Page 1 of Panasonic DMRE85 Anyone?

I`ve decided its time to dip my toe in and buy a DVD recorder finally...

I think this one will fit the bill - has anyone got one yet? Knowing its brand new, I didn`t want to fork out if early ones were buggy or whatever. Can anyone report back on theirs?

Has anyone ever bought anything from a web trader called Digital Point? They have it M/R and RCE compatible for an unbelievable £459 incl del...! :o :D



http://www.electromancer.com/artists/flip_martian

Hi Flip Martian

I bought one last week from Digital Point. Ordered Wednesday and was delivered next day but, paid £499 for mine. I guess I should have waited.

The machine works perfectly, touch wood, no bugs or crashes noticed yet.

It`s quiet, I can`t hear it except when finalizing DVD`s when there is some disc drive noise. And even that is not that loud.

Picture quality to my eyes is good, copying from Sky in XP & SP mode I cannot tell the difference from the original. In LP mode the picture is still better than a VHS video tape and EP is about the same as a VHS tape.

I have it set up to TV link with my Sky box. This means you can select the programs you want to record using the auto view on Sky TV guide, set the Sky box on standby and press the TV link botton on the DMRE85. It will then automatically record the programs you have selected. Much easier than having to program the timer. Downside is that you can`t use the RGB setting for the input if you do this but the convenience is worth the very slight reduction in picture quality.

Editing from the Hard Drive is a piece of cake, adverts are easily erased. You can easily create chapter points and even select a thumbnail picture which displays on the menu.

Copying from the Hard Drive to a DVD is easy. Copying to DVD-R can be done at high speed if you don`t change the recording quality. i.e. if you copy a film from the Hard Drive which in SP quality you can fit 2 hours max on a DVD-R and it will copy it in about 15 mins. If it`s more than 2 hours then you have to lower the quality to fit on the DVD-R, while it is easy to do, when it copying it does it at playing speed. i.e. if the film is 3 hours long it will take 3 hours to copy. Just remember to finalize the disc if you want it to play in any machine, this takes about 2 mins.

Things I`m not happy with.

No DVD-Ram disc or DVD-R disc comes in the box. No biggie but it would have been nice to have one of each included.

The remote is a little tacky. It works fine but is in my opinion not a patch on the Sky remote or as good the Panasonic remote of my 4 year old TV.

The DVD player side of the machine is a little sparse in the function department. I can`t find a zoom option, no random button for an MP3 music disc etc.

Overall, I`m very pleased with it and don`t regret buying it.

Disintegration

This item was edited on Monday, 26th April 2004, 19:06

Hi

Anyone know what the difference is between the DMRE85 and the E55? From the very little I know, the E55 seems to be a similar machine but at half the price.

Cheers

E85 has an 80 GB Hard drive, E55 doesn`t.

Disintegration - thanks for all that...very useful info. :) If the playback facilities are more limited, would you have it alongside your existing DVD player then, rather than replacing it? Just that I was thinking of replacing my Eclipse player and just having the Panny to do both jobs...

Cheers!

http://www.electromancer.com/artists/flip_martian

I`m old enough to know better, but I couldn`t put it off any longer - just ordered one from DP anyway... :D Ooh boy, I can`t wait. I have boxes of videos to go through - the amount of space I`m going to free up... :D

http://www.electromancer.com/artists/flip_martian

...And now its arrived.

Full marks to the supplier (Digital Point) - ordered Weds night, delivered Friday morning by Initial City Link.

Everything works as it should from what I can see so far. Very happy. :D

http://www.electromancer.com/artists/flip_martian

This item was edited on Saturday, 1st May 2004, 18:06