Panasonic DMR-XW380 / 480

Great – Best dvd recorder that I have ever owned. I can't believe that they have been discontinued. What a shame I'll have to replace it with something cheap and nasty. Too bad.

This is the perfect recorder – I have had this recorder for 5 or 6 years and I love it. Yes it only records TV items but it suits me. This has never skipped a beat. I keep it very clean and dust free. Tip. If any DVDS are played make sure they are dust free Show details ·  1

AN ECCENTRIC PRODUCT – While the product has a number of good qualities, it's inability to play MPEG4 channels is frustrating. Worse still is its refusal to play many DVDs, giving the message it could not detect a DVD or any programs on same. Trying the DVDs on the computer as well as older and later models showed there were no problems with the DVD. And yes, I cleaned the laser and the DVDs with no result. Will not buy a similar model again.

will NOT tune new MPEG 4 HD channels – The manual states Video Recording System MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 but Panasonic helpline Tech states unit is equipped only with MPEG 2 decoder. Flimsy excuse video system does not equate with Tuner system. Unfit for stated purpose???? great tuner and recorder but not able to play MPEG-4 recordings or tune to new HD MPEG-4 channels.

An all round excellent performer, with one important caveat – I've found this unit to be very good at what it does. Even if the software is a little sluggish it's neat and tidy and pretty straightforward to understand. However, based on my experience with this unit and with a similar model purchased by my uncle, these units have one very significant Achilles heel: the tuner. When new, the tuner works… Read more

just fine, but as it gets older there is a noticeable reduction in sensitivity resulting in breakup in reception. It seems that a stronger and stronger signal is required to produce reliable reception. Meanwhile, any other devices in the house continue to receive TV signals without a hitch.

The unit was sent for a service but that was totally useless. I ended up having a masthead amplifier installed which increased the signal by 20 or 30dB and that solved the problem, for about six months. I have just bought a current, similar model, also by Panasonic. Of course it's better and cheaper than the old one. Who knows how long the tuner in it will last?

These devices by Panasonic are fantastic but I wish they would address the problem with the tuners that degrade in sensitivity over time. Surely I'm not the only person to have encountered this problem. Remember, it affected my machine and my uncle's.

So, this is something of a warning to prospective buyers. They're great devices, but don't be surprised if someday one or two channels start breaking up, then a couple more.

DMR-XW480 GLK Review - after 12 months of use – This DMR-XW480 GLK has been around our place for a year now and was itself a replacement for a DMR-XW380. Pretty much all the same features and comments as per my DMR-XW380 review. Nice improvements were the larger HDD and a few simplified and streamlined menus for editing and copying from HDD to DVD. These new units seem much more capable at… Read more ·  1

automatically reformatting recordings done in DR mode into more space efficient EP or LP recording modes. So far the DVD burner has not given any trouble at all. The unit has not had to be reset or rebooted and has operated exactly as expected. I have found the EPG a little "borky" and incomplete at various times but I am sure this is the Australian FTA TV stations not maintaining their EPG's properly rather than any fault of the Panasonic unit.

If you are still recording from FTA TV and need fast and reliable burning to DVD plus the ability to record 2 television shows at the same time this unit is still worthwhile considering.

Excellent ALL rounder - Brand image changer – I replaced an older model recorder and i must say this one is worlds apart. It allows for easy navigation where i have never had to rely on the user manual. For a machine with so many features this is exceptional. I am especially impressed with the editing features and copy function to DVD. To do this you do need to convert the original file… Read more

format onto a DVD recognised one BUT this is very easy to do as does it while the machine is in standby. The best thing about this is that if you time record something the machine does not turn on! Magically the program or programs are there for you. The play back is faultless and as good as original free view transmission. Having an excellent stereo i have not noticed any problems with sound quality. What a great product. Being using it for nearly 2 years and no issues. EVERYTHING, changes my brand image of Panasonic Nothing

Fantastic! – This product was a great investment, having small children means I often miss out on watching my favourite tv shows, but now I can just record them and watch them after they go to bed! (and you can also copy them to disc if you want) At first I struggled with using it, it is quite technical with many options, but after a few months of use I now… Read more ·  1

have the hang of it. Pausing live tv is also a bonus (someone always visits or rings when you are in the middle of an interesting show!)It has a SD card slot and a USB slot too, which is handy and allows you to access photos and music from these devices. We have copied alot of our music to the Hard Drive so we can get rid of the cd tower in the living room. We havent connected ours to the Internet (yet) but plan to do so soon. There are so many great functions on this unit, we are very pleased with it! So many functions! Also improved digital tv reception (we live in remote area) Technical to install, takes time to learn all the functions

Good dvd recorder and set top box – I have had this for over a year and very happy with it, never had any problems with it needing servicing etc. i gave it 5 stars because it is a very good machine. The tv guide, recording and editing functions are worth 5 stars but i wish Panasonic would make dvd+rw machines and recording to disk was direct and faster. DVD-RW versus… Read more

DVD+RW...with DVD+RW recorders you can record one programme onto disk, then next day you can add another programme to the same disk. you can edit them, delete them at any time, it only locks the formatting once you play it in a different machine. The Panasonic DMR-XW380/480 is a DVD-RW recorder. The big difference is you can only record onto disk once, so you have to queue all your recordings from hard drive then transfer them all to disk. once this is done the formatting is locked and cannot be edited, but you can delete it all and start again.

Editing recordings is very accurate and is done via hard drive. you can edit out the commercial breaks smoothly and cleanly by putting a marker at either end and then cutting out the middle. you can do this numerous times so if a programme has 10 ad breaks you can cut them all out. the cut version plays out very smoothly. i have found some other brands of recorder don't do this very well and cuts are delayed are not where you put the marker. this Panasonic machine is 100% accurate in that regard.

TV guide is excellent..can show as list or grid. you can delete unwanted channels, make a favourites list and change the order of channels. you cannot change the channel name though.

Recording to hard drive is easy. choose the programme from the tv guide and press ok. a menu pops up and you can increase the minutes etc before finalising your timer recording. you can also choose "check/prog" button to manually add a recording.

Recording to disc is one feature i hate. you have to record everything to hard drive first before you can record it to disk. this makes recording to disk twice as long. once you have recorded to disk you cannot change anything on the disk. my old philips dvd+rw recorder could record to disk from live tv.

Slow recording, but is supposed to have a feature that allows you to record to disk at high speed. i have found this not to work on anything i have wanted to record to disk that is 2 hours long. after recording a 2 hour programme, it then slowly formats the disk, and does something else adding an additional 15mins to the recording time.

Remote control has a lot of unwanted buttons. you could probably get rid of half of them and make some of the frequently used buttons bigger. the drive select and input select buttons should be next to each other and bigger. you need the input select button to change between free to air tv (TV) and foxtel (AV1), and drive select for hard drive recordings or disk. there's a big function button which is the same as the option button. to select a recorded programme you press the "direct navigator" button which could have been named better. the "prog/check" button also for checking timer recordings or adding new recordings could be named better too.

Record from Foxtel by plugging your foxtel box into AV1 or AV2 socket. you have to first record to hard drive then can transfer to disk.

Menu is not very intuative. apart from the tv guide which is easy to find via the big "tv guide" button, trying to format a disk for example you first have to press the "select drive" button --> "dvd drive" then you have to press "options" button and choose --> function menu --> other --> dvd management --> format. can be hard to remember Good TV guide, can record from Foxtel, recording is easy and intuative Cannot record directly onto disk, DVD-RW functionality is not as good as DVD+RW recorders, remote control has too many buttons, high speed recording doesn't work on 2 hour programmes

Great, very easy to use – EPG very easy to operate. Tossed up between this and TIVO. I was advised you could get your fox to run through it and record it but i never worked out how. Burns TV shows to disc quickly Easy to use, great service when ever I have had a problem More expensive but ease of use and service has been worth it Show reply

Perfect Panasonic – This perfect Panasonic PVR has got all the features & 250GB is plenty of storage for heaps of regular recording. I have not had a single problem with it & has been easy to use & operate. Panasonic remote syncs with our Sony TV & works great. One of my favourite features is the 60 second fast forward & 10 second fast rewind, which is great for… Read more

skipping ads - just 3 or 4 presses of this button & you've skipped 3 or 4 minutes of commercials. Reliable, Twin HD tuner, 60 sec FF, Wifi not built in - requires USB dongle, EPG can be unreliable