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G**.
Not my first Panasonic DVDR
Circa March 2014I needed to replace Sony with a worn out DVD Drive, the HDD was fine. My first Panasonic replaced a non Sony and Philips product that had a world wide infamouse fault somtime in 2006 that became known as the - - - loading bug. The replacement still works.I did not want a PVR (no DVD back up function) Just a deck with some connectivity a HDD and DVD back up and if it include high speed copy to DVD it would be nice.My first views at online high street retail outlets that stocked any thing that could record to DVD such as the DMR-EX86EB were not over promising the technical information made deck look poor in connectivity terms not showing image of rear panel after all that's what really shows how useful and well the product is going to integrate with any existing kit.I eventually found a down loadable PDF of the Panasonic user guide which told me all I need to know. Amazon does show rear panel view.The pros,MADE IN EU1 With 1 HDMI connector and having Phono composite video / Audio - in (behind hinged front panel flap) /out as well as digital fibre audio out and S - RGB & plain Video in/out selectable on the twin skarts via menu system.2 behind front panel flap find 1 USB socket and a discrete row of basic deck control buttons with moulded in symbols denoting each buttons function rather than a printed legend that wears away with repeated use.3 High speed copy to DVD in all modes when set to video mode except EP. Real time copy if set to VR mode.4 DVD's begun in one deck can be completed in another deck even if you begin in a DVDR and compete using a BDR as long as both decks were made by Panasonic5 Records to most disc types inc cartridge free Ram but not BDR - BDRE - CD or CDRW and not the small disc used in older camcorders. Check manual prior to disc purchase.6 Well packedCons1 Slandered definition tuner.2 Now few users will find this a problem unless like me you have a number of Panasonic decks. It concerns the remote control action Panasonic foresaw the problems of persons having more than 1 deck by making it possible to set up the remote controls so that if you have three decks each deck responds to only 1 remote rather than 1 remote controlling 3 decks fine and very well it works too. Not so good if the new deck also use's one of the control codes used by decks purchased some years prior.Panasonic did add 3 extra sets of control codes to there range of BD decks making a total of 6 selectable code sets but the code sets 1-2-3 remained the same and the code set used by DMR-EX86EB is within range 1-3.3 The EPG seems dated and makes poor use of screen space cramping the information up. it resembles aboard the much older DMR-EZ25 as does the rest of menu system with exceptions for necessary added functions not available with the EZ25.4 No SD card slot.5 Not fresh of the production line & in some ways the DMR-EX86EB shows its vintage but it was not second hand & the box was sealed.6 No un-finalise functionEase of use.Well it much depends on you really if you had never used a Panasonic DVDR or BDR deck before then you will have a different learning curve to travel around However if you have used even the latest BDR deck then use a DMR-EX86EB the biggest difference you'll find is that the graphical design of the DMR-EX86EB menu system seems older in design. Every manufacture seems to have there own menu lay out.Setting up.Make all connections (HDMI-Arial in-out - attach mains lead to rear connector but do not apply power yet) Power up Television only and pre-select HDMI to which DMR-EX86EB is connected owners of AV amps should please see your user manual.Now apply power deck asks you to "Please wait" after doing so the system commences to seek free-view tv channels followed by the various other set up options after which a TV channel is presented.PerformanceGiven a good freeview signal I cannot fault the picture quality into a good sized 1080P display. Does what it says in the book.
A**C
OK but could be so much better if they really tried
This is the third Panasonic HDD/DVD recorder I've owned over a number of years and in each case I've had to get a new one when the previous one has developed a fault that seemed not worth repairing. If the faults had been with the DVD drive wearing out, or even the HDD failing, I would could have understood but in both cases it was the electronics that failed. I've always considered Panasonic to be a maker of the very highest quality products, so the fact that these products seem to fail for no good reason after a few years is disappointing to me.Perhaps this one will be the exception - but somehow I suspect not.All three machines (and I can't remember the specific model numbers of the previous two) have had very similar user interfaces, as if Panasonic feel that what they designed maybe 10 years ago is still good enough. So, what we have with this recently launched model, is a machine that does the job very well, but has an over complex, clunky looking, and at times rather slow user interface. If you are used to Sky+ the comparison is dramatic - the Sky box is responsive and very simple to use, whereas the Panny (which admittedly does a lot more than the Sky box), makes everything a little bit more like hard work. The fact that it comes with an inscrutable instruction manual about 1/4 inch thick, just reinforces this impression.I don't want to knock it too much though. I chose the Panasonic from the limited choice of alternatives because I'm used to them and because I think they're probably as good or better than the others.Some specific things I do like - compared with my older one:- It supports series-link recording - just like Sky+ always has, so you can set a series to record and not find that some episodes are lost because they were shown at a different time, or that you end up with weeks of rubbish because it went on recording the same time slot every week long after the series ended.- The "Direct navigator" list can stack programmes (again like a Sky+ box) so that a whole series is shown as one entry which can be opened up to see the individual episodes.- The disk is slightly bigger (320GB vs 250GB)And some things I don't like:- On the programme guide, about a third of the width is taken up with a space in which they would like to show adverts. You can stop the adverts (google for how - it's easy) but you don't recover the space, so your programme guide is scrunched up into the right-hand two-thirds of the screen. It's absolutely ridiculous, although I knew this from other reviews so wasn't a surprise.- It's still quite slow to switch on, go into standby, switch between sources (HDD, DVD, SD) - a general feeling of unresponsiveness- It doesn't receive or record Freeview HD- It just doesn't feel like a 2013 product to use. I've been comparing it with Sky+ but just imagine how it would be to use if it had been designed by Apple.Overall then it does the job I got it for perfectly adequately despite some irritations. I just feel that if they only put some effort into it they could come up with something really outstanding - rather than merely good enough.
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