Replacing Burner in a Panny DMR-E20

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

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!)

"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.

Some have power save and some don't.

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