Panasonic DMR-ES30VS DVD Recorder/VCR Combo
By: Panasonic Average Rating: 4.0 Total Reviews: 37
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 On: 2008-06-05
This DVD Recorder has greatly exceeded my expectations. I have only had it for about a month, but I love it! Everything I have tried to do has been fairly easy to figure out, and the menus are helpful and easy to navigate. It improved the video quality of our home videos when I transferred them to DVD. So far I have nothing to complain about with this unit. I would buy it again.
 On: 2008-03-20
I purchased this mainly to transfer home VCR tapes to DVD. The step by step instructions can be a bit confusing and need to be followed. "It does an excellent job." One drawback - You HAVE to read the manual thoroughly.
On: 2008-01-01
Ive had my Panasonic DMR 30VS recorder for over a year now, and Im very satisfied with all of the recordings Ive made off of my satellite (Dish)
network. Dubbing my old VHS tapes to disk has been satisfactory too.
Im no techie, and maybe my learning curve was longer than most peoples, but I feel that once you get comfortable with the unit it will do everything you ask it to do. It may not be the quickest or the slickest, or the pricest, but it gets the job done nicely. (For me.) This unit makes my 4th Panasonic product. (2VCRs and 1 CRT TV.) Im buying a new Panasonic HD (LCD) TV next year. IMO they make a great product.
 On: 2007-09-18
This thing works well, if you use Panasonic friendly disks (-r,-rw,-ram). Ive been able to record TV shows and replay them just fine. The software does the job, which is really the only perk of this DVD recorder.
This DVD recorder burns in some proprietary format, so your disks (-r,-rw) cannot be played on other DVD players (including computer DVD players).
The lack of compatibility with other disk types and DVD players makes this DVD Recorder a bust. If there is something else available, go for it. I guess Ill try to unload it on eBay!
On: 2007-07-21
I purchased this machine to replace my Go Video DVD Vhs recorder which gave me problems from day one. This machine does beautiful copying on tape or dvd disc, and also is wonderful for transferring one to another. It uses several types of disc, which is convenient to the "electronically gifted". The machine has just a few flaws though, for one thing the instruction manuel is one of the most CONFUSING things I have ever read. Also, when transferring from tape to disc, you cannot edit by pausing. The remote control is like most, it has almost too many buttons too close to each other. But this machine DOES make beautiful copies on all speeds,and does not freeze up or distort sound like the Go Video. To finish, if panasonic were to ask me what they could do to improve it, I would only have a few suggestions, all which would just make it EASIER, Not more complex!
On: 2007-04-07
Bought this for my dad who loves to record TV shows for viewing later. Setup was easy, the quality of recording very good, and dubbing is awesome. What I am not able to figure out is how to create chapters or add more content to the DVD - I wanted to record TV episodes to DVD and since DVD capacity can hold more than one episode, I wanted to add to the existing DVD - unfortunately, the user manual was not very helpful and everytime I tried, it wiped out my original recording. So my dad started recording to tape, and then transfer to DVD (as a workaround). I guess I need to do more research/playing with this. OVerall, it is a good product, and it was a gift he loves.
On: 2007-02-22
I ordered this to copy over some of my Christmas shows which I taped from television. I am very happy with the unit for ease of operation and a very clear picture from both dvd and vhs.
On: 2007-02-13
I have no complaints whatsoever with the Panasonic DMR-ES30VS DVD Recorder/VCR Combo, which performs exceedingly well. What impressed me the most was the support I received from Panasonic setting up the DVD Recorder.
The finished DVD is excellent when the VHS tape is of good quality.
Also, the process to prepare "copied to" DVDs for play on other DVD players is simple and relatively brief: about 3 minutes.
You can transfer data from VHS tapes to DVD while you watch your regular programming on TV, or while you sleep. This process that the Panasonic DMR-ES30VS DVD Recorder/VCR Combo provides is non-intrusive.
On: 2007-01-29
The manual was hard to follow for me but its actually easy to use
The quality of DVD it produces is very good
On: 2007-01-17
This product is awesome. I have been able to not only play videos and dvds but also record videos to dvds with one touch recording. Picture is great. Many features.
On: 2007-01-10
Great connect to my new Magnavox Flat Screen LCD TVs. Just what I need for ease and convenience to play both my DVDs and my VCRs.
On: 2007-01-09
I bought this recorder after I gave up trying to get another recorder to work. This one did work just as the instruction manual prescribed. It was actually easier to use than the previous one and I was able to make several DVDs from my old family videos.
On: 2007-01-05
The recorder functioned as advertised. I tested various functions using several types of discs and had no problem. I could not , however, play a DVD that was created on my computer. Panasonic rep. explained that this option is not part of the specs. of the machine.
I would recommend this recorder to anyone who wants to trasfer VHS to DVD painlessly.
On: 2007-01-04
Recordings by both DVD and VCR are excellent with good quality.
Good features: Fast speeds forward and reverse. Time recordings can be made on both DVD and VCR for two movies scheduled for diferent times during the day. Instructions are difficult to comprehend because of numereous cross references to other pages. Was unable to program the recorder remote with TV, which it makes it inconvenient to play back recordings.
On: 2007-01-04
I bought this unit refurbished and it has worked flawlessly. I have burned about 100 hrs. of video onto DVD. The VHS rewind and ff is super fast. Great unit!
 On: 2006-12-04
After using Toshiba and Sony DVD recorders, I have come to the conclusion that all manufacturers are clueless as to how to organize regularly accessed menus, so I cant fault the Panasonic for that (although 9+ keystrokes to finalize a disc is absurd). That said, I have had excellent results with the DVD side of this unit, and the VCR side works well as long as it is recording and playing back on itself. But as has been pointed out elsewhere, tapes recorded on other machines are always right on the cusp of being unplayable. Tracking is a constant problem on tapes from other (even Panasonic) machines, which makes the VCR to DVD dubbing feature less than perfect.
The flexible recording feature sounds good on the surface, but straying off of the 2/4/6 hour speeds and using the flexible feature will result in dropped and skipping frames. Avoid it.
On: 2006-10-28
I TEND TO LEAN TO PANASONIC PRODUCTS AND I AM SURPRISED AT THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS ONE. IT HAS A MIND OF ITS OWN. SOMETIMES IT WORKS, SOMETIMS IT DOSENT. AND ABOVE ALL DONT TRY TO PLAY A COMPUTER GENERATED CD CONTAINING E-MAILED PICTURES. YOU MAY SEE SOME YOU MAY SEE ALL YOU MAY SEE NONE. MY $29.00 MAGNAVOX PLAYER CAN PLAY THEN WHY CANT THIS "SOPHISTICATED" PIECE OF HARDWARE DO IT? IT IS VERY DISAPPOINTING.
On: 2006-07-26
After hearing all the negative reviews here, I figured I should avoid this
particular model. But then I noticed ALL the units I was considering
had lots of negative feedback, so I had to dig a little deeper. I finally
found a review from a professional, and he recommended this model,
especially over the es40v, which apparently took out some features.
I was pleasantly surprised by how simple and easy it was to use this
unit. Pop in a tape, pop in a DVD, and hit the dub button. If you hit
stop on the VCR, it ends that "chapter", and separates the title on
the DVD. You can change recording modes in between, and once
youre done recording, you just finalize and play it on your DVD player
or watch it on your computer.
For all the people complaining about having to finalize, its just a fact
of life, you have to do it or else it wont be readable. I had absolutely
none of the "problems" described here, like freezing, having to reboot,
etc. In fact, I had about 150 hours of VHS tapes to convert, and I
pretty much did them straight through for a week. I started a 6 hour
tape at midnight, and I would wake up at 6:00am to "flip" the tape
and go to the next one. I did have a fan going, as I didnt want to
have heat related problems, but it performed very well, like a workhorse.
On: 2006-05-25
I have not been happy with this product. It works sometimes, and sometimes it just freezes up. I have to unplug it to get it going again. Also, vhs tapes get stuck inside, and are difficult to get out. Also, after recording a dvd, you have to finalize it to be able to use it on other brands of dvds. Well, often it will just quit with an error condition in the middle of trying to finalize a dvd. When that happens, you probably just lost everything you had recorded.
In my opinion, this is a piece of junk, and the worst product I have ever purchased from panasonic.
On: 2006-02-18
This review from a not techno saavy purchaser: it took five minutes to connect this unit to a 25 year old TV! It works beautifully. I could not be happier!
On: 2006-01-24
Okay. Here are some important notes if you plan to buy this product:
1) The manual is not hard as some people said if you read it while doing what it says at the same time. This is called Kinetic learning.
2) The DVD Burner is great with the Flexible recording feature, 1 button recording and a nice interface. Thats why I give it 3 stars.
3)If you press Stop instead of Pause while recording, this will produce a short pause when playing back that DVD on some models of players. It was no problem on my Sony player or any Mac computer but did it on my portable. So if you can, just pause if you can.
4) Remember to Finalize to play a DVD on other players! Its in the Disc Management window.
5) The VCR part of the unit crapped out on me. In the middle of recording it would sop and rewind a little. Where this happened, there was a double-take in the recording. I was also getting random pauses in the middle of some DVDs when I played them back on other units.
6) I called Panasonic about this and was on hold for an hour!!!! The guy had no idea how to fix he problem.
7)The Tapes started showing snow. I thought it was a little early for the heads to need cleaning so I took the unit back.
8) I still liked the Recorder part of the unit so I got just that part by itself (Panasonic DMR-ES20S) and a Sony VCR separately.
9) I still got some random pauses when I played the DVDs on other units. THEN I thought. Hey! The DVD RWs have never been a problem, just the DVD-R. The RW are TDK brand! the DVD-R are Phillips! I went out and bought some Memorex DVD-R (because Ive played those on the portable at one time with no problem and now the recordings are great! Even on the portable! Woo-hoo!
So, even tough I would have returned it because of the crappy VCR part, a lot of the problems came from cheap blank DVDs! You get what you pay for.
Hope this helps.
On: 2005-12-21
When my old VCR finally went to electronics heaven, I decided to take the plunge and buy a DVD recorder. Since I have a lot of VHS tapes that I still watch from time to time, a DVD/VCR combo was a logical choice, since it would eliminate having two different machines.
I am extremely pleased with this Panasonic model. I was able to complete 90% of the installation on my own; luckily, a very helpful (and patient!) Panasonic technician guided me through the last few steps to make the new machine compatible with my cable system (steps that are never included in the instruction manual, or if they are, they are incomprehensible to the average person).
The picture quality from the DVD recordings is good (I use the second slowest speed), as are the recordings to tape. The machine is easy to program and watch. I dont know if this is common to all DVD recorders, but this machine gives the viewer a visual preview of all the programs recorded, which is very helpful.
There are a lot of bells and whistles on this machine that I will never use, much less understand (and which have been described far better by other more technically-savvy reviewers than I); but the best thing about this model is that you dont have to be an electronics wizard to get it up and running to play and record whatever you wish.
On: 2005-12-18
This recorder makes decent recordings, but it is definitiely not as user friendly as other recorders I have seen. It claims to read DVD+Rs, but all of my DVD+R discs that were previously recorded on my computer drive cannot be read by the panasonic.
My old sony dvd player died after about 4 years, and it read any and every dvd I have made on my computer DVD+RW drive. I bought the panasonic to replace the sony as my new dvd player and as a recorder to transfer old home videos. The panasonics vcr tracking is below par. My 10 year old vcr plays my home videos without any tracking problems, but the panasonics auto tracking actually makes them worse!! My home videos are un-watchable on the panasonic because it seems to be constantly trying to fix the tracking. Quite annoying. It does have inputs so I can plug my old vcr in, but I spent extra $$ hoping that a newer vcr would make the transfers better in quality.
This is not a user-friendly player either. The remote lacks audio and subtitle buttons; when watching any dvd, you have to go into a menu to change the audio or subtitle settings. My 4 year old sony has a noticeably better picture than this brand new unit as well.
Needless to say, I don not recommend this unit. I miss my old sony, and I wished I had spent the extra $40 on the sony dvd recorder.
On: 2005-12-11
I am NOT techno-savvy. I read several reviews of this product here and other sites before buying. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was for me to set up and learn to operate this equipment. I have not had a seconds trouble with it. I also found that some of the things reviewers complained about could be found in the manual if one bothered to read it.
On: 2005-12-10
After fussing and fighting and finally sending back the piece of junk that I bought from Phillips, I am pleased with the Panasonic DMR-ES30VS DVD Recorder/VCR Combo. I am barely scratching the surface of what this unit does but so far I love the easy to use One-Touch 2-Way dubbing which starts the dubbing from VHS to DVD exactly where you want it to - not a second before or after. I also love the Flexible Recording feature in which the movie or program fits on one disc perfectly for excellent quality. The editing features are very user friendly, including Finalize within Disk Management. The only downside is it does not record on +RWs which play on all my other DVD players. Fortunately, Phillips sent a replacement DVD recorder for the +RWs but I do not record keepsake DVDs on it. I use the Panasonic DMR-ES30VS DVD Recorder/VCR Combo for all my permanent DVDs.
On: 2005-11-29
Ive tried three DVD recorder/VCR combo machines. The JVC DR-MV5S has great recording quality but poor user interface. The Insignia (Best Buy store brand) has user interface so beautiful it brought a tear to my eyes to have to return it due to its unacceptable recording quality.
The Panasonic seems to combine the worst of both worlds. The on-screen options and menus seem to have been organized by the worlds worst secretary. For example, you are repeatedly warned that in order to make a burned DVD playable on other machines, you must "Finalize" the disc. Wouldnt you think the "Finalize" option would be somewhere on the recording or editing menu? No. Its under FUNCTION -> OTHER FUNCTIONS -> DISC MANAGEMENT.
I would put up with such nonsense (and theres lots more like it) if the recording quality made up for it. This machine records fairly well at the 2-hour per disc SP mode. At the 4-hour LP mode, however, there is seriously noticeable blocking, kind of like watching streaming videos over a slow net connection.
So heres something truly boneheaded: Panasonic offers a flexible recording mode (like the JVC), which would allow you to use the best recording rate if you have, say, a 2-1/2 hour tape to fit onto a DVD, without forcing you to jump to the 4-hour mode. But guess what? You CANNOT use flexible recording mode to dub tapes to DVDs!!! You also apparently cannot use flexible recording mode to timer record broadcast shows. It can only be used if you are manually and immediately starting an recording. I hope somebody gets fired for that decision!
I must also laugh at the hapless customer support lines. I gave up expecting a consumer electronics expert on the line, but I thought I would at least get somebody who fields calls specific about this model and maybe has gone through the manual a few times. Nope, hes reading the manual on the line in real time, same as I am.
 On: 2005-11-25
Panasonic has the absolute WORST customer service in the industry! I had this unit for 45 days. When I got it, I had to wait two weeks to set it up because of business travel. So I had the unit actually set up and running for about 30 days. So a month and a half after I purchased it, the power totally went out. Nothing would turn on. I couldnt even get my DVD out. Panasonic said I had to take it to a Panasonic-approved repair place -- which I promptly did. In 3 months - yes, THREE MONTHS - those people still could not fix it. I asked for a refund and they refused. To make a LONG story short, I ended up turning the repair place AND Panasonic in to the Better Business Bureau. Every time I tried to get something done through Panasonics customer service, they were absolutely NO HELP. I asked to speak to a superviser and there was not one that they would let me speak to. It was a totally horrible, miserable experience! After I wrote to the better business bureau, all of a sudden they sent me a check in the mail for the price I paid for the unit. WHAT A HUGE PAIN AND WASTE OF MY TIME!!!! To have a new DVD/VCR recorder combo last for one month and to receive that type of customer service is absolutely uncalled for! I will never NEVER buy anything with the Panasonic brand on it ever again. And you can be sure I tell everyone and anyone to steer clear of Panasonic as well!
Dont waste your time or money on this unit!!!
On: 2005-10-19
I purchased a Panasonic DVD recorder with a harddrive about 18 months ago. Unfortunately, the harddrive malfunctioned just beyond the warranty period and I now have a useless $500 piece of junk. A coworker of mine also purchased a Panasonic DVD recorder around the same time and experienced problems with three of them before giving up and buying a JVC. From my experience, Id advise anyone buying a DVD recorder to steer clear of Panasonic, as they are prone to failure.
On: 2005-09-30
This is a very good machine and it is very easy to use. It takes one push of a button and it will go either way. Even the button has an arrow to show which direction to go, From VHS to DVD or DVD to VHS. I am learning more options on this machine as time go by. Ill recommend it anyone who wants to save their VHS tapes.
On: 2005-09-19
But Im lovin it! Absolutely NO compatibility issues so far and super-easy to set up. Giving it only 4 stars because the manual definitely needs work.
Havent tried any of the fancier bells and whistles such as editing features, but the dubbing mode works like a dream.
And the machine actually flashes "hello" on startup and "goodbye" on shutdown. Functional and well-mannered -- wish I could say the same for some of the people in my life!
On: 2005-09-11
I have owned this unit for approximately 9 months. For the first 6 months it worked very well. However, for the past three months we will be watching a dvd or vcr movie and the screen simply goes blank. We can hear the sound, but no picture. In order to get the video back, we have to reboot the system which is a pain in the butt. So far Panasonic has no response.
On: 2005-08-10
Unless you are a video geek that requires perfection on the smallest of details, this unit is an all out winner. It is easy to set up, easy to use, and does an excellent job on recording and playing of both VHS and DVDs. For the price you cant go wrong.
On: 2005-08-05
We saw this unit on display and the remote caught our eye. We had looked at five other major brands and all of their remotes had very small any not very legible buttons while the Panasonic had larger, color keyed and very legible buttons which were layed out an intelligent grouped-by-function arrangement. We have found it to produce great pictures from both the VCR and the DVD even when recorded in the long playing modes. And, the crowning touch for us is the DVD-RAM recording mode, an option we didnt see on any other machine. With DVD-RAM we can watch a program from the beginning while it is still recording the program, like TIVO and a DVR recorder provided by our cable company. And a double sided DVD-RAM disk can hold as much as 12 hours in the longest playing mode.
To date, we have found no negatives.
On: 2005-08-02
I would have to say avoid this unit.
As far as transfer from VHS to DVD goes, it does the job relatively well enough, but, nowhere near as well as it could. Appears not to have a Time Base Corrector like the DMR lines that do not have a VHS deck in them. This means that frames are occasionally dropped from the video when transfered from VHS to DVD. While its not as serious a drop as seconds of audio and video being missing, such as from Magnavox DVD recorders, it shouldnt be dropping frames to begin with.
Its automatic menus, though, are a far step BACKWARDS from the past DMR DVD recorders. The addition of preview clips changes the way text is entered in on the screen. So, it makes it that much more difficult to enter titles that appear as "English" on the screen.
Its timer functions are not entirely solid either. A few times, the timer just doesnt go off when scheduled. Plus, the incredibly strange behavior of, after a timer recording has gone off, many times when the unit is turned back on, for whatever reason, the channel is set to 9. When a timer recording is active, its also not immediately obvious its recording, either. You must check for the red box on the display to indicate it is, which is a problem for those moments when the scheduled recording does NOT start. The red box WILL appear, but it WONT be recording. Lastly, there will be periodic times where you turn on the unit and it simply will not respond to any commands. Nothing from the remote, except power off, and nothing from the front display of buttons, except power off.
But, the unforgivable one was the unit required repairs after just 2 months. It stopped playing any VHS recorded in EP. Even material it had recorded less than 12 hours before and HAD played back fine would not play back properly. Brand of tape did not matter. Cleaning the VCR did not help. It was not signal interference because the tape had worked before and the DVD recording still worked fine. Plus, recording from EP VHS to DVD, while the distortion was not as bad, was still present. It was as if Macrovision kicked in on playback of any and all EP VHS only recorded material. The video was wobbly, colors dimmed in and out and changed, and there was an audible background humming wobble. Panasonic, of course, suggested repairs, so, its not even certain IF repairs will fix it.
In comparison to past experience with older DMR DVD recorder only units, its better to avoid this unit and just connect a VCR to a pure DMR-Ex0 DVD recorder. What few things this unit adds over past DMRs are, unfortunately, overshadowed by too many minor errors and a too quick turn over time before major repairs were needed.
On: 2005-07-09
the picture ofthe is good and sound is great.no problem this machine .not to big.best myrec vhs .very ease to you.great remote to warrant great come two years
.buy much warrent want to pansonic.
On: 2005-05-14
I had to return this machine after a week because it had a little bug in scheduled recording. It recorded the wrong channel (and no, it wasnt "pilot error". The thumbnail in the title menu says one channel, but the program recorded is something else. Very strange). I guess even Panasonic isnt perfect.
However, to tell you how impressed I am with this machine, I exchanged it for the exact same model. And bought another one for my office.
Some highlights:
This new model will record on +R disks.
It has a very solid feel.
Recording in LP mode is a little blocky. EP mode is TERRIBLE. but in SP, the picture looks great.
I also own a Toshiba DR2. I was in for a big surprise when I called up the disk menu on this new Panasonic. The thumbnails are animated and have sound (silent stills on the Toshiba). Pretty cool.
The Panny also seems to load faster than the Toshiba.
The machine lacks firewire. The Pannys CM Skip only skips forward (the DR2 also skips backward 10 seconds in case you over-skip). The Pannys skip seems to only work on disks recorded on it (it will play but wont skip on finalized DVD-RW disks).
On the VCR side, the rewind is blazing fast. There is a setting mentioned in the manual that allows you to run the vcr through the component connection. Ive never seen a vhs picture this clear.
Be sure to read the manual and learn how to deactivate the rf connection so you dont have to push the vcr/tv button every time you turn on the machine.
All in all, a well made, well designed machine with options to record/play just about every format except DVD+RW.
On: 2005-05-13
I had to return this machine after a week because it had a little bug in scheduled recording. It recorded the wrong channel (and no, it wasnt "pilot error". The thumbnail in the title menu says one channel, but the program recorded is something else. Very strange). I guess even Panasonic isnt perfect.
However, to tell you how impressed I am with this machine, I exchanged it for the exact same model. And bought another one for my office.
Some highlights:
This new model will record on +R disks.
It has a very solid feel.
Recording in LP mode is a little blocky. EP mode is TERRIBLE. but in SP, the picture looks great.
I also own a Toshiba DR2. I was in for a big surprise when I called up the disk menu on this new Panasonic. The thumbnails are animated and have sound (silent stills on the Toshiba). Pretty cool.
The Panny also seems to load faster than the Toshiba.
The machine lacks firewire. The Pannys CM Skip only skips forward (the DR2 also skips backward 10 seconds in case you over-skip). The Pannys skip seems to only work on disks recorded on it (it will play but wont skip on finalized DVD-RW disks).
On the VCR side, the rewind is blazing fast. There is a setting mentioned in the manual that allows you to run the vcr through the component connection. Ive never seen a vhs picture this clear.
Be sure to read the manual and learn how to deactivate the rf connection so you dont have to push the vcr/tv button every time you turn on the machine.
All in all, a well made, well designed machine with options to record/play just about every format except DVD+RW.
On: 2005-05-11
I bought this item after my RCA vhs/dvd player bit the dust only after 2 yrs. This is my first experience with a Panasonic model and I was pleasantly surprised with it. Not only was it very easy to set up (less than 15 minutes), it starts up very quickly and the dvd playback quality - even in LP mode the picture is very good. The one touch vhs to dvd dubbing button is a definite plus as well. The only negative I found was on the universal remote. When you are using just the TV you only can switch channels by hitting the + or - buttons and there is no go back button to switch back and forth between two channels. So I have ended up using my other remote for tv viewing. Also, I do wish you were able to use scheduled recording on both dvd and vhs at the same time as there are occasions where there are two different tv shows/movies (on at the same time) and I am not home to watch them. The DVD menu is very visually friendly but the VHS menu is like the old vcr menus from 15+ years ago with the big white lettering. However, these cons are not enough to bring my review down to 4 stars because this recorder does what its supposed to do (records dvds and vhs) and does it well. It is worth the money!
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