Panasonic DMR-HS2 (05/02/2003)

Review: BOTTOM LINE IS, IF YOU CAN FIND ONE NEW OR EVEN USED TODAY, BUY IT! OR LET ME KNOW SO I CAN BUY IT!

Review: Normally this operation would not require the covers to be removed for maintenance ... but when this unit goes through Airport screening, someone removed the cover and re-installed with front cover "jammed" into place, without proper mate of the three interface plugs, which caused the digital input to be in-operable.
Why did Panisonic design such a poorly constructed interface to require ALL THREE plugs to be aligned, with way too much precision, and have the center circuit board digital plug interface to be so fragile that it would bend to one side (COMPLETELY), thus not even plugged in ... in the case of Home Land Security, or some untrained security personnel, because this is the way it returned from security.
When I got home the digital interface was not operational, and the case front was crooked, and pieces of securing tabs were broken and pieces left inside the electronic compartment area.
I would not purchase any further Panasonic equipment, if it is so poorly designed for repair procedures.

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Review: If you are looking for a way to record a show, say South Park and then save the show to DVD, look no further. The unit allows recording to the hard disk, and then editing out the commercials. The resulting disk is very high quality, and has only the entertainment content. Amazing! Get your's soon, as the DCMA boys and girls will ban this thing in the next six months! The silver finish is a real pain, though. The lights in your living room have to be 'just so' to read the digital display.

Review: Finally, I can make my own DVDs. Additionnally, I can cut advertisemnt, pre and post announcement before to make my own DVD. Thank to the hard drive, the DMR-HS2 allows to record on HDD, remove what you don't need, and than, make your own DVD, with just the film or the show you wanted. In digital quality. You can't do it with a simple DVD record, nor with a simple HDD recorder. The quality is as good as the digital TV, and the DVD-R are readed by all DVD players I tested yet. The navigation is quite easy in the OSD, and the picture slideshow with memory cards is easy and great when you have some people at home Missing an MP3 library and player ! This would have been the top here... Too bad. Still, it's really a nice product I would recommend to everyone, kwoning that no such product will be released on the european market in the next weeks...

Review: I've had the HS2 since Christmas. I also happen to own TiVo -- they perform entirely different functions. The HS2 is essentially a replacement for a VCR -- it allows permanent archival. TiVo is like having a robot that knows what you want to watch and tapes it for you when you forget. If TiVo ever includes a DVD burner and editing capability, you'll have the best of both, but in the meantime, the HS2 is your best call. I've been extremely happy with this unit. As some other reviewers have noted, the quality of DVDs recorded in XP mode is excellent -- but you're limited to one-hour per disk. SP mode is a little mushy, but at least as good as SP mode on a VCR tape, and it's a permanent archive. I'm making DVDs of basketball games (editing out commercials keeps them under 2 hours), shows for my kids off the Disney channel (much cheaper than buying DVDs with the same exact content), and archiving DV footage from my Sony camcorder. I've had the HS2 crash two times when writing disks; my best guess is that the media was dirty or defective. But after a restart it worked fine on a fresh disk. (If you buy DVDs in bulk they're cheap -- the comment one reviewer made about this costing him $10 per disk suggests he hasn't shopped around for media. I get DVDs for about the same price as HQ VCR tapes.) My only complaint about this unit is that the manual really sucks. I don't understand how a company like Panasonic can't afford to hire a couple of competent technical writers. After playing with this I could easily write a manual that would save consumers a lot of time. I'd also recommend that Panasonic (1) increase the size of the hard drive (which is woefully small if you do all your recording at XP quality) and (2) add additional functions to editing, though it's very usable in its present state. If you want better editing you just go to a PC-based unit, and since the NS2 can output to DVD-RAM, it makes transport back and forth to a PC easy. Don't get rid of TiVo, but if you buy the HS2 you can ditch at least one of the VCRs in your house.

Review: For those looking for an easy way to convert thier VCR tape collection to DVD, this is it! Will not record Commercial Movies, but will record off Cable/SAT. Use Fuji DVD-R disks for compatability with other DVD players. I have found that it is the disk, not the DVD player that is the issue of compatability. The remote is easy to use, Titles can be generated for programs and the Menu. Don't expect fancy menus, nine different backgrounds are available.

Review: bought it.problems with dvd drive and hard drive.sloppy customer support.dumb tech support.dont know abcs about product.

Review: HELP! ...I am debating what I should buy. I know I want a DVD-RAM & DVD-R recorder with a hard drive, so that limits it to these two models. Do I go with the DMR-HS2 which has progressive scan and DV input, or Toshiba's RD-X2 for double the hard drive space and what seems like a simpler user interface and owners manual??? Both are available at about the same price.

Review: As most people have commented, this unit is fairly versatile. I've had one for two months and have been generally happy... POSITIVES: works with cheap, bulk media; excellent picture quality in XP mode (or, virtually as good as the source video quality) NEGATIVES: no 5.1 audio recording (sucks if you're using the unit to make backups of commercial dvds which you own--as I do), so you're limited to Dolby Digital 2-channel on the dvds you make; cutting and snipping commercials is not frame-by-frame, so you can't get perfect results when editing from the hard drive; no ability to fast forward to the end of a recorded program immediately--so if you've recorded a 3-hr program and want to cut out the last 15 minutes you have to manually fast forward to that point in the recording. All-in-all a great vcr replacement, but if you want to back-up your commercial dvds use a computer, dvd-r burner, and dvdxcopy.

Review: It is so convenient to burn movies from my digital cable right to a dvd, and then watch them on the weekend. It makes for a cheap ($.89 for a DVD-R) date! The only negative I have had is with the online company I purchased it from who charged me next day air fees, and delivered two weeks later.

Review: I don't have experience with TiVo, just this, so I suppose I don't know what I'm missing...however, with that as a given...I really love the recording and viewing options. It's changed the way I watch TV. I do so on my schedule now and I don't pay anyone a monthly fee! I originally bought this to transcribe from MiniDV tapes to DVD, (Haven't tested out that feature yet.) but soon found myself enamoured of the TV recording/playback. OK, so I have to put in the Code number of the show from my TV guide, or set it like a VCR with Time/Date/Channel, then I have to manually punch in the Title if I want a Title. But it just doesn't seem that burdensome to me, and goes rather quickly. Machine can be fast forwarded/reversed at various speeds and paused with a slow frame advance. Deleting segments is simple. Machine lets you know time remaining on Hard Drive or Disc. I hooked my old VCR in line with this: DVD/TV; VCR/TV so I can record back/forth from DVD/Tape or watch tape while recording DVD, etc.- Commercial (1 minute) skip button is oddly placed on the remote, but other remote control buttons feel intuitive in the hand....I'm now desiring another one for my other TV.

Review: Please look before you leap. A great idea having a hard drive recording and then coping to a DVD the material you want to save. But, after one month the DVD recorder crashed when ever I tried to write to a DVD disk. Tech support said use our disks only (at 2-3 times the cost) but it still did not work. These crashes cost lots of money because they destroyed a $10 DVD disk. The machine is currently (one month and counting) in the repair shop and they have had problems getting support from Panasonic diagnosing the problem. I out $1000 dollars and have nothing to show for it.

Review: I found a great website where there is a forum just for this piece of hardware. http://www.thewholewideweb.com/forum/default.asp

Review: Think about this new entertainment appliance in this way: DVD player and recorder + VCR + TIVO + Photo Viewer. With that said, in many ways the HS2 brings the benefits of total digital entertainment right into the comfort of your living room. This unit is great for anyone who wants to edit their own vacation, family fun or "life" videos, record high-quality video either from television, VHS, or cam-corder as well as archive digital photos! So if you've cam-corded thousands of miles of kid birthday parties or recorded 5,000 old TV shows, the HS2 gives you the ability to edit right on the RAM disc or hard drive, and then make a DVD-R to view, share with your friends or even archive. One particular feature I really like about the unit is "time slip" recording, which is truly remarkable, because it allows simultaneous recording and playback of the same program at the same time-thanks to DVD/RAM technology. For instance, you can watch the beginning of a TV show while the end is still recording, which I think is very cool. Now contrary to some misconceptions, you CAN record onto popular DVD-R discs using the HS2 that WILL play on your buddy's DVD player, or your grandmother's DVD player for that matter. But if you really get to know the HS2, you can easily title your programs, choose a menu color, set it to skip commercials, divide programs, all while recording very high quality video. The internal hard drive can record up to 52 hours for normal or standard recordings, and for the highest quality video it will store 8.5 hours. . If you're looking for a DVD recorder that is quite versatile and covers all the bases, then I highly recommend Panasonic’s DMR-HS2!

Review: I bought my DMR-HS2 knowing that there were limitations with my Ultimate TV unit and DirecTV. Well, it is true that you lose alot of functionality with Ultimate TV, but it can record archived items from saved programs...so it is not totally useless with Ultimate TV. I plan on using Ultimate TV to record my favorite programs and transferring those that I wish to keep forever to the Panasonic DMR-HS2 and to DVD-R. The unit has a very clear and clean picture and I'm impressed with the audio output. All in all...I'm very satisfied with my new toy.

Review: On the good side, it is pretty easy to use (though the manual is about the worst I've ever seen..useless index) and once you figure out how it does something, it's easy enough to remember. The pictures look good, but a bit disappointing. The XP quality to my eye looked about as good as a good analog cable broadcast; SP seemed about like a mediocre VHS tape from TV. Even my wife, who does not notice picture sharpness very much, thought the EP picture (from analog input) was "bad". Doing A/B tests with SP vs VHS camcorder tapes, the SP seems a bit worse. It has some quirks that seem logical in retrospect, such as recording from analog in XP and then "dubbing" (copying) to DVD in SP filling the background with artifacts. At least on mine, you want to do the analog to digital conversion at whatever speed you want for the final disk. When I plugged in the digital camcorder with the firewire, I was actually pleasantly surprised. Even on EP, a slow moving scene looks very sharp and crisp in motion. But even XP is nowhere near as detailed as the original feed..faint watermarks that are very clear on the Digital 8 don't turn up on the XP, and fast moving objects (houses from a fast car) are filled with artifacts..frame by frame vs. the tape shows a lot of degradation if the scene is flashing by. (logical with compression). Testing with a recording of a broadcast DVD vs the real DVD (I happened to own) shows the same effect, frame by frame sharp on the DVD and mush on the HS2. Since it's going through an anlaog broadcast, that isn't surprising. But the DVD-Rs from a digital source don't show the crispness of the source on close inspection. Under some circumstances (such as poor VHS tape with waves of noise going over it) the HS2 can go nuts and make a big blocks of "ice" with really exaggerated contrast. All that said, most all the pictures look good in casual inspection, and I will probably wind up "dubbing" my digital camcorder tapes at SP, getting two tapes on one DVD. But don't throw out the source material in case something better comes along in a few years!! (Like maybe a working computer based +R system?). I've had it about a month, burned about 30 DVDs, of old vhs camcorder tapes, wife's favorite tv shows off vhs, etc. Some tv shows. Digital 8 and mini DV tests. No coasters. Works with all 5 kinds of disks I've tried. Plays on all the players I've been able to try so far. A real nice machine if you don't have to have digital tape quality and are OK with a product that isn't sharp like a commercial DVD.

Review: I've found one major issue with this DVD recorder that will force me to return it. Any analog video signal recorded through the S-Video or Composite (RCA) jacks ends up being recorded on the DVD without any adjustment made to the black level. All DVD's need to contain black levels at 0 IRE (0mV)in order to display properly on TV screens. This is because every set-top DVD player adds a "set-up" level to the signal when the DVD is played back (boosting the brightness to 7.5 IRE). If you record material onto a DVD-R, DVD+R or DVD RAM disc with a black level higher than 0 IRE (0mV), then all the areas that should be black onscreen (including mattes on widescreen movies) actually end up appearing brighter (as a shade of grey). The Philips DVD+R recorder adjusts for this by reducing the black levels to -7.5 IRE when recording through the S-Video or Composite inputs. Unfortunately, the Panasonic does not...this makes all DVD-R recordings too bright when recording through those inputs. One exception to this is the DV (Firewire, I-Link, IEEE-1394) input...it will make a proper digital transfer of camcorder-based DV footage (because the recording on most DV camcorders is already at 0mv and does not need adjusting). I haven't tried the Toshiba DVD Recorder yet, but I'd be very curous to know if anyone has had a similar experience with that model.

Review: I can't imagine having to fiddle around with VCR tapes again... "Which tape has Friends?" "Did we already watch that tape?" I'll never have to ask those questions again. I have already transferred and edited my wedding videos and 10 hours of old VHS-C home movies. Recording from a VCR is a snap! I can't wait to transfer my digital camcorder movies via the Firewire connection. Too bad it can't act like a DVD burner for the PC, but that isn't what it is intended for anyway. If Best Buy didn't offer it at 18 months 0% financing, I would not have dropped the $999. Thank you Best Buy credit services... I couldn't wait to buy this thing and now have no regrets.

Review: Remember before you buy this product, it doesnt replace TIVO or REPLAY TV. My main purpose of buying this product was to be able to record shows on different channels at different times. With a cable box in between, this machine doesnt do that. THIS MACHINE IS NOT CAPABLE OF CHANGING CHANNELS ON THE CABLE BOX.

Review: Prerecorded DVD playback is exceptional, but the unit only records in 2-channel Dolby, NOT DD Surround Sound 5.1! Panasonic's support folks did not know this, nor did the people at Best Buy where I bought the unit, but my home theater salesman figured it out after researching Panasonic's specs on the Web. It seems ludicrous to me that an $850 machine would leave out such a key feature. I'm sure I'm not the only consumer that would demand full 5.1 surround sound recording capability. Otherwise, why record digital broadcasts at all?

Review: Work Great For Two Weeks Then Rom Drive Went Bad Again,Have Too Take Back To Best Buy And Wait Another Two Months To Get It Back And See If This One Works Again.

Review: I would suggest that you read the manual for this unit but for most functions you will have no problem figuring it out. The HDD holds from 8.5 -- 52 hr. of programing or you can use the DVD-ram, or DVD-RW. The picture is super clear in almost any mode.

Review: I recently received mine and I think it does an excellant job. I even like the mirror appearance of the front and all my equipment is black. Although I'm sure its required the copy protection system will prevent you from backing up many of the original VHS tapes you want to convert to DVD or any DVD you want a back up copy for. If you intend to transfer the VHS movies you bought or backup a DVD then you will have to pay out another $400 to $500 to get a copy protection remover. You cannot copy many VHS tapes you own to this machine. This unit is easy to use and does a great job. I wish you could get picture type chapter menus out on dvd-R with it but I haven't been able yet. The segment shorten feature is great for clipping off junk at the beginning and end of your recording as well as removing comercials. The play list created are one behind another so every time a new program is added you have to scan through the previous programs to get to it. Use track forward or backward under the sliding door for this. I bought a sample kit of 8 pc DVD-R which included 2 of four different types to test before buying in quantity. The machine recorded on the "supermediastore" disks "dvdpro" disks dvdpro x2" disks and "TDK" disk without a problem and some of these disk are under $1.00 each. I tested playback in this unit, and older Sony, an Apex AD-600A with N6 upgrade and a new Sony. They all played the disk except for the "DVDPRO x2" disk which only played on the HS2 and the new SONY. I have heard comments that the hard disk is noisy but I haven't heard any noise from mine. I think the machine is great but its a shame you can't transfer the video library you own to dvd without a device to defeat copy protection used on many of the tapes.

Review: <b> THE Home Theatre Appliance</b> WOW! What a concept. A DVD-R burner with a 40GB Hard drive. The "concept" is a good one, and since this is the FIRST appliance of its kind (Panasonic's E-20 and E-30 are its older brothers, without the hard drive), there are some things you should be aware of before you plunk down $750-$900 for the DMR-HS2. <B> Its NOT a TIVO</B> While the TIVO and Replay PVR products may sound similar, the DMR-HS2 does not require you to subscribe to any channel update service, so you save $9-$12 dollars per month OR $250 for lifetime subscription. Its built in <b>VCR Plus </b> service is free. The VCR Plus service is not nearly as extensive as the TIVO or REPLAY subscription services, which cover literally hundreds of channels. The DMR-HS2 has a built in 125 channel tuner, so it will work fine with your local channels, and most cable systems, but DIRECT TV and DISH services will not. If you currently have TIVO or REPLAY units, you CAN archive from them. Just run an Svideo or composite cable from either unit, to the front panel input of the DMR-HS2, and capture to its hard drive or DVD-RAM in REAL TIME. Then, the DMR-HS2 will allow you to do basic editing on the material. From there, you can archive your finished product on either DVD-RAM, or to DVD-R media. By archiving to DVD-RAM, you can always make another DVD-R copy, should your original get damaged! PLUS, if you have a PC with a DVD-RAM compatible drive and the requisite software, you can refine and edit the source on your PC even further, then go back to your DMR-HS2, and burn your DVD-R! In fact, you can do that with ANY source material fed into the DMR-HS2, including the programs you have time-shift recorded for later viewing: put them on the built in Hard Drive OR slip a DVD-RAM disk in, and record to it. SORRY: You cannot copy DVD's to the hard drive and make copies, so dont even think about making illegal copies of copyrighted material on this rig! That's not what it was designed for. Copy protected data cannot be transferred TO the internal Hard drive. OK, so you can do recording to the built in hard drive or a DVD-RAM disk, or DVD-R disk from any input source on the DMR-HS2. The best way to do it is this way: Source (TV,Mini DV Camcorder, Replay Unit, etc) to Hard Drive---> Edit on Hard drive---> Archive on DVD-RAM disk OR Burn on DVD-R disk. If you burn directly to DVD-R disk, it will be in REAL TIME: However long the source material is on the Hard Drive, will be the burn time to DVD-R. If you archive to DVD-RAM, the transfer from hard drive to DVD-RAM will be a true Digital transfer, faster than REAL TIME. If at any time in the future, you wish to burn a copy of your archived DVD-RAM source material to a DVD-R, you will have to transfer to hard drive first (faster than real time), then from hard drive to DVD-R (Real Time). Once the DVD-R burn is completed, you choose the option to FINALIZE the disk, which will make it playable in just about any existing DVD standalone home player. The DVD-R disk becomes a DVD-Video disk. DVD-R player compatibility is still superior to the DVD(Plus)R competing standard. I transfered several types of source material to hard drive, then burned DVD-R (finalized to DVD-Video), then played them on several types of DVD players ( Panasonic, Toshiba, and Playstation2). They looked GREAT! While the DMR-HS2 does give you options for menus at the beginning of your DVD-R's, they are NOT extensive...very simple. If you are looking for more control over chapter stops, editing, menu structures and appearances, you may be better off with a PC based DVD editing/Burning system. IF you already have a DVD-RAM capable drive in your PC, you can bring your source material into your computer, and using whatever editing program(s) you prefer, edit and refine the source further. Then, save to DVD-RAM, insert into the DMR-HS2, transfer to its hard drive, then burn a copy or two to DVD-R. <b>It Can read Memory from your Digital Camera Too</b> There is a PC card slot on the front that will accept a PC Card adapter for Compact Flash. Several other memory types are supported as well, each needing its own PC Card adapter. The Compact Flash adapter is the cheapest ($7-$9 for the adapter). When inserted, the DMR-HS2 will give you the opportunity of taking all the JPEG files on the flash card, and generating a slide show, and saving it to the hard drive or DVD-RAM. I have not used this feature yet, but those that have says it works very well, rendering terrific looking images. <b> Flexible Recording Speeds</b> There are 4 recording speeds available on the DMR-HS2: <b> XP</b>, which will give you one hour on DVD-RAM and DVD-R media, and 8.5 hours recording time on its hard drive. In my opinion, you should use this for archiving and editing your source material. The next speed, <b>SP</b> will give you 2 hours on DVD-RAM/DVD-R media, and 17 hours on the hard drive, and will give you perfectly acceptable SVHS like quality. <b>LP and EP</b> speeds will give you 4 hours and 6 hours on DVD-RAM/DVD-R media, and 34 and 52 hours of recording time on the hard drive respectively, in VHS or lower quality. There is also a feature called Flexible Recording, which will calculate the highest recording quality, based on the length of your source material...very useful feature, and works quite well. <b> By the way, its a Great DVD Player TOO!</b> Oh, yes..its a great quality DVD player as well, for your DVD movie collection. It has Digital Audio OUT connections if you have a receiver so equipped (DTS, Dolby 5.1 Digital). It has Progressive Scan capability, and takes advantage IF you have a Television/Monitor that does Progressive Scan. If you aren't familiar with this, your TV/Monitor probably does not have it, so don't worry about it. It has a plethora of audio and video outs and ins. I had no problem integrating it into my Home Theatre system consisting of another DVD player, Sony Laserdisc player, Panasonic Showstopper PVR, Panasonic SVHS Cassette Recorder, Sony Digital Satellite Receiver, 2 Sony 200 Disc CD Changers, Yamaha 6.1 Receiver, and a Sony 36" Wega XBR400. <b>"Black Level" Bug??</b> It has been reported,the DMR-HS2 has a Black Level Bug. You supposedly only notice the bug in the form of a "washed out" or "brightened" looking DVD-R recorded on the <b>DMR-HS2</b>, and played back on <b>DVD Players other than Panasonic</b>. It has been documented on the AVS Forum, and seems to exist when carefully measured with test equipment, but some believe that, rather than a bug, it was intentionally designed into the unit, to compensate for various DVD players than might play the media recorded on the DMR-HS2. It has to do with the "IRE" levels the "finalized" DVD-R discs are encoded with from the DMR-HS2. I have had NO experience with this, and I used 4 different players to play my DVD-R's burned on the DMR-HS2. Compared to my source material, the DVD's burned looked qualitatively exactly the same. If you are concerned with this, I suggest you purchase your DMR-HS2 from a supplier who has a fair and liberal return policy (I bought mine at Crutchfield.com), not that you'll have to avail yourself of the return policy! <b> Transferring DV from your Camcorder is Easy!</b> You will be happy with this appliance, especially if you own a DV Camcorder! You plug you camcorder in, put it on pause, the DMR-HS2 recognized my TR-900. You use the remote to start transfering to the hard drive or DVD-RAM/DVD-R media, and it even automatically takes your DV camcorder OFF PAUSE for you! What great transfers of my 14 month old grand daughter! Something I can show at her wedding, and embarrass her with to no end! <b> Tech Specs, and where to Buy</b> I could go through the tech specs, but the best place to find those are at crutchfield.com! Buy your unit there too ( they may price match...just ask!). They have been in business for over 25 years, for good reason! The <b>DMR-HS2</b> is a great "Video" appliance! And it works pretty well too! If you have loads of VHS archived footage you have been itching to put on DVD, this is a great way to do it!! <b>It ain't perfect, but pretty close</b> It does have its negative points: menus that are not very intuitive, manual that leaves a lot to be desired, mirror silver finish that does NOT match all your black components. But, all in all, you will be pleased with the DVD's of your dusty VHS tapes...and being able to share them with family and friends is a priceless feature! Plus, you;ll find other uses as well: home inventory, Video Greetings. Lots of possibilities!

Review: It's just like everyone else is saying, the recordings are 98% as good as the orginal but please note you cannot backup a commercial DVD and you cannot play SVCD in this unit. It complies with copy protection in every form that you can dream of. With that said it is a excellent unit for backing up your VHS tapes or recording your favorite TV series or Movie, the time slip functions work as advertised and I found everything to be intuitive and user friendly. There are lots of menus and options but the defaults will work fine for most people. One thing to keep in mind the Tivo type scheduled timers for recording will only work properly with "Cable TV" those with satellite will have to manually set the channel on the Dish because this unit has no way of changing channels on a satellite receiver.

Review: Just bought this unit a week ago and never stopped recording my old VHS/8mm tapes to DVD-R discs!!

Review: OK, I don't have to tell anyone this is a first-of-its-kind product. BUT, having used a TiVo, I must say the interface is bad. And unlike a Tivo, there is no way to update the software. The remote control (many tiny buttons, some behind sliding cover) is inelegant; the unit can only do one thing at once; its behavior is non-intuitive. e.g. I mistakenly set a timer recording to DVD (I really wanted HD) without inserting a recordable disk. I then found that this recording could not be deleted because of my mistake! Only after inserting a recordable DVD could I delete it. etc.etc.

Review: Digital camcorder owners will love this machine because of the built-in IEEE 1394 firewire port, making the transfer of home videos to DVD a breeze, but you need a 4 pin to 4 pin cable (not included.) Very easy to setup and the video quality is excellent. A must have for anyone looking for DVD quality video.

Review: Love it. The quality is very good, not great. But worth it! What? I should expect BetaSP? Fantastic for a consumer product.

Review: This is a fantastic product. All the features are great, especially the fact that you can record on hard drive(up to 18 hrs. in high quality), edit the material and then burn it to a DVD-R. Only complain is the high price. $800.00 is a little too high. $499.00 would have been a good price and would sell a lot more of this unit. Well hopefully by christmas the price would drop. At any rate if you want a great DVD recorder get this one and defintely stay away from Philips 985 which is a piece of junk.

Review: THIS FIRST TO BE OFFERED IN THIS RECORDING MEDIUM AND KUDOS ARE IN ORDER FOR pANASONIC. THEY HAVE PRICED THIS UNIT FAIRLY FOR MAXIMUM CONSUMER APPEAL AND PROVIDED MANY WELL-THOUGHT OUT OPTIONS THAT ENHANCE THE DVD RECORDING EXPERIENCE.