Panasonic DMR-ES35V

How is the picture quality on the VCR? I know it's not going to be anywhere near as good as a dvd but how does it compare with other VCRs especially older top of the line VHS (Not S-VHS) VCR models. Also how is the tracking on the VCR. Thanks.

I just bought one about a week ago, and the picture quality on the VCR blows away anything I've ever seen on VHS before. I'm not sure if that is because it is being up-converted to S-Video as my old VCR, of course, just fed RCA cables.

Tracking is excellent too. It is tracking some pretty damaged tapes very well. Tapes that used to have drop-out of the hi-fi signal on the Sony it replaced play flawlessly now.

The DVD looks great too and the home videos I have begun to copy from the VHS to DVD are coming out beautifully.

Highly recommended.

I've purchased an ES35V a week ago and I must say that I'm impressed so far. It works exactly as it says in the specs (unlike my Samsung DVD-R120 which was never able to produce a disk that could be used reliably on any other dvd players). The user manual is quite good. You might have to read it twice but it's a lot better than some others where you have to read it 20 times such as the Denon manuals.

The menus are very intuitive, picture quality is great (VHS could be better but it's never very good going on a 1080p TV anyway). Editing is great and so far flawless.

The only thing that bothers me, and it is a very small thing, is that while they did put a cover over the DIVX input socket on the front panel, they did not do the same thing for the IN2 jacks which to me looks kind of messy.

DV perhaps.

I also recently purchased this unit and enjoy the features for the price. I agree that video quality on VHS tapes (even old tapes) is excellent.

My only problem is that the unit fails when copying from VHS to DVD. These are old home videos, so no copyright issues. Typically, the unit will start copying and after 20-50 seconds the screen will display an error message and the unit will shut down. I'm using Fuji DVD-R discs. I've been able to successfully complete 2 copies, but have now had 5 or 6 failures.

Has anyone else experienced similar problems? Thoughts/suggestions on a fix? Thanks.

jm465, I'm just guessing but it's probably a problem with the Fuji Discs & the ES35V that just doesn't like them?

I never had very much luck with Fuji or Memorex on my Samsung R4000 (A 2003 Panny E50 Clone) & now I only use TY's for anything I'm saving or in a pinch Sony -Rs & Playo -Rs for all my friends who keep asking me for stuff in my collection

I would try another brand of -Rs like Sony Made in Japan if you can find them.

Maybe other people that have the ES35V will let you know what brands & speeds they are using without any problems.

As Bill1313 suggested, try using a different brand of discs. I have an ES30V-which preceded the ES35, and Maxell, TDK, Verbatim, have all worked well. Just tried some Office Depot -RWs, and so far no problem with them...

Westly-C, I just got my daughter the ES30V from another board member here & I'll have to pass that on to her about Office Depot -RWs. Also what kind of a sale price should she be looking for on them?

I"m asking because I have no idea how much RWs sell for because my recorder can't use them & so I never kept up on RW prices.

I don't think she has used any RW type discs so far though because most of what she has been recording on the ES30V is from her Video Tape collection & she has been using TY -Rs for that.

She also has a Panny E55 which she has been using mostly the 400 TYs I sent her plus she uses the Playos that I also sent her when her friends want something.

What kind of +Rs have you tried on your ES30V if any? & the reason I'm asking is after her Playos are gone that maybe there are some cheap +Rs that she could use for her friends instead?

But anything that we both really want to save we try to use only TY -Rs.

^^ Because I also have an E85-which doesn't use the +R format, I never use +RWs. A 10 pack of HP or Verbatim RWs, either + / - , can be found for around $10 bucks at Walmart with 15 pack spindles of Maxell near $15.

Thanks & next time I'm in Wal-Mart maybe I'll pick up a pack of RWs for her to try out but like you with an older Panny that only does RAMs & -Rs I don't think she really has much use for them but they might be nice for her to try out seeing they can be erased & used over again but even for that she uses RAM discs for Timer Recordings which she then cuts the commercials out of & then dubs them to a -R Disc using her Panny S29 Player that plays Ram Discs & also Playlists from the Panny Recorders.

Bill1313,

I have never gotten a bad burn from MAXELL DVD's, whether it was DVD-R/-RW.

I have yet to use DVD+R's yet, but i would go MAXELL since I have yet to have a failure with them.

I have never found any MIJ Maxell DVD-RW's anywhere, but i have had zero problems with the ones made in Taiwan.

An excellent place to look for Maxell DVD -R/-RW/+R/+RW, and to get MIJ branded -R/+R is at SEARS. The turnover is very small on media at Sears, so many of them still have plenty of -R/+R media that was MIJ. Now most of them are not 16X media, but they still have 8X media that was MIJ.

I have used the Maxell's on the Panny ES30V, the Pioneer 531, and my current Sony 900, and have had no problems with them.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll give one of those other brands a shot.

STEELERSRULE, Thanks & I'll have to pass that on to her about SEARS because believe it or not that's about the only store near her except for the chain drug stores where she does buy blank DVDs because all the other chain stores are way on the outskirts of the city in shopping centers & a pain for her to get to that's why I ordered her a buch of TY -Rs.

As for Maxell I did have a problem once with a pack of 50 -R x8 from Taiwan but great luck with all the rest of the Maxell's including DVD-RAMs.

The only stores near me that I buy blanks from are Wal-Mart & Staples & sometimes Walgreen's drug store but Wal-Mart & Staples will price match any of the chain's like Best Buy, Circuit City & Sears which are all a good 20 miles or more away from me.

Can you confirm that you can hit pause while recording, so as to fast forward past commercials, and then resume recording? If so, can you also do this in FR mode? I read a review on a different site that said you can't pause, and there were basically no editing functions, but I'm leary of that assessment.

Not sure exactly what you mean by "PAUSE" & then "Fast Forward" through Commercials?

But on the ES35V while you are watching a program & you want to cut the commercials out all you have to do is "Pause" the recording when a commercial comes on & when the program returns just start recording it again (It's exactly the same method that you would use when cutting commercials out when recording on a VCR).

Yes you can "Pause" & "Unpause" a recording when using the "FR" Recording mode.


As for editing, like going back after a program is already recorded & cutting the commercials out & marking Chapters & etc this can only be done on the ES35V using DVD-RAM Discs.

Using DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R & DVD+RW Discs on the ES35V the only editing you can do is Erase A Program, Enter The Name (Title) Of A Program, Enter the Name (Title) Of The Disc or Change the Thumbnail Picture In The Play Menu. As for Chapters you can't create them on these discs but when the disc is "Finalized" the ES35V will automatically create Chapters on the discs about every 5 minutes.

The Chapters that it creates WILL NOT HAVE ANY THUMBNAIL PICTURES & the Chapter System works just about the same way the "VHS Index System" works. The marks or chapters don't show but they are there on the DVD & when you press the Skip buttons it moves forward or backward to the next chapter.

The Chapters it creates on the disc also work when playing the "Finalized" disc on another DVD Player.

For more info on the DMR-ES35V you can download the Owners Manual from Panasonic's website & it will probably answer all of your questions.

Thanks Bill, that answered the question. I'm not sure how others have theirs set up, but for me (right or wrong) I set up my main DBS HD receiver on the component 1 input on my TV, then I set up the recorder on component 2. I mainly just offload Tivo stuff I'd like to archive, so to do that I switch my input to comp2 and then controlling the HD Tivo I play the program and manually record from the DVD recorder. When commercials come up, I pause the recorder, fast forward the Tivo, then resume recording at the end of commercials. Thankfully, I don't do all my DVD's manually like this : )

Now I understand "Fast Forward Past Commercials" because in your post above you din't mention the Tivo

Mine works just fine. I suggest that the "fix" lies in the warranty.

OK, got my ES35V and it looks real good! After burning my first DVD, I have a couple questions on what I might be doing wrong. I burned a football game that was in HD from Tivo onto DVD -R. Looks great, and it DOES play in 16:9 widescreen on my Mits DLP. However, after finalizing and putting it into the Toshiba HD DVD player, it shows in 4:3. I can change the format to play in expand mode and it doesn't look too bad. Any ideas on why it plays in 16:9 on my Panny but not on the Toshiba?

Also, the Tivo recording said the program length was 3 hours. So when I recorded I used FR and set it to 3:01. For some reason, the last 10 minutes or so of the game got cut off. I checked and the Tivo program was indeed 3 hours, so any idea why that might have occured? I did change the setting to turn the unit off after 2 hours instead of the default 6 hours, but that shouldn't have anything to do with it since I thought that only shuts down the unit after non-use for that length of time. Oh well, I still love it. I was using the JVC DR-MV1S until it just crapped out on me, and this looks every bit as good, and operates in much the same way.

Hey guys.

Sorry for the bump but I have a friend who just bought this player. And he is making dvds from old vhs tapes. But he has an issue with it as the disks he is making only play in the recorder and do not play in his other dvd players or his computer for that matter.

Now I dont know anything about the actual recording but is this common with all the dvd recorders? And if not can you recommend another one that will play the dvds in other dvd players.

Thx for your time.

Chris

This is usually caused by failing to Finalize the recorded discs in the recorder prior to trying to play them in another player.

Perfect. Thx for the info.

Another reason maybe that he is Recording on RAM Discs & they will usually only play on certain Panasonic DVD Players.

Being somewhat ignorant of what you said: How does one not "finalize" the recorded disc?
Further, I'm am looking seriously at getting the unit as they have a good discount on them. The reason is I have a large VHS collection, personal tapes and commercial movies tapes and wish to make DVD copies. Am I to assume that the commercial movies will copy easily using the unit. Further, is it legal to make a copy?
TIA for any help you can offer

1225, I don't have an ES35V but if I remember right when your done recording & press the stop button or maybe it's the open/close button the Panny asks you if want to "Finalize" the disc. If you do you are instructed then to press the "Record" button & finalizing starts . If you don't want to finalize the disc you just don't press the "Record" button.

As for dubbing / copying store bought tapes that have the Macrovision copy guard system in them you are not going to be able to copy them using the ES35V.

If you do want to copy store bought tapes that have Macrovision in them you can get a Video Filter that will let you copy them.

But you will have to hook up the Video Filter between another VCR & the ES35V because you can't use the Video Filter on the ES35V because it won't let you feed it's own Output signal back into one of it's own Inputs.

As far as I know the only Panasonic Combos that would let you add on a Video Filter to use the VCR in them were the older Original 2004 DMR-E75V & the 2005 DMR-ES30V models.

For more info go to Panasonic's website & you can download "All" the Owners Manuals & they will explain "Finalizing" & just about everything else that you want to know.

For more info on Video Filters do a search here for Video Filters & also try Sima.

Bill1313
Thanks for your input. It is greatly appreciated. I have some research to do, I see, before i proceed with a purchase.

1225, If you already have a good working VCR I would just purchase a Panny ES15 or ES25.

The ES15 is really just an ES35V without the VCR section built-in plus if you get a stand alone recorder you then will be able to hook up the Macrobuster Video Filter between your VCR & your DVD Recorder to copy your store bought Video Tapes & the extra money you save by buying the ES15 can go toward the Macrobuster

You can record to a blank dvd all you want, until the disc is full. After you've recorded to the dvd all you want, the dvd can still be played on the recorder without being finalized, but will not play on other dvd players.
For the record, once you've finished recording to the disc, it's always best to go ahead and Finalize it-there's no point in not finalizing it. In case something happens to the unit, you won't be stuck with dvds that can't be played elsewhere.

How is the DMR-ES35V as a DVD playback deck? Is it all region?

For a DVD player, I currently have the Philips DVP649 (which can be hacked open to become all region--PAL and everything) hooked to my main television. There's limited space under my TV, so before I replace that deck with a DVD recorder, I need to make sure I can still play discs from other regions.