Panasonic DMR-EH59

A great price! Considering I paid $400 to nearly $500 for my EH55's in recent years. J&R's price is matched by B&H. And the EH59 allows prenaming of timer recordings and brings back the REFRESH mode from the E100H. (The current recording will erase that schedule's previous recording.)

That IS a very good price. I sincerely hope that Panasonic is not retiring them, though they are getting very old. The owner's manual says Feb 2009 was the introduction date. That's three plus years. I wonder if they are thinking of replacing them with a newer model, or just letting the whole concept drop. I can't imagine why J&R are dumping them.

Noticed the price at J&R is back to $389 for the EH59.

Also just saw B&H has a returned EH69 for $329.

And B&H hasn't raised their EH59 price back to the pre-sale levels. That's a really good price for an EH69. It wasn't there yesterday when I checked. I wonder how long it'll last?

When compared with the EH-55, what are the major advantages-disadvantages, other than warrranty?

Advantage EH-55:
Correct black level for N. America
IR blaster to control select STBs(change channel)
12hr clock
Phrase save feature saves whole line
More line inputs
Analog tuner

Advantage EH-59:
5 years newer
1080p output(vs 1080i for EH=55)
Sharper thumbnail view
NO TVGOS, easier to set timer programs in the absence of a TVGOS signal

Since you mentioned the phrase save on the EH55, it made me think - doesn't the EH59/69 let you put in a title BEFORE the recording is made, and to have that title stay associated with that program timer if you do it weekly/daily?

Yes, like the non TVGOS models that I have. When TVGOS is available the EH-55 automatically labels the program which is nice but you get nothing nor the option when using manual TVGOS mode

The EH59 carries over the REFRESH option from the E100H.

Hello, maybe someone can make clone HDD from eh59 ? I can pay for it. email: nefronix@gmail.com

Compared to the EH-55, how would you record digital signals from a cable box or card? Could you schedule recordings, from different channels?

I'm sure what I do is very clunky compared with more sophisticated board members, but it works.

The EH59/69 have line inputs. I just run rca cables from my digital cable box into one of them. Then you use the manual (old vcr style) timer settings to program recordings. Now, I'm lucky because my cable system still allows the cable box to accept programming settings and change the channel on th box. So I match those with the EH59 record settings and have had no issues.

Yes, I have to set the recordings in two places, but it doesn't take long at all.

My list of EH59/69 advantages:

You can set the widescreen bit for correct interpretation by DVD players
Phrase-save feature is 44 characters long (20 on the EH50 and 55)
Will play NTSC and PAL DVDs (won't convert between formats)
Title groupings
Refresh record option (auto renewal)
title name for timer recording

Disadvantages:

No warranty
No tuner
Does not record the imbedded closed captioning information
Black level error
The date/time inofrmation is 24 hour clock only, and the date is european ordered
To use the record interval function, you must use the front panel record button, the REC button on the remore does not activate the feature



The tuner does not work in north america, so you can only use the line inputs. If you have an STB that is programmable, set the program in both units and it wil work just fione. I had to do this for years and it was tedious, but workable.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/DV...6/N/4294210544
They have another EH-69 return, like the last one this one is also $329
The ES-15 is gone but they still have the HDMI equipped ES-25. Personally I'd have grabbed the ES-25 for only $10 more but someone wanted to save the $10...

Interesting that J&R has returned the EH59 to it's previous $370 price, but B&H has their price for a new one at $330.

Yes, they have an EH69 used for $329. It says it's condition 9: "Shows signs of use, but very clean."

But it's no longer Free Shipping.

Count it as a major operator failure, but here is a real tale of woe. My wife has over forty exercise tapes that are (according to her) perfect for her purposes. Very few of them are available on DVD and the ones that are, are pretty expensive (again according to her research) in the ~$30 apice range.

I copied all of them to my DVD recorder. She has them arranged into groups that she would like all on the same disk. I have just finished editing the first set and attempted to burn them to a DVD, when my EH59 informed me that this was not possible. The titles that she wants on the first DVD amount to more than would fit on a single layter disk, so I put in a Verb +R DL disk. It said it could not do it.

My fault. Apparently, I left the title aspect for the source set to 16:9, and according to the manual:


So, I either have to re-record all these titles, OR, tell the wife that I had to break up her larger groupings into two single sided disks, or see if they will HS copy to a -R DL disk.

The manual has a few of these little gotchas that only manifest themselves once in a great while. But when they do...!

Depending on how many you have I guess I'd just bite the bullet and use the more expensive -R DL, I'm sure they will work. Even though I only have 16:9 displays I still leave my setting to 4:3 and this way I can utilize the cheaper +R DLs and high speed.
After some bad luck with the cheap +R DL Windata brand I swore I'd never purchase anything other than Verbatims for DL blanks. I had stuck to this pledge for quite a few years but I finally couldn't resist the price of the Windata's. Last week I got a 100 spindle of +R DL 8x for $25 after a $15 off coupon. I burned several in my PC and they completed and verified just fine, haven't had occasion to try one in one of my Panasonics yet. I rarely use DLs in my Panasonics and I'll probably save the Verbs for them, I just couldn't resist the 25 cent/DVD for the Windata's

I tested it, and the titles WILL HS copy to a -R DL disk. It is a bit surprising, but that's the kind of thing you get with "limited support for these formats".

I really thought it was set to 4:3. I guess I was wrong about that.

Another interestng development. The EH59 will not make a +R DL disk from these titles, as I said, BUT, ater making a -R DL disk from them, my DVD duplicator *WILL* copy the -R DL disk to a +R DL disk. I am surprised, but it made the copy just fine and the +R DL copy plays in my $30 WalMart DVD player without a problem. I don't get it exactly, but I'm pretty happy about it.

I couldn't resist.

Just bought an EH59 return from J&R for $239, free shipping.

I can always use the storage space for my classic tv shows.

Yeah, that's what I'm going to tell my wife. Storage space. Classic shows.

Sounds good, right?

Wow! A returned EH59 to J&R, and I missed it?!? That must have been on-line for a VERY short time as I check almost every day. B&H still has an open-box EH69 for the same price as a new EH59, but that's $90 more than you paid.

Luke, you jinxed me!

The EH59 came from J&R but it's dead as a doorknob.

After 10 minutes of Please Wait, I held the power button in until that was replaced by a flashing 0:00.

Pushed the power button again and got Hello. No sound of any action inside - no hard drive booting or anything. Hello just sits there.

Tried this over and over again, but I finally gave up.

Oops. Sorry. In this case, I guess there really WAS a reson for the return. It SOUNDS like the HDD is bad, but it could be something much more serious. The B&H used machine has been sold now too.