Has high points, but kind of a pain
Pros:
Excellent picture quality and sound; self-contained tuner allows recording while watching different channel
Cons:
Unreliable scheduled DVR recording
The Bottom Line:
Had a Panny VCR for a decade before this that NEVER had a problem. Never even cleaned it once! Panasonic flubbed fusing analog VCR together with digital DVR.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
We bought a Panasonic DMR-EZ475 DVR/VCR combo about three months ago, and if asked whether we'd do it again, we'd have to say "no."
The main problem involves scheduled recordings on the DVR side -- it sometimes decides it's not in the mood, and it records no indication at all of what went wrong, ie, damaged disc, insufficient disc space, no or low OTA signal, etc. It also occasionally "freezes" when shut down -- you can tell it's happened because the clock is stuck at the time of the freeze, so it's incorrect -- and it obviously doesn't record then, either.
I've reduced how often these things happen by using the "flexible record" option, meaning one can't record more than one show on each side of the DVD-RAMs we use (while the machine has a navigator menu of up to six separate recordings per disc), and hitting the reset button before each scheduled session, making sure not to use the deck prior to the start time. Even with all that, I've only managed to raise its "batting average" from about .400 to maybe .800.
The Panny only records in 480i and then upconverts, but you do get widescreen and surround sound, and the PQ is as good as any commercially produced DVD.
It's absolutely flawless on the VCR side, but being an analog device, it can't record digital sources, so it's only going to be useful for playback after the digital transition next February as we're OTA viewers -- no cable or satellite.
If you're always there when you want to start recording to DVD, this machine might be fine since you can iron out any problems on the spot. This has its own ATSC/NTSC tuner, so you can record one show while watching another channel on the receiver, and that's a nice feature to have. But when you've scheduled recordings during the wee hours or while working, as we have, it can be aggravating when you find out it didn't record anything and won't tell you why not.
