DMR-EZ48VP-K 1080p Upconverting VHS DVD Recorder with Built In Tuner (Discontinued in 2012)

Simplify Clutter My first goal was to get a machine that would eliminate all the clutter. I had 4 boxes on the TV. A VHS Recorder/player, a DVD player, a Digital Tuner for over the air digital TV signal and an RF converter box. All of these had plugs and cables. This machine met that need perfectly. Built In TV Tuner The TV Tuner found my over the air channels just fine. However, channel surfing is quite slow as the unit has a deley betweens stations. Photos It accepted the SD HC cards from my camera. I am able to scroll through the pictures on my card but it is painfully slow and some of the pictures are upside down or sideways. Copy VHS to DVD I have spent the last few weeks copying VHS to DVD. I have recorded 16 hours of DVD from VHS. There was a bit of a learning curve before I could do the copies just the way I wanted to. I had to call Panasonic a couple of times but they helped me figure it out. Now I am very pleased. I wanted to record in SP mode because each of my tapes hold about 2 hours of family videos. Well, at first it was tricky to get it into SP mode. It wanted to default to EP mode which is much lower quality. I discovered, with the help of Panasonic Tech Support, that you must load the DVD first and let the recorder read the format of the disk, change the mode to SP, then load the VHS tape. I discovered this after burning through several DVDs at EP low quality mode. I thought I had figured it all out when, after recording 6 VHS tapes to a standard DVDs, I discovered that in SP mode the recording stops and the DVD is full right at 2 hours. The recordings failed to copy the last 15 to 20 minutes from the end of each tape. Aparantly, many of my VHS tapes had 15 or 20 minutes more that 2 hours. I had to swithch to DVD +R dual layer. They are more money than regular DVD media but at least now I can get up to 3 hrs 40 minutes before the copying stops. I have chosen to waste the extra 1:20 minutes so that I have an even 1:1 copy from VHS to DVD. The DVDs play fine on my coputers and on the DVD player. Many Features The unit is loaded with features and connections on front and back. It came with a remote, an HDMI cable and audio RCA cords. Price I bought the unit refurbished through Amazon for $166 including shipping. After all my research and experience, I have decided this is a good price for this unit. October 2010 Update... I used some advanced features today and recorded some over-the-air programs onto DVD. It worked like a champ. I had the option of erasing the programs after I watched them on DVD or finalizing them to be saved and watched on other devices. I was especially impressed that when I watched the recorded programs and fast forwarded the picture quality continued to be very high. Even at 200X fast forward I could see the recording very clearly with no distortion of picture quality loss. Not that this is a big deal. Usually you fast forward because you don't want to watch that specific part of the recording. Over-all, I must say that I am very happy and will give this product 5 stars.

I wasn't sure what to expect by ordering a renewed VCR, but am very pleasantly surprised. This Panasonic DMR-EZ48VP-K arrived within a few days of ordering it from Amazon. It was listed as renewed, bur out of the box it looks like new. It was packed very well and came with all new cables and some blank DVD's to record things from the TV. . It was definitely a great choice! Easy to setup, playback is great with both the DVD and VCR and everything is working perfectly. I had an earlier model Panasonic that was very similar to, and it lasted for many years of playing all those old VHS Disney movies for my Grand kids and now this is perfect for the Great Grandkids. Acme Products Customer service responded very fast with a request for a manual to print and to answer my questions before purchase.

I suppose it might have been a 5 star review; but it may be too pre-mature (for reasons discussed) to fairly assess it and its quality and durability. Then there is "the price". Lord knows what a nice unit such as this would cost if I'd purchased it 3 or so years ago, but it was a small fortune (more than $700 -- like the early VCRs) when finally purchased a month or so ago. However, it was the second best of 10 or more reviewed and compared on-line. More importantly, it had a built-in tuner; not just a "recorder only" on less complicated and less expensive units at Walmart or Radio Shack for transferring from VHS-DVD and/or DVD-VHS. So when this appeared -- even at this price -- beggars can't be choosers. This unit was purchased after much research. However, purchasing was; for all sorts of reasons, delayed several years. During that time, even this format has gone the way of the LP, 8-track, cassette, CD and so on. Blue Ray and DVR or TiVo is the popular way to record hours and hours more of TV time than VCRs and even DVDs. I'm even told that Blue Ray is making its exit, too. The good news is, though no longer manufactured, the booklet or info on the unit indicates it was manufactured in 10/11. Say, that is almost brand new! I'm not a techie. I needed it for two reasons: 1) record off TV (I do not have any other recording method for my motor home and 2) copy many VHS tapes and convert them to DVD. Not primarily for movies; but documentaries used for teaching classes. When a decision to buy or do without one with a tuner pretty much painted me into a corner, Amazon was invariably out of stock! Then, in a lucky look again on-line, it was available either used or out of box or the one eventually purchased from someone who had a good reputation from other purchasers of his electronics. The blurb on-line said it was new, had its original box opened -- but never used. I wanted and needed to be sure ALL the manuals and warranty would be available -- and they were. As important as the copy to VHS-DVD or DVD-VHS; in the almost 2 weeks since I've had it installed in my motor home, I've not as yet experimented with the copy feature. The on-line reviews said it was simple, so I'm not concerned about that for the moment. I've used it for recording off my TV (cable and antenna) in the VHS and DVD formats. The recording quality is very good and besides, for the moment, everything recorded is played on a 10+ year old analog Samsung 20" stereo TV. I've had various experiences in attempting to record; but my tech-less self has been able to do it (sometimes); but botched more attempts and been frustrated by it, than I've successfully recorded. And why has that been? I just don't know. Perhaps impatience in failing to check for correct time? I'll just have to keep at it. I may be wrong, but it seems this Panasonic is 'digital', while the 10+ year old JVC VCR it replaced was analog. The old VCR; not even top of the line in 2002 when they were well- past going out of favor, worked easily and simply. But as we know from simply trying to change channels with a digital TV, it does not happen instantly. It has to format and there is an annoying delay for the impatient among us. So with this unit. I attempt to engage a feature and it just doesn't happen the second I push the button. I'm having to get used to that and it is a matter of my impatience. That's my beef with digital vs analog devices. One nice touch is that when you select a channel on "program", it displays that channel in a small corner on the TV screen. Having said that, it is clear the unit is capable; either in DVD or VCR mode, to do more than I believe I'll ever be able to understand or master. There's USB and SD drives and editing features. Wow! At 81/2 x 11", t user manual is 100 pages -- ONE HUNDRED pages long! It is very thorough, the print easy to read -- but if I struggled with the radio in my old 1981 Toyota Celica GT Liftback, what chance do I possibly have for mastering everything this Panasonic is capable of doing? I have no regrets about purchasing it; just wonder if my delay in working with a satellite dish while traveling in my RV means that I'd have been better served with a DVR or TiVo -- but then, my tapes? I suppose a much less expensive recorder would have done the job -- but then, you ought to see how fast this unit rewinds in the VHS mode. Anyhow ... glad I got it. Stay tuned another few months when I begin to transfer over some of my old VHS tapes to DVD. And the question to ask is: "Will it outlast my old JVC VCR at 10+ years?" I even sent it back to be completely serviced "just in case" when the remote wasn't always operating very well and the unit itself needed a good tune-up and internal cleaning.

I bought this dvd/vhs recorder in September of 2008, and it was tossed a little over a year later. Why? Because it stopped reading about 25% of my dvds! BBC dvds were particularly hard to read with this "player". What good is a dvd player that doesn't read DVDs???!!! Of course, that was just the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back--the other annoyances?: 1.) The remote does not have an "open" for the dvd slot. Well, this may sound like a minor thing, but if day after day you have to find a tiny black button on a black machine in a dark room, the annoyance builds up, especially when......see pt.2 2.) It takes at least a FULL minute before the dvd tray would open!! So, you struggle to find the button, then stand around "whistling dixie" (as my mother used to say) waiting for the slot to open, twirling the dvd you want to play around your finger because you have nothing else to do, all the while praying that you don't encounter the problem of....see pt.3 3.) The player locks up! I don't know how many times I have had to unplug and then re-plug in this player, and then all my settings would go away, so I had to reset everything. But okay, you finally reset the machine, then go through my points #1 and #2 again, this time the tray does open, you insert the disc, and then... The D#@$^&n player REFUSES TO READ THE DISC!!! Of course the reason I really bought this was to record, but between the trouble I was having just playing discs, and the intimidating instructions on how to record, I didn't even attempt this. What did I buy instead? A Toshiba DVR670 DVD/VHS Recorder with Built in Tuner. This player/recorder plays all the dvds the Panasonic wouldn't, and even has an "open" function for the dvd tray!! The Toshiba instructions were well written and I have recorded with absolutely no problems. Life is good again.

I have been in the market for a new dvd recorder since roughly 2005 when my old Philips machine died. so, after lots of research..i decided on this model. It arrived in great condition and i had it set up within minutes. This machine has extra features on it like Front RCA Inputs, SD Card Slot and easy dubbing from VHS/DVD (note you cannot copy commerical bought movies with this machine. Setup is fairly easy for someone with Mediocre Electronics Expertise, but if you are a novice, you may wanna read the entire manual before beginning. The manual is written in such a way that there are lots of pictures to illustrate what will be displayed when you push each button. You can also record to DVD-RAM Discs using this unit, however, don't expect to find them at retail. You will have to order them online if you wanna go this route for recording. you can record to DVD+RW discs and DVD+R discs. however this unit can record to other types of discs as well. Picture quality is VERY good. i even recorded a bunch of stuff on the low quality setting and was quite impressed with the quality. keep in mind though the quality is only going to be as good as your signal from your cable or sattelite provider. Meaning if you have lines through the picture/distortion, its going to show up on your recorded DVDs. I have only had this unit roughly for a week or so..but it's doing GREAT right now..will post update to this review after a while. ***update**** 1/2/2011**** this unit performs beautifully with a HDTV. just grab a HDMI cable and you are all set. Dvd's look beautiful on this, even movies that were once vhs, converted to dvd look perfect. I don't think you can unlock the true performance of this unit until you use a HDMI cable with a hdtv set. granted, its not the BLU Ray experience you are craving, but it's pretty close!

The Panasonic DVD Recorder/VCR w/digital tuner for the most part, is excellent. It records DVDs without a problem. It plays VHS Tapes without a problem. It even tunes in digital broadcasts with ease and clarity. I love it. Sometimes, though, it gives me a problem every now and then, when I need to use the "RESET" button to get it out of a jam. For example, I played an MP3 CD on it one time, and then, stupid me, I hit the Open/Close button on the DVD side (without first stopping the MP3 CD playing in it), and it froze up on me. So, that's where the "RESET" button comes in handy--it restored the unit to normal functionality once more. The thing with this unit is, you need to press the "STOP" button at least two times before you Open/Close the DVD drive and take out the CD. I didn't know this at first, but I found this out through trial and error. And when you connect a USB device to the unit. You have to press the "STOP" button before you pull out the USB device, otherwise, it will freeze up, and you'll need to use the "RESET" to get it back to normal again. The bottom line is that it is a great unit and has great playback and recording capabilites. I've had this unit for almost a month now, and I am happy with it.

The good: Picture quality is excellent. I use it mainly for time shift recording and record in EP mode. Even though it's not as good as recording in SP mode or XP mode, which is even better, it's still a lot better than video tape. Setting it up and programming it is easy except I had to set the clock manually. It even shows you on the tv screen which buttons on the remote to press. You can even key in a code so the remote will also operate the tv too. You can record on DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-R DL, DVD-RW, +R, +R DL, and +RW. The player also plays audio cds and photo cds. There's also a USB port and SD card slot. If you use DVD-RAM disks for recording the machine becomes more versatile. With RAM disks you can start recording something and go back and watch it from the beginning before it finishes recording. It will keep on recording with no interuption. You can also have it record one thing while you watch something else on the same disk. You can even fast forward and reverse and it won't mess up what you're recording. RAM disks also allow you to edit out parts you don't won't and when you delete stuff you recover the space on the disk no matter where it is. On RW disks you only recover the space if the deleted program happens to be the last one on the disk. The VCR part is like any other VCR except it includes an extra long playing speed. You can get up to 10 hours on one tape. The only restriction is you can't play the tape on other machines. You can also copy from VCR to DVD and vice versa. The Bad: The instrution book is a mess. It jumps all over the place. You might start on page 6, jump to page 15, refer to page 23, and go back to page 6 just to learn how to do one task. These next two things are things that some people might find unacceptable. I don't like them but I can live with them. The first thing is the clock isn't accurate. It loses about 1 to 2 seconds a day. The second thing is the machine will sometimes freeze up and the only way to fix it is to reset it by holding in the on/off button for 10 seconds. The good thing is you don't lose yur settings or scheduled programs. I have noticed one odd thing. If there's a power failure the machine will remember all your settings but you'll need to reset the clock since it also remembers what time the clock said at the time the power went out. Another thing I don't like is when you fast forward through a DVD it doesn't show the elapsed time. I usually have to guess when to stop if I'm trying to reach a certain scene and usually I have to backtrack several times because I end up overshooting it.

I have owned many DVD recorders, Toshiba is really good but lacks (on certain models) the RF input (coax cable in/out). But the Panasonic is a great all around DVD Recorder from either Air signals, Cable, SD Cards, your Camcorder and also offers USB input as well, not to mention the HDMI output for best quality viewing. There is some getting use to the device but it is recommended you simply read the manual as well as navigation system, function key and schedule key. This recorder is a winner. It handles a variety of DVD blank discs, and has a VHS player as well, for copying those tapes to DVD. The only odd thing is there is no eject button on the remote. Reason may be simple, Panasonic wants the system to be ready for such a command and the user to actually go to the recorder itself to eject. If it is busy, then eject is not able to occur until all other final commands were met. But this is a minor detail. Make sure with ANY DVD recorder that it has a fan built in to keep the device cool, otherwise you will have a short life span of the device. Panasonic and Toshiba do have built in fans, as well as most Philips Machines. The remote is one of the best DVD recorder remotes out there. It has large viewable buttons, a fairly easy to learn system and setup . I certainly recommend one of the best (if not THE best) models out there. It is pricey, but you get what you pay for when it comes to a well made, well thought out system. It lacks nothing really.