Panasonic TV and DVD recorder

TomsMom

We're thinking of the following

Panasonic 32" TV TX32LMD70 with built in Freeview. We want good quality picture and sound and wonder if this model will meet our expectations.

Also thinking of

Panasonic DMREX77 DVD recorder with 160GB hard drive and Freeview. Says it has a digital tuner but does not receive analogue TV reception. Any comments please.

consumermonkey

Hiya, Last week bought a panasonic plasma 37" screen which came with a dvd recorder. Both have an analogue AND a freeview decoder built in. Not sure if the hard drive recorders come with analogue, however I would imagine it is a lot more difficult to programe the HDD to record off analogue than freeview, with the absence of an on-board tv guide.

I must admit I was originally looking for the 32" LCD's in the panasonic shop, but although the picture quality of even the cheapest one in the shop was very watchable, they had the better (and pricier) models next to it and it really did show up the difference. My eyes glazed over and I started swooning over the better models, until I realised that the LCD I was going to get was the same price as the 37" plasma. Needless to say, if I was going to pay a lot of money for a new TV (a lot more than the models you can get in wollies or tesco) I may as well go for the bigger screen. Also IMHO the plasma did have the better picture anyway.

If you are going for both panasonic's, you will find they are able to talk to each other and make setting up easier. Sound is as always faultless.

TomsMom

Thanks Consumermonkey. With regards to the DVD recorder, we were wondering how to record off analogue if it only has the digital tuner. I think we'll go into the little local shop and pick the brains of the chap in there. I've printed off the internet prices so maybe we can get him down to near to that if he can get hold of the one we want.

TV may have to wait a while. It would be nice to have one but there's really nothing wrong with the old chunky one so we ought to wait until it conks out! 32" is the right size for our room, anything larger would be overpowering. Great to hear that the sound quality is as good as we'd hoped.

Thanks for your comments.

consumermonkey

Ah, sorry, re-reading I forgot about the dvd recorder bit. The dvd recorder that came with the TV does have an analogue tuner, but it is a bit hard to find in the menus. I would imagine yours would not be any different.

It would be best to double check of course. I have recently found that Panasonic DVD PLAYERS will play the divx format, but the DVD RECORDERS will not. Not sure why.

rwgibson98

A Handy Hint for anyone in this sort of situation (i.e. technical question not answered by the glossy brochure).

• Go to the manufacturer's website, in this case panasonic.co.uk
• Download the manual from the support section
• Read it to your heart's content
• Cost to you: £0.00

The manual for the DMR-EX77 is 100 pages long. I see no mention of an analogue tuner, nor is there a "How To" section on how to store analogue channels in the tuner's memory.

I have an older Panasonic DVD-Recorder, which stores the DVB-T channels in the usual sequence (e.g. 1=BBC1, 80=BBC News 24), but it also stores the analogue channels in the 900 range (e.g. 901=BBC1 analogue, 905=five analogue, 906=Channel M analogue). Do I ever watch those in preference to the digital channels? Never.

If you really really really want to record analogue channels on this device, you could try hooking up an old VCR to one of the scart inputs and doing it that way.

But you will find using the Freeview EPG so much easier than doing it manually ("Record Coronation Street", rather than "Start recording channel 903 at 19:29 and stop at 20:01").

And as you already know, this model has a hard disk as well as a DVD-Recorder, so you don't need to worry about finding blank discs.

Hope that helps.
Hope that helps.

TomsMom

rwgibson98 wrote: »

If you really really really want to record analogue channels on this device, you could try hooking up an old VCR to one of the scart inputs and doing it that way.

But you will find using the Freeview EPG so much easier than doing it manually ("Record Coronation Street", rather than "Start recording channel 903 at 19:29 and stop at 20:01").

Thanks rwgibson, very helpful.

The reason we may want to record from analogue channels (while they are still available) is because Freeview frequently locks up. Don't know if that is typical or because of where we live, in north Wales where there's lot of mountains, and we even get extremely poor reception (i.e. masses of "snow" and just sound) some days on some analogue channels. We have Freesat so just covering every angle really.

rwgibson98

I don't live in North Wales, but I understand that the Freeview reception isn't the best. [Presumably you've already checked your postcode against one of the online signal checking websites, and/or had your aerial checked out.] One of the drawbacks of living in such a beautiful part of the country!

According to:
http://www.ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107051071
your DTT signal should be boosted after the analogue shutdown, though if you've got Freesat then you'll have a decent picture on the main basic channels already.

Something you could look for is the feature on some DVD players to record only when there's a signal being sent to it. Example: you set a reminder on your Freesat box to come on for Coronation Street. You set your DVD recorder to record the AV1 input (scart) socket. Then you go out. At 19:30, Coronation Street starts, your Freesat box turns itself on to channel 103, and outputs the picture down the scart cable. The recording automatically starts. I can't remember what this feature is called, nor whether the Panasonic models offer it, but you might find it useful.

Good luck