Panasonic DMR-PWT530

Long Lasting – I bought this around 2013 but can't be absolutely certain but amazingly it's still going strong and is used every day to record TV. Just for its longevity I give it 5 stars. I add 10 minutes to the end of each program to be sure of not missing anything. Recording is simply done from the program guide. When it dies as it surely will now as I've… Read more ·  1

given it a big rap then I will buy another one. Well here I am 1 year later (2nd of September 2024) and the Panasonic is continuing to operate perfectly and being used every day. I think they can still be purchased for around $450

Poor qaulity – How can Panasonic go from one of the best products to the worst products on the market ignorant staff over priced don’t care about the customer as long as they have sold the rubbish to the customers never will buy anything from Panasonic ever again

Great product - perfect for us – We have found this product to be amazing and we love it for its ease of use. I will note that we aren't tech experts so probably haven't explored all the functionality and we have no interest in recording and playing elsewhere as others seem to want to do when reading other reviews. The product is very easy to use, flawless in its operation and… Read more

has huge memory when recording programs. It is sleek in design and looks good.

The remote control isn't the easiest to use because it is hard to find the button or function you are searching for when you are a beginner but once you learn what button does what you will be very happy with this purchase.

Not as versatile as previous models that were ideal – To gain Internet access after purchasing a new DMRPWT560, I now have no option to record dvds and when recording TV, no USB flash drive or DVD access is available. I should have retained my older model which does the above, and bought a smart TV set. Disappointing from National. I recommend downloading the manual and study it closely before buying. Show details

Convenience of product – It enables me to not miss a programme in which I have sn interest for convenience at times I would like to tape from it but that is a bit beyond my comprehension. Apart from that no problems after 3 years I love Panasonic. I may look forward to an upgrade in the future but in the meantime more than satisfied.  Show details

Remote N2QAYB000757 fails fast forwarding, but the player is faultless – Apparently "the user guide for Panasonic DF-PWT520. There it is written that the model of the remote control N2QAYB000762. The console N2QAYB000757 is also suitable but partially.". So unsure if Panasonic supplied this N2QAYB000757 incorrectly, as I only used it for recording. Now I am watching adds :-(  Show details

Very Handy Unit – We Have 2 of these in our House, We Tend to Watch programs when it Suits us Not When the channels see Fit To play them. This Saves a Lot of Wasted Time. Our Original unit is about 6yrs old Our Newer one is about 3yr old. Both are Still Going Strong, I would Definatly Recomend them

Does the Job – Bought this to record tv. It does that fine. The machine or remote however, is not that intuitive to use, but once you have it sussed, obviously its not an issue. Recording a tv series is easy from the guide, but if you record a tv based on a specified start and end time, then you have to enter that each time for each day which seems very… Read more

lacking since old vcr recorders had repeat and mon to friday etc options.

Basically, if you just wanting this to record tv and use basic functions, then its a good model.

USB HDD problems – Purchased DMR-PWT540GL in December and for the first three months was able to record and play back from tv, watch and listen to files on 8gb usb stick and watch recorded serials on 2tb portable hdd. Then all of a sudden the PVR decided that I had to register the usb hdd. But if I select 'yes' I would lose all files on the hdd (including all my… Read more

backup files from current and previous computer).

I tried to copy items to usb stick and then that was 'not compatible'.

I looked on this site to find out how to fix the problems and it appears from other entries that it can't be fixed.

This item was purchased for $300 instead of paying $50-$70 for Media player because I thought it would be nice to be able to record from tv.

Originally all I was looking at was a cheap dvd which would take a usb stick. I've ended up with cr.p that will only record from tv and play dvd's. Waste of money.

If I'm wrong then please tell me how to fix this problem

okay BUT – Totally agree with various others about the woeful USB HDD limitations. Most other things are fine, but a machine that can record TV but then won't let you do a damn thing with your recording other than store it and watch it on the same machine (or store it on a Panasonic-only-configured separate HDD) is a hugely insulting punch in the face and… Read more

kick in the groin to each and every customer who has purchased the item, whether they realise it or not. I was more than happy with this machine, and my Panasonic TV, until I realised this. Now I'll be very unlikely to purchase Panasonic again. Or recommend it to friends or family. Or say anything good about it on the web.

Turn on AND WAIT – My Samsung Tv is tuned through the Panasonic DMR PWT530. I need to turn it off at power point as the DMR turns the TV on 30 min after turned off via remote. When I go to turn it on it takes 10min before it comes on. Not good enough for a $300 purchase. I like recording capability As said in review

An expensive Blu Ray – Bought a Panasonic DMR PWT530 specifically to be able to record tv shows to an external hard drive and watch them on the go on my laptop. But turns out that any external drive you attach to the device will now only work on the PVR itself! Strike 1 Then I discover that the PVR doesn't have a "series record" option like anything invented since… Read more

2005 to automatically record every instance of a show. Strike 2.

It doesn't even offer a daily record option - I have to set a different recording for the same show every day of the week it's on. 5 different recordings a week to record the same show! Strike 3

Then I discover that you can only have a maximum of 30 pre-programmed recordings on the device! How in 2014 is this possible? There are GIGS of space on the hard drive. I should be able to set 1,000s of recordings per week. Strike 4

Then just today I had the final straw.

Daylight savings finished yesterday so the stupid machine decides to change every single recording to an hour earlier than when the show is on to somehow compensate for the time shift. 30 programs to be manually changed again to record the actual show. Strike 5

How are bad are their engineers and designers? How could such a product be put on the market in 2014?

Five hundred bucks down the drain for a stupid machine! Just a glorified blu-ray player!

I am telling all my friends to never again buy Panasonic because it's just such a clunky stupid machine.

I'd love to mail the PVR to so they too can own an expensive piece of junk! The box was nice looking Too much. No series link to record, no daily record option (only weekly), maximum of 30 pre-programmed timer recordings allowed - external hard drive option is useless as you can't use the external drive on any other computers

Good Combo – We already had two two-channel HD PVR's (Foxtel IQ and Humax 500GB) but sometimes had a recording conflict (too many desirable programs on simultaneously) and also needed a DVD/Blu-ray player so decided to get this Panasonic Blu-ray/PVR combo. We did not need a DVD burner or a 1TB HDD so this model suited us well and it has been around for a while… Read more

so plenty of info was available about its performance and reliability and the price has come down a lot. We got ours for $365 at the Good Guys as they matched two online prices I was able to show them. The more recent Panasonic models (e.g. 1TB HDD) were dearer and there has been some negative feedback about them.

We have only had the new unit for 1 day but it seems to fit the bill and was a dream to install and is very easy to use. It has a couple of nice optional features such as allowing automatic overwriting of saved files when you record periodically (e.g. daily programs), i.e. you either watch the recorded one before the next one goes to air or it gets deleted by being overwritten. You can also set automatic "chapters" or bookmarks into your recordings, allowing you to skip forward or back by the chosen step size (e.g. 10 min) rather than using the FF or rewind function. On the negative side, the picture is not as crisp as the one from the Humax, and there is a small delay every time you go into the EPG to choose another channel to watch. The skip forward by 1 min/back by 10 sec is handy but not as good as the Humax's programmable skip function. The product includes the HDMI cable which is a (sometimes pricy) extra with some other brands. If you just need a PVR, get the Humax. Feedback on the Samsung Blu-ray/PVR has been negative so I avoided that. We did not need to copy recorded programs to another device so the problem that others reported did not apply to us. The combination of two devices (Blu-ray player and PVR; simple, easy menus and functions; Panasonic reliability (we hope) Picture not ideal, delay when changing screens, non-programmable skip function

Dish-reception perfect (update) for digital channel record & play – The 'brick wall' program guide is fairly easy, as long as the program title is revealed in full at the top of the guide when you move across/move down, then press ok to highlight the short brick with the abbreviated program title and the time recording start/finish, and where a red timer symbol indicates 'recording now active' even if you happen… Read more

to watch the tv program but missed most of the beginning portion of it: for example, frozen planet had already started 15 minutes ago 7:30pm start - 8:30pm finish and i didn't realize it was on today, i thought it was another day next week, so i pressed timer record set then okayed it and it immediately records from that moment (7:45pm unadjusted), not from 7:30pm start then finished recording 8:30pm. Because of this unique 'don't panic, non-adjustment timer instant recording' discovery, pause live tv function is never used. Unadjusted means no need to adjust time even if you missed some of the beginning of chosen program.

Hence: guide+ok+(timer rec set+ok)+ok=instant record plus storage...Exit to resume program viewing

Note: my only interest is freeview tv channel record/play, playback of 3d blu ray dvds

I have no interest in internet movie recording because the picture quality is less perfect. Picture-in-picture search & 2D to 3D playback of recorded TV programs Pause tv live function never used because of better alternative above

Brilliant – The DVD/Blu Ray unit is brilliant. You can record 2 programmes at the same time (including HD which my previous unit did not). You can also watch a previously recorded show whilst recording other programmes. The unit has a lot of features that I haven't used as yet, but am sure they will work well. Recording HD Does not play DVDs purchased… Read more ·  1

internationally. I contacted Panasonic and they arranged for me to take the unit to one of their service centres where they changed the unit to region free.

How to kill your USB HDD - Painasonic – As noted by other reviewers, the major Painasonic issue is the inability to use a USB HDD to view downloaded video content. We used our machine for a few weeks with two different HDD's. Always OK, no issues. Then one day for no reason there is a request to 'register' the HDD. WARNING, DO NOT PRESS THE 'YES' BUTTON. It will wipe all content… Read more

from the drive and then render the device not usable on your computer.

I've spent countless hours trying to get computer to even recognise the ruined USB HHD on my computer. If it does appear it can't be opened or any files transferred. Strangely enough, after registration the message came up on TV suggesting the drive could be reformatted for computer use..... BUT NOWHERE DO WE SEE A HOW TO DO SO.

With the internal HHD so large, why would I ever need to store files on an additional USB HDD?

Then there is the way this player, NOT, will recognise a burned CD with video files [mp4].

We would have done better to buy a dedicated PVR without Bluray/DVD or CD that was All Regions.... they are out there and cheap. Total waste of money.

My rating is a ZERO. Pity I can't apply that, so it gets a 1... that it shouldn't get. Nothing special. USB HDD issues and lack of ability to find a fix.

Easy to use product – I purchased this unit about a month ago and connected it to my Hisense TV with a cheap HDMI cable. Set up was fairly easy and intuitive, apart from the wifi which was a bit tricky for a non-expert, but after a bit of trial and error I got it working. The blu-ray player works well. It's very easy to record programs using the electronic program… Read more

guide. The sturdy remote is well set out and easy to use, although it does't work with my Hisense TV, which means I have to juggle two remotes. Apart from that, the product does everything it's supposed to do. Combining the blu-ray and PVR in one unit is good value. It's cheaper than buying two separate units and the functionality is adequate for my needs. Overall I am very happy with this purchase. Attractive appearance, ease of use, good value, does what it's supposed to do Start up is a bit slow

Good balance between price and functionality – We had a old (2004) model TV, DVD player and a cheap set top box but were not ready to replace the TV yet. Instead we opted for a new set top box/PVR/DVD player. Our main criteria for selecting this product was; 1. Reliability (our other set top box crashed every couple of hours) 2. the ability to play all our content ( .avi, .mkv, .mp4 from… Read more

USB and watch DVD's)

3. To record the odd program from the TV and create recording schedules. We watch and delete so storage above 500Gb was over kill.

This unit met all of our requirements and had some added benefits such as the wireless allowing access to online line content such as ABC iView, SBS On Demand, You Tube etc.

The DLNA service was slightly disappointing in that, of all the file types listed above it only plays .mp4 so we still do thing the old fashioned way by copying files onto a USB. All playback features we have used have worked perfectly, with the exception on one .mkv file constantly froze so we put it down to a bad file.

It is also annoying that you cannot copy a "Favorite" program off your USB onto the local hard drive for repeat viewing - instead we almost constantly have a USB hanging out the front so the kids can watch their show of the moment over and over again. This has resulted in the nice door on the front being broken only 6 weeks after purchase.

As we have an old TV I cannot comment on the blue ray player or 3D features.

I knew when we purchased this unit that it was not multi region, what I was annoyed about was that when I contacted panasonic the only option open to me was to drive 1 hour each way to homebush to get a new firmware update to make it region free. Seriously? In this day and age they should be offering these updates electronically. Met all our requirements Not region free, has some limitations

USB problems – One of the main reasons i bought this unit is to play music and photos from my existing collection. I have tried the photos and successfully transferred them to the DMR but for some reason it puts them into separate folders according to the actual date the photo was taken -- so you can't just click on a folder with "all " your photos and then… Read more

have a slideshow going all the time . You might have to click on about 50 different folders to combine the photo collection -- this is absolute rubbish -- can anyone tell me how to get around this nonsence please. Now the other problem is with using the USB for music. What is all this about registering the USB ? What type of usb do i have to buy to be able to copy music from my laptop and then just plug it in the dmr and copy it to the system and be able to then select artist album etc and play -- is there a simple solution please. Ok i''m not all that savy on electronics but can find my way around with a little help.

thanks

Syd

Wish I never bought it – Aside from the menu navigation being a bit slow to respond, the thing that gives this unit a 2 star rating from me is the fact the USB and USB HDD functions are crippled to make them totally worthless. It is not possible to connect a USB stick formatted using NTFS (it only supports FAT32), this means no files over 4Gb can be viewed. But the icing… Read more

on the cake, it is not possible to move files from an external USB HDD on to the internal HDD in this unit (or the other way around). To use a USB HDD on the PWT520, it formats the drive in some 'Panasonic' format that means a normal computer cannot read the contents. So again, it's not possible to move files larger than 4Gb to or from this device to a computer. This makes no sense Panasonic. Why not just use something like ext4 format for the HDD if you don't want to pay license fee's to Microsoft for NTFS, plus that means people could pull files off the HDD to a PC.

So if you thought about ripping DVD's or BluRay's on your PC and storing them on this device, forget it.

Playing .m2ts files (Blu-ray rips) to this unit as a DNLA feed, the video constantly freezes, from the same computer, using the same .m2ts file on a PS3 it's fine, maybe it's the slow 100Mbps Ethernet port this unit has.

If all you want is something that will record off TV then it works fine, the process to do this is simple, the menus are nice to look at and easy to navigate, as a Blu-Ray player it does that job fine too. Just keep in mind, whatever you record to the units HDD you have no way of archiving unless it's to an external hard disk that is then only readable by this unit and only 8 in total USB HDD's can only ever be registered for use on it.

One thing that will drive you nuts, if the unit is powered off and there is disc inside, press the eject button and it takes about 30 seconds before the disc will actually eject, what the heck, really, how can that be?

This could have got a 5 star rating if Panasonic stuck a gigabit Etnernet port on it (like every other modern device) and if the stupid HDD restrictions didn't exist. If none of that worries you then you'll probably be happy with it. Menus look nice and are easy to use. Slow start up, button response is slow.

Is a good unit – Only just got this player, I got it as I needed a PVR but did not want to add another box to my system so the dual PVR/Bluray player suited my needs very well. I got this unit over the 720 and 820 as I decided I did not need a bluray writer and to pay the extra for it. Also the 500GB I did not see as a limitation as I can plug in an external… Read more

USB drive if I need more space. My research into PVRs made me come to the conclusion, none were able to do everything well, so I had to settle, we arent power users so compromised.

After an initial installation and play, it does do the job I got it for quite nicely. Easy to setup and the PVR seems to work well, you can only do 7 days in advance though (I knew this pre purchase), the Bluray also functioned well.

OK now for the negatives. When you play something from DLNA or HDD or SD, it come up with an annoying graphic telling you about remote functions and you need to press return to make it go away. A disappointing feature as it tells you in the manual, if you are connecting via DLNA as a client you cant play (DivX) AVI files (You can via other media though), believe this is a big shortcoming. Most stuff I have on my DLNA server is AVI/DivX and most stuff will be. Found the online offerings as in network channels not as good as the Sony bluray it replaced.

Overall though happy with purchase. Maybe software updates may fix some of the above :) Dual PVR Bluray function Cant play AVI with DLNA client

Great Unit, Does The Job Nicely – I bought this Player to replace my DVD HDD Player, Blu Ray Player, and Set Top Box (I had to use a STB because the DVD HDD could not record digital TV without it). The Panasonic Blu Ray HDD Recorder does everything that the other 3 machines did, with the convenience of one Remote instead of three! The Panasonic plays DVD's and Blu Ray discs… Read more ·  8

nicely, and records to it's Hard Drive with a minimum of fuss. Just select what you want to record from the TV Guide on the TV screen, push the Record Button, and that's it, the show that you want to record is recorded by the machine when it starts. The only thing that the Panasonic will not do is record to a physical DVD or Blu Ray disc, only to it's HDD. Simple to use and a good all round Unit.

Quality Blu-Ray/ HDD Recorder from Panasonic – This Blu-ray player/ HDD recorder is a cinch to use, no problems at all. It plays DVD and Blu-ray, and also records TV to the 500gb Hard Drive. I disagree with the previous Reviewer, the Manual clearly states that it will play Region 4 DVD or DVD marked for ALL regions (i.e. All Regions includes Region 4), and that's all. Well worth the money in… Read more ·  3

my opinion if you are looking for a combined Blu-ray and digital video recorder.. Easy to use, Quality Brand. Unfortunately it will not record to a DVD Disc, only to it's internal Hard Drive.

What sucks about this – Is that on the cover page of the Operating Instructions it tells you it is an all region player. So I get my Dowtown Abbey Season 2 from Amazon in the US, so darned eager to see it - this player doesn't play discs from that region! I ring Panasonic - and no, not just a code. I have to try and find someone who will drive me all the way to… Read more

Homebush West, after making an appointment, to get them to make it an all region player.

Panasonic obviously lied on their Operating Instructions.