[The News Bot]

Reviewed by David Mackenzie
The DMR-BS850 receives satellite TV in both SD and HD, records to its sizable hard drive, does a fantastic job of playing back Blu-ray Discs, a great job of playing back DVD, and still has additional features to offer. As a result, it’s not difficult at all to recommend it to anyone who decides that free-to-air satellite is for them.
Read the full review...

[brichards]

Hi,

I have one of these fitted and it works really well.
Belkin F5D7330uk Gaming Adapter / Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge
The recordr EPG Genre wants to have an option so you can go straight to EPG.If you want to like the Humax??
The Viera cast woks gret no problems.
U Tube works well so does Panasonis Pictures that they have on.
I endorse everything that you mentioned and feed back to Panasonic would be great re the little nigles???.

Regards.

Brian Richards.

[al catraz]

"One feature of the EPG I really, really appreciated, though, was a reminder of when a show is simulcast in HD. For example, I was setting a timer recording for a programme on BBC Two, expecting to have to sit through Standard Definition the next night, so imagine my surprise and delight when a message told me that the same show was also being sent out on the BBC HD channel, asking me if I'd rather record that version instead. As far as I'm aware, this feature is unique to Panasonic's recorders."

Humax PVR does that too.

Nice box and would suite my requirements perfectly, but far too expensive at the mo - sub £400 and I might be tempted.

[milesm]

The DMR-BS850 can currently be had for £879.00 via Amazon.co.uk. Alternatively, the retailer also stocks the more affordable (at £750) DMR-BS750 model, which includes a 250gb hard drive instead of a 500gb but is seemingly otherwise identical.

Amazon also supplies the Panasonic DMR-XS350 which appears to be the same except it only doesn't record Blu-ray discs, only SD and only has a 250Gb HDD. An additional feature not mentioned in the review is the Ethernet connection to the internet via your network which, apart from updating firmware, allows you to access YouTube videos and Picasa photos and display them on the TV. It also extracts content data from a CD database when you play a CD and displays it on the TV.

[stmchan]

I have been longing for such an equipment since I got Sky HD when it was first introduced. I am hoping that I can transfer some of the recorded HD programmes which I hope to keep to another blu-ray recorder so that I can have ample space in my Sky HD box to record ongoing programmes.
When Panasonic introduced this blu-ray recorder, I thought it should answer my quest. However, after inspection of its rear panel and consultation with staff of the shopper, I understand that there is no avenue for me to do what I planned, i.e. transfer the HD contents from my Sky HD box thereto.
I should be grateful if anybody can advise me how to do what I plan to achieve, i.e. transfer the HD contents to HDD of a recorder from my Sky HD box and have them dubbed in blu-ray disc if desired.
Thank you

Stephen

[Rasczak]

Originally Posted by stmchan

I should be grateful if anybody can advise me how to do what I plan to achieve, i.e. transfer the HD contents to HDD of a recorder from my Sky HD box and have them dubbed in blu-ray disc if desired

The short answer is you can't and I doubt you ever will. The days of external tuners feeding seperate recorders is not a concept that the studios are prepared to accept at present. Sky for example want to keep their HD content confined to the SkyHD box - it almost certainly makes programme licencing cheaper. Ditto Virgin. Even ITV on Freesat are doing the same.

Your best bet is to hope the content you have recorded appears on Freesat HD/Freeview HD when, subject to the material being set at Copy Once/Unrestricted, you'll be able to edit and dub to Bluray on a device such as the BS850 (that obviously just being a Freesat model).

You may be able to buy some 'grey' unlicenced device that strips copy protection from HDMI and then feed the signal into a PC - but I am no expert on this but I suspect it is hardly a seamless process.

[Digiman]

One of the most disappointing purchases I have ever made.

The guide is clunky and requires two remote operations just to navigate past a useless selective channel option (very annoying after a while). All audio / video is stopped while using guide - so dont use it if watching something of interest. No search function.
What ever you are doing expect plenty of waiting - turn on, guide, recordings, archiving etc etc.
Archiving, when there are programme recording restrictions, requires reencoding the whole thing in real time and the end result is DRM'ed. Claimed not to be Panasonic's fault but I have never come across anything so restrictive.
No external Hard Disk archiving - everything that is possible is done by clunky Blu-ray, takes ages or absolutely ages, and costs a fortune.
USB and Divx restrictions
No playing files from Network.

If you want a Blu-ray player or a clunky sat recorder then have a look. Otherwise steer clear. Everything clever that this machine is capable of, has been knobbled one way or another.

It is a lot of technologies bolted together that do not sit well together. It is difficult to remember what you can and can't do. You have to wait for something to have been recorded in HD to find out whether you can archive it or not for example.

Everything is painfully clunky, slow or DRMed. There is no picture quality that can make up for this.

I can't wait to get rid of it. I find it impractical to use. A BD recorder is great in theory but why remove usb hard drive functionality. I cannot believe the glowing reviews it has received.

Edit: I just tried to copy a video of mine off a blu-ray onto the hard drive (maybe for reencoding).... Only pictures. There is no reason for that restriction AFAICS especially when you cant attach a hard drive.

I hate it.

[LaupSavea]

Generally I like this unit. When it displays stuff on the screen, it looks really good - and bear in mind that is what you will spend the majority of your time doing.

Sadly, the software interface feels like it was programmed in the way the physical unit has probably been built - made up of different technologies bolted together. The interface is, indeed, clumsy and slow and could take a leaf out of the more intuitive TIVO or even the childishly simple SKY interface. It surprises me that large companies do so much work to get an amazing box of electronics to market and then spoil it by slapping on a really poor interface (and a very poor manual - which, by the way, you should download before you buy it to ensure it does what you think it should because as some of these reviews indicate it fails to do some things you would have thought were no brainers).

Setting up is really simple - well done to Panasonic for getting that bit right. I was really relieved to find out I could just unscrew my twin satellite feeds from that awful SKY box and screwed them into this unit. Be aware though that the box comes with no SCART nor HDMI leads. It also doesnt even have one free blank disc either so you should pre-order some of those too (I would add that Panasonic do offer you a couple of free discs but instead of putting them in the box, they get you to jump through hoops by sending off a large SAE in another large envelope with a photocopy of your receipt to a company who will send you them - I suspect this is in order to get your address and personal data so they can market to you later - poor, poor show Panasonic)

Lastly, I would mention a possible inherent fault that has meant be swapping my unit over only to find my new unit has the same problem. When I switch to Viera Cast (The Internet Module that allows certain widgets e.g. YouTube to access the net) I lose all sound so I can watch a YouTube Video but its silent. Although there are only three widgets available (excluding weather and share prices) - YouTube, Picasa and Tagesschau (a German Streaming News Channel), oddly I only get sound when I switch to Tagesschau but it switches off again as soon as I try and watch a YouTube video. This bug was denied by the Panasonic Helpline but acknowledged by Panasonic when my local dealer spoke to "their support". They have tried to blame my Virgin Media ISP but, as bad as Virgin Media is, I don't think they have a racist firewall that only lets through German IP traffic but not English. Also the system pings as you switch between menus are not dictated by IP traffic and they go silent as well. I will put up with this - but you may not want to - so beware!

So to sum up, great technology, great picture - crudely bolted together and rushed to market which might give you a few nasty surprises unless you check it out thoroughly first.