Replacement for Panasonic DMR-E500H

[brycer]

Replacement for Panasonic DMR-E500H. I have had my digital recorder since 2004. As it is nearing the end of its digital life and with the possibility that the 400GB hard drive may pack it in. I would be most interested in suggestions for a suitable replacement. As this is a high end recorder with digital editing and transfer to dvd functions I would also like the next generation to also record in Hi-Def and 9x16 video formats. Similar size of hard drive.

Please point me in the right direction. Thanks

[jjeff]

Unfortunately there is nothing even close to your Panny, at least available in North America.
Pioneers are the best of the HDD recorders currently available and they'll have a smaller HDD (200gb I believe), no HD, no digital tuner and while it will record WS it won't set the WS bit when burning to DVD.
If you wanted to build a HTPC you could get HD or else there's the Tivo(if it's available in Canada). Note the Tivo won't have a DVD burner but you can transfer from a Tivo to a PC or off load to a standalone DVDR.
If you're willing to spend anything like what you must have for your Panny a Tivo with lifetime subscription would probably be your best bet. $300 for lifetime, $300 for Tivo HD and ~$150 for a optional 750gb or 1TB HDD, for a total of about $750 US.
High end DVDRs like your Panny are dead in N.America

[handyguy]

Is that a NTSC Panasonic DMR-E500H? I could use another one.

[victoriabears]

The Philips 3575/3576 are very nice to use, get the extended warranty though.

or :- These with 250GB HD are rare, and is cheaper than the 160GB version on Best buy at least, Costco sells the 160Gb version and from what I hear people really like them. I have the international version, very nice indeed.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10105639&catid=20210

Have you thought of having your Panny serviced and/or reformatting the hard drive?
or you could buy 2 pioneers or Philips for what this goes for:-

http://cgi.ebay.ca/NEW-DMR-EH55-PANASONIC-DVD-RECORDER-200GB-HDD-DMR-EH55S_W0QQitemZ13...1%7C240%3A1318

or go cheap ?

http://cgi.ebay.ca/NEW-Liteon-w-160GB-DVD-HDD-Recorder-Multi-region-PVR_W0QQitemZ28030...1%7C240%3A1308

or get a magnavox from Wal Mart and see if they are really as bad as they look !

[jjeff]

Man I bought my EH-55 from FS less than a year ago for $269. It will be interesting to see if the price drops as the availability of TVGOS does. Nice unit but not 400gb or HD.
As VB mentioned service is another option. I believe I've read about Canadians getting in on the $130 flat rate repair in Elk Grove Il.
$130 to keep your E500H going would be a steal.

[brycer]

Is that a NTSC Panasonic DMR-E500H? I could use another one. From handyguy.

Yes mine is NTSC, 120v power supply. When purchased it was a demo but I have never had any problems except for occassionally when a disk does not burn and close properly. Other than that I have been most happy with the PVR. MY primary reason for the high end PVR are the editing features that have been removed from most other Digital Recorders on the market today.

I guess my only question would be if and when the hard drive packs it in, which is the most likely event then I wonder how difficult it would be to replace the 400GB hard drive from panasonic assuming that all the other solid state components keep on ticking.

Has anyone out there replaced the hard drive on their Panasonic DMR ? Is it worth the expense.

I will be looking at some of the other options that have been posted on this subject. Hopefully I will be able to come up with an equitable solution that does not bang my pocket book too badly.

With the difficulty of getting a similar replacement here in North America, I'm under the impression that the Broadcasters have banded together to keep these high end products from import into the US and Canada. If so there are only a few other countries that carry this product in NTSC, 120v power supply. Like Taiwan and the Philippines seem to carry these high end PVR in NTSC but I'm not sure if the power supply would be suitable for North American Standards. Any information appreciated ?

[samijubal]

Panasonic HDDs can be replaced. You need to use the same size drive, if you use a bigger drive the recorder will just format the drive the same size as the old drive.

HDDs can last years of constant power on. Unless the HDD is starting to have problems, there's no need to worry about it just because it's 4 years old.

[brycer]

Followup for replacement of 400GB Hard Drive
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1056657
Panasonic Authorized Service Parts & Accesories
4925 W Irving Park Rd, Chicago - (773) 282-4000

Panasonic DMR-E500H (out of warranty service repair)

Cost to replace 400GB hard drive

Quoted
Parts $600 for Hard Drive (add shipping)
Labour $144

So almost as expensive as I paid 4 years ago. Might have to think about purchasing the hard drive now before the part is unavailable. Then when and if the drive fails it would be a simple matter of installing and reformating the new drive.[/url]

[victoriabears]

How the hell can they justify $600 for a hard drive ! these days you'be better of buying alaptop.

Just so you are all aware, all panasonics I have dealt with from the UK will record in ntsc and pal from the inputs, not dual tuner , (you can check the www.panasonic.co.uk site for that) and will work on 110, no one will confirm that though but I have ES10 that does.

see page 16 of the manual:-
http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/220239/index.html#anker_220239

for dmr-ex87, sadly I cannot link it.

I am amazed at the following, also given the exchange rate, and if they used www.parcels2go.com it would add up to about C$400 inc shipping, plus customs duties if they nab you. & the hard drive would become almost 400GB with the exchange rate

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PANASONIC-DMR-EX87EB-250GB-HDD-DVD-PLAYER-RECORDER-EX87_W0QQitem...1%7C240%3A1318

Also :-

http://www.world-import.com/Pioneer_dvr-940HX-s_PAL_NTSC_All_Region_DVD_Recorder.htm

wait for the exchange rate to improve ! or another choice

http://www.110220volts.ca/DVDRecorders/Code+Free+DVD+Recorders+%28Region+Free%29.html

[jjeff]

brycer, are you not able to participate in the $130 flat rate repair? As I mentioned before I believe I've read where a Canadian sent his in and everything was OK. Not sure if he had to pay extra postage though.
That $130 was for parts AND labour.
As far as occasional bad burns, have you cleaned the spindle lately? This should be done yearly for Pannys and takes less than 1/2 hr. If interested here's a thread talking about spindle cleaning.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f106/fixing-your-panny-when-theres-fault-lens-cleaning-doesnt-help-210507/

[brycer]

Thanks for the info on Pioneer DVR-LX70 1080p "victoria bears"

currently researching issues around connectors and proper hookup of DVR-LX70
500 GB Hard Disk Drive (up to 1422 hrs)
110-240 volts 50/60 Hertz dual voltage for use World-Wide
Built-in NTSC M, PAL/Secam BG, I, DK TV tuners (research required)
YES it looks like tuner NTSC-M will do the trick here in North America.

While a little expensive in CD$1000 the pioneer recorder has many more functions than my Panasonic.
As a replacement it would be a great primary unit allowing me use my older Panasonic as a backup recorder and editor.

In talking with many of the electronics retailers here in Calgary, AB it is doubtful that there will be many HD recorders
available which include editing features after 2010. One store I visited Visions electronics, had a single demo Pioneer DVR with HD but no editing features. They do not intend to restock HD recorders in 2009.

As I said before in an earlier post it looks like the Broadcasters and Cable & Satellite Gooks are trying to corner the market by making it virtually impossible to EDIT programming for transfer to disk. Coming to Canada very soon.

[lordsmurf]

The Philips 3575 is a better machine, in terms of video quality, as compared to the Panasonic. Those older Panasonic machines had lousy encoders.

[victoriabears]

some people love 'em (Not me) some people do not love Pannys

[victoriabears]

One point is that for Can$1000 you could get 3 Philips machines !

[handyguy]

Philips 3575 is $289 at Walmart. I thought Pioneer was out of the dvd recorder market?

[jjeff]

Only in the US. Canada still has a selection of Pioneer DVDRs w/HDDs but they all lack the digital tuner required for US sale.

[gordonmorton]

i can dupe any panasonic hard drive for anyone as long as the original hard drive is still funcitonal.
it is wise to try to use the same model # hard drive replacement.
i made back up duplicate copies of mine so that i would have them in the event of a hard drive failure.
i have a drm-eh67 with a 250gb hard drive.

the replacement hard drive needs to be 250gb or larger PATA EIDE not sata interface

so if you need that hard drive hdd i could probably get one out to you

the dmr-eh65 dmr-eh67 dmr-eh68 dmr-eh69 and the dmr-eh58 dmr-eh59

it is wise to keep the same specs on the replacement hard drive so that the power demand is not more that what the unit was originally designed for.

if you make an exact duplicate of the original functioning hard drive it should accept it with all video content on it .


each panasonic recorder assigns a key to the hard drive in the unit. so if the key does not match and sometimes even if it does
when you put the replacement hard drive into the unit be that with an exact copy of the original hard drive with or without video recordings on it. it may accept it and work just fine or it may ask to reformat the hard drive HDD .. and you would loose the original content

but either way it should work ...


if you need any help from me with this you can contact me at mortonworkemail@gmail.com