In the context of the year 2006, when this product was offered, it's a functional and reasonably easy to use device. The DVDs produced are at the expected quality level, which of course is far short of what users would expect in 2020. I like the flexible options to maximize the recording quality based on the capacity remaining on a disk. Despite the item description, this unit did come with a remote control.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
So I bought this to record shows for my daughter who is away at college and can't get all her favorite shows. It records fine and is fairly simple to use but it was built in a time before HDTV. That means it doesn't do widescreen. It takes your 16:9 widescreen broadcast and squishes it to the old school 4:3. It's not horrible, but it is noticeable that everything is a little taller and skinnier. Also the recording is in standard def. Now if you are recording a 4:3 broadcast or don't care about some squishing, this will be perfect, but if you want HD and widescreen you're beret sieben more on a newer one
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
As the title states, I purchased one of these at full retail price and it only lasted 14 months. Despite notifying Panasonic during the warranty period, that my unit had off and on problems with error messages (U61) which they said were "normal" ???? during warranty, they would not warranty it when it completely quit two months out of warranty and consistently displayed same error message AND then said the U61 error message meant it had to come in for service. Funny how the same error message was "normal" according to them while I had warranty on it, but instantly meant it had to come in for service when it was out of service. I think I just got a lemon, as I am the only user of the product and it was treated VERY gently. It was used 5 days a week to record one, 1 hour TV program and then used the same for play back. I never put anything but new DVDs in it and used it for recording and play back on those only. When not in use, it was protected from light/ heat/ dust, etc. in a large, vented armoire. Why did I buy another one? Several reasons. It's an attractive unit. It has lots of options not found on other models. It's menu is easy to use. I really loved it except for the Panasonic customer service issues. It was going to cost $30 to ship to a service center, plus there's a minimum $75 repair fee, so IF it had been repairable, which I wouldn't have known without paying those fees, the bill was already up to $105. I opted to buy another one as I found a new one on eBay for less than that amount. All of that summed up, and the fact I didn't want to spend weeks trying to figure out how to hook up and operate a different unit, made me purchase another one. Bottom line? As long as you don't get a defective unit and have to deal with Panasonic's customer service, I think you would be more than pleased with the units looks and features. I will not buy a 3rd one if this has the same issues down the road. I see other users have noted the dreaded U61 error message as well. They described it better than I could- the way it says recovering or writing disk and then never recovers, etc.Read full review
This unit can be used to capture DV and analog video in general (Betamax, VHS, Video 8, Hi-8, etc.) I primarily use this unit as a pseudo TBC that I have connected to an ASUS My Cinema P7131, a Pinnacle 510 Moviebox USB device, and a Matrox MXO2 Mini. It stabilizes the jitter found on some of my tapes and avoids dropped frames in VirtualDub, Matrox Utilities and Adobe Premiere. Aside from that, I have the added bonus to use the component outputs of this unit as a video output that can be connected to a component video capture device like the Matrox MXO2 Mini. Although the Panasonic DMR-ES15 acts as a pseudo TBC/ Frame Synchronizer, it doesn't work so well with worn out tapes and VHS / Betamax machines that have mechanical issues and it doesn't replace a full frame TBC/ Frame Synchronizer.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Purchased quite a while ago as replacement for my failed units that I had for many years. But this one died too - laser. Very good video quality from this model, but I only had Panasonics. Loved the flexible recording mode and ram disc editing. Old units but just fine for everyday DVDs.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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