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There may be a copyright protection "blocking" issue there, but if there is, I can almost guarantee you that ANY unit will have the same issue. Not a problem here, HOWEVER I have not yet tried to convert old (store-bought) VHS movies to DVD on this unit. All-in-all this is a great product, and worth every penny. Thank the movie studio lawyers for that. After I bought the 1st one, a month later I bought another identical one for the bedroom. It also has a handy option of FR (flexible recording) which basically uses the best quality possible for the remaining space on your disc. I still don't know them all after 3 months of ownership.
It has tons of recording options SP, XP, LP and EP-which gives you a choice of 6 hour and/or 8 hour EP speeds. And YES, you CAN record shows from your DVR to DVD. Oh, and a quick footnote: if you decide to buy one, choose the "quick start" option which is discussed in the manual. When I was doing research some "reviews" for other units said you couldn't do that because of copyright issues. I decided on this unit since it had so many features and capabilities.
Are you still with me. I've been recording all my movies that are saved in my FIOS DVR in the 6-hour EP mode, and the quality is great. But I HAVE transferred old recordings from VHS to DVD in this unit and it worked great. The quality is only a slight improvement, but that's only because of the quality of my VHS tapes from the get-go, which were all recorded in 8-hour mode on my old VCR. Like any recorder on the market, quality depends on which setting you choose. I did EXTENSIVE research when deciding which DVD/VCR Combo Recorder to buy.
For example, if you have 2 hours left on your disc and want to record a 1 1/2 hour show/movie, choosing FR will extend the record time to utilize the entire remaining space on the disc, thus giving it the highest quality possible in the space provided. Why. Because it really is that good. Otherwise the unit takes awhile to actually turn on (warm up).
The unit itself is quite nice, but the issues overshadow the good design. I called Panasonic and they hadn't heard of this issue. The previous reviewed wasn't as bothered by the DMR-EZZ485V locking up and missing scheduled recordings. I am considering returning it to Sam's.
Other modes: (SP) 2-hour, (LP) 4-hour, and (EP) 6-8 hours recording modes are okay, but pixelation and compression artifacts become more obvious, particularly in complicated and/or fast moving scenes. I suspect some software bug.The other problem I have occasionally, is that it occasionally fails to record a scheduled program, for no apparent reason (there's still room on disc). DVD recording quality of broadcast/cablecast television in it's 1-hour "XP" mode is excellent. The unit occasionally gets "confused" and locks up -- not responding to buttons on unit or on remote control. DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs do not allow that feature -- only DVD-RAM discs.I'd give this unit even higher marks (a 9 or 10) were it not for it's buggy software driving all of its features. But now automatic date seems to be working again. And not having to wait for the recorder to finish all the evening's scheduled recordings before starting to watch.
You have to unplug and re-plugin to reboot the software. I just subscribe to basic analog cable, but my cable provider Comcast includes local digital unscrambled channels in this package as well, such as FOX, NBC, CBS, and ABC, something I didn't realize they did until I bought this digital recorder and an HD TV set).I love using RAM discs to record TV programming. This happens about once a week. I had to set the date manually for a while (a couple weeks). This is only a minor inconvenience (takes about a minute to reboot), and re-powering it does not make it lose any of its stored channels setup or scheduled recordings memory.The unit (and interestingly two other Panasonic DVD recorders I have) also suffered a problem with recognizing what date it was for a while if left set automatically. This makes watching an evening of television very easy, and being able to skip through all the commercials. I have been using this unit (I paid $240 at Costco) for a couple months now.
RAM discs allow you to simultaneously record one program while watching another program already recorded on the disc. And it's QAM digital tuner is excellent at recording SD and HD signals if passed through by your cable company. (I use cable, but don't have a cable box. I have not been able to figure out why (although the manual suggests it could be due to digital rights management issues on digital broadcasts, but I'm not convinced of that).
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