Panasonic DMR-EX97EB-K DVD Recorder with Freeview HD, Black

Bought as replacement for my old Panasonic recorder/player. Found this one easy to set up and slightly narrower than my old one. Easy to record and just love that you can record two programs at same time, especially as terrestrial TV seem to have several good programs at 9pm

I purchased the Panasonic DMR-EX97 in June 2016 as it seemed the best of the bunch. The hand book is 84 pages - don't be put off, this is a mine of information and is worth reading several times to get yourself accustomed to the functions you will use. If you are not into Editing Video, Copying CD, DVD, or Photos; Pre-setting up to 32 Programmes within a month in advance -- move on, it's fully explained when you are ready.I thought I would be clever in the initial setup and use the original cables from my defunct LG to save time. Big Mistake! I spent over an hour trying to sort out 'poor signal', 'no signal' 'check arial'. Up and down from the loft; last resort, use the cables supplied in the box. The result was immediate, problem solved. (as far as I was concerned the old cables were OK) While you have the unit out, make a note of the Serial Number, I had already put the unit in it's slot before realising this.Setup contains good security with Owner Id and Pin Number required. Same for Parental Control. Auto Tuner up and running in several minutes. Picture and sound very good,(Samsung TV) remote takes a little patients, but no problems. Unit has a double-tuner to record two programmes at once, recording and playback of CD, DVD, HDD, USB no problem. There are several methods of Programme Timer/ Record, all easy to instigate, particularly using the Guide on the remote. At the end of the Manual is a very good Trouble Shooting Guide, well worth reading. Network Connection on setup if needed. Most used tab on the remote is the Function menu, it's all here. An excellent buy.

This is the second Panasonic DMR-EX97EB-K that I ordered from Amazon.The first one was 'delivered' by their couriers, Hermes, who claimed, a week after the supposed delivery date, that they left it in a safe place outside the address. There is no safe place. To be fair to Amazon, they refunded to my credit card, and when I ordered the replacement, I received a twenty pound credit.This item replaces a Panasonic DMR-EZ47 that packed up after nine years use (the tv tuner failed two years ago).This is now the only DVD recorder that you can buy in the UK, and it's by no means any easier to operate than my previous model, as you can only record onto the DVD after recording onto the hard drive, and you have to follow various on screen prompts. (I might get to understand the finer points when I get to read the manual again..... and again.....)Setting it up is easy enough, and setting the recording from the Freeview TV guide is pretty much the same as my previous DVD recorder.Best of all, the picture when playing back DVD's is much improved compared to my previous model, so I could definitely recommend this product.The strange thing is, that when you search the Amazon site by model number, they charge you forty pounds more than when you simply search for 'DVD Recorder'. Let the buyer beware!!

Excellent machine, near perfect. One minor niggle is that the surprising good series record feature does not cope perfectly with episodes that are transmitted back-to-back... it records the first, and then looks at the schedule to find the next episode which started a few seconds earlier and so you miss the first 10 seconds or so (for broadcasts that start exactly on time). You can of course do a manual recording of the pair, or a single recording of each (it will record two programmes simultaneously), but you have to remember to set it up again every week.You can copy recorded programmes to a DVD, but only those recorded off air. It will play external HDDs or flash memory sticks recorded off other set top boxes, but it won't allow them to be transferred to DVD. Copying to DVD takes about as long as the original programme, but you have to remember that whilst doing this it will not record anything, so you might miss a recording (it's OK once the DVD is written, you don't have to do anything for it to continue recording as normal). The first time I did this, it found and recorded a repeat episode automatically, but the second time, it completed the DVD part way through the episode set for recording, and it just recorded the last half.Things I like about it... You can edit a programme title (I use this to add the episode number to the title); it groups all episodes of a series in one "folder"; you can manually group episodes too; it will record radio programmes (I recently set it up to record 12 hours, and it split it into an 8 hour and a 4 hour file - I haven't tried a long TV recording yet); The remote has buttons for controlling my (Sony) TV (on/off, volume, channel and source); It is very easy to set up a recording from the epg screen (and it checks for HD and series options).

After my second BWT735 gave up I tried a BWT-650 (not from Amazon) and took it back to the shop 19 hours later as being totally unfit for purpose. I bought this model from Hughes Electrical via Amazon and although it is an older model, without blu-ray which I never used, it has many practical advantages and yet is so simple to use. I can now program directly from the T.V. guide which saves me hours each week and is in portrait or landscape view! Anyone into recording and storing on disc (because they don't trust digital storing) needs to use this model, IMHO as they say ! I am now VERY old and detest technology. This proves technology CAN make life easier, the geeks who come up with modern "improvements" have a lot to learn! The annoying features are the QWERTY keyboard and symbol sections for naming programmes and folders, the usual sloppy instruction book (although the binding is stapled not glued !) and the appalling graphic display for partial deletes and editing. I have lost a few recordings which I had been trying to get for years (not due to any errors on my part)