BROWSE
Panasonic DMR E55EBS DVD Recorder Best Buy
Panasonic DMR E55EBS DVD Recorder Best Buys. Compare prices and features on this Panasonic DMR E55EBS DVD Recorder!
See our New 2006 range of cheap Panasonic DMR E55EBS DVD Recorder. Listed below is the cheapest price for the Panasonic DMR E55EBS DVD Recorder with Amazon UK.
Popularity - 32253. The lower the number the more popular.
Price - £89.95 Correct as of 11/08/08
Average User Rating - 
View Reviews
To purchase this product from 
at the great price of
£89.95 click the 'buy now' button below or click
Buy Now from Amazon.
Back to Top
5 Reviews for Panasonic DMR E55EBS DVD Recorder
Won't switch on!! - 03 Sep 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful.
Bought this machine after reading the hype and some good customer reviews. It worked well for a couple of months and then started playing up. Developed tendency to not switch on at times, rarely at first, then more frequently and finally would not come on at all (even though the LED on the power button lights up). Under warranty, local panasonic authorised repair centre could find no trouble (I guess the problem did not occur with them when they tested). By the time it was permanent, it had run out of warranty.
Bottom line, after reading all the other problems reviewers on this site have had with their machines, I would sincerely not advise anybody to buy this model ever. I've owned many Panasonic electronic goods over the years and respect the company. I think it's time Panasonic recalled these machines and replaced them with something comparable.
Unreliable - 21 Jul 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful.
I have had this machine for almost three years now. It was one of the first affordable DVD recorders on the market back in 2004 and I have always hated VHS so I found a good deal and snapped this one up.
The quality, when the unit is behaving itself, is superb as long as you are using it in SP or XP mode. There is also a Flexible Record mode to give you the optimum bitrate if you are recording something of a specific duration. The long play modes range from acceptable VHS quality right down to blocky internet streaming quality. There are a range of different inputs and outputs so I have no gripes there either. I also like the way it automatically tunes in to the available analogue channels and sets the time.
The 3 problems I have with this machine are:
1) It takes a long time to fire up when you switch it on. When I first got the machine the "self-check" process would take a few minutes and I couldn't get the machine to switch off, except by unplugging. It was very frustrating. It is rather quicker now for some reason, but it still still feels like logging onto a on old computer with all the pointless clunking, grinding and mechanical prevarication.
2) The second problem is the machine's occasional tendancy to pause recording several seconds into the show and resume recording a minute later. You don't find out that the machine has missed a chunk of your show until you come to watch it back at the end. This is obviously a major problem and drags the rating down from 4 stars to 2 stars. You cannot entirely trust this machine. The only reason I never took it back to the shop for a refund is that all the other models were much more expensive at the time so I have stuck it out.
3) The third problem is that there is no "resume play" facility which is baffling considering it was available in some of Panasonic's earlier DVD players. Not really a fault, just a baffling and disappointing omission.
Next time I am in the market for a recorder, I will probably bag one of those hard disc recorders. They are now as cheap as DVD recorders used to be three years ago. I still like Panasonic as a brand, their stuff is usually very good quality but I would steer clear of their DVD recorders until these issues have been resolved.
Performance of a budget recorder at premium prive - 15 Jul 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful.
There are a number of problems with this recorder. Firstly it takes an age to switch on which is particularly irritating considering its worst problem which is: it has a habit of switching off and resetting in the middle of recording. Even when it has recorded properly it sometimes won't finalise. You can't just let it run to the end of the disc because it won't then finalise. It really is a horrible piece of kit.
don't buy it - 19 Nov 2006
3 out of 5 found this review helpful.
I have had one for just over 2 years and not really used it that much, recntly it wouldn't format my dvd ram disks and then it wouldn't record onto normal dvd's, I went to shop where I bought it and they said it was a very common problem. They said it is repairable but would cost £100, you can get something new for around that now so it's not worth repairing. I have VCR's years old that still record perfectly, this is very disappointing and I will never buy panasonic again.
DVDisappointment - 01 Aug 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful.
After only 18 months this DVD is going in a skip! Throughout its short and troubled life it has manifestly failed to live up to its marketing hype and has been a regular source of hair-pulling frustration. Here are a few of the highlights.
1. It's most common quirk has been its tendency to crash during the disc finalisation process and ruin the disc.
2. If it has a read glitch with a damaged disc there is no way to override this and eject the disc. Getting the disc out can take quite a while and requires turning the unit on and off a few times until you manage to hit the 'open' button at exactly the right time.
3. It has a preferred diet and though it will record onto most compatible media, it will not read a lot of its own discs once finalised. Many is the evening that we have gathered around the laptop, this being the only way to view the programme we just recorded on the DMR-E55.
4. Its startup procedure is one of the slowest I have seen so you had better plan ahead or you will miss the first few seconds of a programme if the DVD is not already on.
5. When recording on the timer the DVD will sometimes glitch as it starts to record and then simply terminate recording altogether.
The final insult is that to replace the laser unit, the entire laser, disc drive and transport assembly has to be replaced, which is the cost of a new DVD.
Having said all that, when it worked, which was most of the time then it did work well. However the worst technology is unreliable technology. I would rather have a device that worked perfectly and then died at 12 months than something that might or might not work depending on how it was feeling.