Dear Walmart: We Need a HDD/BRD/DVD Recorder in North America! - Page 5

Their checkout process does not work for me. I tried two different browsers and still no go.

I was devastated to learn that these have been discontinued. The Magnavox units are simply fabulous and I'm totally dependent on mine. I hope Funai will reconsider.

Count me in .... I have a Panasonic DMR EH75 HDD DVR/VCR/DVD. It has the "free" TV Guide Online, but that stopped working over a year ago. It's about 5 plus years old (I got it soon after it came out, whenever that was) and it's starting to act up a little. Like, I couldn't eject the DVD after watching it the other night, so I had to completely reset the unit to factory-shipped to get the eject to work.

So, starting to look around a little for 'what else' and it seems like it's a PC-based solution (not really interested) or very limited otherwise. I can't for the life of me see paying something like $180 a year to rent it from the cable company.

I went to the magnavox.com website and they show a 500GB HDD&DVD Recorder with Digital Tuner. When I clicked the "where to buy" button, it says coming soon. I'd presume they'll wind up at Walmart. In the meantime B&H has two Panasonics with hdd. A 250 gb and 320 gb models. They are designed for Europe but they told me they work in the U.S. except for the tuner that only works in Europe, but you can use video plugs from your satellite or cable box to the recorder and it's supposed to work. Unlike the Magnavox with digital tuner you can't use the antenna to record on the Panasonics.

Yes, it would be GREAT, however, is it going to be the same?
OR are we FINALLY going to get a better EDITTING version with
MOVING MOTION CHAPTER MARKS LIKE THE TOSHIBA`S?
OR A USB INPUT THAT BE USED WITH A USB KEYBOARD?
AND HDMI INPUTS THAT CAN RECORD A MOVIE THAT HAS MACROVISION
IN /ON IT AND STILL RECORD IT?
SORRY, I MUST BE DREAMING!

is it going to be the same? = Probably.

FINALLY going to get a better EDITTING version with MOVING MOTION CHAPTER MARKS? = Maybe.

A USB INPUT THAT BE USED WITH A USB KEYBOARD? = Probably not.

HDMI INPUTS? = You know the answer already, but I like your tenacity.

The new models to be released later this year look physically the same as previous renditions according to the teaser PDF leaks of the 533 & 535.
The 537 is still a "pig in a poke", and we can only speculate and hope it has some advanced features. According to a insider, these units will have different hardware, so the firmwares will not be compatible with prior models. It looks as though a 1TB HDD is added to the mix if that makes anybody tingly inside.

I would be a bit wary of this claim -- European SDTV is 576i at 25 fps, whereas we're at 480i and 30 fps. Most European gear can play the US standard, but being able to record in that standard is another matter. I think it would be wise to check the manufacturer's specs before trusting what B&H is telling you.

I believe the recorders that tstoney is referring to are the still current Panasonic DMR-EH59 and DMR-EH69 models which have 250 GB and 320 GB HDD's, respectively.

These are international models with analogue PAL tuners, and so may not work in Europe or even parts of Asia that is moving towards DVB-T or DVB-T2 free-to-air broadcast standards. (eg. Singapore has just announced the shift towards DVB-T2 from December 2013 onwards, but analogue will still be run in parallel until 2020. (ref. Channel NewsAsia -- Free-to-air TV channels to go digital from end-2013))

However, even though the tuner portion may not continue to work forever, the recorder is still useful for recording in PAL / NTSC formats over a direct AV-in connection.

You can see the reference to NTSC recording in Panasonic's own manual. (ref. see pages 11, 23, and 60, https://support.panasonic.co.nz/docstore/dmr-eh59_dmr-eh69%20operating%20instruction.pdf

More importantly, you can see jjeff's experience with using the recorder for NTSC footage on this thread. (ref. see post 24, http://www.avsforum.com/t/1359243/vhs-to-dvd-transfer-advice#post_21024686)


If you are interested in where the next generation of Panasonic's DVD recorders are going, the ones already available in London and Hong Kong use dig)tal tuners (ie. DVB-T and/or DVB-T2), have around 500 GB of HDD space, record in both MPEG-2 and H.264 formats, and can record HD channels too. Based on the manual, it also allows for editing of recorded videos and playing back of 3D Blu-ray discs. AV-in recording appears to be available through SCART connectors. They also have fancy wireless networking features %r8similar to Panasonic's latest TV's.

Problem ... the ones in Hong Kong cost around twice as much as the MPEG-2 SD-only DMR-EH59 / EH69 models. So if you're looking for a SD recorder, it might not make sense to pay for high-end features which you may not use.

And they do not have analogue tuners. (This is important to me since Singapore only has 3 digital free-to-air channels, of which only one is available in HD. The other two are duplicates of parallel analogue broadcasts. And in a city where over-the-air TV reception can be affected or blocked by lots of high-rise buildings, it is generally far easier and more stable to record over AV-in than over-the-air.)

More info can be found here:

* Trusted Review's take on the DMR-BWT800 -- http://www.trustedreviews.com/panasonic-dmr-bwt800_TV-recorder---set-top-box_review

* Panasonic's Manual for the DMR-BWT800 -- http://tda.panasonic-europe-service.com/docs/2z4ff90d09z3z30c11z656ez706466z25z53e34393619023e814a0de50926b67c89e582377/tsn2/data/ALL/DMRBWT800EB/OI/854941/vqt3c13.pdf



Cheers,
Stephen
Singapore

Absolutely NOTHING to be worried about. I have more than one of these units, along with jjeff, and a few other, and we all are using them with no issues at all. Aside from the lack of a tuner, and a slight black level issue, they work just fine here. If you are a fan of Panasonic DVD recorders, I (and other here) recommend them.

It appears to be a stale link. What was the original source? I guess we can, 'er, chuck it!

Thanks for the info. It's good to hear that you've had a positive experience with the European Panasonic's. The recorder I ordered from B&H is "Panasonic PADMREH59 DMR-EH59GA-K Multi-Zone 250GB HDD/DVD". Other than having to use the a/v plugs instead of the digital tuner, are there any special settings I need to use when setting it up?

I sent two e-mails to Chucks Audio & Video from their website to confirm the MAGNAVOX MDR513H/F7 HDD and DVD is brand new and not refurbished but I haven't received a response.

The link works fine but appears to be disconnected from current info. What's the source for it? Did you get the necessary confirmation email establishing an account, which is required before ordering?

The MDR513H doesn't appear to be here. There are 85 such pages of products. I didn't go through them all.

Well, make sure it is in NTSC mode.

Just be aware that the clock uses 24 hour mode, not 12 hour AM/PM (no way to change it) and the date is european style dd-mm-yr. Just make sure “Rec for High Speed Copy” is set to ON for high speed transfer, and depending on your preference, in setup, you need to set "Aspect for Recording" to the setting you desire. 4:3 does not set the widescreen flag, the 16:9 setting always sets the widescreen flag, and the AUTOMATIC setting looks for the flag in the input and sets it appropriately. Many sources output 16:9 material, but don't set the flag in the video stream, so you will need to adjust that manually, if you wish. I don't bother as all I have are 16:9 televisions, so the flag is not important to me.

Thanks Church av guy! Important stuff to know. I'm taking notes.

I'd be happy with the current features of the 513/515; better than no units at all. I hope something returns later this year.

While my Panny E85 is still a workhorse after nearly 10 years (with an external tuner, of course, and after several rounds of capacitor replacements plus a more recent disc drive replacement through the outstanding services of mickinct), I'd certainly like to get a new DVR with comparable features, and I was seriously considering one of the Magnavox models when they suddenly disappeared from Walmart's inventory everywhere and the aftermarket prices doubled practically overnight. So I'll certainly add my 'sig' to the list -- what say, you folks in the Arkansas HQ?

The Magnavox models aren't dead yet.

There are three new models being released.

Might want to check the main thread that discusses them.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/940657/magnavox-537-535-533-515-513-2160a-2160-2080-philips-3576-3575