One Small Step For Pan(asonic) Published on August 21, 2007 Panasonic DMR-EZ27 DVD Recorder with Built-in ATSC Tuner SRP: $249.99
One Small Step For Pan(asonic) Panasonic's DMR-EZ27 DVD Recorder is their first to feature a digital (ATSC) tuner. Intro Normally I wouldn't give a DVD recorder without a built-in hard-drive a second look. Once you've experienced the simplicity of hard drive video recording and editing, it's hard to go back to recording on capacity-challenged removable media. But then I heard Panasonic was releasing a DVD recorder with a built-in digital (ATSC) tuner, as well as 1080p upconversion via HDMI and I decided it was time to give non-hard-drive based DVD recorders another chance.
The DMR-EZ27 DVD player/recorder is in the middle of Panasonic's new line-up, ringing in at $249.99 MSRP. It features HDMI upconversion of DVDs and internal broadcasts up to 720p, 1080i or even 1080p resolution. If you're wondering why they'd include a digital (ATSC) tuner on a standard definition recorder, well it can be summed up in two words: future proof. In 2009, when the FCC has mandated that analog TV broadcasts go offline, all of the standard NTSC tuners built into today's DVD recorders, TVs and VCRs will be obsolete. Oh, you'll still be able to record from a cable box or external set-top box, but you will no longer be able to tune in your shows and record them directly onto a hard drive, DVD or tape without the help of an external tuner. And yes, there are going to be a WHOLE LOT of "flashing 12:00s" on that dark day when the time codes built into over-the-air analog broadcasts suddenly disappear - POOF!
Not so with this new Panasonic. Its built-in ATSC tuner will access any of your locally broadcast digital channels (standard def or high def), over the air or on cable, now and into the foreseeable future. And it will allow you to record programs onto any kind of blank DVD (DVD-RAM, +/-R, +/-RW) including higher capacity dual layer blank DVDs. After recording (and finalizing), discs recorded on this player can then be played back on the unit itself or on virtually any other DVD player. As to how it manages to do that, read on...
Features and Ergonomics
As with just about any product that includes a tuner, the first step is to plug in your antenna (or cable TV cable) and allow the recorder to find local channels. The tuner will search both analog (VHF/UHF) and digital bands to find channels. When the search is finished, you can manually delete any channels you don't watch or which aren't coming in well.
This process on the Panasonic was remarkably quick. The unit found the clock signal embedded on the local PBS channel less than 5 minutes after being plugged in (and before I had even powered it on). And the auto-channel search found about 15 analog and 18 digital channels coming in via our roof UHF/VHF antenna, also in less than...
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