Panasonic DMR-EZ47VK

Saw this on wal-mart site,
is it a decent DVD recorder?
I am new to all this.

I just bought new HDTV and have direct TV dvr but I want a unit to hard copy
vhs to dvd (to redo all my tapes)
and to hard copy dvd's from TV .

So would this meet my needs?

Are there any better than this for same or less money?

Commercial dvds and tapes that carry copy protection signals embedded can not be copied. Unless one buys a filter device that connects between another player and the recorder.

You should be able to connect the DirectTV DVR to the recorder, and record from dvr to a dvd though.

Another question about this: Is there anyone who is hearing impaired who has this device? I belong to a hearing impaired mailing list that would like a recommendation for DVD Recorder that fully supports closed captioning for the hearing impaired.

Another question about this: Is there anyone who is hearing impaired who has this device? I belong to a hearing impaired mailing list that would like a recommendation for DVD Recorder that fully supports closed captioning for the hearing impaired.

Page 54 of it's manual I found online, says that CC can setup to be displayed.
http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vProdSupportModel?displayTab=R&surfModel=DMR-EZ475VK&modelNo=DMR-EZ475VK&storeId=15001&catalogId=11017&itemId=116056&displayServiceCenter=true#

Generally, DVD players (and burners are, of course, players too) will support display of Closed Captions. The problem is that while display works fine, many either fail to encode Closed Captions correctly, or fail to encode them at all, when burning. Sometimes the problem is absolute (basically, no CC from anything that the burner produces) but more often it is a more subtle defect (such as CC not working for downconverted HD programs received).

So the essential question that the mailing list needs answered is whether DVDs produced by the burner, including downconverted HD broadcasts, display Closed Captions on other DVD players.

I don’t know about the EZ47VK, but I do know the EZ37VK does not record the closed captions. It’ll play back prerecorded cc fine. It even displays cc’s recorded on known cc recording Panasonic DVD recorders like the ES15. I’m guessing the EZ37 and EZ47 have the same encoding engine so it probably won’t record the closed captions.

Thanks for the insight.

Actually, closed captions will be recorded BUT to DVD-RAM only, on both these machines.

Just an update on what I did... I went with the Sony RDR-GX33. It works (closed captions are recorded, for all modes I've tried (including DVD-R and DVD+R).

Just an update on what I did... I went with the Sony RDR-GX33. It works (closed captions are recorded, for all modes I've tried (including DVD-R and DVD+R).Glad to hear you found something appropriate.

Just wondering - have you ran into any "excessively touchy" copy protection problems with the Sony yet?

Nope.