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 enlarge | Brand: Panasonic
Category: CE
Buy New: $209.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  135 reviews
Color: Silver
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries: 2
Batteries Included: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 6
Dimensions (in): 10 x 17 x 2
MPN: DMR-ES15S
Model: DMR-ES15S
UPC: 037988253708
EAN: 0037988253708
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A great DVD recorder. October 16, 2006
24 out of 25 found this review helpful
The Panasonic DMRES-15 is a great machine. It records to all formats including DVD-R, +R, RAM, as well as dual layer. Dual layer recording is important because compared to the standard dvd disc at 4.7GB, the dual layer disc can record up to 8.5 GB per disc. In DVD-R dual layer format you can record up to 7.5 hours on each layer or about 15 hours on 1 disc. Obviously the quality of that much recorded data is not great, but in standard SP mode you can record 1 hour and 54 minutes on each layer or nearly 4 hours per disc with the quality of the picture simply outstanding. You can create title names for each disc and for each individual program that you choose to record and you can also create thumbnail/pictures for each program title, taken from anywhere in the recording. It is very easy to hook up and get going, and the user manual is straightforward particularly if you have used a Panasonic DVD recorder previously. The ability to convert home movies/camcorder tape to dvd, saves a lot of space and makes accessibility of the recordings much easier as well. I highly recommend this machine.
Simple and easy operation with excellent results. June 11, 2007
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
I purchased this item a couple months ago and, after recording a number of programs off of TIVO, live television, and my video camera, am delighted to report that it works very well. Unlike quite a few recorders out there, the Panasonic ES series seems to be the most reliable device for recording discs that can be played on other DVD players, portables, and computers.
The quality of recordings ranges from excellent (1 and 2 hour), good (4 hour), to usable but not the greatest equivalence of a VHS SP recording (6/8 hour). Startup menu features make it simple to create chapters and titles although this feature is nowhere near customizable in the way most DVD author software allows on a PC/Mac. The ability to write to most media types and brands of media is also very nice. Lastly, having a front input bank makes it easy to connect a digital or video camera but keep in mind that this is not an editing deck so laying out a timeline, cuts, or audio tracks isn't an option.
Great value, good build quality, and high compatibility makes this a five-star product.
THE choice, trust me - I've spent the time for you! July 20, 2007
20 out of 22 found this review helpful
I spent hours and hours researching DVD recorders, reading scores (if not hundreds) of reviews, which typically contradicted each other, even on such matters as technical specifications and capabilities which one should expect to be a matter of fact and not subject to dispute, or repeated misrepresentation. I started by scouring Amazon and other sites for reviews, stumbled upon a comparison chart at one review site, built an Excel spreadsheet (sorry, I'm a data geek) from that, expanded it to include more models (rows) and variables (columns) than I'll admit, and am confident that, not only given my specific needs but given the various feature sets and price points, that the Panasonic ES15S is a superior choice both functionally and financially.
I needed a DVD recorder for two primary uses: archiving children's shows from a PVR (aka DVR, the cable/satellite box with a hard drive that allows you to record shows - Tivo is one brand, I have DishTV), and archiving Mini-DV tapes of family movies from a camcorder (both for storage and possibly for later editing on a PC). I've accomplished both so far, within hours of opening the box, with cheap DVDs and no problems with formats or other players (all contrary to other reviews here).
I've successfully recorded to DVD-RAM, -R, -RW, +R, and +RW, using three different brands, and been able to play all of them on two other players - a Sony (which I wont recommend) and a Phillips DVP642 (which is a godsend, that should be in every home, and so cheap you could put one in every room!)
If you have the money to spend (perhaps 2-3 times as much), there *are* DVD Recorders within reach now that include a hard drive (look for 120GB or more at this writing) that will allow pre-burn editing, so that the edits you make will appear on other DVD players. (That's not necessarily the case with many recorders with editing features whose results may or may not appear on other machines. Note, however, that I haven't tried using this machine's editing features yet, so am unsure whether they will translate elsewhere - but I'm confident given my scenario, as noted above, that I'll have no problems.)
And if you need HDMI (or otherwise digital) input to your TV, this isn't quite right for you. (For either of those needs, I would have gone with the Toshiba R600, whose only knocks are the kind of nonsense I see about this player and which I know from experience may be garbage). But I dont have HD, dont need upconverting for either of our TVs, and wanted the option to check out use of a tuner and VCR-like scheduled recording, which the Toshiba doesn't offer. (The tunerless nature of the R400 and R600 are likely a huge advantage given vast complaints about built-in tuners on DVD recorders. But the Panasonic Tuner is optional, upon initial startup or reset to factory settings, and is therefore completely avoidable.)
But if, like me, you're not yet to HD, and you mostly want to archive shows (beyond your PVR's capacity, or for use on other players such as in the car on or a laptop) or edit using a computer (which will more functional and user-friendly than any remote-control-driven editing process anyway), THIS is the one you want. You can stop reading now. Click "buy" and go have a glass of wine. :)
Clarification of the recording features April 9, 2007
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
I am very happy with this recorder, which I bought for $120, free shipping and no tax. But I found there to be much confusion about its features and abilities when I was researching this purchase, so let me clear a few things up.
Basically, if you use DVD-RAM discs, this recorder can do just about anything you'd want to do with a DVD! You can divide the titles, set your own chapter breaks, delete chapters of your choosing (such as commercials), choose the frame you want to represent each chapter in the menu, edit the titles, edit the disk title, and re-record on the same disc 100,000 times. The HUGE minus is that the DVD-RAM format is only reported to work in 5% of the recorders. Based on my research, I would assume that unless the DVD player is a Panasonic, then you should assume that DVD-RAM will not work. I've tested the DVD-RAM disc in a Zenith DVD player, a Yamaha DVD player, a Magnavox DVD player, a Sony Playstation, a Dell laptop computer, and an HP laptop computer. The DVD-RAM format worked in none of these.
After that, I've burned a dozen or so DVD discs on DVD-R discs. These discs are supposed to have the broadest compatibility and in my research they worked in ALL of the previously mentioned players and PCs. However, you MUST "finalize" the disc, which disables all future edits to the disc while enabling it to be played on other players. I suspect reviewers that have reported poor compatibility have skipped this step. This feature is refered to in the manual, but it was still hard to find. The reviewers that say the documentation is poor are absolutely correct. Everything is in there, but even after you read it, it can be hard to find the features in the manual.
The minus to the DVD-R discs is that you can only select the icon that will represent each title, set the text of each title, and set the text of the disc title. You CANNOT set your own chapter breaks or delete specific chapters. This is the key feature to being able to edit out commercials. You can also only delete whole titles, and the disc space is not recovered even though the title is deleted. With DVD-R, each instance of pressing the record button followed by a stop is recorded as a separate "title" with it's own entry on the DVD menu. When the disc is finalized, chapters are automatically inserted about every five minutes, but there is no "chapter menu" created on the finalized disc.
In short, the DVD-RAM discs give amazing flexibility, but they are more expensive and the compatibility is nearly nill. The DVD-R discs are broadly compatible, but with limited editing features. According to the guidebook, using a rewritable disc -RW or +RW only allow you to delete and recover the space if the LAST title is deleted, otherwise they are identical to -R. Only -RAM discs have the extensive features.
Overall, I can work with these issues. I have a Dish Network DVR that holds my initial recordings. I most often am wanting to save my son's programs to DVD to free up space on the DVR and allow him to watch his favorite television shows in the car. To do this, I insert a blank disc and select if I want it to hold 1, 2, 4, or 8 hours of programming (I usually use 2, and haven't really compared the resolution of the various time settings). I then select play on the Dish Network DVR and simultaneously press record on the DVD recorder. Since his shows are usually 30 minutes, I utilized a handy feature of the DVD recorder, by subsequently pressing the record, the recorder will automatically turn off after 30, 60, 90, etc. minutes. Thus I don't have to babysit the recorder to turn it off at the right time. After I record four 30 minute shows on a DVD-R set to 2 hours of recording time, I then pick which frame I want displayed as the icon for each episode and type in the titles of each episode. I then Finalize the disk and I now have a disc that works in all our DVD players that starts with a menu of four television shows which are divided with 5 minute chapters.
I have NOT tried to direct to Mini-DVD link (firewire) but will soon. I also have NOT tried the online TV Guide recording feature. But it appears that with DVD-RAM discs this recorder might work much like a DVR. Note that the recorder comes with one DVD-RAM disc, so you can do your own compatibility tests without buying and -RAM discs.
This is ALLOT of recorder for $120. But if you really want to edit out commericials and store in a compatible format, you probably need to shop for a recorder with an integrated hard-drive that will cost 3-5 times as much money.
Good luck on your purchase.
 Wide Screen Recording November 5, 2006
18 out of 31 found this review helpful
There is one, but serious flaw in this DVD recorder which is not spelled out very well in the Instruction Manual. If you want to record widescreen material and have it play back in widescreen format, you must use a DVD-RAM disk. Although it will record using DVD-R and other formats, if you use them to record a widescreen image, it will pay back in a squished full screen image. I think this should have been noted prominently in the instruction material.
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