Panasonic DMR-EZ28K DVD Recorder

After doing some research, people eithe loved the machine and had no problems or it locked up and frustrated them. I went to the website and learned this is a current and looks like their top of the line transitional model. Also ther has been a software update which fixes a few things. I finally took the plunge and bought one. I do not have a good digital or analog signal source other than a satellite dish signal. I wanted to know if it would play a music CD, it does. I tried a pre-recorded movie, commercial purchase, worked fine. The what I bought it for, to try and record of the air. I grabbed a TDK DVD + R and put it in the machine. I did get it to record but ran out of time as I didn't preset the recording type or amound of cvompression. I tried recording a 3 hour movie with the record time set to 4 hours, it diod work fine. I think you could pause during the comercials to edit ou them on the fly. I did not try any post editing yet nor have I tried any programmed start time recording whic seem to give most people the most headaches in that you have to turn the DVR OFF. I bought a pair of rabbit ears and hooke them up to the DVR. I ran through the auto channel find, it found one channel ( I have very poor local reception hence the sat receiver). I did pic up the one channel and I could tune to it but it isn't watchable so I think the tuner has merit for sensitivity and gain. Since I do not have access to ant digital channels I could not test the digital tuner. The change over will come soon enough and I can test that as well. It would be nice to get local channels that are watchable! I know this isn't a very comprehensive or technical test but it doe include some real world experiences which I hope will help others in making their decision to buy or not. I coul not test the HDMI output or optical audio output. I am running the S-Video output of the satellite receiver into the DVR with regular rca jacks sudio out and into the DVR. The S-Video looks quite good and may be better than the S-video from the sat receiver directly to the analog receiver. There are a lot of functions to learn and test yet but it so far does basically what I want. My main interest was the digital tuner when the switch to digital local tv happens AND being able to record special shows when I want to. I can record on the sat receiver too but there is no way to get it off very efficiently so this model with it's extra inputs on the front behind a flip out panel just add frosting to the cake. USB is always nice and the memory slot is nice too. Overall I think Panasonic has done a good job in offering a lot of capability and being very versatile in the ever changing world of AV today. I think transition DVR is a good way to describe it.

This unit replaced an older Panasonic DMR-ES20K which was starting to have some issues. That unit had only an analogue NTSC tuner. I was looking for a recorder with a digital ATSC tuner which can record the digital programs passed through unblocked by the cable company. In this respect, the DMR-EZ28 performed flawlessly, making very high quality recordings of HD programs (converted to standard def.). The audio recording quality is much improved over the DMR-ES20. Now for the cons: When setting up the channels (for cable use)), it finds everything, including blank sub-carrier digital cable channels that the company remaps. I have found no way to delete these. Second on some analogue cable channels, there is a slight herringbone pattern, not present on the DMR-ES20. There is no way to fine tune the channels to eliminate the problem. The selectivity was better on the older unit's tuner(all analogue channels clear). In order to get pristine recordings, I have to run an S Video cable from the cable box to input 1 on the DMR EZ-28. This eliminates watching one channel while recording another, but recordings are excellent in this application. Several reviewers have complained about the unit locking up, but I made sure to upgrade to the latest firmware at the Panasonic support website and recommend doing so. I hope you find this information useful and advise you to consider the DMR-EZ28 if you are in the market for a DVD recorder.

I purchased this DVD recorder because it is loaded with capabilities (USB,SD,Multiple disc formats,Built in HD Tuner). What a let down when after attempting to play several different formatted dvd's the performance is hit and miss.Discs that play perfectly in my old Panasonic player (DVD F-65) can not even be read by this unit. Discs from the rental store 1 out of 3 could be read by the player. I have had this DMR-EZ28K MODEL FOR LESS THAN TWO DAYS and I am so disappointed in Panasonic having put such a lousy player on the market. The USB and SD are just great, have not tried recording anything yet, but if you can not place a dvd in the drive and enjoy viewing it what's the use. I wonder, did Panasonic skimp (go cheap) on the dvd drive of this unit to save money?

We bought our first Panasonic DMR-EZ28K DVD Recorder three years ago and then it just stopped working last month, seem like the laser stopped reading discs. Being out of warranty, we bought this one on ebay again, since it was a fraction of the price and we already had the remote for it. It does a pretty good job, although we have had some problems with when it goes to record if it doesn't instantly detect the digital signal, it will choose not to record. Also, when we've gone to watch while still recording it has at times froze with no remedy but to unplug, therefore missing the segment while it reboots and starts recording again. Certainly, not top of the line, but it also doesn't have a monthly fee, which is nice.

I bought this Panasonic DMR-EZ28K DVD Recorder from BestBuyOutlet on ebay for a total about $125 ($200 more + tax at retailer stores) and have used it for a few weeks. There was no any major problems found yet so far. It receives and delivers good quality video and audio from both analog and digital channels via our regular cable line and expanded the receivability. It also records smoothly the very good audio and video too. The set-up procedure is easy, even detects the date/time automatically for us. The tuning between the digital channels was slow and sensitive to lock on. But because this is the first time I use a digital tuner, I am not sure this is the problem of the recorder or not. Sometimes the screen flashes when we setup the recorder.