Panasonic DMR-EZ48VP-K 1080p Upconverting VHS DVD Recorder with Built In Tuner (Discontinued in 2012)

Was pleasantly surprised! It worked perfectly! I was well wrapped and arrived in good condition. I specifically bought it to transfer my class videos and home videos to dvd so I could enjoy them without worry of damaging them. I have spent hours watching them again. Thank you so much!

I have been in the market for a new dvd recorder since roughly 2005 when my old Philips machine died. so, after lots of research..i decided on this model. It arrived in great condition and i had it set up within minutes. This machine has extra features on it like Front RCA Inputs, SD Card Slot and easy dubbing from VHS/DVD (note you cannot copy commerical bought movies with this machine. Setup is fairly easy for someone with Mediocre Electronics Expertise, but if you are a novice, you may wanna read the entire manual before beginning. The manual is written in such a way that there are lots of pictures to illustrate what will be displayed when you push each button. You can also record to DVD-RAM Discs using this unit, however, don't expect to find them at retail. You will have to order them online if you wanna go this route for recording. you can record to DVD+RW discs and DVD+R discs. however this unit can record to other types of discs as well. Picture quality is VERY good. i even recorded a bunch of stuff on the low quality setting and was quite impressed with the quality. keep in mind though the quality is only going to be as good as your signal from your cable or sattelite provider. Meaning if you have lines through the picture/distortion, its going to show up on your recorded DVDs. I have only had this unit roughly for a week or so..but it's doing GREAT right now..will post update to this review after a while. ***update**** 1/2/2011**** this unit performs beautifully with a HDTV. just grab a HDMI cable and you are all set. Dvd's look beautiful on this, even movies that were once vhs, converted to dvd look perfect. I don't think you can unlock the true performance of this unit until you use a HDMI cable with a hdtv set. granted, its not the BLU Ray experience you are craving, but it's pretty close!

This is the 3rd one of this make and model that I have purchased, the first two having been returned (to Costco) due to the same failure trait. It will function perfectly for some time, then exhibit a flaw as follows: Regardless what TV channel is selected and displayed in its display, the tuner will be stuck on one channel and always output that signal to both of the recording media and to the TV. As this fault was exhibited on my first two units, I returned them to Costco where I had purchased them. On the second unit, I found that rerunning setup would restore normal operation, but after the second occurrence, simply initiating that procedure didn't cure the problem. In reading the comments of other purchasers, I found that if power to the unit is entirely removed, and the unit restarted as if for the first time, the setup procedure would restore normal operation. The only other make of VCR/DVD player I could find locally was Magnavox, sold by both Walmart and Radio Shack. I had prior experience with the Magnavox, very unsatisfactory. Much less user-friendly than the Panasonic, and the VCR failed completely just after the 90 day warranty period from Walmart. One key functional disadvantage was that there was no convenient way to completely delete all items that had been recorded on a DVD; it would allow the deletion of only one item at a time, then move directly into the programming sequence for a new recording. Currently, neither Costco, Walmart or Radio Shack carry the Panasonic, so I checked out Amazon.com. The only other available brand I had not yet tried was Toshiba, which all reviewers rated as very user-unfriendly, accompanied by very difficult-to-understand instructions. Soooo, I purchased my 3rd Panasonic VCR/DVD recorder via Amazon. I've been using it now for some time, and it hasn't yet malfunctioned, but I fully expect to encounter the same failure mode. A significant difficulty is that repeating the setup procedure takes between 20 and 30 minutes, driven by a long interval attempting automatic clock setting, and there seems to be no way to go through the channel setup and not have the clock setting feature also exercised. Automatic clock setting has never succeeded in our case. If the malfunction is first discovered when one is attempting to program a recording session, a significant portion of what you wanted to record will have gone by before you can successfully begin recording again. On the plus side, picture quality and user-friendliness are great.

I have owned many DVD recorders, Toshiba is really good but lacks (on certain models) the RF input (coax cable in/out). But the Panasonic is a great all around DVD Recorder from either Air signals, Cable, SD Cards, your Camcorder and also offers USB input as well, not to mention the HDMI output for best quality viewing. There is some getting use to the device but it is recommended you simply read the manual as well as navigation system, function key and schedule key. This recorder is a winner. It handles a variety of DVD blank discs, and has a VHS player as well, for copying those tapes to DVD. The only odd thing is there is no eject button on the remote. Reason may be simple, Panasonic wants the system to be ready for such a command and the user to actually go to the recorder itself to eject. If it is busy, then eject is not able to occur until all other final commands were met. But this is a minor detail. Make sure with ANY DVD recorder that it has a fan built in to keep the device cool, otherwise you will have a short life span of the device. Panasonic and Toshiba do have built in fans, as well as most Philips Machines. The remote is one of the best DVD recorder remotes out there. It has large viewable buttons, a fairly easy to learn system and setup . I certainly recommend one of the best (if not THE best) models out there. It is pricey, but you get what you pay for when it comes to a well made, well thought out system. It lacks nothing really.