There's no doubting that Panasonic makes some of the most impressive DVD/HDD recorders on the market. So, while the brand's latest offering, the slimline and well-priced DMR-ES10, doesn't boast a HDD, our expectations are high.

We're also happy to see that Panasonic has backed down from concentrating purely on its great-but-expensive DVD-RAM disc format and included write-once DVD R and DVD-R and rewriteable DVD RW cabability on the impressive compatible formats roster.

Connectivity provides everything a flatscreen owner needs apart from a digital video input - but that would be expecting a lot at this price. The highlight for video is the presence of component jacks to take progressive scan images to your plasma or LCD, while there are also two Scarts (happily both an input and output), S-video and composite inputs.

For audio there are analogue stereo audio ports, which can handle basic two-channel DVD-Audio playback - a nice bonus - and an optical digital output to take pure digital surround sound to an amplifier.

Given the embracing of DVD recording formats with the DMR-ES10, it's a shame that advanced editing options are still reserved for the DVD-RAM format only. This means that DVD-RAM discs are for editing, -RW for temporary and portable recordings, and -R or R for archiving. (The DVD RW format, which also offers editing, is absent.)

Still, RAM does mean that non-linear editing functions are on-board, along with TimeSlip, which means you can watch the beginning of a programme while it is still being recorded. VideoPlus is present, to make setting timed recordings easy, while manual setting is also possible.

The DMR-ES10 has four recording modes, with the best quality recordings made using XP. Our Desperate Housewives episode looked almost perfect in this mode, but XP does only allow 1hr of footage to fit on a disc. The SP mode, which provides 2hrs, is more practical. Happily this produces results that aren't very different from XP in terms of detail, but the housewives did lack a little sharpness in a motion-heavy, girl-on-girl cat-fight scene!