd, it's blocked. Manual mentions some media will be blocked from recording. however regular tv and homemade tapes not a problem to copy.
I only recorded three dvd-r and quality wasn't like store bought, but I used memorex dvd-r for 2.50 each. I think the recording to dvd-r will be good but most likely not match the quality of store bought ones, but neither the price.
Overall the hard drive feature alone would make this unit a worthwhile purchase but being able to edit and record dvds makes this a great unit to own. This system will one day be the standard and will evently replace the VCR. If you can get it for a good price, buy it. Panasonic does not make junk, so you know you are getting something good when you buy a Panasonic. Update 10/7/03 After almost three months, the E80h is still working flawlessly. I lost power during the blackout, but the contents on the hard drive were in tack when power came back. This is by far the best piece of electronic hardware I have ever owned. The people who report problems with the E80 are not too bright on the technical aspects of this amazing machine or just unlucky and should get a replacement unit. If you are the kind of person who can't set the clock on a VCR, you should not buy the E80. You should be learning how to read instead of watching TV.
Tips.
1) Do not record past LP 4 hour mode. LP quality is very good but EP is not good for movies, EP ok only for TV shows and cartoons for the kids.
2) Editing out the commercial is easy, once you get the hang of it. You use the Navigator shorten segment. I've have been able to copy many movies now without commercials. Besides you will save 30 mins. DVD-R disk space for every two-hour movie.
3) When using VCR plus codes you need to program the correct corresponding channels in the function area to record correctly. I.E. if you type in a VCR code, it might read Ch. 56, but the show is really on Ch. 38. You would then need to adjust VCR plus channels code, so all future recordings will record on the correct channel.
4) Memorex DVD-r works well and the disks are cheap, about 2.50 each.
5) Remember this dvd-r will not be as pristine as store bought DVDs but the quality is still very good. Considering I can put two classic movies on a 2.50 DVD vs. buying them for at least 30.00. I settle for slightly less quality.
6) Commercials suck and you don't have to watch them when you use this unit correctly. I recommend buying this unit just for that feature alone.
Rating:
Summary: 1 Week and Solidly Addicted!
Review: I've had my E80 for one week and I'm addicted! My old SVHS machine is gone and my wife and I are recording shows on the hard disk drive (HDD) and letting them buffer a little before watching them while they record, so we can pause, stop and skip commercials. The stand-alone "Tivo" aspect of this machine was the primary selling point for me and we are now using it fully. One nice feature is the ability to set it to record a daily or weekly show and then record over the previous one each time. My wife watches "Wheel of Fortune" and I watch "The Daily Show" pretty regularly, so those are now set to record every day -- but they don't accumulate on the hard drive. There is always just one of each on there -- the last ones that ran. I had been concerned about video reproduction on our 48" rear projection TV screen. But the SP setting on the E80 delivers an excellent picture, better than my old SVHS. The top XP setting is even better -- pretty much indistinguishable from the original signal. I used high-speed dubbing to move one program from the HDD to a DVD-ram disk. It took 8 minutes to dub a 30-minute program and I had no problems following instructions from the manual. We have played a few DVD movies and the video and sound reproduction are excellent, better than my old Sony DVD player. The first movie I played was my usual "test" scene -- the "Battle of Carthage" from "Gladiator" with lots of light and dark contrast and loud, widely-separated DTS audio. Superb! The manual is fairly straightforward, as those things go, and I found the setup to be uncomplicated. I did not find the disclaimers in the manual about things that might conceivably happen (but probably won't) to be ...disconcerting .... The way I read it, the warning about the possibility of a "disk becoming unusable" if you get a power failure during recording refers more to DVD disks than the HDD. In general, I find that remotes could be better designed and this one is no exception. I would make it larger with larger buttons and make it work from a greater side-angle but that is nit-picking. Some of the specs I have seen listed for this machine contain inaccuracies. There are accurate specs for it on the Panasonic website. People with camcorders should know that the E80 does not have a digital input. It does have one optical digital output to run audio to your receiver. The optical cable does not come with the unit, btw. Judging from one week in, this is fine machine and I already love it dearly.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome DVD recorder
Review: The 80GB hard drive is amazing. Being able to record a program while you are away and return part way through it and start watching from the beginning while it continues to record is great. The editing functions to cut out commercials are easy to learn and can substantially reduce the length of a show. For example most 1/2 hour shows can be reduced to about 20 minutes. Using the EP format and a 4.7GB DVD-R you can record up to 18 shows. EP format is plenty good for 80% of normal recording. If recorded to the HD with the intent of recording to a DVD later you can use high speed "dubbing" and put 6 hours of video on a DVD in one hour. I highly recommend the DMR-E80HS and the price is unbeatable.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: I got the DMR-E80H as soon as it came out, because of dissatisfaction with the quality of VCRs now on the market. (Two VCRs I purchased recently -- one from Panasonic and the other from SONY -- had broken down on me within six months of purchase.) I'm now so happy with my DMR-E80H that I will probably buy another one soon. The DMR-E80H can be set to record up to 32 separate programs, including daily, weekly, and Monday-Friday settings. This has been far more than I have needed. Downloading from the hard disk to a DVD is fast and easy. But there is still so much empty space on my hard disk that I haven't bothered downloading very often. Editing programs is also easy. It is possible to split a program in two, or to delete portions of a program.
Rating:
Summary: Great Recorder!!
Review: This model was released on April in Japan and there were many good impression there. So I purchased this as soon as it was released on July 1st.
It was one that I expected. HDD and DVD-RAM/R recording is pretty easy and perfect. I cannot return to VCR. There are a lot of good feature like as Time-slip recording, Chasing Playback, Simultaneous Recording and Playback and also up to 104 hours of recording. E80H supports DVD-RAM and DVD-R, and also plays back DVD Video, music CDs, video CDs, and CD-R/CD-RW MP3 formatted discs.
And it is a reasonable price. Great Recorder!!
Rating:
Summary: watching one program and recording another (cable users)
Review: This is what I do...
Split the signal from the cable, and route one signal to the digital converter, then to the dvd recorder. Route the other to the regular RF input on the tv. While recording one show, you can watch another through the separate tv input. You might not get the "digital" out of your digital converter on the RF input, but it serves my needs.
You could even split the signal in three, and put the third straight to the dvd recorder RF input, and make use of VCR+ capabilities.... I think.
Bear with me, I'm new to this.
I love my DMR-E80H!!
Rating: 
Summary: Unit dead after 6 months
Review: After 6 months of using this unit it went completely dead. I took it to an authorized Panasonic repair service center several weeks ago. The service center told me that the needed part, a circuit board, was backordered from Panasonic. The service center also told me that 3 different promise shipment dates for the needed part were not met by Panasonic and there was little they could do. So today, I am still without any idea when the unit will be repaired. I would avoid this unit.
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