JVC DR-MH 20 or Panasonic DMR-E85HEBS, which to buy?

[RymdRobban]

Hi all you friendly and helpfull people!

I have been reading this forum for a while and have now finally decided to buy my first own DVD Recorder.

I Live in Sweden (PAL Country) and have the oppurtunity to buy either a JVC DR-MH 20 for 510 euro or a Panasonic DMR-E85HEBS for 478 euro.

Which one do you guys think I should go for? I have read some reviews on the Panasonic but no reviews at all on the JVC (not even here). How can that be? Do you guys know where I can find any?

I will use my DVD Recorder mainly to time shift and I think I will do that a lot, so it has to be sharp when it comes to that. I would also like to be able to cut out comercials easy without having to go through my computer. Since I have a projektor I'm quite picky when it comes to picture and sound quality and it has to have good progressive scan functionality (preferably VGA since my projector have no component in, obnly VGA and SVHS). I will also use it to transfer the content from some home recorder vhs tapes (maybe 20 tapes or so) to DVD.

I think I will also use it as my main DVD player!

Since I'm also thinking of maybe buying a digital tv box or digital tv tuner soon it would be great if it would be able to record from such a box/tuner in as high quality as possible. Is it RGB scart in it should have for this? Does any of the two players have that?

Last but not the least I want to spend as little time as possible to be able to master the players most basic functions and I don't want to tweak it.

Thanks in advance for all the help I can get. It will be really, really appreciated since mI know you guys are pros

[spiderman2k1]

i would not get the E85 get the E80 cheeper. JVC with the hard drive has some problems. Some people now have to send the unit back to have some smalll parts replaced but they should be fine after that.

[RymdRobban]

Unfortunately it seems quite impossible to get the E80 at all here in Sweden. What was the problems with the JVC. Is the JVC about the same as the M10 but with a hard drive? If so the JVC has better picture quality, right?

[spiderman2k1]

JVC has some bad circuits in the unit making the unit shut down. People are send the units back to JVC to be fixed.

The E85 when delete a file does not delete all of it some people have said they have seen two frames before a new capture not reall a big deal but its there. THe E85 is the only Panasonic that has this small bug. Might want to look at the E95.

[RymdRobban]

Thank you spiderman2k1 that was very usefull information that I did not know of.

But besides from these drawbacks, which recorder (of these two) do you people think would be the best for me to buy considering the things I have mentioned I will mainly use my recorder for (time shifting and to watch DVDs on a projector).

If I tell the store that I am aware of this problem with the JVC and that I want them to send me a recorder that has allready been fixed by the manufacturer (otherwise I will just send it right back) do you think the JVC will then be the better choice?

Thanks in advance!

[spiderman2k1]

Well if JVC fixing them I would think they are putting good parts in. JVC is a good company but ever one make a lemon every now and then. I might send it back for repair. You might want to try a E95 or E100. Panasonic has been make DVD reocorders with Hard Drives alot long so they have work out alot of there problems. E85 was just a small mess up its not really a big problem I have the E80 a older model and it does not have the E85 bug. What I think is happening whenI edit on my E80 and burn to DVD-RAM and then bring to the PC for editting and if i edit out the commercials two seconds of the first and last commercial are there. Its just that when you play it back on the DVD-RAM or the hard drive it skips that two seconds of the commercial that you delete. Now when I burn a DVD-R the two second commercial clips are not there. So im think the E80 puts a flag in the MPEg 2 to tell the E80 not to play the first two seconds after a delete. I think the flags on the *5 are not set right.

I might be better to send back your JVC then you know its fixed. People in the stores really do not know they have to sell there stock.

[ann coates]

The E85 when delete a file does not delete all of it some people have said they have seen two frames before a new capture not reall a big deal but its there. THe E85 is the only Panasonic that has this small bug. Might want to look at the E95.

Do those extra frames in the thumbnails show up when recorded to DVD-r?