Panasonic DMR-HS2 (40 GB) DVD Recorder

Was the Panasonic flagship recorder of its generation. Beautiful mirrored front panel with a DV input for easy hookup to a digital camcorder & PC card input for storing images from your digital still camera with an adaptor.

Small hard disc size by todays standards but it was intended to be used to edit your recordings on the HDD then transfer them to disc. If you try to replace the drive with a bigger one then it will only format 40GB of the new drive so you wont gain anything.

Disc recording formats are DVD-R and DVD-RAM only so dont try recording on RW or +R discs as the machine hates them.

Movie Downloaders will have to convert their DivX films to DVD as this machine doesn't support DivX

Has full editing features & "Timeslip Playback" on Hard Disc & DVD-RAM format only.

DVD-R discs will allow you to record & playback as you would with a standard VCR, But remember to finalise the disc if you are going to play them back on a different dvd player.

As with all DVD recorders remember to keep your discs free of fingerprints, the number 1 cause of failed recordings & discs stuck in the drive are down to dirty discs.

One of the nice features of this recorder is you can still access all of the menus from the front panel of the machine, useful if you tend to lose the remote down the back of the sofa regularly.

One of the first HDD/DVD recorders, so it is not surprising that the facilities on this machine are quite limited. At 40GB, the HDD is of small capacity by more recent standards; nonetheless this is sufficient to accommodate 34 hours of recording of quite acceptable quality on the LP setting. A more significant restriction is that DVD recording is only possible on DVD-RAM or DVD-R discs, and the machine will only replay these 2 types, plus DVD Videos, VCDs and Audio CDs. On the positive side, this is a good-looking and well-built machine, the on-screen displays are good and easy to follow, and basic recording and playback routines are easy to carry out with minimal key strokes - definitely more user-friendly than many other machines of this type - and the Operational Manual is excellent.