Pity About The Lousy User Manual!

Once you've cracked the instructions, you'll love it, but until Sony can write a decent manual, what is a potentially 5-star product can only justify 4 stars at best (what's the use of a fantastic product that people have difficulty understanding?). After all, it's only a gadget to get more out of watching the telly!
This machine is almost bloated with features, to the point that virtually no one will benefit from everything it offers on day-1, and for many users some features may remain unused forever (rather like some of those obscure programs on our washing machine!). For the person who is used to the latest digital TV functions, getting used to this unit will be easier, but someone making a leap from analogue to digital and replacing a VCR with a hard drive machine, initially it may seem a leap too far!
Something I really like is that by entering a code, the unit's remote control now operates (basic functions only) my Toshiba TV as well.
To get the most out of this machine, you need a good user manual, and I have to agree with other reviewers that the manual is probably the worst I have ever come across. It may all be in there somewhere, but finding it is another matter. For example, something as simple as setting the TV's aspect ratio is hidden away in a small table on page 144, with no reference to it in either the Table of Contents or the Index. Also, much of what is written is poorly explained. Terms are used that are not made clear, so you just hope you've got it right!
Some reviewers say that you can't record one programme and watch another. This is wrong, but tends to confirm that the user manual could be better.
The machine itself has 2 tuners - 1 digital and 1 analogue. The analogue is presumably mainly for those who still live in an area where they can't get a decent digital signal. But it also serves another function, which is to provide the signal to the Electronic Programme Guide (EPG), GUIDE Plus+, which is only updated by an analogue channel. If you don't connect your aerial via the unit's analogue tuner, then the EPG will always be blank, unless, during setup, you change the EPG option to digital. I experimented by disconnecting the unit's analogue tuner and opting for the digital version of the EPG. However, this is much less sophisticated than the analogue GUIDE Plus+, so I returned to using GUIDE Plus+. None of this is properly explained in the user manual. My unit also has a minor fault with the manual setting of the recorder timer, but at the moment there isn't a firmware update available from Sony to fix it (I've discussed this with Sony technical staff). Maybe now you can see why some users get confused!
Our TV is an old analogue one, so you can record one digital channel while watching one of the 5 terrestrial channels. What you can't do is record a Freeview channel (using the unit's digital tuner) and watch another digital channel at the same time. To do this you have to have a digital TV, or another digital set-top box. As people replace their old analogue TVs with new digital ones, this limitation will disappear, but again, it's not made clear in the user manual.
However, you can start recording a programme, then watch it from the start a bit later, while it's still recording the rest of the programme. You can also watch a previously recorded programme, while it records another, plus all the other good things that a hard drive recorder offers. Then you can dump old programmes you want to keep from the hard drive onto DVD, to free-up space on the hard drive.
I believe this machine offers just about everything that most people could ask for, but don't bother trying to get everything out of it on day-1. Start by using the basic functions and learn what else it offers as you go along. Also, visit the Sony web site for more information - it seems that they realise that most people are thoroughly confused, so have published some additional info. While you're there, you can download firmware updates for the unit and also use their feedback page to complain about the dreadful user manual and tell them to provide a decent one, which can be downloaded.

Does what it says on the tin

This is a good machine. I've only had it a day now, so haven't 'rinsed' it yet but the picture is superb - far better than the Phillips I was eyeing in Dixons which was £20 cheaper. It's as good as my front room TV set, no exaggeration.

Payed the extra £20 because the Phillips only had 2 hours playback which I thought was a bit sheeeeite. Sony typically offers 5+ which is more like it, at least two films worth. Downside to this is that the rechargeable battery provided fits under the unit and is the same size as it and bloody heavy. This is the only real negative, it's a relatively weighty carry for the size, but that's what you get for the longer battery I suppose.

In house speaker is very poor but I suspect most would use headphones for such a device so not really an issue for me. It would be very tinny if you intended to watch it hands free.

So far I have only tested it with a few DVD's and as I say pic quality very good. I even tried it with a few copied 'Johnny Vaughan' movies I bought from a bloke on the internet and they played fine too.

Bonus!

Difficulty in setting up with Sky HD

I bought this to do 1 thing, which is to empty my full Sky HD hard drive, I know it doesn't record in HD, as yet nothing commercially available will. No all I wanted to was to put the 6 recorded Rugby league games onto their own discs. I have an AV amp at the heart of my system, I have the SKY HD box and this recorder feeding into that via HDMI and an HDMI from AV Amp to the Plasma TV, working a treat. Now I wanted to connect the recorder side of things via scart, firstly no signal at all coming into the recorder, that was the SKY box output setting, sorted, then when I did eventually get a picture its about one third the size of my plasma with no sound at all. This I assumed was the very expensive RGB Scart I used which I suspect is picture only, add an audio lead I thought, the problem is there is no audio input on this Sony other than the decoder/line in scart. So I have had to buy a second fully wired scart, but still when I look at the picture through this scart it is still reduced in size to the middle of the plasma. Frustrating!! so in terms of playing DVD's it is good, trying to get recordings from the Sky HD box to it though is a different matter.

Excellent machine, easy to use

After buying and returning a similar spec Panasonic, I did a bit of research looking for players with the specs I wanted; digital tuner, upscaling, multi-region capability, fair size HDD, and found only four or five that met my requirements.
Reviews on Amazon and elsewhere led me to this one, and I'm not at all disappointed. Some reviews said it was not that intuitive to use, but I've found it to be a piece of cake, both following on screen instructions and reading the manual, which to be fair, is rather large (even though I normally let my wife learn new stuff first and then teach me).
Picture quality from DVDs and tuner is really good, pause live T.V function is a doddle and editing out ads and unwanted bits is really easy.
Price wise from Amazon it is £40 quid cheaper than my local Sony dealer, and buying a remote multi-region unlocker from Ebay made that part simple and cheaper again than my Sony dealer doing it for me. The codes to unlock it are available online and are cheaper still.
All in all an excellent buy from Amazon.

Picture quality worse than Cyberhome. Item is noisy.

Returned this item as picture quality is inferior to my cheap Cyberhome player - yes really. (Played out of the box with no attempt at adjustments.) Also unit is noisy - periodic clunk from disc drive along with other noises when in play mode. This player has a cooling fan in a housing protruding from the rear which also contributes to the noise. Are fans really necessary or just a fashion statement? Consumer electronic equipment of old got pretty hot but never needed forced cooling. Seems to me that with fans in PCs and other devices the living room is slowly becoming industrialised. The basic play buttons are not intuitive and menu presentation is unrefined. Never got round to trying any record features.

PLAYING COLOURISED DVD's AS BLACK AND WHITE

I am very pleased with the Panasonic DMREX77. My problem is playing a colourised DVD as monochrome. My Panasonic CRT Television PL28 will not allow me to change colour when playing material from HDD or DVD. I can change contrast and brightness but the colour seems to be set. If I watch television through the recorder then the colour control works, but not when playing the HDD or DVD. Any suggestions on how to solve this problem?

Not impressed

For anyone thinking of buying this, I would re-consider.
I'm inclined to agree with the"buggy" comment above. Response to the remote control and menu selection is slow and ... well ... unresponsive. I've now erased 2 complete discs by mistake because menu selections didn't happen when I expected them - then did happen when I didn't. It regularly cycles round & round"please insert recordable disc", even when a brand new disc has been inserted. It has twice randomly selected channels to"skip" on the channel list. The most annoying thing is that in disc menu it claims you have 1 hour 20 minutes available recording time ...then it stops recording after 30(or whatever). Don't know for sure, but suspect this is connected to it trying to fit with previously recorded spaces. Whatever the reason it's annoying and wastes time (mine and the disc's).
Given the chance to do-over, I wouldn't buy this again and I'm about to contact Philips about my disatisfaction with the item.
On a slight plus side, picture quality through the unit is good, BUT I think it affects the tuning on one of the terrestrial channels. So not a complete positive.
Hope this helps.

Nice picture - terrible everything else!

This machine give a great picture through the HDMI, and plays Divx very well. That's about it for the good stuff.....

I've had the dvdr5500 about a month now, and I'm less than impressed. It freezes very easily, doing the simplest things such as turning the machine on or off or going to the Home menu, and the only way out is to cut the power at the plug, which means you lose all your settings (e.g. HDMI output level). That is the biggest problem.
The interface is also VERY slow to respond, taking seconds to respond to even one button push, which frustrates you in to pushing more buttons which - you guessed it - causes it to freeze up!
Apparently the machine keeps the disc spinning when left in the tray, even when turned off, which means the motor burns out quickly. This is just what I've heard, but the `Eco' mode you can turn on presumably stops/reduces this, but means the machine takes a full minute to load up (its not exactly snappy when the Eco mode is off either though).
Recording is sporadic - not a single recording I have made using the TV guide has worked properly, always missing either the beginning or the end of the programme. The aspect ratio is always messed up as well.
A final thing is the standby light, which is so incredibly bright that I have to have it covered when watching TV in a darkened room or else it is very distracting!
In all, this is going back to Richer Sounds. It's the only machine I have found which does everything I want, but unfortunately it is a typical Philips in that it is very poorly made. The remote is so cluttered and ill-though out that you are always pushing the wrong button or thinking you've pushed something when you haven't.
DON'T BUY THIS!!!!

Picture quality

I bought this DVD player but took it back as the picture quality stored on it was poor! I found the instructions difficult to understand and I was very disappointed in not being able to tune my digital tv into it!

Panasonic DVD RAM recorders recording.

To those who can't record TV programmes whilst away on holiday, I wish you well. There is no reason why this cannot be achieved. Two ways.
Way 1
1:Set up the Digi box either Sat or Freeview onto AV2 SCART on the recorder.
1.1:Set recorder to start and finish at times required and specify AV2 as program.
1.2:Set the programmes required on the favouites list on the digi box.
1.3.Set Timer.
Note, you could even use Video Plus and check that the entry for program has used AV2. It usually does.

Way 2.
Set up digi box as way 1.
With SAT (including FreeSat), set up programmes required in the favourites list (make sure they won't clash through setting program links).
Set the recorder to External link via remote or on the front panel depending on model of recorder.
The signal used by SKY+ sent by the programme distributer will start the recorder and switch it off into standby.
Note that if you use the programme menu on a sat box whilst the recording is happening, the recorder will loose the continiuity signel and stop recording.
The first way is the best but be sure to synchronise the favourites list and the recording times.
Then turn your telly off at the mains and go on holiday.

Very disappointed

I have just spent 5 hours trying to get this unit to work. I could probably live with the slow EPG (and it is slow) and also the less than intuitive interface and poorly arranged remote.
The killer blow for me is that when powered up, it interferes with my local Multiplex 1 signal (I live in Kent) so I can't receive any of the BBC channels to either my TV's digital tuner via RF passthrough or into the unit itself for recording. I can still get a good signal to my TV if I don't go through the unit or if I do go via RF passthrough and the unit has no power.
As soon as power is supplied to the unit, the signal is lost to the TV (even when the unit is in standby).
Not the same issues as reported elsewhere here, but it seems to be indicative of the lack of quality control with this unit.
I'm just about to package it all up again for return.
A product to be avoided.

No time-slip play back

This machine seems to work quite well. However there are some"expert" reviews stating that this machine can use DVD RAM discs to achieve time-slip, playing a recording whist recording. This is not so. After some time trying to do this and reading the manual I called Samsung and was told quite categorically that this machine cannot do this. If, as I did, you wanted the DVD RAM recording functionality in order to do time-slip, this machine is not for you.

not that impressed (yet)

I've only had this player 2 days but I must say my first impressions are not that great. On paper this machine seems to do everything, but I took a risk buying it as I couldn't find any reviews for it online. My first comment is that it's so s......l......o.......w. Put in a DVD movie and it takes an age for the menu to appear. Once playing a movie things are not much better. The 1080p upscaling (via HDMI) seems to work - however Iam not sure it's any better than the xbox360 over VGA.

The user interface looks dated and again is very slow to nativate around. I've yet to attempt any recording, but I hope it will score better in that area! So far only 3 stars (for HDMI output and styling).

Quality multi-format player at a good price

HDMI upscaling, 7.1 channel output, SACD, DVD-Audio, DivX, XviD, you name it - this plays it.

Not only that, but with extensive menu features to fit whatever type of setup you have - from a simple 4:3 stereo TV to a widescreen monster with a multi-channel amplifier in-between - practically all configurations are catered for.

And the killer feature? A USB connection so you can transfer .AVI movies straight from your PC to the player. No need to convert or burn to CD anymore.

Oppo have really come up trumps with this one. Don't be concerned if you haven't heard of them before, this is a well built piece of kit. And as formats change (such as DivX) the DV-980H can be firmware upgraded via Oppo's website.

Fantastic Machine, Buy One!

I've owned the 160Gb version of this machine (EX77), and sold it to upgrade to the 250GB EX87. It's fantastic. It has great functionality, is very easy to use, plenty of hard disc space and great picture quality in all but the lowest quality mode.

I don't see how a previous reviewer can criticise it for not being multi-region. NO, i repeat, NO DVD players or recorders are multi-region from the factory, so it's unfair to point it out as a negative for this one. Those bought ready-modified have been made so by the retailer, and in the process has voided the 1 year Manufacturer's Guarantee, so keep that in mind when buying one. If it stops working or completely dies as a result of being modified, you can't complain to the manufacturer, but it is the responsibility of the retailer to repair or replace it for you.

As long as you have a good aerial and live in a good area regarding digital broadcasting, the freeview reception is superb, with a very easy to use EPG (it has none of the glitches present in the equivalent Sony models or the absolutely shocking Samsung 853/855 recorders).

Please be aware, this machine has a Time Slip function, but this IS NOT the same as a Pause Live TV function. Time Slip is just a name Panasonic have given for the ability to skip through a recording in 10-minute increments (or however many you want), instead of sitting there fast-forwarding through it to find where you want to watch it from. It is NOT like Sky+ which automatically records whatever channel you are watching.

You can simulate Sky+ by recording the programme yourself, then you can pause or rewind it while it continues to record so you don't miss the programme (useful for sporting events so you can go back and watch something again immediately). This is called Chase Playback.

If you know these things before buying, you won't be upset when you find out it doesn't have"true" Pause Live TV, so a little research before buying can be very useful.

And before anyone complains that it doesn't have twin digital tuners (which would allow you to record one freeview channel while watching another), don't. No DVD recorders outside Japan have more than 1 digital tuner, so again, don't criticise the Panasonic, none of its competitors have them either.

And if they are advertised as having"twin tuners", only 1 of them is digital, the other is analogue, which will become redundant when the analogue signal is switched off over the next couple of years anyway, so is not necessarily worth having. If you want twin digital tuners, then buy a PVR instead, or buy this type of machine, and also buy a separate £20 Set-Top Box, so you can record one channel from the recorder's own freeview tuner, and watch something else on the STB.

Overall I can't fault it and would recommend it to anyone (as long as you don't need to play divx material (avi files), as the UK-spec machines have had this feature removed due to licensing issues. European machines can be imported because they do play divx, but the digital tuner might not work properly in the UK, so it's a risk you have to weigh up).

also for Mac users

missing information in the product description:

this cd/ dvd burner is ALSO compatible with Macintosh / Apple computers ! -( the cheaper Freecom burner NOT)