Panasonic DMR-E30S Progressive Scan DVD Recorder
Burn That Disc...
With the price of DVD recorders dropping almost as fast as CPUs, nearly every house will have their own. This is the next wave of home video recording. The only thing impairing its advance is the relatively high price of the recording medium. <br />Panasonic has managed to lower its prices while raising the playing field. Their E30S has a slimmer, sexier profile when compared to its predecessor. With a polished silver appearance, the E30S will be a welcome sight to any home video complex. The only size drawback is the fan assembly protruding from the back causing a problem for our shallow entertainment center ( the E30S measures 12 inches deep). <br />The E30S has all the mandatory function buttons and connections (menu control, A/V and S-Video). The analog inputs include the same RF cable connections found on a VCR, two sets each of rear A/V and S-Video inputs and outputs, a digital optical output, and a component-video output. The limitation posed by the E30S is that there are no coaxial or FireWire port for digitally connecting a digital video camcorder or a computer. <br />The supplied remote control is bland at best. With an appropriate arrangement of keys, don't try to use them in the dark. Unlike many remotes, the E30S has no backlit or glow in the dark keys. The functions are pretty straightforward and will cause little confusion after the initial reading of the manual. The aggravating slide door hiding the Open/Close and Input Select buttons is in a poor position. <br />Many of the second generation DVD recorders never offered progressive scan output. Panasonic has overcome this limitation in the DMR-E30S. Additionally, Panasonic added other improvements while still dropping the price by... <br />With the progressive scan feature, the E30S can be used for HDTVs. It performed so well at the store that I almost convinced the wife to buy a HDTV to go with it. The E30S reproduced DVDs with minimal movement artifacts, sharp detail, and fewer dancing pixels, thanks to a newly incorporated noise reduction circuit. As a result, the E30S has a video recording quality is much better than that of S-VHS or VHS. There is less noise and absolutely no jitter. And the color is fantastic, much more accurate color in every recording mode. In XP (one hour per disc) and SP (two hours) modes, this DVR measured the maximum 480 lines of resolution; in LP (four hours) and EP (six hours) modes, resolution fell by half, resulting in a much softer picture. <br />Since we are using this recorder for movies and TV only, we have not reviewed the MP3 recording capabilities of this machine. <br />With Flexible Recording one can efficiently utilize any DVD medium for recording. The older models would require a movie slightly longer than two hours to be recorded in a four hour mode. This greatly reduces the quality of the recording. The E30S Flexible Recoding feature only requires that you enter the time and the disc will be utilized for the best possible recording quality. <br />I believe Panasonic designed the E30S to pinch out the VCR industry. Very much in the way that the Sony Beta Max got squashed. The E30S has VCR Plus for easy timer recording, clock, and most of the same features you would expect in upper model VCRs. The only thing missing is tuner except for cable/satellite tuner control. While not having an actual tuner, you can watch one program while recording a different program on DVD-RAM. <br />I would have liked more editing capabilities. But that is why I have a fully decked out computer. The E30S offers some limited features in the form of play list based editing. But it can not record sound and video tracks separately. Additionally, the menu editing does not allow thumbnail or any other feature for your homemade DVDs. Might as well be reading a pizza menu. <br />You can use DVD-RAMs and DVD-Rs in the E30S. DVD-RAMs (about $10 for 4.7GB) can be recorded and erased over and over. Additionally, the E30S play list editing and time shifting features work well with the DVD-RAMs. Using DVD-Rs will cost less money (...each in bulk) but functionality is more limited. The saving grace for the DVD-Rs is that they can be set up to play in any standard DVD players (DVD-RAMs can be played only in drives that support DVD-RAM). <br />The E30S is one of the least expensive DVD recorders on the market. And with prices continuing to drop, the upper models will soon be within reach. I intend this unit to be set aside for the kids room while Mom and I await the newer models.