Customer Reviews: Read 44 more reviews...
 Excellent Recorder August 21, 2008
P. Hudson (Newcastle on Tyne)
Had this a couple of days and although have not tried everything.I am very pleased so far.Only have it connected to my portable TV but the Freeview picure quality is very good.Recording to the the hard drive or disc I found
smooth and fast.So far very pleased.
Experience with product - A1 July 26, 2008
Mark in Yorkshire (Huddersfield, Yorks)
Just to add my thoughts to other reviews - I simply wanted a DVD Recorder with HDD as I work away from home a lot - Recently bought this and it is BRILLIANT - I am not a DVD/HDD/Freeview Genius/Expert but I didn't NEED it to make a cup of tea too plus record 10 channels at once !! As a past reviewer said it clearly STATES what it can do and it delivers in spades. I have never had such clear Freeview reception (in fact can get extra channels that I couldn't before with better frequency) and you CAN plug in Skybox on AV2 - it does it all.. Playback is crystal clear on HDD even on LP - Past recorded DVDs (completed and RWs left open) all play perfectly - Very happy - would not hesitate to recommend AAA+ - Cheers Mark.
 Some niggles with this product. June 8, 2008
R. G. Bowles (Bexleyheath, Kent)
Had this machine about a month now as a replacement upgrade for a Lite-on HDD/DVD. The machine while perfectly workable has some niggles that should have been addressed by a company of the quality of Panasonic.
1. The manual is pretty incomprehensible which means it is possible some of the following can be solved.
2. The 'one touch record' button does just that. You can start recording, but you cannot set the end period (the Lite-on allowed recording in half hour steps). To do a timed recording you must use the Function Menu and set the times from there. This cannot be done while already recording as it ends the current recording (see point 3). Also the record button is tiny and a real pain to find in a hurry or in a darkened room.
3. You cannot splice two recordings together. This means any form of creative editing is impossible. It is possible to edit out ads from a recording and then rejoin the parts, so why couldn't Panasonic allow this.You can set up 'playlists' but that is not the same.
4.When copying from HDD to DVD this is done via the 'to others button'then 'advanced copying' not the 'to copy' one. Also an error message about source not found that just means you need to set the source to HDD (it defaults to DVD).
5. The 'skip' functions move you to the next chapter or recording, It would have been nice if you could skip (say) 10 minutes of a recording rather than having to fast forward through it.
If none of the above worry you then the Panasonic would probably rate a 4 star.
 PLAYING COLOURISED DVD's AS BLACK AND WHITE April 28, 2008
R. Pearson
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am very pleased with the Panasonic DMREX77. My problem is playing a colourised DVD as monochrome. My Panasonic CRT Television PL28 will not allow me to change colour when playing material from HDD or DVD. I can change contrast and brightness but the colour seems to be set. If I watch television through the recorder then the colour control works, but not when playing the HDD or DVD. Any suggestions on how to solve this problem?
Worth every penny April 16, 2008
P. Spencer (Newcastle, Tyne and Wear)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I looked at this model for some time before buying, I read all the reviews I could find on here and the net and decided, after I learnt it had won a few awards, to take the chance. Well what can I say apart from I'll give it a strong 5 outa 5 (had the player for a few weeks now). Once set-up it automates searching for channels, this was a painless process and took no time at all. It's very easy to use, mind you, I did take 1 look at the manual and thought sod that, it's like a book, so I just dived in and had a play around. Navigation via the remote is easy, all the functions, TV guide and recording, even the editor is all simple. Example; I love the editing functions on chapters; you are able to move the picture frame by frame in still motion which enables simplistic editing from 1 scene to another.
Setting timer from guide is easy also, just press Guide button, choose which program you're going to record then its takes you to next page options where you can alter the start/stop time and which record option you want to use SP etc. I was a little concered about the size of the HDD, but now that i have it, it's more than enough for what we need.
The picture is 2nd to none. Our signal in the area is so so, but what I immediately notice was the picture improvement from the Freeview tuner over our Sky box, so much so I have cancelled my Sky subscription, yeha. Playing from a DVD, picture is perfect, the only way I think I could improve on it would be to buy a new LCD display.
I can't comment on the SD reader as I have a PC with good editing prog so prob will never use it.
Reading through some of these comments I see people are unhappy with the fact you can't watch 1 channel and tape another, well that simply because it doesn't have a twin digital tuner, I don't think there is a model on the market that has a twin and also 1080P Up-Conversion and with Freeview. What we have done so far is, watch a DVD while timer is set/recording. Play a pre-recorded program from the HDD while timer is set/recording.
Booting up, this device has a power saving mode which is factory enabled, well it was on the one I received. This however means it does take a while to boot up or close down, but me being a miser and all, I don't really mind this one bit. So overall I'm very happy with my purchase.
|
