Panasonic DMR-ES15

Having only 17% disc-space left on my Sky Plus box and not wanting to permanently delete any of the programmes, I decided it was about time to get a recordable DVD player. I looked at all the makes, options, prices and features, and went for Panasonic.

I chose the Panasonic DMR-ES15 DVD recorder as I already have a Panasonic Theatre Sound system, and I have been more than happy with that. On top of that it was one of the only ones that records onto all formats, and the price was a reasonable £179.

The unit was easy to set up, and the instructions showed various different connection options depending on the various equipment the purchaser may have. A selection of leads was included, but not Scart or S-Video (not that I needed the latter one). The auto-set up could not have been easier! It swiftly scanned and stored the 5 main terrestrial channels and the signal from the Sky box. Picture and sound quality is spot on! The machine formats a blank DVD at the DVD's first use, which takes a few seconds. I imagine that some DVDs may come pre-formatted - not sure, but it certainly wasn't an issue. Recording starts as soon as the record button is pressed, and there didn't appear to be any delay, unlike what I have heard about some other recorders. I chose DVD-RW discs as they can be re-used over and over like blank video tapes (without the fast-forwarding and rewinding)! If you want to permanently keep the content on the disc, you simply select 'finalize' and it can't be recorded over. I had no problem in playing the newly-recorded disc on my Philips and Sony DVD players, and the quality was impressive.

I highly recommend this product!