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Retset

9:18 AM on 4 May, 2010

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This is the machine I have been waiting for! Just about everything else in the house is Panasonic and I am impressed with their quality and it is nice when the AV kit can all be operated from one remote.

£700 is a bit of a stinger. I will wait a few weeks and hope it pops up for about £600.

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RichardPenhale

10:23 AM on 4 May, 2010

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Great review, certainly looks an impressive piece of kit, not sure you'll manage to persuade Andy to invest though at that price Danny!

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John McLean

12:21 PM on 4 May, 2010

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This looks pretty sweet, save the price tag and the fact that I have no need to burn anything to Blu-ray. Wake me up when they release a box minus the Blu-ray player/recorder and with a sub-£500 price tag!

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timple

1:52 PM on 4 May, 2010

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Can it show iplayer a la Freesat boxes?

if so can you save iplayer programs on the hard drive?

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AJ

2:18 PM on 4 May, 2010

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Way too expensive. No need to write to Blu-Ray or DVD.

Looking forward to the Humax FreeviewHD review.

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Andy 10

2:25 PM on 4 May, 2010

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A comment about reviews like this in general. Although you usually (but not always) comment on the quality of EPGs/on-screen menus (graphic style, readability, usability, speed, flashiness, etc) I think it would also be worth showing screen-grabs of them. This is the part of the system that most people will interface with the most often. And if you are making video reviews I think that video cuts showing interaction with these menus would be even better.

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jopey

2:55 PM on 4 May, 2010

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The device would be better served by removing the blu-ray recorder and putting in a 2TB hard drive. Who backs up programs to disc in this day and age? With the cost of blank blu-ray media it's cheaper to buy the boxset.

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AJ

4:08 PM on 4 May, 2010

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£700 and you get a 250Gb hard drive. Is that a typo or a sad joke? That's terrible. Totally agree with @jopey in regards to "who backs up programmes to Blu-Ray" and the price of blanks.

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Premfab

6:28 PM on 4 May, 2010

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I'm not questioning the Panasonic's quality - I'm sure it's great.

The price is nonsense. This player's price is greater than the sum of it's parts and it will be out of date in months if not weeks.

Personally, I'm going to save my cash and buy seperates. That way, when I need to upgrade, it can be done gradually.

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Enigma

6:52 PM on 4 May, 2010

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Obviously the folks who are responsible for this are not paying any attention to what their colleagues are doing as with Panasonic Viera TX-P42G20B 42in Plasma TV.

The HDD size (agreed 1-2TB is not too much to ask) is not the only short coming: Why not also Freesat tuner albeit in place of a second Freeview one. After all more and more tv's (as AV manufacturers catch some common sense flu from Pani)are being sold with Freeview HD and soon no doubt Freesat also!! After all the old VCRs didn't have two tuners.

£700 is too much even with a 0.5-1TB HDD - not in this day an age. £500 tops Pani if you a listening and feel free to give us a measly 500GB HDD!! or you can live up to your reputation and fit a 1TBHDD.

As for all this DMR nonsense, why? The VCR didn't destroy the media industry. The DMR on DVDs didn't work – why then all those ads at the start of the DVD about copyright theft blah, blah... yawn. The money saved on not implementing DMR is probably more than compensates.

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Orinj

8:32 PM on 4 May, 2010

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@Retset > Agreed, I've been waiting for one of these but alas won't be getting Freeview HD for another year at least so in no rush to spend £700 on it.

Those who think that they have no need to copy programs to Blu-Ray are missing the point. Just like DVD/HDD recorders, few people copy programs to discs but rather it's the convenience of having a dedicated Blu-Ray player and a HDD recorder in one unit that appeals to me.

It may finally be time to allow something other than my PS3 to play Blu-Ray discs without a noisy fan getting in the way during the summer months.

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TechnicPuppet

10:11 PM on 4 May, 2010

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10 out of 10 for features on a £600 box that can't stream or even play MKV files.

TrustedReviews should really do an in depth investigation as to why not one company will put out a box that plays blu rays, lets you view or record sky/virgin/freeview/freesat depending on optional tuners, will stream MKV 1080p high bitstream files for a NAS and has access to legal internet stream like iplayer and 4od.

Now that, would be worth £600. All of the above can be done with various workarounds on an HTPC, why is everything so hard.

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Retset

10:17 PM on 4 May, 2010

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Since I posted first, I have been interested to read the later comments.

I do agree £700 is too much and 250GB is too little but Panasonic kit is a always a big lure for me! The fact that technophobic wife can operate it on one remote means I can more easily get permission to buy ;)

I want the twin HD freeview tuners (like the reviewers, I live in the SW and the service is live) mainly. The Blu-Ray and networking features are no draw and there is no iplayer so I will try to curb my enthusiasm till a poorer relation appears in the range!

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Enigma

11:33 PM on 4 May, 2010

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Pani seems to be treating the DB/HDD recorders as set top boxes given that it has separate Freesat and Freeview-HD versions? Then again they must know that their Customers think alike, even though their Pani tvs have a Freesat and a Freeview HD tuners. I would have thought the latter made more sense since Freesat is available NOW across the country while one will be prepared for Freeview HD when it arrives.

CORRECTION: DMR in my previous post should have been D(igital) R(ights) M(anagement) for the odd unforgiving reader!

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Enigma

12:26 AM on 5 May, 2010

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I must say I bought my DMR-EX87 on the basis of the TR review and well done TR. The SD-LP picture quality makes normal play recording unnecessary. In fact LP recordings are only affected when the original transmission is heavily compressed and then only in FF mode and not in play mode. EXCELLENT 10/10.

Incidentally Freeview-HD is getting extra advertising by Sony and I think PC World (??) with a trade in for your old CTR tv! So hurry to the charity shops or local skip. :-) Only problems is the bureaucratins who came up with the silly time table for the digital switch over and the Beebs Governors (wake up e-mails to: trust.enquiries@bbc.co.uk or https://consultations.external.bbc.co.uk/departments/bbc/bbc-strategy-review/consultation/consult_view )

@Retset I just Googled and found Cheapelectricals doing it for £622 (inc of VAT & carriage + FREE 3 Blu-ray Films ends July 31st + Installation £70 {May not be required for existing Sky customers}???). I thinks £600 is possible with nego....

http://www.cheapelectricals.co.uk/acatalog/Panasonic_DMRBW780__250gb_HDD_DLNA_Blu-ray_recorder_FreeviewHD_jukebox_facility-__dmr-bw780_ebk_.html

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jopey

12:54 AM on 5 May, 2010

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Note to technology companies. We want 1 box under our TV that is small, silent (no moving fan parts) and consumes very very little power (compared to a media centre PC).

- Twin tuner Freeview HD or Freesat HD or one of each (which can both be used at the same time)

- Blu-ray (+ blu-ray 3D support) with multi-region for both blu and DVD

- DNLA, simple networking and mapped network drives, NAS etc etc

- Youtube, iplayer, background RSS feed downloading/subscribing (if my phone can do it.!) + project Canvas if that ever happens.

- 1080p MKV/avi/WMV/MP4/AVCHD with all the audio bells and whistles.. and subtitle support.

- bus powered USB ports (at least 1 at the back for wireless dongle - £10 optional extra) with copy/paste back and forth from HDD

- 1-2TB HDD and a simple way to get it out or upgrade it (backup/clone over USB)

- HDMI 1.4 (for 3D) with network cable support.

For £100 lol... sold!

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Enigma

8:06 AM on 5 May, 2010

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I second that @jopey.

It is going to happen but not for another 5-10 years. That's when BD will be being replaced and 100TB are the norm!!! ;-)

Better still why not intergrate it all into the tvs? No boxes or cables necessary.

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AJ

8:48 AM on 5 May, 2010

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I'm a little less demanding that @jopey and hoping that the un and coming Humax review will get most of the way there. I'd like :-

- Twin HD Freeview Tuners so that I can record 2 channels

- 1TB (min) hard drive (like I've had in my SkyHD box for ages)

- Ability to play iPlayer

- Ability to play other services like 4oD, etc

- Multi-Region DVD player built in would be nice, but not necessary.

- No DVD Recording

- No Blu-Ray recording

- No Blu-Ray player

- Not worried about HDMI versions as I'm not interested in 3d

- Quiet

- Stylish

- Doesn't take ages to turn on and load the EPG / Library (Humax I hope you don't fail here again)

- Price around £300

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John McLean

11:13 AM on 5 May, 2010

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I'm with AJ, but drop the DVD player. I want to be able to record 2 channels and watch a third recording at the same time. I want the box to cache the EPG and periodically update it even when in standby. I don't need any optical drive, WiFi or analogue outputs - the only sockets on the back should be an HDMI 1.3/1.4, a power input and an RJ-45 gigabit ethernet port. The box should be network aware with cheap (<£100) extenders (with available which can use the tuners and access and schedule recordings on ths 'master' box and output them in HD over HDMI. For large installations it should be possible to have multiple 'master' boxes which cooperate seamlessly to offer a single large storage pool and multiple tuners.

That would be pimp.

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PS3½

11:30 AM on 5 May, 2010

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As one of the(seemingly)few people who archive material, the new extended play mode sounds interesting. I wonder if they could offer this mode as a firmware upgrade to their existing Freesat recorders?

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jopey

2:06 PM on 5 May, 2010

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@AJ HDMI1.4 is good because it has an optional ethernet channel. So if you have a TV, receiver, future game console etc etc with the ethernet over HDMI as well, then you only need to feed the internet to one device and then it's automatically routed to everything else.

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AJ

3:50 PM on 5 May, 2010

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@jopey. Sounds interesting if all devices use it, however I suspect some will and some won't, making it pointless.

As all game consoles have wireless built in anyway and all £2k TV's certainly should too, it's redundant anyway.

So I'm really not worried about HDMI 1.4. Just give me wireless N please. Job done.

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alan1302

10:30 PM on 7 May, 2010

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@AJ - not all consoles have wireless built in - the Xbox 360 still doesn't

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achtungmark

8:36 PM on 12 May, 2010

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all this sounds ok, but at around 700 it's a bit too pricey, one thing however i would have liked to have seen would have been the ability to compress HD content down sufficiently to burn onto a dvd, or am i just asking too much? by the way, does anyone know of anything else that will record and burn HD content that is soon to be released? am finding it quite frustrating at the moment at the sheer lack of freeview HD PVRs that also burn HD content.

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Mike B

4:34 PM on 24 May, 2010

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I have taken the plunge and pre-ordered from the Panasonic Shop for £565. (Special deal for Corporate Perks users so 25% off the listed price.) Still expensive but more like a realistic price! Now how long will I have to wait for it to be released? Most sites seem to suggest the end of June!

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Powerful

12:36 AM on 25 May, 2010

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Has anyone seen HD compressed? Is it better that SD? What's the audio like compressed? Does it retain Dolby Digital?

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Pegasus

12:52 PM on 28 October, 2010

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An impressive piece of equipment - It's currently (Oct 2010) available at about £481.99, so still expensive. But what a pity the EPG Design is so dated, and completely ruined by the addition of advertisments. This can only drive buyers away in droves.

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MaxD

8:24 PM on 4 November, 2010

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Hi,

I was wondering if you can help with this as I am thinking of buying one of these boxes. I need to know a couple of things if possible:

1. How long does it take to convert an HD recording from the hard disc and transfer it to a normal DVD so it can be viewed on other DVD players?

2. Can this recorder transfer a recording to an external hard drive via USB and viewed on other Televisions with a USB input?

Before I buy this recorder I need to know if the above can be done as we will be viewing the recordings on other TV’s.

Thanks in advance!

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Mike B

9:49 AM on 30 December, 2010

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The biggest problem with this device (apart from the high price) is the slow and clunky operating system. All I get is ear ache from my wife as to how slow it is in operation by comparison to the Humax PVR! I have to agree it takes ages to boot (even if set to higher power standby for quick start-up) then you press the guide button and wait..... until the guide appears that does not even show you a preview of the selected channel like most PVRs can do and insists on wasting space with the Guide plus adverts (almost always for the radio times)!

You then decide to go from live Tv to the library of recordings, blank screen ....wait.... eventually you see the list of recordings. On the Humax you can either see a quick list of recorded programs popped up over the TV picture or a full list almost instantly! Then pop in a blu-ray and ... well you guessed... wait again!

Come on Panasonic what has happened to you? Your products used to be slick in operation and market leading, not any more. Next year i will be thinking of replacing my TV and on your current form I will not be looking at your range unless things improve dramatically on the user interface front.

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ColinD

2:31 PM on 1 February, 2011

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I have recently bought one (at £450-ish) and agree with everything Mike B has said. It is very clunky and slow.

I tried to get it play some of my video clips on each of a USB memory, SD card and DVD in common formats such as .avi,.wmv, .mpg and .mpeg, and it failed to work with any of them. Truly very disappointing, but a very close read of the poor manual suggests that it will only play DivX and ARCHD files.

You can, apparently, copy the files I mentioned to HDD and it will then translate and play them, but that would be very tedious!

However, some good points - you can record programs up to 30 days ahead, and manually you can set the start/finish times in 15 and 1 minute steps (not the 15m only as per the manual).

I bought this item because I thought that the Blu-ray recorder will make it as future-proof as is possible in these fast-moving times, but I am having some doubts that I made the right decision and should have, perhaps, have waited until other similar items are around.

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The DMR-BW780 comes very close to our idea of the perfect recorder – a twin-tuner Freeview HD deck with Blu-ray recording and playback, backed up by a simply staggering array of other features. In terms of picture quality, ease of use and functionality it’s second to none, and a few operational niggles don’t rain on the parade. Its price tag is the only sticking point – you’ll need fairly deep pockets if you want to own one of these, which ironically puts it beyond the reach of the mass audience Freeview HD is aiming to attract. But that doesn’t alter the fact that in its own right, the DMR-BW780 is a phenomenal piece of kit. Read full review

Overall

9/10

User Rating

3/10

By Danny Phillips
Reviewed 04 May 2010
Updated 26 May 2012

Price as reviewed

£454.00

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