Buy Panasonic DMR-BWT700EB 320GB Blu-ray Disc Recorder with Twin Freeview + HD TunersPanasonic DMR-BWT700EB 320GB Blu-ray Disc Recorder with Twin Freeview + HD Tuners Product Description:
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168 of 170 people found the following review helpful.
Almost perfect, but not quite!
By Len Eschle
I bought a Panasonic DMR-BWT700EB from Amazon just over a week ago. It is an excellent product, with a vast array of functions not available elsewhere. I have it connected to a Samsung Smart TV, and the picture quality is good for all channels and particularly so for the Freeview HD channels. I was able to pick up all available Freeview channels from my existing aerial, and the set-up took seconds to complete.The 2 Freeview+ HD tuners enable viewing of one channel while simultaneously recording two others, and also allow pausing of live TV. It plays 2D and 3D blu-ray discs. The picture quality for both is the best I have seen. I am especially impressed with the way it upscales DVDs to give a near HD quality picture with amazing depth and colour. I haven't tried to record to blu-ray yet, but recording to the hard drive is simplicity itself and takes a couple of seconds to set the timer for single programmes or series.Recordings in DR mode are faithfully reproduced in full quality, but there are other recording options to use, e.g., long play, standard play, etc., if you want to record more programmes to the hard drive, such as when going on holiday. The DMR-BWT700EB accepts all types of recordable DVD, except disappointingly double-sided DVD-RAM discs meaning I cannot use it to view programmes I recorded previously on a DMR-EX98VEB using the double-sided discs. Also, as a previous reviewer has pointed out, the BWT700EB is not capable of playlist creation, which makes editing recordings a little less easy than it might be.The DMR-BWT700EB also has a SD card slot and a USB port, enabling easy viewing of photographs or video captured on, e.g., digital cameras or camcorders. It is also wi-fi ready, but to use this function requires the separate purchase of a suitable dongle. Nevertheless, it has a LAN slot so by connecting a LAN cable to a wireless router you can easily access the internet functions, such as You Tube.At around £420.00 it is expensive. Its inability to play/record on double-sided DVD-RAM discs and its inability to allow playlist creation means it isn't quite perfect. Nonetheless, I am very pleased with this product and recommend it to anyone looking for a piece of kit to record in HD and with which to play 3D blu-ray discs.
220 of 225 people found the following review helpful.
5 stars for most users, but ...
By Brian Lee
I have had this machine for several days now, and have tested many of themyriad of functions on it - except 3-D as my TV (Sony 52" LCD) is too old(Feb 2010!), however it is capable of a stunning HD picture so is a goodtestbed. UPDATE 15/04/12 - 3D is superb - see comment 86!I also have two examples of the BWT700's predecessor, the Panasonic BW780,which has very similar capabilities except 3-D and Skype. The fact that Ibought a second one of those machines is an indication of what I thought of it -the fact that I have now effectively bought a third one means either I'm an idiot(the wife is nodding her head at this point) or that they are REALLY good!In fact I bought the BWT700 as there were several niggles with the BW780 whichI hoped would have been fixed with the BWT700 - some are, some aren't -read on for details.I did a comprehensive (i.e. long) review on the BW780 back in December 2010,many of the pros and cons and niggling details are in that review - andmany of them apply to the BWT700 as well - so I will not repeat them here.If you want to see that review put "BW780" in the search box at the top ofthe Amazon page, select 4-star reviews - mine is the second most helpful onelisted - currently! There are also several useful details in the comments.The Pros======1) The BWT700 is capable of giving stunning pictures from broadcast FreeviewHD TV. Ok there are only currently 4 HD channels, but it's all free (OK OK -included in your basic TV Licence) - no ongoing (and quite expensive) fees to pay.Altogether I can get 78 free TV channels (it says - I haven't checked them all)and this is using an aerial and downlead which are 20 years old, many yardsof (cheap) co-ax cables with numerous connectors and several pieces of kitinserted in the cables in front of it and it still picks up a total of 117channels. I mention this as one or two people seem to have had trouble inreceiving channels - seems OK to me with a less-than-ideal aerial setup.BBD HD Preview and BBC One HD seem to give the best and most consistent PictureQuality, ITV HD is also frequently very good on its programs, but has been knownto stick in upscaled SD programs which can look a bit iffy (but at least theyusually admit it on the program info), Channel 4 HD can also be very good.2) The BWT700 can also record programmes to its sizeable hard disk - I saw83 hours free recording time listed for HD DR mode when I first switched it on -I was impressed - I only got 63 hours or so with the BW780.(This is understandable as there is a 320Gb hard disk on the BWT700 as opposedto a 250Gb disk on the BW780.)The point to note is that this recording time is way better than you might expectfrom the stated disk size. This is because Panasonic have (wisely in my view)decided to use DR mode (Direct Recording - it records the broadcast data streamdirectly) as the standard storage mode for these boxes. The advantage is theextended storage capacity on the hard disk AND on Blu-Ray copies of thoserecordings - you get 6 hours' worth of HD on a 25Gb (nominally 2 hours) BD.Oh - and it writes it quickly too - just over 20 minutes for 6 hours' worth offull quality (identical to original broadcast) HD.Another advantage is that the quality of recorded programs is identical to thebroadcast - no degradation at all. And Blu-Ray disc copies are perfect too.(It is worth noting as well that this storage and copying efficiency would notbe the same on the corresponding Freesat box as the compression algorithms usedfor broadcast on Freesat are not as efficient as those for Freeview.)Note that BD's copied in DR mode may well not play on a standard Blu-Ray player,although in future Freeview DR may be a more accepted standard.(I just bought a Sony BD writer and it does play them OK).Other modes of recording are available on the BWT700 which are compatible butslower to write - I have rarely used them on my BW780.3) The two tuners are a real boon, allowing you to record two programmes whilstwatching a pre-recorded one playing back. However it's never enough - my VMTiVo has 3 tuners - how about it Panasonic?(!)4) The BWT700 has a Blu-Ray player so you can watch your BD's in excellent quality.On a test viewing of Avatar many of the images were absolutely stunning.(I may have seen some motion-induced judder at one point - I will investigatefurther and update this info in the comments. The BW780 seemed slightly betterin this regard on an initial side-by-side comparison ...)5) It has a Blu-Ray Recorder so you can transfer recorded HD material from thehard disk to a Blu-Ray disc. Very quickly too in DR mode - like 6 hours' worth ofHD material to a single (nominally 2-hour) BD in about 20 minutes! With perfectquality so you can play them back in full HD! Magic!6) The BWT700 an accept HD movies from a Panasonic or Sony (AVCHD) camcorder andcopy them to the Hard Disk Drive and from there copy them to BD for distributionto friends (if they ever bother to watch them!).7) It can go on the internet so you can view YouTube videos andwatch your mates make idiots of themselves, go on to Euronews andselect video news items to watch (about 30 available when I looked) -quality reasonable. Other apps were Twitter, Skype, Dailymotionand Acetrax (Movies on demand) - not tried these yet. On the "more"page were: Weather, Allocine (movies),Picasa, Bloomberg TV (businesssite giving FTSE etc), some German channel apps. Another "more" pagecontained Q-Tom (music - but as yet "only available in Germany"!),Mein Klub, L'equipe, myTVscout (tells you all about the TV programson in Germany!) and two Czech sites.(Some people may regard this as important ...)Is it perfect then?Of course not! What is?The Cons (and solutions where applicable):================================1) The EPG has (or rather had) adverts! This was not as bad as severalreviewers have complained about - particularly as there is no sound withthem, and in any case the adverts can be suppressed by putting in a non-existentpostcode during setup, viz:Functions - Others - Setup - Others - System Update - PostcodeI use a postcode of ZZ00ZZ and this worked on both my BW780 machines and (so far)on the BWT700. (My thanks to "Voyager" for this titbit!)However the EPG works reliably enough and has only missed one program in 8 months'usage with 2 BW780's plus a week with a BWT700 (the EPG's are identical).2) The BW780 had somewhat sluggish reponse when using the menus, particularlyfrom out of the box until an automatic software update improved it, howeverit was still a bit slower than I would like.I am pleased to report that the BWT700 is definitely better in this respect.I will report later in the comments if it gets worse as the disk gets fuller.3) If you haven't got an HD camcorder and aren't likely to get one in the nearfuture ignore the rest of this section (i.e. Cons section 3).Panasonic have removed the DV input on the BWT700. This peeves me somewhat asI was relying on it to transfer material from my tape-based (non-AVCHD) camcorder.Problem was - the port on the BW780 only handled SD so I still had a problem as mycamcorder is HD and could send HD out to the DV port. It's even worse now!AVCHD video files transfer OK to the BWT700 but have the same quirky "logic" ason the BW780 - there are still delays while it scans the camcorder's disk andit still seems to insist on copying great chunks (like 70 Gb worth!) at once - andthus failing as you get low on spare disk space. There is no selection facility -all or nothing! Weird! But if you can get your files transferred over the resultsare stunning and your friends are gobsmacked (or did they mean they wanted to smackme in the ...?)!4) I was relieved to discover that recordings made on my BW780's and writtento Blu-Ray disc ARE compatible with this machine. Note that they are stillmade using DR (Direct Mode) mode as default which means that they do not play(yet) on standard Blu-Ray players. If you need standard Blu-Ray playercompatibility, it is possible to write them using standard Blu-Ray formats -see my BW780 review and comments for details.5) HD Freeview has the potential for Dolby Digital sound. Not a lot of peopleseem to know that - certainly the owners of the BW780 probably don't as itdoesn't work on those! (Apparently the BBC changed the spec for it ratherlate in the day and Panasonic were caught out.)I had hoped for a software download to fix it on the BW780 but I'm still waiting!However - good news for BWT700 users - Dolby Digital sound is alive and well andavailable on broadcast HD! So far I have only found the BBC HD channel (and BBC OneHD on some programmes) uses it regularly, but maybe when films are on ...?(The Harry Potter film on ITV HD on 30th July was not Dolby Digital sound).More good news - broadcasts recorded on the BW780 which had Dolby Digitalcontent will play back on the BWT700 with Dolby Digital sound, even if youcouldn't access it on the BW780 it is still there in the broadcast datastream. An example is the Eurovision Song Contest (wot!) and Wonders of theUniverse. Oh - and Strictly Come Dancing from November 2010!6) This box is still no TiVo when it comes to setting recordings and generalergonomics of use, however it is at least on a par with most other boxesI have used - and anyway TiVo cannot write its recordings to a Blu-Ray disc!Odd minor grumbles I had with the BW780 still seem to apply with the BWT700,see my BW780 review (cons list item 6).7) Copy protection - same as BW780. Basically most BBC HD stuff is not copyprotected at all - you can make unlimited copies in HD. Films on ITV HD arefrequently 1-copy only in HD. Other channels vary according to the wishesof the programme producers. On all items you can make unlimited copies in SD.See my BW780 review for comments on DRM protection which applies to all HDproducts and is the cause of much complexity and restrictions (and sluggishresponse) on any HD box. This restriction I suspect also means no playlist-basedediting which some reviewers have complained about, however there are quitereasonable editing facilities available (e.g. partial delete for removingadverts).8) Aspect ratio problem - when viewing in HDMI, programs originally recordedin 4:3 look stretched on the TV, and I hate this! A comment I receivedsaid it was because I have Sony TV's (which I accept could well be truebut didn't help much). However another comment allowed a cure - basicallyMenu - Others - Setup - Connection - TV Aspect for 4:3.Once in there then - apparently strangely - select 16:9 NOT 4:3 and it works!My thanks to Mr David Valentine for this one!CONCLUSION==========If you don't have a camcorder and don't think you'll get one - this is definitelya five-star box! For general use - highly recommended!However I am a bit worried that the AVCHD camcorder data input is stillflaky (and very peeved that the DV input has been removed), so I thinkI'll go with four-star again. If there was a four-star plus I'd use it.Watch this space for updates and changes - or more likely - have a look at thecomments. I tried to edit my BW780 review but the Amazon system wouldn't let me,so much of the updates are in fact in the comments.
47 of 48 people found the following review helpful.
HD Recorder
By Bagpuss125
This recorder covers the best of both worlds. Firstly it records the + HD channels (two at the same time-no less!) in superb quality of both picture and sound. Secondly you may put any treasured recordings onto DVD if required. I looked at other PVR's but did not like the option of only viewing the recorded programs on one particular machine. To be able to transfer recordings onto other media and then to view on any other players was one of my priorities. My previous hard disc recorder failed with the loss of many treasured programs. This loss made me take the time to check which recorders you could archive from and also take into account which would record the latest Freeview +HD channels. The set up and menu's I found easy to follow and I'm now enjoying what the full Freeview HD channels have to offer.
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Buy Panasonic SC-HTB520EB-K 240W Sound Bar with Wireless Downfiring Subwoofer (2 Piece Set)
A major error seen in the review system.
