DigaDo
08-23-08, 05:27 PM
ClearToLand has suggested a Panasonic DVD Recorder Information sticky thread, a very good idea. I would be pleased to participate in this effort but it should be coordinated by someone with wide-ranging Panasonic experience. I am not that person.
My contributions to this Forum have been an outgrowth of my particular interest and experience.
I set out to build a home-recorded time-shifting archive of early talkies (including movies, shorts and early sound cartoons) up to and including the film noir era. I started back in the 1980s with VHS recording from The Nostalgia Channel and AMC. Following the demise of the original AMC it became necessary to subscribe to a premium tier of service in order to get TCM.
Great strides for my time-shifted archive were made in September 2005 with the purchase of my first Panasonic DMR-ES30V DVD combo recorder. That was the beginning of my time-shifted archive in the DVD format, a project that continues to this day.
In around December 2006 I embarked on an extensive project dubbing to DVD selected portions of my near twenty-year accumulation of home-recorded time-shifted videotapes. At the same time I continued to time-shift material from TCM. I have recently watched, for the first time, some material originally shown more than twenty years ago on The Nostalgia Channel and AMC.
I have purchased several ES series Panasonics, currently numbering (2) DMR-ES30V, (1) DMR-ES40V, (4) DMR-ES35V, (4) DMR-ES15 models and (2) DMR-ES35V “parts machines.” (My daughter was so impressed with my original DMR-ES30V model that she bought two of that model for herself.)
Within any group of good products there will usually be a bad one and that is certainly the DMR-ES40V, a bug-laden 2005 model with several design flaws. Those bugs and design flaws are not found in my other 2005 models or in my 2006 models. (Panasonic reintroduced the DMR-ES40V bugs and design flaws into their 2007 EZ series. Current threads indicate that the bugs and design flaws were carried over into the 2008 models as well.)
Until just recently I have (exclusively) used Panasonic ES and EZ series DVD recorders and combo recorders in my projects. I find most of my ES recorders are well suited for building my personal time-shifted archive. While I own and use two EZ series Panasonics (both are DMR-EZ17 models) and a Philips DVDR3575H/37B DVD/hard drive recorder, these machines are currently serving in secondary roles while the ES series Panasonics continue to be the “workhorses.”
I see that stand-alone DVD recorders, combo recorders and hard drive recorders are rapidly going the way of the Edsel, DeSoto, Plymouth and Oldsmobile. Most consumers are content to time-shift with satellite or cable company DVRs.
The outstanding ES series Panasonics are ending up in landfills for want of a hub/spindle cleaning or replacement of a power supply capacitor. The buggy EZ series Panasonics will soon follow the ES machines and they too, will vanish from the marketplace. Philips has already announced the demise of their hard drive recorders.
I understand that many may not find the time or determination, nor be willing to spend a few dollars to keep the old Panasonic ES workhorses going. There are a few that learn to do the servicing work, and others of us are also repairing, building or rebuilding machines with parts from other machines (sometimes purchased for just a few dollars) when those machines seemed to have reached the end of their lives.
Do we need to form an “underground movement” to search thrift stores (even monitoring landfills) for ES machines to salvage? I believe that we must lest the ES series, even the highly-revered hard drive models, will be gone very soon.
While I have never owned a Panasonic hard drive recorder I should have set aside funds for that purpose back in 2006/2007. But I was so involved in “the dubbing project” (that sometimes kept up to seven of my standard ES recorders running up to eighteen hours a day) that I wasn’t aware at the time that the Panasonic hard drive models were disappearing from the marketplace.
We who keep the ES series machines functional need to continue encouraging one another (especially hard drive model owners) not to give up but make a special effort to keep these models viable. (For the most part hard drive Panasonics use many of the same parts as the standard machines from the same model year.)
My experience is of a very limited sort. Even with around 23,000 hours of DVD recording experience over the last three years, I know very little of some features found on my thirteen Panasonic DVD recorders. With enough time to study the Operating Instructions and read the many valuable posts in this Forum, I might learn to use and appreciate more of those features.
After six months as a Philips owner I have hardly begun to familiarize myself with the Philips 3575. I am in awe of Wajo’s efforts on behalf of Philips 3575/3576 owners.
There is a real need for a Panasonic DVD Recorder Information sticky thread that will draw together in a single place coordinated information for the Panasonic ES/EZ series recorders. Such a thread would be of real benefit to Panasonic owners.
By the way, I chose my DigaDo identity because Panasonic DVD recorders bearing the “DIGA” name “do” work well for me, hence I am DigaDo.
My contributions to this Forum have been an outgrowth of my particular interest and experience.
I set out to build a home-recorded time-shifting archive of early talkies (including movies, shorts and early sound cartoons) up to and including the film noir era. I started back in the 1980s with VHS recording from The Nostalgia Channel and AMC. Following the demise of the original AMC it became necessary to subscribe to a premium tier of service in order to get TCM.
Great strides for my time-shifted archive were made in September 2005 with the purchase of my first Panasonic DMR-ES30V DVD combo recorder. That was the beginning of my time-shifted archive in the DVD format, a project that continues to this day.
In around December 2006 I embarked on an extensive project dubbing to DVD selected portions of my near twenty-year accumulation of home-recorded time-shifted videotapes. At the same time I continued to time-shift material from TCM. I have recently watched, for the first time, some material originally shown more than twenty years ago on The Nostalgia Channel and AMC.
I have purchased several ES series Panasonics, currently numbering (2) DMR-ES30V, (1) DMR-ES40V, (4) DMR-ES35V, (4) DMR-ES15 models and (2) DMR-ES35V “parts machines.” (My daughter was so impressed with my original DMR-ES30V model that she bought two of that model for herself.)
Within any group of good products there will usually be a bad one and that is certainly the DMR-ES40V, a bug-laden 2005 model with several design flaws. Those bugs and design flaws are not found in my other 2005 models or in my 2006 models. (Panasonic reintroduced the DMR-ES40V bugs and design flaws into their 2007 EZ series. Current threads indicate that the bugs and design flaws were carried over into the 2008 models as well.)
Until just recently I have (exclusively) used Panasonic ES and EZ series DVD recorders and combo recorders in my projects. I find most of my ES recorders are well suited for building my personal time-shifted archive. While I own and use two EZ series Panasonics (both are DMR-EZ17 models) and a Philips DVDR3575H/37B DVD/hard drive recorder, these machines are currently serving in secondary roles while the ES series Panasonics continue to be the “workhorses.”
I see that stand-alone DVD recorders, combo recorders and hard drive recorders are rapidly going the way of the Edsel, DeSoto, Plymouth and Oldsmobile. Most consumers are content to time-shift with satellite or cable company DVRs.
The outstanding ES series Panasonics are ending up in landfills for want of a hub/spindle cleaning or replacement of a power supply capacitor. The buggy EZ series Panasonics will soon follow the ES machines and they too, will vanish from the marketplace. Philips has already announced the demise of their hard drive recorders.
I understand that many may not find the time or determination, nor be willing to spend a few dollars to keep the old Panasonic ES workhorses going. There are a few that learn to do the servicing work, and others of us are also repairing, building or rebuilding machines with parts from other machines (sometimes purchased for just a few dollars) when those machines seemed to have reached the end of their lives.
Do we need to form an “underground movement” to search thrift stores (even monitoring landfills) for ES machines to salvage? I believe that we must lest the ES series, even the highly-revered hard drive models, will be gone very soon.
While I have never owned a Panasonic hard drive recorder I should have set aside funds for that purpose back in 2006/2007. But I was so involved in “the dubbing project” (that sometimes kept up to seven of my standard ES recorders running up to eighteen hours a day) that I wasn’t aware at the time that the Panasonic hard drive models were disappearing from the marketplace.
We who keep the ES series machines functional need to continue encouraging one another (especially hard drive model owners) not to give up but make a special effort to keep these models viable. (For the most part hard drive Panasonics use many of the same parts as the standard machines from the same model year.)
My experience is of a very limited sort. Even with around 23,000 hours of DVD recording experience over the last three years, I know very little of some features found on my thirteen Panasonic DVD recorders. With enough time to study the Operating Instructions and read the many valuable posts in this Forum, I might learn to use and appreciate more of those features.
After six months as a Philips owner I have hardly begun to familiarize myself with the Philips 3575. I am in awe of Wajo’s efforts on behalf of Philips 3575/3576 owners.
There is a real need for a Panasonic DVD Recorder Information sticky thread that will draw together in a single place coordinated information for the Panasonic ES/EZ series recorders. Such a thread would be of real benefit to Panasonic owners.
By the way, I chose my DigaDo identity because Panasonic DVD recorders bearing the “DIGA” name “do” work well for me, hence I am DigaDo.