Panasonic DMR-ES10

bought our 1st dvd recorder with expectations of copying vhs tape to dvd .. same as many others. found the machine was picky about disks. thats the beginning of the troubles. almost out of warranty and the machine refuses to recognize disks .. huh.

while the machine was back at the service center we went out and bought a 2nd machine of the same brand .. so i could READ all the broken dvd,s should the 1st machine be written off .. at least that was the plan. well going into the next year and got the 1st machine back repaired ... things were reasonably smooth ... at 1st ..

then around 1 year + a bit the 2nd machine fails to read any disks !! it was around xmas so i did no more but trash it and go down the store and buy a 3rd machine. the 1st one still not right. well this is amazing ... 1 month later ... the 3rd machine is having the same read problems. so that goes back to the service center. now we have no machine downstairs as the 1st one is upstairs as a ornament. .. by the way these machines were purchased at 2 different stores.

this time we go to the store and buy a different brand dvd recorder. so to tot it all up ... about 4-5years and 4xdvd recorders later .. getting on to a lot of cash. thats nearly a new dvd recorder every year ... fantastic. the makers have got a good business going ... shame my vhs recorder went for SO long without repairs.!

while in the store in Jan sale i found 2x Philips recorders .. with no boxes and no remotes .. but at a silly price. well we buy the pair. the 1st one went for just over the year ... and died ... and the 2nd one didnt quite reach the 12mth warranty and also died.

at this point id had enough so trashed both philips and we are limping along with 2x duff Panasonics and the other machine ( which i wont comment on yet) .. and still have no faith in this digital marvel of science. bring back VHS tape. at least the Mrs could operate it easily and reliably .. and i could be guaranteed a recording.

I bought two machines three years ago, i had a lot of video tape to copy to disc which took about year to complete, so i did not setup the second machine right away. When i did switch it on to use, it was not responding to the remote, back to the shop, i explained it had no been used since i bought it , although it was just out of guarantee the shopkeeper was very helpfull it went back to panasonic, turned out it was a duff infer red unit.Now three years on one of the remote's fast forword buttons dont work.

12 years ago i bought a panasonic VCR top of the range it was a lot of trouble cost a pile in repairs. Bye bye Panasonic never again.

Product DMR-ES10EB/EBL

The Panasonic DMR-ES10 is a truly great unit to use. I have been doing this for the last 3/4 years and it is still working. made over 3000 plus recordings.

It functioned well, when it was working. The converting of VCR tapes to DVD, worked fine and copies were clear.

The unit had no reliability. After less than a year, the system started functioning inconsistently. It swallowed a disc and would not open. I returned to the manufacture for repair.It functioned well for about 6 months, then went on the fritz again and would not copy VCR tapes to DVD, and just kept saying all the discs on which I was attempting record, were not compatible and there was a defect on the disc.

Can't get it to playback. Only plays back juttering, snowy , no pictures or sounds. It does seem to record onto the disk, I can see it in Direct Navigation and I can delete it. I wish I got a different DVD recorder.

Would have hoped that our Panasonic DMR-ES10 would have lasted longer than 4 years as it is it not used much for recording.

Good quality machine with nice features, good looks. Recommended (replaced by DMR-ES15). Can link up with FREEVIEW to record digital channels as 'line input' so not affected by the digital revolution!

I found the Panasonic DMR-ES10 to be very bad. Will never buy another Panasonic make on the recorders. In fact, not another Panasonic full stop (given that the freeview box we has also had problems after 9 months) Did not read my discs after 18 months - spent 30mins at least to find a disc that it will read. Then when I put the disc I wanted to see, it won't read any more. Waste of money. Nearly GBP200, I would expect the recorder to work for at least 4 years. Bought a another model (Panasonic) and just after 12months, again the recorder is beginning to play up. Disc is not reading.

I bought the Panasonic DMR-ES10 DVD recorder about 2 months ago. This is my first DVD recorder, but I am very impressed. The whole unit has a well built look and feel. The video quality is very good. The poorest setting will record 8 hours on an ordinary single sided 4.7Gb disc, but it is still superior to VCR. It has a clever Flexible Recording feature which will automatically record at the maximum possible quality to fill the space left on the disc.

Unlike some players it plays most common formats, and it can record to DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and DVD-RAM (but not DVD+RW). The DVD-RAM format is much superior to all the others, but is supported by very few players other than those from Panasonic. Hopefully the use of DVD-RAM will spread, but I am not too hopeful. With DVD-RAM you can even erase unwanted bits of the recording (commercials for example).

I find the on-screen menu intuitive and easy to use. Setting up recordings is easy, especially when using VideoPlus. The instructions are perhaps not quite as clear as they could be, but this is largely caused by the number of formats and functions it supports. The index needs to be more comprehensive. However, I still managed to set it up and start playing discs and recording shortly after it was plugged in.

The unit has a number of different inputs: Scart, S-Video, Audio/Video cables, but there is no digital input. This isn't a problem for us, but it might be an issue if you want the best possible quality from a digital camcorder. It also has inputs behind a flap at the front for ease of recording from a camcorder.

The only real downside is the length of time it takes to switch on. When there is a disc in the drive it commonly takes 25 - 30 seconds to power up from standby. If the unit has been switched off at the mains it can take an extra 60 seconds, since it insists on getting the time before you can do anything. It even takes time to get a disc out of the drive when the unit has been on standby, as it insists on powering up and doing all its checks first. However, I think this has been addressed in the latest models (ours is only 2 months old, but already out of date)!

This unit doesn't support Freeview. We didn't see this as a problem as we already have a set top box, and we intend to get a Hard Drive recorder with Freeview, but otherwise the DMR-ES20 might be a better buy.

All together, this is a good machine and highly recommended.