Panasonic  DMR-ES40VS VHS / DVD Recorder Silver
Outstanding Transfer of Home Videos and Laser Discs
First the negatives: Built in copy protection prevents one from, say, sticking in a Disney VHS tape and attempting to create a copy from that onto DVD. Also, dubbing wide screen aspect formatted videos dumbs them down to pan and scan, presumably to satisfy the movie industry. When you insert VHS tapes for one touch dubbing, you cannot \\"pause\\" the recorder. That functionality is not present unless you use the external inputs. <br /> <br />That being said, the image quality takes my breath away, and appears to improve videos that are substandard. I surmised and anticipated correctly that an effective workaround to copy protection could be to instead utilize the recorder's electronic component inputs, namely the three input RCA pin jacks that are standard (yellow for video with red and white for audio) on many stereo and video components. We have lots of Mr. Wizard episodes, Dr. Who stories and much educational material taped off broadcast TV years ago that should do nicely as they do not carry inserted \\"copy protection\\" like today's prerecorded commercial tapes. <br /> <br />In my first test with the newly purchased unit, I created a personal DVD compilation consisting totally of Beatles \\"Ready, Steady, Go\\" British television appearances followed by the Japanese Budokan concert from several laser discs. The laser disc transfers do very well. There appears to be no conflict with copy projection kicking you out as occurs in prerecorded tapes inserted into the unit for dubbing.  <br /> <br />I next dubbed a Japanese import laser disc of Disney's movie \\"Song of the South.\\" As many of you know, Disney has refused to release that children's movie in the American video market. The transfer is outstanding.  <br /> <br />I have dubbed off camcorder footage, but could not use the DV input as my particular Canon camcorder uses a different jack. So, I used the RCA pin jacks. Outstanding image quality.  <br /> <br />I pored over the excellent instruction manual for a number of hours to acquaint myself with what this recorder does. It is laid out well but takes time to review at first until you become familiar with its layout. That was a good investment in my time to address my learning curve. I haven't yet mastered chapter thumbnails. Others have reported that the Panasonic keeps stopping when the video changes. That appears to have been corrected. When dubbing via the input jacks, you can keep the recorder in pause mode for several minutes to allow you to switch source media of edit past unwanted footage.  <br /> <br />I am ecstatic with the possibilities for making these precious video moments more accessible, perhaps preserving them for another few decades before the medium transitions yet again.  <br /> <br />I'm also pleased that I had declined to dump my large collection of laser discs. There is so much material on certain of these discs which has yet to be marketed in DVD format and some may never make the cut.  <br /> <br />Enjoy! <br /> <br />Bruce