Merton Park

I currently have a Panasonic E 85 H, 80gb HDD and DVD recorder, which I use occasionally. Recently it is rejecting all the DVD -R and DVD RW discs I have bought for dubbing purposes. It is not used for recording off air only from Sky Plus and the HDD .

Which 160gb or 250gb HDD and DVD recorder would you recommend as a replacement?

Thanks.

WarFilmBuff

I had a catalogue of problems with Philips and Panasonic HDD recorders. I have now switched to a Humax Freesat box with over 200gb capacity, I transfer recordings onto a USB stick and make DVDs on my PC.

BillTurner80

If you are used to the Panny range I would suggest the DMR XS350. It has a 250 gig capacity HDD, dvd recorder, twin tuners and is marked as HD. My inlaws have one and it seems to do all they require of it. Expensive though in my opinion and I would go for WarFilmBjuff's suggestion myself!

johng

I can also confirm a whole catalogue of problemswith both Panasonic and Phillip[s and would certainly not go for either of these 2 makes in the future.

Strangely enough quite often the cheaper models perform better than their more expensive counterparts.

Maybe it is a case of the latter trying to do too much, being too complicated and therefore prone to problems.

BillTurner80

I always use to find the dvd/vhs combi machines a nightmare, regardless of make. I would always use 'separates'.

Mr Pastry Time

My Dad now over 90 has given up on his Panasonic and only uses his Sony now.

I used to have a Liteon HDD/DVD rec which was good value for money and recorded umpteen DVD's on it. Like Dad I also favour the Sony HDD/DVD recorders with Freeview in and recordings are superb when pushed out of the HDMI socket into suitable monitor. Another plus point is that the more recent Sony recorders will also record on Dual Layer DVD'S which mean you can stick about 2 hours in high quality onto one disc instead of the usual 60 minutes in HQ. Anything special gets the dual layer treatment here due to using a big screen.

Cheap to keep and easy to please

aaron

Before rejecting your current panasonic, i highly recommend trying this simple spindle clean process http://club.myce.com/f106/fixing-your-panny-when-theres-fault-lens-cleaning-doesnt-help-210507/ It takes about five minutes from start to finish, and if successful you have a 'good as new' machine.

'He who is not one up...Is one down'

Merton Park

To aaron

Have you any idea why the Panasonic rejets the DVD -R , +R and RW discs?

aaron

Not specificly, no. My only reason for the spindle clean suggestion though, was that my brother's panasonic was doing the same thing.
I came across this 'spindle' solution, and so with nothing to lose, tried it.
To myself and my brothers collective amazement, it completely cured the problem. The spindle collects minor debris such as dust and carpet fibres, which is evidently enough to prevent the disk from spinning exactley true, leading to read errors.....

'He who is not one up...Is one down'

Brief Encounter

I think the Sony ones are great, personally.

Remy

Hi johng. What problems have you had with Panasonic? I may have been lucky but I've had no problems with Panasonic which is the only brand I've ever used for burning to disc. I'm on my second HDD Panny with the first having lasted 4 years and had about 4000 discs passing through it before finally conking out. Second one, a DMR-EX88 is a year old and performs beautifully.

johng

Maybe I was unlucky but at the time I heard of other people with similar problems.

The recorder did not like DVD-R discs at all and would regularly stop part way through a recording trying to tell me that the disc was dirty,scratched or faulty which was NOT the case. In other instances the disc would record and finalise OK but when it came to playing the disc on the recorder or another player it would frquently freeze and as far as I was concerned denoting a faulty recording. The recorder was reasonably new at the time and the fault was unlikely to be a dirty lens or spindle etc. Again the machine would occasionally refuse to finalise the disc.

Since changing over to Sony I have not had one problem

I cannot remember the Panasonic Model Number now although it is probably obsolete in any event. It was also irritating in as much as there appeared to be no codes or remote controls readily available which would have enabled the unit to play discs from other regions

dvdman

i myself use to have model Panasonic e85 i loved it only use expensives blanks on these machines i now have a 250 gb panasonic machine

Lord Brett

I'll try opening up and cleaning my increasingly unreliable LG HD/DVD recorder first chance I get. Cleaning discs are starting to have less effect and I was going to open it up and have a poke about as a last resort. Thanks for the tip Aaron.