Panasonic DMR-E55S Progressive Scan DVD Recorder / Player , Silver

• Records DVD-R, DVD-RAM for best of both worlds; plays DVD-Video, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, CD-R/RW, and MP3 CD
• Up to 16 hours on a double-sided 9.4 GB DVD-RAM disc; up to 8 hours on a single-sided 4.7 GB DVD-RAM or DVD-R
• Offers one-touch record, TimeSlip, chasing playback (watching a recording in progress from the beginning), on-disc video editing
• Progressive-scan video output for seamless, flicker-free picture on high-definition and HD-ready televisions
• Measures 16.9 x 3.125 x 11.2 inches (W x H x D)

This Panasonic DVD-R recorder is the best way to get started on DVD recording. This is not to say this is a "basic" unit. It has lots of features like time slipping. But I'm the kind of VCR users who never went beyond basic playback, recording, and programmed recording. The Panasonic is very easy to use, esp. if you already know how to use a VCR. If you want to get sophisticated, the advanced featuers are there for you to play with.

What's important is the Panasonic works very well. I transfered my old VHS tapes to DVD-R, and all the discs burned without a hitch. I also record a couple TV shows on the machine, and it's never failed me. Panasonic was the first company to come out with DVD recorders and the maturity of this product means it's also reliable.

Yes, this model is identical internally to the black DMR-E55K model. I personally prefer silver.

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The Panasonic DMR-E55 is highly rated, but with some limitations, and I was considering getting one. But Panasonic just came out with a replacement, the DMR-ES10, which not only fixes most of the problems/limitations of the E55 but is also a mind-bendingly reasonable $200 list price. It just hit the shelves a few days ago, and I was lucky enough to be there at the right time and ended up with a unit. I love it. See the review I'm writing under the ES10.

Even if you find a good deal on a used/refurbished/closeout E55, you might at least want to consider the ES10 for its improved functionality.

[I gave the E55 a 4* rating to avoid skewing the ratings. I've noticed that when people don't rate a product, that counts as 0 *'s]

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I bought this DVD player over the summer in the hope of burning DVDs for programs that had been originally recorded on TiVo or VHS tapes.

I found the device for the most part to be relatively intuitive. The process of recording is straightforward. The recorder can record onto DVD-R (basically, record once) discs. I stayed away from using DVD-RAM discs because they are expensive and not widely used.

Recording onto a DVD-R disc is a 2-step process:

1. you record 1 or more tracks

2. at some point, you finalize the disc. When you finalize the disc, the disc is no longer writable, and you are able (theoretically) to play the finalized disc in any DVD-R compatible player

I was, initially, quite happy with the product, until we started to run into problems.

A huge issue is that the recorder occasionally craps out when you are recording tracks. Once it craps out, you can't finalize the disc, which means you either can only play it on this recorder or not at all.

Here are the specific problems I've run into:

1. For one disc (TDK), the recorder can play the disc but can't finalize it. So I am stuck with only being able to play it on this recorder. That's bad. The disc also skips in the same places during playback

2. Another disc (TDK) skips in the same places every time during playback. We were able to finalize the disc, but the skipping is annoying

3. For another disc (Memorex), the recorder crapped out while I was trying to set the thumbnail clip for a particular track. Now the recorder says the disc is empty. I can't even play the tracks I've already recorded on the recorder. The sad thing is I already deleted those tracks from TiVo (which is what I use to record TV programs), so now those tracks are lost.

I ran into problems #1 and #2 using TDK DVD-R discs. So I bought a different brand of disc (Memorex), but I ran into the problem #3 using a Memorex DVD-R disc. My strong impression now is that it is the recorder that is the problem, not the discs. Believe me, I wanted this recorder to not be the problem. It's affordable and like I said earlier, fairly user-friendly, and I don't like wasting time with the learning curve of a new device.

Once the recorder hoses the DVD-R disc, it seems extremely difficult to get the data back. I tried a bunch of Windows programs (e.g. Isobuster) with no luck. I even tried some command-line utilities on Linux.

If you purchase or own this device, my strong advice to you is to only record 1 or 2 programs before finalizing. And don't delete your original copies until after you've finalized the disc. Obviously, you shouldn't have to worry about not being able to finalize. You should be able to record as many tracks as you want until the disc is near full. But my experience is that you increase the likelihood of hosing the disc irreparably.

Do a search on "Panasonic can't finalize" and you'll see lots of other Panasonic recorder owners who have run into similar problems like I've described.

Problem #3 caused me to lose clips that I REALLY want to have. I am going to have to resort to paying a company to try to recover the data, which isn't cheap.

As a last piece of advice, if you can afford it, I recommend that you get a -RW or +RW recorder. Since researching the problems, I've read a lot of stuff on the Internet that say that the process of finalizing discs is fraught with issues, regardless of the recorder manufacturer.

I did call Panasonic customer service, and they were entirely unhelpful. They got value out of the call (by collecting marketing information about me: where I live, my name, when I bought it) but they were entirely unhelpful. The CSR said there is no way to recover the data. Their simple advice was: use only Panasonic DVD-R discs. That's garbage, and this whole experience was so frustrating I want to spare others my aggravation.

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You should look at the reviews for this Panasonic DMR-E55 unit with the black outer finish on Amazon for many more reviews of this silver version. All I can add to those informative reviews is how pleased I am with its incredibly easy set-up and very well designed interface and remote control. I'm thrilled with the quality of the recording even without using the higest quality format. I'm actually surprised the unit is so inexpensive considering the quality and number of features.

This should say it all: I just came back from the repair shop. When they saw me walk in with the unit the clerk said, "I can't believe how many of these units come in." This very model. I used it for a few months, made 20 or 30 recordings, then it just failed. I called tech report, told them the error message I was getting and they told me to bring it in. I have a feeling I'll be returning it often till the warranty expires and then I'll throw it out.

For what it's worth it worked well until its demise.