Thanks, TT. I used the instructions in those AVS threads as guides and managed
to get the tray back in place. I think it's all working fine now, but I am seriously
considering getting a different DVD recorder as I can't handle the stress!

Well, I'm back, talkietime.

I went to the AVS Forum and went through your step-by-step procedure for
cleaning the spindle/lens because my Panasonic EZ47 was giving me grief
constantly. All well and good.

Except I didn't move that roller to the far left position before reassembly and
it did something whacky to my disc tray and now I have to put the darn
thing back in. I have printed the photos showing how it should be aligned
and when I get home I will try to do this. I got so frustrated trying to do
it last night I gave myself a sick, migraine headache.

What I'm worried about is will I have to take the front panel off to do this?
Your instructions regarding removing the panel sounded even more
delicate and I'm afraid of screwing the whole thing up. If I have to I have
to, but I am writing to clarify if it's a must to remove the panel.

The other question is, if I've totally ruined the recorder is it better just
to get another one or to send it in for service? The service costs just
seem so out of this world, especially when you factor in shipping.

I would have replied at the AVS Forum but the thread said only "serious
techies" should do so. That definitely is not me! I'm seriously in over my head.

MissG

Thanks, talkietime, but I mistyped!

The DVDs are -R, not +R.

Primosprimos,

Your local Craig’s List is the place to offer such a quantity of DVD+R media.

Perhaps it’s time to offer some observations as to the current state of blank recording media.

I used a 100 disc spindle of good quality TDK DVD+R discs with my Panasonics back in late 2005/early 2006. I noticed that my Panasonics were not really very friendly toward this format so I switched back to DVD-R discs, the original and most compatible home-recording format.

Toshiba was a DVD-R holdout. I was surprised to observe, in the summer or fall of 2007, a Toshiba DVD recorder that was promoted as supporting DVD+R media. Perhaps that Toshiba was manufactured by Funai after Toshiba stopped making its own DVD recorders. Funai manufactured DVD recorders (Philips, Magnavox, Sylvania, Toshiba, Emerson, Philco, Symphonic, etc.) were somewhat split for a time as to disc formats--some of the machines required “+” media and could not accept “-” media while other machines required “-” media and could not accept “+” media. Some recent Funai manufactured machines accept either format. There are hardware/software design, manufacture, and licensing/royalty factors at work here among these several “Funai brands.”

It wasn't until 25 January 2008 that the DVD Forum, a consortium of manufacturers, first recognized the “+” format as an "official DVD format." The “+” format first appeared in the marketplace sometime in 2004.

In the last two years most of the retail "name brand" DVD media has suffered quality control problems. This came about as many manufacturers cut costs to meet low price competition. Major brand “in house” media production has largely ceased as production was farmed out to contractors that produced inferior 16X formulations designed to meet “price points.”

In reality 16X recording is not used in stand alone DVD recorders as real-time recording is performed at 1X. Even those hard drive machines capable of "high speed" dubbing do not use the 16X speed. The fastest high-speed dubbing in current machines is found in the Magnavox 2160 equipped with an 8X DVD Drive. My 2160 is twice as fast at high speed dubs as my Magnavox 2080 and Philips 3575 and 3576 models that have 4X DVD Drives.

Studies cited at the AVS Forum show that that current 16X media is more stressful for a laser assembly to burn than high quality 8X media.

There are still a few retail brands that have some product lines of good quality. Unfortunately most name brand makers mix their good media with their inferior media so it takes real detective work and some luck to find quality media remaining on retail shelves. These are usually the hard to find older 8X discs and some of the initial production of 16X media from Maxell, Verbatim, TDK and Sony. The uninformed continue to buy Memorex because it's cheap to purchase but much more expensive than other brands when figuring the initial and long-term failure rate of this "landfill" material. At AVS there are detailed discussions of disc identification codes, lot numbers, countries of origin, UPC variations, etc.

For my archival work I use DVD-R media of the best quality. Taiyo Yuden is the last producer of high quality media. It’s easy to go online to purchase Taiyo Yuden Premium Line 8X DVD-R media. Scroll down for larger quantities:

http://www.supermediastore.com/taiyo-yuden-silver-thermal-8x-dvd-r-media-100-pack.html

Some months back I switched to near-exclusive use of Taiyo Yuden Premium Line 8X DVD-R media for my Panasonic, Magnavox and Philips DVD recorders. The first box of 600 TY discs has half a dozen discs left. I currently have two full boxes (1,200 discs) of these Taiyo Yuden discs on hand. Some sellers offer Taiyo Yuden “Value Line” media that save a few pennies per disc. While these are probably superior to brands found in retail stores the “Value Line” discs are from lots that tested out below Taiyo Yuden’s high performance standards. “Value Line” discs should be regarded as “seconds.”

Last year I purchased a 100 disc spindle of Sony 16X DVD+R media for specialized use with computer DVD burners. I haven't yet opened that spindle. Perhaps I'll use that DVD+R spindle for data storage. Older computer DVD burners, those manufactured before 2006 or so, may not be compatible with DVD+R media. As dubbing speeds increase so do instances of errors/failures. If burning copies of DVDs be sure to select a dubbing speed well below the 16X range.

If using DVD+R media when burning a DVD for someone else be sure to check to determine if their DVD player is compatible with DVD+R media. If a DVD player exhibits playback problems with DVD+R media it may not have been designed to support that format. Other playback problems arise with greasy or soiled discs or use of discs of inferior quality.

Very wide-screen TV commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFiFVsEFTy4

While I am familiar with the Philips 3575/3576 and Magnavox 2080/2160 HDD/DVD recorders designed by Philips and manufactured by Funai, I am not familiar with other recent Funai-manufactured products including Toshiba.

Here is one AVS thread discussing the Toshiba DR560:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1084394

Perhaps there are other discussions of this product found through this front page:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=106

For more results you may want to adjust search criteria (at the bottom of that page) to go back more than one month.

Primosprimos,

The EZ series Panasonics have had a high rate of customer returns as few buyers tolerate the design flaws and bugs. The EZ series was introduced in 2007. Once one has used some of the outstanding ES series Panasonics one has to lower their minimum performance expectations when using EZ series Panasonics. The EZ series Panasonics are able to produce DVD recordings of great picture quality--when the machine actually functions. With my five EZ series Panasonics I use various workarounds to maintain functionality. The EZ series bugs and design flaws have generated much discussion on the AVS Forum. I'm planning to retire two of my EZ series machines in the near future, to be replaced by one well-tested Magnavox HDD/DVD recorder of about the same vintage.

The best Panasonics were produced in 2005 and 2006. The DMR-ES45V and DMR-ES46V are, like your DMR-ES35V, 2006 models. The DMR-ES30V is a 2005 model. Since most owners find these to be reliable "workhorses" most of these models have had heavy use.

The VCR you access on channel 4 has that channel selected as its "output channel." There will probably be a Channel 3/4 output channel switch on the rear panel.

Some devices with HD or SD digital tuners will output only SD digital or analog signals. DVD recorders with VHS sections will not actually record digital signals to the VHS section. The DVD section will record analog and digital signals. The VHS section on current products is a cheap throw-away device, convenient for playing videotapes, not particularly suitable for making good quality recordings.

The suggestions I've provided are for optimized picture quality. Except for the initial connection to cable/satellite converters/tuners, the threaded coax RF connection does not provide the best picture quality. Other outputs, HDMI, component, S-Video and composite (in that order) provide better picture quality. If your TV has these inputs (and you use them) you will see picture quality improvements over that provided by the threaded coax RF connection. These are the basics.

On the AVS Forum I leave connectivity descriptions and details to others. I've often posted AVS Forum links at TCM (and a couple of other message boards) for the convenience of those interested in fuller, more detailed discussions.

When AVS Forum DVD Recorder sub-forum posters mention their favorite "channels," TCM is mentioned frequently.

On the AVS Forum I am known as "DigaDo." "Diga" is the name used by Panasonic for their entire line of DVD recorders. I participate in Panasonic, Philips and Magnavox threads and a few topical threads; and occasionally the CECB, HDTV, and local Comcast and OTA sub-forums.

Primosprimos,

I hope you kept your DMR-ES35V. That and three other Panasonic ES series machines (DMR-ES45V, DMR-ES46V and DMR-ES30V) are the ones to use in a dubbing/copying project.

I own five Panasonic EZ series DVD recorders but I did not purchase EZ series combo recorders as these were stripped of the FUNCTIONS menu-initiated dubbing/copying features I regard as essential for copying videotaped recordings to DVD.

Are you attempting to copy a videotape from the built-in VHS mechanism on your EZ48/485? In that case you are limited to the front panel control where you will lose control of the process and you will not have seamless results.

If you must use an EZ48/485 to copy videotapes attach a VCR to an input (IN 1 or IN 2) and copy videotapes from that input. That method will allow you more control of the process, including use of the Flexible Recording feature.

The slow response to the EZ48/485 remote--I assume you refer to channel changing--comes from the integration of digital and analog channels in the same tuning sequence. First, you select the channel, then the digital tuner has to acquire the digital signal and after that the digital signal needs to be displayed. That's just part of the problem with integration of analog and digital tuning in the same sequence. Other brands (Philips/Magnavox) have two tuning sequences, one digital and the other analog selected by the DTV/TV button. Tuning is faster when the tuning sequences are separate.

My December 10/11 post (responding to TrissyCat) includes a lengthy description of connectivity, some of which is relevant to your situation. If your TV is set to channel 3 for its primary signal reception, then does it receive its primary signal source directly through a cable/satellite box or the EZ48/485 RF output? Since the EZ48/485 has a modulated RF output if that output provides the TV with its primary signal the TV would then be enslaved to the EZ48/485, not the best option. If you have a satellite/cable box it is better to have that connected to the primary TV input and a secondary satellite/cable box output feed an EZ48/485 input with an EZ48/485 output feeding another TV input (if those options are available). In that situation the TV remote would be used to select among the TV inputs. Most analog-tuner TVs, at a minimum, have RF and composite (yellow, white/red) inputs. Most recent digital-tuner TVs have multiple composite (yellow) inputs, a component input (red/blue/green) and S-Video input (round with four pins) all of which require use of the white/red audio connections. Recent HDTVs also have HDMI input(s) that carry video and audio signals. See the December post for more detail.

The AVS Forum thread dedicated to the DMR-EZ48/485 is found here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1014536

Wajo has provided some useful diagrams in this post from his Philips/Magnavox sticky thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12298409&postcount=10

Wajo often suggests placing a Philips/Magnavox HDD/DVD recorder on the coax ahead of the satellite/cable box. That is fine for "pass through" recorders that DO NOT MODULATE THE RF OUTPUT. This connectivity arrangement is not practicable with a combo recorder, like the EZ48/485, that MODULATES the RF output. Modulated/Unmodulated RF outputs are described in more detail in my December 2 post in this "Gremlin" thread.

The generality of AVS Forum DVD recorder discussions may be found here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=106

This message was revised for clarity by TalkieTime