Panasonic DMR-EZ28K DVD Recorder with 1080p Upconversion (2004 Model)

I purchased this unit to replace 2 other Panasonic recorders(DMR E55) that I currently own because of the digital conversion of the airwaves that has taken place. I record shows off of the cable during the week to watch on the weekends when I have time to watch them and use DVD-RAM discs exclusively for the task. I like the ability to record and erase many many times on the RAM disc and not have any video quality suffer for it. As other reviewers have said that changing channels on the recorder when you use it as a digital tuner is slow, I can confirm that it is slow to change channels if you change channels one at a time using the channel up/down control, but if you know the channel number you can punch that number right in and it will go directly to that number quickly. The biggest change that I can see comparing this unit with the older panasonic units that I have is that the commercial skip function is about twice as fast and there is almost no delay after you press the button to go forward 1 minute at a time. The open/close button has been moved and is now able to be used when the disc tray is open. This is my 4th Panasonic DVD recorder that I have purchased over the last 3 years and have had no issues at all with this product. The main thing is to keep your disc clean of finger prints and dust and you should have no problems. I can definitely reccomend this product to anyone who likes value and reliability in a product.

I too am extremely please with its idiot proof software. I have been extremely ill for over 20 years. To relief the medical procedures, I had managed to record over 10,000 vcr tapes, and transfer and edited all motion pictures on to dvd disc. I been transgerring movies onto disc's 4 major motions pictures and possibly 20 documentaries per disc. I have completed over 3000 disc's. I have honestly have to say I worned, stressed, the units out. a total of 4 dmr-e55 and 6 dmr ez28k. i actually bougth extended insurance thru the company i do business with AMAZON, and the others were given as christmas, birthdays, special holidays gifts. I ulitilized my panasonic dvd recorders more than 90% of the people out there. and my last unit dmr ez28k I actually sent to texas for over heating problems and rattling noises. I have be told that I'm not covered because I didn't purchased the extended insurances thru panasonic. But rather thru Amazon and the shipper being Tiger Direct. com. Both of these companies i have been financially safe with and I have overs years and years will always purchased needed items from. Yes everyone say go to ebay and bid, done that and got investigators and pay-pal had back me up and close my accounts. As in life there are bad people doing bad things to other and jeaporiding their way of life and their familyies. Panasonic software is really good, and honestly its IDIOT PROOF. For myself, in iv therapy constantly, and the drugs can make you feel like space out idiot. Thats a discreption of myself, no offense to anyone else.So my world revolves around my panasonic dmr ez28k recorder. the varities of recording and editing and especially flex recording feature being able to puase while recording off satellite, or off the dvr, You really can't tell the difference of hd tv or cable or satellite, etc. the finalization and played back somethimes comes out better than the t.v.. and honestly you have to looked really hard to and upon comparision the the purchased movies disc's . Its really sad that Panasonic is no longer producting dvd recorders. They shut down their manufacturing center in Jamaica. I like viewing my movies over and over again. I can't afford the price of the movies, and I hate to wait sometimes or years to see a movie that brought happiness or strong emotions out of me. I can bearly afford food much less the cost of excellent produced movies. Bffut sometimes i will go with out medicine just fix my dmr ez28 k dvd recorder. Its too bad that Panasonic thinks this is a fad, At least for me going out is not an option, I'm IMMUNE COMPARIMISED.

PANASONIC is probably one of the best recorders, editor, upgraded picture quality recorders on the market but as good as it is it has that many 'not so good' features. Hence the LOVE, HATE RELATIONSHIP with this unit. This will be my fifth Panasonic DVD recorder and possibly the last since this unit has been discontinued and after searching Panasonic's web sight it looks like they've discontinued making 'recorders' altogether, at least in the USA. Since this unit has been discontinued and can not be found in 'New' condition anymore, I've opted to purchase this unit as Refurbished for actually about $150.00 Less then a new one. I won't go much more into the Love it, Hate it details since it is so limited that I'm not trying to 'sell' anyone on it. I wish that Panasonic would make have made this unit in an upgraded model to remove the 'bugs' that it has (read more on other reviews for this product) the most negative issue is 'locking up' which one has to 'pull the plug' to reset it and in time about a year or so the device starts to degrade rapidly by not 'reading' the discs, etc. As for the Company I purchase this unit from (which was not from Amazon it's self) was shipped withing the dedicated date and time and the unit came in 'AS NEW' condition as possible. I would purchase from them again. They had two reconditioned Panasonic DMR-EZ28K DVD RECORDERS in stock and by the time I ordered this one the second one was sold, so I feel fortunate that I found this one and it works very well (so far). DAG

I bought this model based on other reviews, mostly for the similar Panasonic DVD recorder that did not have a TV tuner built in. That model was sold out everywhere, so I got this one for a bit more, and have no info regarding the television tuner portion. I have had four other set top DVD recorders, and they all were at least in the ballpark picture quality wise, for 1 hour recordings. This machine has a fabulous picture, even on 2 hr. and 4 hr. speed settings. It also has the ability to record a flex interval, meaning a 2:15 movie for example will be dedicated to the best possible disc capacity. My other machines require you to run at 4 hr. speed with poor results. The on screen setup and menu are OK, not best in class, but no real complaints. Playback of regular DVD's is also fine. Panasonic is the best I've seen.

I debated over which product to get as the reviews seemed mixed, but I am pleased with my final choice. I primarily was looking for a product that could record VCR tapes onto DVD, but I also wanted the ability to tape TV programs. Since I don't have cable or satellite, I needed a product that could pick up analog TV signals also. This product has worked great for me. Using DVD-RAM discs, I have recorded, edited, and made my own chapters. Using DVD-R discs, I have recorded, and the finalization process created chapters ~ every 5 minutes. The functionality with the DVD-RAM discs is clearly best, but I wanted to be able to use other discs since my other DVD player is not compatible with DVD-RAM. For me, the product also has dubbed for a TV converter box so I can get digital stations. The only down side is that it takes the machine longer than expected to start if you turn it off. Other than that, I am very pleased. 5-18-10 note: Well, after trouble free use for over a year, I too have a frozen unit. Called Panosonic and the pleasant technician had nothing to offer other than sending it to McAllen, TX for repair or exchange. Drat! I don't want to go throught the research again, but I am not sure I want to spend the money for repair only for this to happen again. Stay tuned...

Panasonic DMR-EZ28K 1080p Upconverting DVD Recorder with Built In Tuner Received this used EZ28K DVD Recorder quickly and still in like new condition. Setup was a breeze (just like connecting a DVD player) to my TV and Cable. After setting the recorder up, it wasn't no time, with the convenient front RCA connections we connected our VCR to the recorder and with the push of a button we were recording our older VHS-C camcorder tapes we had been working on making copies of. Again, with the push of just one button, we recorded movies that we were watching. We also had the option to change the recording length on the DVD to record one show and close the DVD or continue and put several movies or TV shows on one. The ease of using this item makes it a good fit for the tech-challenged user, too. I would highly recommend this product.

I cannot say anything good about this recorder except that it was delivered on time. It only functioned for about 1 hour after I powered it up. I took it through its setup routine and then I put in a Panasonic DVD-RAM disc. I programmed it to record a single half-hour program which started a few minutes later. It started and stopped as programmed. I then played back the recorded program. It started OK and I allowed it to run for about 10 - 15 minutes. At that point I found out the recorder was no longer responding to the remote control. Turning it off and then turning it back on resulted in it flashing "Hello" several times and then "Hello" stopped flashing ("Hello" remained displayed). The disc tray would not eject when I pressed the eject button on the recorder. The only way to reject the disc was to press the <stop> and <channel up> buttons simultaneously on the recorder. To make a long story shorter, I found that this unit would no longer function, neither with a Panasonic DVD-RAM disc (the manual says this disc should work) nor with regular DVD+/-RW discs. All that would happen was several flashes of "Hello", a few noises from the disc drive and then nothing except "Hello" on the display. I tried the system reset button on the recorder and several other things - nothing would work. I even tried to install a downloaded Panasonic firmware update but the recorder would not read that disc either, whether it be a CD-RW or DVD+/-RW disc. At this point I contacted Amazon and they set up a defective product exchange (for the same model) by UPS at no charge to me. I should mention two more things: 1) The 2nd Panasonic recorder also stopped working immediately - this one in about ½ hour with the same symptoms (non-responsive with a constant display of "Hello"). It became non-responsive after I played the same DVD-RAM disc I had recorded in the 1st Panasonic. That does raise a question - is the DVD-RAM disc somehow messing up the recorder's firmware? I even contacted Panasonic's Customer Service who had me try a few things that I had already tried. The Panasonic representative finally said the 2nd unit was defective and I should send it to Panasonic for repair (I didn't). I returned the 2nd unit to Amazon and subsequently ordered a Toshiba recorder (digital tuner equipped) which arrived a few days ago and is working fine; 2) I still have an older (functioning!) Panasonic digital tuner equipped DMR-EZ28 recorder that I purchased locally (April 2008) which is now working OK. That one stopped working after about a month (May 2008) and was repaired free by Panasonic under warranty. They replaced a circuit card. That one also hung and I could not get my DVD+RW disc to eject at all. One difference -- that recorder didn't display "Hello" when it failed. In Quality Assurance parlance this is equivalent to a 100% defect rate (3 out of 3 recorders of the same model essentially D.O.A.). Sure doesn't say much for Panasonic's quality.

I purchased this unit to replace a failed DMR-ES15. The ES15 has the old analog tv tuner so I didn't think it was worth fixing. I was anxious to get the DMR-EZ28K because I thought it would be the next step beyond all the great features Panasonic designed into the ES15. Although the DMR-EZ28K has great video, the editing features have taken a giant step backwards (e.g. the phrase list that was such a great timesaver on the ES15 is missing from the EZ28, meaning you have to do editing from scratch each time you record). This was a great feature on the DS15 because you could easily keep track of sequential disc numbering, favorite show names (just add episode number), etc. Like having a bunch of clipboards. Unlike the ES15, you can't even cursor back to edit (the cursor overwrites with blanks). The preview window for the menu title text is also gone, so you can't tell where your text string is going to wrap (so unless you manually count the characters, it will usually wrap in the middle of a word (ugly)). I can't get any of my previously-recorded DVD+RWs to play on the EZ28 (tried on my PCs, they played fine) so I will have to get an additional DVD player if I want to continue to use them in my living room. Looks like I'll have to stick to DVD+R & DVD-RAM on the EZ28. One caution about using DVD-RAMs on the EZ28: You will need to re-format each DVD-RAM disc on the EZ28 before using it (even if it was previously formatted on a Panasonic recorder like the ES15). If you don't, be prepared for a great deal of aggravation. I learned this the hard way. There are more issues (e.g. slow tuner), but the above are enough for now (I've only had the unit a few days). I am hoping that Panasonic will issue a firmware upgrade (you have to burn a CD from a download at Panasonic's site) to fix all this mess. I know that Panasonic has made great products in the past, it's hard for me to believe they would unload junk on their customers. Keep in mind the EZ28 has great video. In fact, the 4-hour record mode is so good, it's hard to distinguish from 2-hour mode (doubling your storage space). If you can put up with the limitations listed above (assuming the unit will last) you will be happy with this DVD recorder. In a nutshell: wonderful hardware with unfinished software (Panasonic, do the right thing and give us an upgrade to make the EZ28 user interface as good as the old ES15.) Note: Downloaded & installed firmware upgrade version D2-377 (see no difference in operation). Support site:[...]