Panasonic DMR-EZ47VK

Pros: Great quality recordings, even at slower speeds

Cons: Software improvements would go far; customer service is very poor

Summary: Many of the reviews I read, before I purchased this DVR, didn’t tell the whole story. How many times do you have to reboot your DVR? Nearly once weekly, it stops responding to commands entered from its remote or from buttons on its face and so I have to reboot this DVR. Sometimes, that means actually having to unplug it from its power source.

Sometimes, when chasing playback is engaged, it mangles the recorded audio so badly, you cannot understand the audio track at all.

If you forget to leave enough space to record the program, on the DVD-RAM disk, it attempts to record without an indication something is amiss. But, on playback, you realize you have recorded video, but no audio.

My $40 DVD player will allow you to stop, remove a DVD, and then replace it (even days later) and pick up where you left off. In fact, it remembers the last location on the most recent 30 disks placed into it. This DVR? It forgets where you were, on the disk, the moment you stop and remove the disk.

Large status messages appear on-screen, in the middle of playback (both commercial and disks it records) for no reason. Sometimes those messages flicker on and off once every 60 seconds or less. Panasonic's customer service cannot assist.

When this DVR records, it records great. The reviewers were right on that point. It makes a nice recording, if it functions correctly. You had just better make sure the program you’re recording will be re-aired, because there’s a decent chance the recording you’re making right now will be botched in some way.

Contact Panasonic’s customer service and they’ll tell you to reboot the DVR, but that won’t solve the problem. They’ll tell you to buy new HDMI cables, but that won’t solve the problem, either. They’re fishing and their DVR isn’t yet ready for the real world.

If I were you, I’d wait until someone perfects a DVR with a hard drive that includes a digital tuner and does the thing the Panasonic DMR-EZ47V and DMR-EZ47BK say they do, but actually do not.

Too bad. I really wanted to like this DVR. Now I cannot wait for someone to come along with something better.