Panasonic's latest DVD/HDD recorder is the £400 DMR-EH50, which has an 80GB HDD capable of storing up to 142hr of your favourite TV programmes (in its 8-hour EP recording mode).
The DMR-EH50 packs in some interesting new tricks. It will record or dub onto DVD-RW and (single-layer) DVD R media,as well as the DVD-Rs and DVD-RAMs of previous-generation Panasonics.You can also dub material from finalised discs (and,Philips users will be pleased to learn,DVD RWs) back to the hard disk for further editing and dubbing.Alas, there's no Pioneer-style full 'backup' - and the process is conducted in 'real-time'.
Most impressively of all,though, the long-play mode,which offers 4hr of recording per removable disc, now works at DVD's full resolution (in this case,704 x 576 pixels).
Old favourites like two-channel DVD-A playback and an SD-format memory-card reader are also present and correct. So too is the analogue tuner,although Panasonic will soon be introducing a version with a terrestrial-digital tuner and twice the HDD capacity.
Fashionably-slimline it may be,but the DMR-EH50's rather nondescript appearance hardly hints at its true potential.Front-panel controls are minimal and so the remote is essential for all but the most basic of operations.This handset,with its plastic-capped keys,is a new design. It has a smart-wheel for skipping through the various slowmotion/ search speeds and selecting precise frames during editing.
In the middle of the deck's front panel is the SD slot (still images, rather than MPEG4 video) and beneath that,a flap that hides composite/S-video and stereo audio inputs for camcorder dubbing,but no i-Link input for digital camcorders.
On the rear panel,you'll find a decent complement of connections. RGB Scart inputs and outputs compete for space with,among other things, a prog-scan capable component feed and an optical digital connection that will pump stereo and multi-channel (ie commercial movie) DVD soundtracks to your audio system.
Panasonic's DVD-recorder user interface has an enviable record so it's just as well that there are no obvious changes.The only criticism we can make is that the EH50 can be rather unresponsive on occasions.
Panasonic's auto set-up system is flawless and it's easy to access parameters like the AV settings (note,however,that component and RGB Scart outputs cannot be active simultaneously).
Recordings can be manuallyinvoked (with OTR,if need be),or preset with a 32-event one-month timer that can be programmed manually or via VideoPlus.
There are four recording modes: the aforementioned LP,plus three other modes offering 1hr (XP),2hr (SP) and 6 or 8hr (EP).Recordings appear within a direct navigator, which can be switched between thumbnails and a faster table display. Alas,Panasonic has not provided the DMR-EH50 with a way of categorising its contents into groups.
Editing is a treat. It's easy to partially delete unwanted segments from your recordings or create new sequences via the magic of playlists. You can also assign new thumbnails to each recording.These will appear in the recording navigator and are helpfully retained when dubbing to another medium.
This brings us to a continuing criticism of Panasonic's combi recorders.While chapters are automatically created on DVD-R/-RW/ R media,they're not when recording onto the HDD (or DVD-RAMs).If you dub at high speed from HDD to DVD,your eventual DVD will have no chapters unless you manually-add them prior to dubbing.
If,in contrast,your dubbing exercise involves changing the recording mode (from SP to LP or when using 'make-it-fit' flexible-dubbing,for example), then chapters are automatically generated.Mode-change dubbing, by the way,is a real-time process. Note that during high-speed dubbing, you can watch programmes stored on the HDD or record new ones.
When finalising discs to make them compatible with DVD players, you only get a choice of nine menu backgrounds.You can't, as with rival machines from Toshiba,choose images from your own video. Furthermore,entering programme titles and disc names still relies on a laborious virtual keypad.
The DMR-EH50 will display digital-camera photos (they can also be archived onto DVD-RAMs or the HDD),but only if they're on SD memory cards.The EH50 won't let you make compatible slideshow DVDs (perhaps with background music) from your photos.
As a recorder,the DMR-EH50 doesn't compromise Panasonic's hard-earned reputation for decent AV performance. Pictures from an RGB source are impeccable - in XP and SP modes,you won't see your TV degraded in any way.Given the lack of digital camcorder connectivity,the XP mode is perhaps overkill unless you envisage using the flexible-dubbing feature.
The biggest surprise is the four-hour mode.Compared to Panasonic's old 352 x 576 LP mode, there's a dramatic increase in picture detail.But you don't get something for nothing - relative to SP, artefacting becomes noticeable, especially during visually-complex or motion-heavy moments.We would certainly advise against using LP for football matches or action movies! Scratchy old black-andwhite movies,however, are handled surprisingly well.In common with older Panasonic recorders, the DMR-EH50's EP mode (whether 6 or 8hr) gives VHS-like results.
Viewing commercial DVDs yields an experience comparable to what you can expect from a budget 'big-name' player.
In terms of sound quality,the DMR-EH50 is crisp and dynamic, despite the lack of manual control over recording level.Playback also impresses,although a dedicated Pioneer universal player demonstrated more finesse from DVD-As (as well as full 5.1 sonics).
The DMR-EH50 is a DVD/HDD recorder that packs in a surprising amount of functionality for the money and it performs well.Overall, though,the EH50 is perhaps more evolutionary than revolutionary.We get the impression that Panasonic has become a little complacent, relying on its past glories. The DMR-EH50 adds a few tweaks, admittedly good ones, to an existing platform, but there's nothing radically new here. But one could justifiably argue that if ain't broke,don't fix it.
