Panasonic DMRE50S DVD Player/Recorder , Silver
Good Starter DVD Recorder
I have used this recorder extensively for over a year with no problems whatsoever. <br /> <br />This is an excellent and easy-to-use DVD recorder for those of you who intend to use this as a way to transfer your old non-Macromedia copyright protected VHS tapes to DVD or as a way to record programs off the television.  It has a very quiet fan and is fairly easy to use.  Some people have complained about the remote, but I think the remote is fine.   <br /> <br />The flexible recording speed (FRS) feature is great and rare on the lower-end DVD recorders.  It allows you to record for a specific amount of time.  Many recorders including this one allow you to record at one, two, four and six hour settings.  The problem with squeezing six hours of video onto one DVD is a major sacrifice in quality as you increase the amount of video on the DVD.  The four-hour setting is similar to VHS quality.  I do most recording at the two-hour setting as I see little-to-no difference between this and the one-hour setting.  What makes the FRS feature on this model so helpful is it allows you to record for a more specific amount of time.  For example, if a movie is two hours and seven minutes long you can set the time for this exact amount as it will not otherwise fit on the two-hour setting and the four-hour setting will result in a significant loss of quality.      <br /> <br />This unit allows you to enter titles by keying in letters, numbers and symbols via the remote...a little tedious, but still a nice feature.  The unit is also one of the more attractive DVD recorders and has a sleek look to it. <br /> <br />As far as the negatives of this unit: <br /> <br />1.) There is no firewire connection (IEEE port) so if you use a mini-DV or HI-8 Digital camcorder and want to transfer your video to DVD it will not be done digitally.   You can still use the RCA composite or S Video jacks, but this is not as good as using a DV firewire port.  <br /> <br />2.) It has no hard drive.  This is nota big deal with me as the DVD recorders that come with hard drives are overpriced.   It is counter-intuitive that I can buy a quality 80 GB hard drive for my computer for $30 on sale; however, it seems most DVD recorders charge a minimum of a $100 premium for a tiny hard drive.   I store everything on DVD-Rs anyway since I would hate to lose data as a result of hard drive failure.  This is also one of the relatively few models that allow you to record on DVD-RAM disks in addition to DVD-R disks.  Good if you are not sure you want to keep something as you can keep rewriting on a DVD-RAM disk.  The only catch is you will need another player / drive capable of reading DVD-RAM (or another DVD recorder) if you want to then transfer video you decide to keep.        <br /> <br />3.) This machine is quirky about the type of media it will accept.  I recommend you stick with media manufactured by Taiyo Yuden.  This includes Panasonic DVD-Rs and the Fuji DVD-Rs made in Japan. Be careful, some of the Fuji DVD-Rs are made in Taiwan and are not Taiyo Yuden.  You can also pick up non-branded Taiyo Yuden DVDs from a variety of e-tailers.  Using cheap media on this recorder will cause the recorder to lock and enter recovery mode.   It is very difficult to get the media out of the player as there is no pin release like you find on many other drives.  You can easily find a 50 pack spindle of Taiyo Yuden manufactured DVD-R for under $20 if you shop around / wait for sales. <br /> <br />4.) When the recorder finalizes a DVD-R for playback on all other DVD players, it creates a very simplistic title menu with a blue screen and yellow bars.  I prefer other recorders that provide you with an actual thumbnail of the video clip in each chapter created.    <br /> <br />