Panasonic DMR-EH59 250GB HDD Multizone DVD Recorder - PAL

The good:

Excellent picture quality up to 4hrs/SL DVD, great HDMI upconverting.

Quick to burn and finalize DVDs.

Records to DL media.

FR, a flexable speed where you can fit anywhere between 1-8 hrs/DVD. I just love FR to match any length movie to the disc.

Nice size HDD for many hours of good quality SP or LP.

Phrase save and shorten title features.

Multi voltage/frequency power supply, auto switching.

Region free playback, but doesn't convert systems.

The Bad:

No US tuner, use line inputs to record NTSC from a VCR, STB, DVR, DVD player, etc.

Slightly elevated black level when feeding line outputs from a US standard +7.5 IRE device. This device is looking for a IRE of 0 but N. American devices output +7.5 for SD, most DVD players have a DARKER setting that will correct this. It's very slight but I notice it.

Warranty only 30 days and only from seller, but truthfully it's a very reliable recorder and I haven't had any issues and I've had mine for ~1 year.

This DVDR is almost identical to the EH-69 which has a larger HDD and USB and SD card READER(not for recording).

Greetings,

I have been using the unit for the past couple of weeks now. I previously had a Panasonic recorder that I used heavily over a 5-yr period. The panasonic units are the only recorders that allow you to create DVDs that auto-play. How parents can manage with anything other than DVDs that auto-play when inserted, I have no idea (especially in car situations).

Panasonic doesn't make these recorders for the U.S. market any longer, so it is great that Amazon offers this one offered normal to the European market. It's a little more expensive than the those sold here by other manufacturers, but it is worth the extra cost, IMHO.

Buy Panasonic DMR-EH59 250GB HDD Multizone DVD Recorder - PAL Now

Our old DVD recorder died and my wife wanted to get another one to replace it. I thought we should go for one of the HDD units as long as we were going to spend the money.

Some things about the interface could be better -hence 4 stars. It's annoying that it always starts up with its menu screen. The procedure for deleting portions of a video is quite clunky. On our old Pioneer unit adding chapters splits and deleting chapters could be done all from the same interface. On this one, to delete portions of the video you have to go to "delete partial", and that requires you to specify both a start and end time, which is annoying since one of the most common things to do is trim the beginning of the video off. When you go to the "delete partial" screen it starts playing immediately (why would you want it to play if you're trying to delete things?) So if you want to delete the first bit you have to press pause, skip back, then press "ok" to select that as the start. They could have just automatically selected the beginning of the video as the default start. But no. Typical idiot design decision that you seem to get out of every electronics manufacturer besides Apple. It's like they hire interns to design the on-screen interface.

But the box works. And I'm very happy we paid the extra money to get the HDD. I never really used our old box to do recording, because it's quite a mental drain to make sure you have the right DVD-RW inserted at the right time so that your recording works. But with the HDD, I've already added a few weekly recordings, and they just work -no hassles!

We use this with DVDs from Japan and the US. I also tried a PAL DVD of Mary Poppins I have that's from France. It played fine too. All that is using the HDMI output. That's the only output I've used.

Having just a single composite input on the back is also a bit disappointing, but not the end of the world. There is a composite input on the front to plug something extra into.

Oh, and I was so delighted to find that it works with our Toshiba flat-screen TV through some HDMI AV.link thing (see ). So that when we turn on the Panasonic and do something like pressing the main menu button, it automatically switches our TV to the right input.

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This item should not be sold in the U.S.

When I called the vendor to return it ,even he told me it is designed for use in Europe.

Want Panasonic DMR-EH59 250GB HDD Multizone DVD Recorder - PAL Discount?

The Panasonic DMR-EH59 250GB HDD Multizone DVD Recorder PAL is not for use in the US. Panasonic told me that they did not provide a warranty for this product and it was for use outside the US. Amazon said that my purchase price would be refunded but, so far two weeks later, no refund. Be very careful if you intend to buy this product. Other items purchased through Amazon were great.