Panasonic DMR-E55

I paid what I thought was a lot of money because I thought panasonic was a good make and I would not have any major problems with it. My first Video recorder was very expensive at the time. It cost more than the DVD recorder but it lasted for fourteen years without a problem.

If things are not made to last it should be reflected in the price

Changing over to "digital" broadcast (via American Comcast) has essentially made my machine obsolete. It no longer records off-air broadcasts (except for some lame analogue programs). Not entirely the machines fault. More a statement of the times. Analogue is gone, and using a DVD recorder like this Panasonic is no longer truly feasible. It was a decent machine, although it did have as many mention, issues with self-diagnostic stuff (in other words, it would simply "crash" from time-to-time). BUT, the matter now is that it is not a functional recorder for the new digital world, especially, if you're having to use a digital cable box such as that via Comcast :-(

I have these recorder 3 years by now (buyed in Baja, M xico, 2005, made in Malasya in 2004), and recorded many DVDs (may be a hundred or more) and recorded on DVD-RAM almost daily TV programs and never experienced any trouble. I think there are some (or many?) products sold with low control quality, maybe we have to check the date of manufacture, country of origin and look for a pattern. Mine was an old product on store and a little bit expensive ($4600 pesos, $450 dollars), and was modified to be multiregion (although the box said it was region 4 only). The picture quality is excellent, and in some cases improves the source (if the source is a VCR and the connection to the recorder is by s-video cable). I allways use the recorder with a little fan on it to lowering the heat produced, and every two months I remove the case and blow up with an air can. never have a problem.

If your machine has failed, repeatedly going through self check - please do a search for "dvd recorder repairs" on ebay I will fix your recorder for you - Cheaply!!! - Revieski...

It's not a bad recorder, as long as you know its not going to be a recorder after a couple of years.

I have taken the cover off and blow out all the dust and left the cover off and now works fine. Not sure why this is but it just has.

Panasonic stuff is usually of excellent quality and very reliable. This is the most disappointing AV item I have ever bought. Panasonic can go jump from now on!!!!

I bought a Panasonic DMR-E95HEB and after about 2 years of moderate use guess what. Self check problems like so many other people seem to have. I contacted Panasonic who gave me details of local repairer. Because out of warranty they want £55 just to look at it. When I realised that this is a common problem and hence, I believe, a manufacturing fault, I contacted Panasonic again. I got the brush off and just got told to take it in for repair. If I knew it would cost £55, or even up to £100 I would probably get it repaired, buy I don't want to hand over £55 to be told it's beyond repair or would cost £200. I am now looking at a new DVD recorder, AND DEFINITELY NOT PANASONIC.

My Panasonic DMR-E55 had a problem reading disks, power-off, self-check problems due to defective internal power-supply board. I ordered the board from partstore.com, replaced it myself and it works GREAT!!! No problem reading/recording!

The Panasonic DMR-E55 is a piece of rubbish that I couldn't recommend. Did research on the web before buying and Panasonic appears to have a reasonable reputation. This machine is painfully slow to power-up (going through all sorts of checks), slightly (not much) faster to switch off and has now (just after 15 months) given up the ghost. Unless I want to spend £99-£160 to get it repaired apparently.