Replacing Burner in a Panny DMR-E20

[PhoneMatt]

My old Panasonic DMR-E20 finally died. (It just went psychotic one day and tried to eat my finger along with a disc.) The repair place said that the burner had to be replaced and gave me an estimate of $400. This, of course, gives me a good reason to buy a new unit and an old, non-functioning unit to play with. The burner inside looks like a regular burner, is it replaceable by a civilian (me) or is it a specialized type of burner?

Matt

[trhouse]

If you can buy or borrow a service manual, that will usually explain how involved replacing the burner is. Some can be so messy that at the price of current recorders, you may be better off getting a new one or you may able to just swap in a new one. Even within the same brand the procedure may not be the same.

For example, there is a thread on replacing the hard drive in the Pioneer 520. It is pretty involved requiring a service remote, a service dvd, copying the old drive to the new drive in a computer running Linux. A similar procedure is required for the burner, yet in the same thread, it appears that with non hard drive models you can just swap the burner.

[samijubal]

I've had the burner out of an E-20. It's not the easiest thing to get out, but if you've worked on electronics before you can probably do it. If you've never worked on anything before, it's not a very good place to start. You can pick up DVD recorders on ebay for well below $100 these days. Unless you have access to another E-20 with a working burner, it's not worth trying to fix it.

[PhoneMatt]

Thanks, guys, for your answers. I'm not really an expert in electronics, but I have done a little. I'm really looking forward to getting a new unit, hell, just to be able to use RW discs. Having this unit around- one that I couldn't make any worse- aroused my curiousity. It seems like replacing the burner might be a little more than I want to bite into. Now comes the fun part, shopping for and picking out a new recorder.

Matt

[handyguy]

Dvd recorders have come a long way since that. Much better pictures & features.

[Oscar wallace]

Dvd recorders have come a long way since that. Much better pictures & features.

But will it last as long and have a better build....Me thinks not.

[tomwil]

My DMR-E20 burner died also. I ended up buying a DMR-E20 cheap junker from eBay and placing its drive into my broken DMR-E20. Works perfect now, and it was not all that hard to replace. Wish I had taken pics of the procedure.

[samijubal]

Dvd recorders have come a long way since that. Much better pictures & features.

But will it last as long and have a better build....Me thinks not.

My E-20 only lasted just over 2 1/2 years of moderate use before the burner went. I've probably put half as much use on a Toshiba D-R4 in 7 months as I did in the 2 1/2 years of the E-20, and the Toshiba still works like day one. We'll see what happens in a year or so, by then I'll be way past how much use the E-20 got before it died.

[PhoneMatt]

Never thought about e-bay. (Have never used them for anuthing.) Saw 3 units on there for $20. Maybe I will try to play with my old one. (But, I think I'm going to buy a new one too. Watched a VHS for the first time in a long time, last night. I've gotten spoiled!)

[handyguy]

"But will it last as long and have a better build....Me thinks not."

If you use the power saving feature they should last a long time.

[samijubal]

Some have power save and some don't.

[heman28]

Hey if you need another one I have a Panasonic t2020 wich is the same thing as yours that i would like to get rid of if your interested. Private messaage me if you want. I have not used it a whole lot and it still works good with the right media. Let me know.
Eric