Panasonic DMR-ES10S DIGA Series DVD Recorder , Silver
Short-lived machine--avoid this lemon
Here is the original review of this machine I wrote on June 17, 2006:    We bought this machine just over a year ago (a year and two weeks, to be specific).  We had another very similar Panasonic DVD recorder (DMR-E55) in a different room and wanted to be able to record and watch DVD-RAMs on both.  For a long time, the ES10S recorder worked fine.  Recently, though, it has begun making noises when starting up and shutting down, and now it occasionally has problems reading the disks, ejecting them, and even playing them.  At first we thought this might be because we'd recorded over the DVD-RAMs so many times.  But today we tested one of them in the other machine, which has never made any similar noises, and the E55 had no problems with it.  Needless to say, we're not happy that the ES10S seems to be dying, especially since the 1-year warranty just ended.  If you buy or own this machine, follow up on any strange noises as soon as you hear them if you're within the warranty period, because the noises and problems just get worse.  Panasonic is usually a reliable brand, one we've used for many years, but this machine seems to be a lemon.  We're actually going to write to Panasonic about it--I'll try to post again with the results.    Here is my update, which I wrote November 3:    This is a follow-up review to the one above, which I wrote on June 17. I wrote to Panasonic after my machine had stopped working just after the warranty ended. They sent me a nice letter authorizing a free repair, including labor, of the machine at one of three places they listed. The places were all within a half-hour drive of my home. After doing some research, I chose one and brought in the machine. They fixed it by replacing \\"the entire internal mechanism\\" (I don't know what that means). We got the machine back from the repair shop near the end of July; it's now the beginning of November. The fixed machine worked fine for a while, but in the past few weeks, we've been hearing the same old noises that were the beginning of the end for it before. I'm going to try writing to Panasonic again and asking for a refund, because this machine really seems to have something fundamentally wrong with it. It's still working, but I know from the last time with these noises and efforts to read the disks that soon it won't. Avoid this machine. Again, the previous Panasonic model (DMR-E55) we bought hasn't had any of these difficulties and continues to work great. We're still big Panasonic fans, but this particular model is a lemon.    Here is my final update, which I wrote April 9, 2007:    Well, it took a while for Panasonic to get back to me about this for the second time.  In my letter, I explained the situation and asked them either for a replacement machine (new or refurbished--just anything that would work!) or a refund.  They wrote back offering me a full refund of the original purchase price, which I accepted and was very glad to receive; the check arrived today.  So, even though this particular product is headed for the toxic waste disposal center in our town, Panasonic did the right thing, and I will continue to buy Panasonic products (especially since almost every piece of electronic equipment in our house other than computer-related stuff is Panasonic).  Although I would rather have had this DVD recorder work well for a long time, like the E55 continues to do, at least now I have the money to replace it.  Thank you, Panasonic!