Panasonic DMR-E80H Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with Hard Drive , Silver
The Panasonic DMR E80H is good but not great.
Panasonic DMR E80H<br />Let me start by saying that I am not a very technical person.  I'm just an average user of electronic products.  Therefore, please look at this review in that light.<br />I wanted the DMR E80H for several reasons: First, I wanted to be able to transfer my home 8MM and Hi 8 videos to a DVDs while doing some editing.  Second, I wanted to transfer some commercial VHS tapes to DVD.  Third, I wanted to be able to record some movies and televisions shows and in some very few instances, transfer them to a DVD.  The DMR E80H does a good job with each of these objectives.<br />In my opinion, the manual, although very comprehensive, is not very clear in a number of areas.  For instance, the manual and other Panasonic documents, indicates that the DMR E80H is multi-regional.  Well, what does that mean?  I thought that it meant that I could play a DVD from any region of the world (say Europe or Japan).  What I thought is somewhat true from what I could read about the subject but not exactly.  My point is that I also thought the manual would help me understand but the manual helps little in this area.  There are other examples where the manual did not help nor did the Customer Care Center.  See below.<br />The unit performs fairly well with my first objective.  Panasonic told me ahead of time that I would not be able to do a lot of editing when I transfer my home video tapes.  I was told I would be able to create a program and then I would be able to edit my program into a play list.  The creation of the play list is fairly straightforward.  However, it did take some experimentation to get it right (again, the manual is not very clear).  I thought I would be able to put titles on each scene of the Play List but haven't found I can do that.  The most disappointing thing about the Play List function is the fact that when you go to dub onto a DVD Disc from the Hard Drive, if you opt to do that using a Play List, you cannot use the speed-dubbing feature.  Youmust dub in real time.  I asked Panasonic several times why this is so and they could not give me a satisfactory answer.  I found out why trough experimentation.  When you create a Play List you do not really change the program.  So, let's say you have a program that you divide into 5 scenes, you delete scenes 2 and 4, and then you want to write a DVD.  If you choose to dub the Program you will dub all 5 scenes because you have not really erased the 2 scenes from the Program.  You have erased the 2 scenes only from the Play List.  If you chose to dub the Play List, you will only transfer the 3 scenes that remain in the Play List to the DVD but you must do the dubbing in real time.  This fact is a major limitation to my objectives.<br />Panasonic told me I could not dub in background music when I dub from the Hard Drive to a DVD.  I found that I could accomplish the same thing by replacing one of the audio feeds from the camera with an audio feed from a CD player.  This also works very nicely when I use an audio feed from a CD player while I am coping still pictures from my Digital Camera.<br />My second objective is really impaired because Panasonic chose to use technology to prevent the coping of tapes that are copy-protected by the manufacturer. The manual says, \\"This unit incorporates copyright protection technology for recording equipment known as CPRM\\". WHY?  I thought that a Supreme Court ruling said that I had the right to make back-up copies and that I had the right to record from broadcasts that play through my TV.  This feature Panasonic chose to include may help manufacturers of DVDs but is a major limitation for me.  After all, I don't want to make copies so that I can sell them!  Those who do would not like the speed of copying anyway and I'm sure they have ways of beating the system.<br />This copy protection feature also limits my third objective but I can still make use of it for the most part.  This feature is really excellent.  No longer need I hunt for a tape when I want to record something.  <br />Considering everything, I think the DMR E80H is well worth the money.