Panasonic DMR-EX77 - 160gb Hard Drive DVD Recorder - With 1080P Up-Conversion & Freeview - Silver
Panasonic DMR-EX77 - 160gb Hard Drive DVD Recorder - With 1080P Up-Conversion & Freeview - Silver
Panasonic DVD and 160GB Hard Drive Recorder__________________________
Customer Review: divx to dvd problems
this is an excellent machine fine player.idiot proof to set up.but be warned if you have a large collection of divx to dvd movies you may have problems with playback.
Customer Review: Excellent Product.
After two failed PVRs of a similiar spec bought from Philips, the previous review tempted me to try the Panasonic DMR-EX77. I wasn’t disappointed, in fact ecstatically pleased. The set up is simplicity in itself, operation is intuitive and picture quality is awesome.
I will be very surprised if anyone purchasing one of these will be disappointed.
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Daewoo DR8100P 160GB HDD Multi-region Capable DVD recorder 
Amazon Price: ?202.90
Used Price: ?129.99
Customer Review: Absolute JUNK
I bought this based on the half decent reviews. The first unit I bought had a faulty LCD & had to be sent back (part of the LCD didn’t light up, meaning 18:00 hours always displayed as 8:00 etc). The second unit randomly freezes for no reason what all. At this point it becomes COMPLETELY unresponsive & the only fix is to unplug it & wait for one minute before powering back on. Nothing else works. In addition, it’s completely failed to record programs via the timer. The first & last time I buy anything from Daewoo. Avoid this junk at all costs.
Customer Review: OK - But one or two caveats
I purchased this item to replace 3 other units - a dvd player, a vcr and a cd player which were filling up my hi-fi cabinet, so my review reflects this approach. This would have been OK but for a few issues, some due to my own lack of knowledge, but here goes anyway: 1. It won’t replace a simple CD player overly well, as there are not the simple CD operations such as a ’shuffle’ button. If you don’t mind this then it may not be a problem for you, as it will actually play CDs by track or beginning-to-end in the normal way, without having to go through the on-screen ‘multimedia’ menus. 2. In my naivety I thought that tower units were standard sizes, however this player is several centimetres deeper than most. Adding the depth of the SCART connectors etc meant that it would not fit in my cabinet and had to sit on top. Annoying this, as I have plenty of room above or to the side. This increased the effect of the next problem: 3. It is noisy - like having a PC constantly on in the living room. Nor does it seem to manage this well. Normally it spins down after a few minutes of being on standby (there is no way of turning the unit off completely) but annoyingly if you set the timer the fan simply stays on ALL the time, seemingly in anticipation of the start of recording, even if that is a day or two away. 4. (My Grumpy Old Man bit) It has the usual annoyance that it does not talk to the other units such as the sky box, which means you still have to set them both up to record a programme, selecting inputs (av1/av2 etc.) is fussy and you can’t do without multiple remotes. Is it only me that thinks that this is more of a problem that it should be with hifi units? Apart from the above, the unit worked very well to start with, but within the month developed difficulties and I am returning it to Amazon. As no other reviewers have mentioned bugs, I assume these issues were a one-off. However, I mention them here for completeness: - On-screen Menu Freezing - Unable to turn on
Sony RDRHXD970 - 250GB Hard Drive DVD Recorder 
HDD DVD RECORDER 250GB INT DIG TV TUNER HDMI OUTPUT IN
Amazon Price: ?274.99
Customer Review: Early days yet…but initial impressions poor.
Had my 970′ unit delivered to a neighbours house as I was out last week… She told me she had been also been out when it was delivered and later found it on the garden side of her six foot fence (with no access gate) sitting on its side in a huge ornamental flower pot ! I am frankly amazed that a ?300 (and very fragile) item could be handled so carelessly and now I’m just waiting for it to break down. Performance, well, so far unimpressed, the freeview tuner is poor and cannot pick up, previously perfect ITV1 and C4 channels. My Samsung TV does not automatically switch over to it when wanting to watch a recording from DVD or HDD (does anyone know how to solve this?)and upscaling even with progressive scan setting to ‘on’ is no better than my replaced ?29.00 Philips DVD player! Only redeeming feature is ’series recording’. Moral of the story…. stay in for delivery and consider carefully whether you think a Sony branded, Pioneer recorder is really worth this kind of money.
Customer Review: Can a black box change your life?
I bought this after a bad experience with a Sony 860 (which went back), so I approached this machine with some trepidation. The previous machine had great facilities, but just didn’t work very well (poor sound, switched itself on and off etc!). Happily, this is a wonderful piece of kit and brilliant value for the money. Recordings to the HDD drive are superb (especially in HQ), and the EPG and series link work well. Setting programmes to record is so easy and dubbing to DVD is also simple and fast. Reviewing what has been recorded is a breeze; the recording list has thumbnails which play excerpts to remind you what the programme contains, as well as the programme title, time it was recorded, channel (BBC1..) etc.! Being able to start watching a recording before it has finished and the ease and fuss-free operation actually changes the way you watch TV. Also, it is a great DVD player and the upscaling via the HDMI link makes standard DVDs look near ‘HD’ quality. What’s not to like?
Sharp DVRW360H DVD/VCR Recorder Combi with progressive scan 
Amazon Price: ?134.98
Ellion 515A Dual Format Multi-region Capable DVD Recorder with MPEG4 Playback and iLink 
Amazon Price: ?79.99
Customer Review: Looks good, but that was all
This unit looked great when I took it out of the box. Unfortunately, my problems began as soon as I plugged it in… as nothing happened. I left it for half an hour and it finally spluttered into life. However, several test recordings later and it’s going back to Amazon. It froze on every recording, refused to eject disks and still switches itself off at random. I tried different types of disk and changing fuses but it made no difference. Shame.
Customer Review: Good price but not good quality
I bought this to replace a broken Philips. It set up well with no problems. However the picture quality was poor with a distinct green tinge and it lacked clarity. On top of this we could hear sound from a TV channel through the soundtrack for our DVD (Gosford Park to the music of A Fistful Of Dollars). I’ve sent it back - thanks to Amazon for their very easy returns policy.
