Panasonic DMR-EX97EB-K DVD Recorder with Freeview HD, Black

I ended up buying this dvd recorder as my toshiba one died after 15 years. It was easy to set up and it’s great to be able to record one channel while still watching another channel,you can also record two shows at once but you then have to watch one of the channels your recording. Setting time records is easy but i have to admit i had to look up how to edit out footage i don’t want from my recorded footage but once learned it’s easy enough.i have yet to copy footage from the hdd drive to dvd-r but looks easy enough. If like me you tend to hold onto footage of your favourite celebs on interview shows or your favourite shows that probably won’t ever get a official dvd release.This is a great way to do it. My only complaint is the tick box on the description page says this model has wi-fi yet it doesn’t.

Excellent machine, near perfect. One minor niggle is that the surprising good series record feature does not cope perfectly with episodes that are transmitted back-to-back... it records the first, and then looks at the schedule to find the next episode which started a few seconds earlier and so you miss the first 10 seconds or so (for broadcasts that start exactly on time). You can of course do a manual recording of the pair, or a single recording of each (it will record two programmes simultaneously), but you have to remember to set it up again every week.You can copy recorded programmes to a DVD, but only those recorded off air. It will play external HDDs or flash memory sticks recorded off other set top boxes, but it won't allow them to be transferred to DVD. Copying to DVD takes about as long as the original programme, but you have to remember that whilst doing this it will not record anything, so you might miss a recording (it's OK once the DVD is written, you don't have to do anything for it to continue recording as normal). The first time I did this, it found and recorded a repeat episode automatically, but the second time, it completed the DVD part way through the episode set for recording, and it just recorded the last half.Things I like about it... You can edit a programme title (I use this to add the episode number to the title); it groups all episodes of a series in one "folder"; you can manually group episodes too; it will record radio programmes (I recently set it up to record 12 hours, and it split it into an 8 hour and a 4 hour file - I haven't tried a long TV recording yet); The remote has buttons for controlling my (Sony) TV (on/off, volume, channel and source); It is very easy to set up a recording from the epg screen (and it checks for HD and series options).

I bought this to replace an earlier Panasonic DVD recorder which failed. I can play back all the discs recorded earlier, including ones not finalised.As others have noted, you can't record from an external device onto DVD as there are no suitable inputs.There are quite a lot of copy operations which it won't let you do.(My old Panasonic had about four times as many sockets, and could copy from the inputs to DVD.)The only sockets are:BackFigure-of-eight socket for the mains cableRF in and out (RF link cable for TV provided)HDMI (2 metre cable provided)Ethernet - only of use to update the firmware over the Internet AFAIKFrontUSB 2.0This is useful to transfer files to the HDD from a USB stick or USB HDD. You can also 'register' the HDD with the box, enabling you to extend the internal HDD space, but, since you have to leave the front flap down, this is rather inconvenient.Files copied from USB to the HDD can't be burnt to DVD, apart from some camcorder files (AVCD format), and those may not be playable on other DVD players.The manual is rather 'techy' which has the advantage that all the functionality is covered, but it's rather difficult to understand.The PVR functionality is excellent, with two tuners supporting Freeview HD. Programmes can be edited to remove the adverts and then burnt to DVD.There are "manual skip" buttons, forward 60 seconds and back 10 seconds to skip adverts of recordings, but response is very slow, as is returning to play from pause.

It's panasonic they are simply good at what they do

Bought as replacement for my old Panasonic recorder/player. Found this one easy to set up and slightly narrower than my old one. Easy to record and just love that you can record two programs at same time, especially as terrestrial TV seem to have several good programs at 9pm

This recorder replaces one of the same make and style which I had had for many years and which finally gave up. It does everything that I want it to, has plenty of storage and plays well with a good picture. The only thing I would like is that, when some programmes finally finish their series, the player would automatically cancel the recording, which used to happen with most, very old style, recorders but on this one I have to physically delete each recording setup individually, once a series has finished. Not a major problem, so I haven't knocked any stars off, just a little frustrating.