My unit is still going strong. Also my Pio 531H HDD unit from Walmart in 2005 is still going. Amazing.
PS- The Panny E80 HDD unit will transfer a burned DVD-RAM to my Panny 2006 E-55 HDD unit and losslessly produce a DVD-R unlike any of the non HDD Panny units. Also a factoid - I paid $625 in August ,2003 for the Panny E-80 HDD unit. This was the going rate at the time.

Both of my E80's are still functioning and get somewhat regular use, especially when I get time to duplicate tapes. My Pio 531 is also still working, and gets almost daily use.

Both of mine are still are still going strong. One is use daily on TCM ,it just loves those black and white movies. The other is use for PBS 2 times a week. I can only hope my new PHILIPS will last as long.
Joe

I was an early, early adopter of the '80. Bought in in May 2003 for $599 via amazon.com. As of this writing, it still chugs like new. I did have to swap the old 80GB Maxtor "QuickView" HDD for a new Maxtor 120GB 7200RPM after about a year and a half of very heavy editing without a re-format. One badly sliced fingertip later, I had learned my lesson. (PS: I used a 120GB because it was on sale, quite a bit cheaper than the 80GB model was at the time, after a small rebate.)

My unit happily has burned early high-quality BeALL, Sony (both MIT and MIJ), Taiyos (Premium, sliver, 8x), older TDK 8x (CMC, I think), relatively modern Verbatim 16xs and even a cake box of Staples old model -Rs (cheapos but quite good for give-aways and the like). It even burns some new TDK 16xs (utter crapola, horrid burns but still quite readable - I use them to move data to the PC and then toss 'em).

I don't want to put a hoodoo on my E80, but my MIJ unit still works fine as long as I don't make the mistake of recording in LP speed, which has bad image quality. When I got it, for about $500 at Beach Camera in July 2003, the unit box had a JAL sticker on it, airfreighted from Japan. Then, Panasonic was in a rush to jump on the HDD DVD recorder bandwagon. Maybe Panasonic will go back to that philosophy and start selling some of their fine HDD DVD recorders made in its Slovak Republic factory, modified for the US market with ATSC tuners (they can leave in the ability to record in PAL or NTSC).

Got mine in Dec 2003. Still going strong.

Had some coasters throughout the years (cheap media) and even thought last year that it was on its final leg (unit froze while burning -- had to unplug for 10+ minutes) and later on many consecutive burn coasters (could have been on 16x DVD-R's which I didn't get the firmware to upgrade).

Burns not as voluminous now as before (as I got the Pioneer 640), but I prefer the ease of dubbing/editing on my E-80 much more.

The major shortfall with the E-80 is the 1x DVD burn, which limits usage (unlike the Pioneer in which a 2hr DVD burn takes about 12 minutes, allows you to edit previously recorded material while recording another, offers thumbnails).

TheCap & others: does your E-80 burns 16x DVD's or just some (like the new TDK for TheCap?) Which firmware upgrade did you use and is it recommended? TIA

Purchased my E-80 on 07/15/03 for $598. It replaced the HS2 that broke. After 2 years of very heavy usage the dvd-ram optical drive went south. I had it fixed under the Panasonic extended warranty I purchased. I still use it daily to record four korean daily dramas (25-35) minutes each episode to the HD. And then burn them to Verbatim 16x dvd-r's with out any problems. Once the E-80 breaks down and don't think I will pay to have it fixed. I guess it depends if there will be other dvd recorders with HDs. My E-500 is still my work horse dvd recorder. I also have a new EH75V in the closet. But I think it's time to sale that one.

My E80 is still working, although I use it less these days. My HS2 is still goin strong as well.

Every time I get one of these on my bench I ALWAYS end up junking it out because panasonic charges over $600 for the DVD mech and the digital PCB they charge $900+ ... insane...so pray and cross your figures that yours never messed up cause if you send it in for service it isn't getting fixed :(

Every time I get one of these on my bench I ALWAYS end up junking it out because panasonic charges over $600 for the DVD mech and the digital PCB they charge $900+ ... insane...so pray and cross your figures that yours never messed up cause if you send it in for service it isn't getting fixed :(

If somebody just skips Best Buy and calls Panasonic direct they tend to offer some pretty good deals depending on model. I have read the same reports about Toshiba. Swapping an optical drive for $130 (Toshiba) for example including round trip shipping. Here for example with Panasonic:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=10921265&postcount=4

Still have an E80 with content stored on HDD for periodic playback and an E100 in regular timeshifting use.

Mine still sees steady use; I publish a couple of hours a week. One of the best pieces of gear I've purchased.

BC

Every time I get one of these on my bench I ALWAYS end up junking it out because panasonic charges over $600 for the DVD mech and the digital PCB they charge $900+ ... insane...so pray and cross your figures that yours never messed up cause if you send it in for service it isn't getting fixed :(
Why anyone would put a 4 year old E-80 "across your bench" makes no sense. If you get 4 years is not that good enough? Do you tell your customer that? Hopefully. I think you are full of BS with every one of the statements you made. Not one is remotely true. There are definitely scams out there.

The major shortfall with the E-80 is the 1x DVD burn...
I have been routinely doing High Speed dubs of 2 hour long programs in less than an hour ... so I think the E80 does 2x burns onto DVD-R.

does your E-80 burns 16x DVD's or just some (like the new TDK for TheCap?) Which firmware upgrade did you use and is it recommended? TIA
I've never updated the firmware. So far, I'm good with TDK and Verbatim 16x DVD-Rs.

I have been routinely doing High Speed dubs of 2 hour long programs in less than an hour ... so I think the E80 does 2x burns onto DVD-R.

Thanks for your reply [on the firmware].

It takes me roughly 1 hour to burn a 2hr SP program to DVD-R (1x burn). To DVD-RAM, it is 2x burn (1/2 hr for 2 hr SP program). (2hr SP = 1 hr XP -- 1x burn)

I have been routinely doing High Speed dubs of 2 hour long programs in less than an hour ... so I think the E80 does 2x burns onto DVD-R.


If your 2-hour long program was recorded in SP mode, and fills a DVD, and the dub takes ~1 hour, then you are H-S dubbing at 1X.

Dubbing a full 4.7 GB DVD in 1 hour = 1X
- in 30 min = 2X
- in 20 min = 3X
- in 15 min = 4X
- in 12 min = 5X
- in 10 min = 6X
- in 5 min = 12X
- and so on.

The formula is: X = 60/time to dub 4.7GB, in minutes.

Why anyone would put a 4 year old E-80 "across your bench" makes no sense. If you get 4 years is not that good enough? Do you tell your customer that? Hopefully. I think you are full of BS with every one of the statements you made. Not one is remotely true. There are definitely scams out there.

Yeah ok, im just telling you what I get. No reason for me to try and scam anyone, why the hell would I care... People send these things in and in our system when you add parts to a service order they list as such and such price... and older units tend to be the more the parts cost. Why? I don't know ...figure it has something to do with unit being out of production but whatever.. I try to get up here and help people with some info of what I have experienced in my work because I deal with this stuff. But, hey if you don't want to hear what I have to say then don't read it.

I swear some people bite the hand that feeds.

I'm totally not saying you won't get your part for a reasonable price, I'm just telling you what panasonic sells this stuff to their authorized service centers for.

And you do realize that Best Buy's PSP extended warranty covers 4 years right? So yeah the ones I do get ARE 4 or so years old and are long out of the original factory warranty. Some people also send in units COD, so they still come in. Hell I had a 10 year old VCR show up the other day.

If somebody just skips Best Buy and calls Panasonic direct they tend to offer some pretty good deals depending on model. I have read the same reports about Toshiba. Swapping an optical drive for $130 (Toshiba) for example including round trip shipping. Here for example with Panasonic:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...65&postcount=4

And this is the reason I always says Sony's and Toshiba's dealing with warranties are good. Only costs in the neighborhood of $150 for us to send it to them for repair...if we were to put parts on the tag the repair will cost upwards of $300 bucks or more.

I've had mine since late 2004 or so, had a few hickups, but still works well and much better then the Polaroid 2001g I got when they came out. I still use it a lot and have many of favorite shows set to record on it. Seems to do most disks minus wise very well. I have done the firmware updates and they seem to help with media and responsiveness a bit.
I have a Phillips 3575 I really like now as well but the panny still has features that are way better, but it's very limited in other ways so they both have their good and bad points.
If it could have taken a bigger Hard Drive and supported more media types I might not have ever tried the other units.

Up until yesterday, I would say I was with you.

However, I just had 2+ failures in the last few hours, before I crashed at around 12:00.

The hard disk also appears to be making more noise then usual, it iss too "audible", and "ratchety" sounding. On both burns, the display went dark, except for "L1". The unit they needs a power-cycle and has to recover.

Yes, it has been a while since the last format. Crap.

____

Update, OK, maybe I am lucky.
I am now thinking my issues were due to keeping it on for like 4+ days.
I was trying to catch up with a backlog of stuff to burn.
So, I would make a few recordings after I got home from work, leave it burning as I went to sleep. Wake up,
start finalization, take a shower, start another burn then go to work. This happened for a few days.
After my initial post I let it shut down and went to sleep.
It had time to cool down, and it seems happy now. I am on my 2nd successful burn now, and will be clearing the HD for formatting.

Up until yesterday, I would say I was with you.

However, I just had 2+ failures in the last few hours, before I crashed at around 12:00.

The hard disk also appears to be making more noise then usual, it iss too "audible", and "ratchety" sounding. On both burns, the display went dark, except for "L1". The unit they needs a power-cycle and has to recover.

Yes, it has been a while since the last format. Crap.

____

Update, OK, maybe I am lucky.
I am now thinking my issues were due to keeping it on for like 4+ days.
I was trying to catch up with a backlog of stuff to burn.
So, I would make a few recordings after I got home from work, leave it burning as I went to sleep. Wake up,
start finalization, take a shower, start another burn then go to work. This happened for a few days.
After my initial post I let it shut down and went to sleep.
It had time to cool down, and it seems happy now. I am on my 2nd successful burn now, and will be clearing the HD for formatting.

Awesome makes me sick to my stomach when I have to format stuff and lose everything, good everything worked out.

I have one sitting in its box replaced by a EH55. I replaced the E80H HDD after one year and it has been perfect ever since. I am debating whether to sell it or keep it.

I'd keep it. I don't see HD recorders becoming available anytime soon, if ever. And the only stuff like it being produced now and which will be in the future, will be inferior by comparison.

Just look at all the problems people are posting about with the newest DVD recorders. You never saw that with the older units from before the last couple of years. I still have a Panny E85H and a Sony RDR-HX900 which still work perfectly, and I grabbed a Panny EH75V for good measure a few months back. They're all worth a fortune right now, and for good reason. I'm not about to get rid of any of them just yet.

Maybe if they eventually come out with models that have everything I want - then I'll consider selling - one - maybe.

I'd keep it. I don't see HD recorders becoming available anytime soon, if ever. And the only stuff like it being produced now and which will be in the future, will be inferior by comparison.

Just look at all the problems people are posting about with the newest DVD recorders. You never saw that with the older units from before the last couple of years. I still have a Panny E85H and a Sony RDR-HX900 which still work perfectly, and I grabbed a Panny EH75V for good measure a few months back. They're all worth a fortune right now, and for good reason. I'm not about to get rid of any of them just yet.

Maybe if they eventually come out with models that have everything I want - then I'll consider selling - one - maybe.

And that makes me wish I would've jumped on this sooner ... I would love to be able to do half the stuff these old panasonic HDD recorders do ... but like you said most the recorders now are utter crap.

On the subject of the E-80: Is there any way to find out what causes the tray open mechanism to jam, so it only opens every third push of the tray open button?

Mine only started doing that after I pulled it open to retrieve a disk when it locked up from a poorly burned disk from another machine I was trying to play.
My suspicion is either it's very tight tolerance and I got something a tiny bit out of alignment or the tray belt is now slipping sometimes and causing it.
I couldn't remember or find the button sequence to force open a locked machine at that point so hard to say if it was the disassembly or just age that did it.
I think the belt would be easy enough to replace if it does have one, it's a loader design so the drive is pretty open once you get it pulled out.

I've got two in daily time shifting use, as my Dad has one as well.

It doesn't like most of the DVD-R blanks currently on the market, though. It has no issues with Fuji DVD-Rs or Maxells, but when using Sony or Panasonic blanks produces discs that will not play on DVD players or even on its own drive.

The weird thing is that the discs do play on the E80 until they're finalized, at which time something goes very wrong.

I've got two in daily time shifting use, as my Dad has one as well.

It doesn't like most of the DVD-R blanks currently on the market, though. It has no issues with Fuji DVD-Rs or Maxells, but when using Sony or Panasonic blanks produces discs that will not play on DVD players or even on its own drive.

The weird thing is that the discs do play on the E80 until they're finalized, at which time something goes very wrong.

I never had any such problem, though I mostly used Memorex and Sony 2X and later TDK 8X, which worked best. From time to time it did not want to dub one of those discs, but once it burned the disc plays fine on all the players I tried. I think the secret is to record no slower than SP, trying to record LP on that machine is a mistake, IMO. The EH55, OTOH, records LP that is outstanding and has no noticeable issues.

My vintage 2003 EH80 is still in use every day. Most of my burning to -Rs is now done on my computer, so I can get spiffier menus, but when I do burn, there's almost never any issues, and they're always Media related.

Once I found out that Imation discs are bad news, it was four years of near bliss. OK, maybe that's overstating it, but it is one of my favorite things I ever purchased.

We purchased our E80 in January 2004.

We use it regularly. No problems, it still works perfectly.

I accidently erased my hard drive which had about 16 hours of very important (to me) irreplacable recordings. Is there any way to retstore this material? Thanks for any help.

I accidently erased my hard drive which had about 16 hours of very important (to me) irreplacable recordings. Is there any way to retstore this material? Thanks for any help.How important is it? A simple "erase" means that the data is still very much on the drive and retrievable. You could pull the drive and send it to a place that specializes in data retrieval...of course these places usually deal with corporations trying to recover sensitive data on crashed drives...and the charge accordingly.;)

I bought my e-80 for about $560 (I must have been loco). I used its editing functions hard and believe the remote control contributed heavily to my carpal tunnel problems, caused by the sharp edges on the remote control and my overuse. The remote also has lost functionality on about 30% of the buttons. I believe this is more of a common occurance on panny units. I had a few problems with media compatability, so I loaded the new firmware. After which the unit will now not recognize finalized discs (as reported by others here). They do playback fine in other players, luckily. Otherwise this unit goes in the trash can. The hard drive is original but lately has crashed twice on me. The last one during a dubbing session. It is not making noise but I have a wary eye on it.