Panasonic Dmr-xw300 & Dmr-bw500 Owners Thread

[Inferno]

I got mine for $770 which a friend also got from HN as a price match,myers have the for $899 which i think you will easily get for $850.

And yes the 300 and the 500 are the only twin HD dvd recorders on our market,great machines by the way.

Great, thanks. $770 is much more reasonable. There's nothing wrong with my current STB and DVD player so can't really justify spending too much.

What's the difference between the 300 and 500? just better picture quality?

[wheelz]

What's the difference between the 300 and 500? just better picture quality?

The 500 is also a blu ray player and blu ray recorder so you can record you HD fta onto blank blu ray diiscs in HD quality.

[Basil1503559642]

Yeah, with you there. I think we've established now it's more likely a broadcasting issue, and the question then is which broadcaster is used for the time? Obviously it uses the current station when on, but who does it use when off? Whoever was transmitting the time 7 mins slow is now fixed, but it would be good to be able to lock the unit to a trusted source. e.g. the ABC (maybe this is what the other devices are doing?). As I said before, I know there's the manual option, but it would be preferable to be able to trust the auto option.

BTW Basil, this did happen to begin with - you must've just had accurate times on your local broadcasters (mine was tolerable until the other day when someone was 7 mins slow).

Hi

I purchased mine in July and for the next 3 Months i had Rec. going off left-right and centre,all times of the day and Night, trying to find bugs and never noticed any problem with the auto time,first glich was around ESDST start or after the first FW update,SC10HD Movie Rec. was late to start. Since 1.7 FW the Time(Nrth NSW) is slow by 2-3 Minutes(again Today) but unlike Yesterday the Time is not going backward by 1 Min. when going from SBS to Prime7. I will pad start of all Rec. by 5 Mins. until its sorted.

[KJoy]

Hi,

I assume this is with the DVD still in the drive? Just thought I better double-check that, as that is what I'm talking about (and thought you were too). may not be the same if you're taking the DVD out and putting it back in later.

I'm going off the top of my head here (not at home) but when I have a DVD in, I can stop it, and I THINK it brings up the DVD's menu(? - as I said, going from memory). If I then hit drive select (e.g. to go back to HDD), the Blu Ray logo comes up (and have to hit drive select again to actually change). When I chenge back to BD drive again, I press play again - from memory it starts playing, though it may be the menu, but in any case I don't get all the warnings and everything again, just the main menu (though I am pretty sure it plays).

I can try this all again at home and post again later, but that's some info for you to play around with for now.

The exact details of what I was doing is that I have a bought Norman Gunston DVD, and Norman Gunston is being shown on Foxtel at the moment, so I'm seeing if there's anything I wanna keep which isn't on the DVD I already have. As I say, I have no trouble switching between the DVD and HDD without having to view the warnings all over again (though in this case I'm primarily referring to the DVD's main menu, rather than trying to resume play, but I have done resume play on other occasions, I'm sure of it).

Blimey that still seems an awful lot of rigmarole just to get to the menu! The LG just had a button "Disc menu" that took me straight there.

So the example where I would be using it regularly is watching discs full of TV episodes - say MASH for example. Say I am a minute into watching ep 3 and realise its the one I watched last night and what I really meant to select was ep 4. On the LG I would hit Disc Menu and up would come the menu of all the eps and I hit ep 4 and go straight there.

In the Pana with the exact same disc - I hit Navigation Menu and off it goes to the logo screen with "top menu" and others listed - and no matter which choice I choose - it goes back to the begining of the dvd and the warnings etc.

I also tried the option button and got the identical menu!

So you are suggesting I hit "stop" to get to the menu ? Cos so far stopping appears to just stop.

I will do some more playing on the weekend !!!

[donaldp]

Blimey that still seems an awful lot of rigmarole just to get to the menu! The LG just had a button "Disc menu" that took me straight there.

Well, as I said, I was going off the top of my head. It wasn't QUITE that complicated when I tried it again. :-)

So the example where I would be using it regularly is watching discs full of TV episodes - say MASH for example. Say I am a minute into watching ep 3 and realise its the one I watched last night and what I really meant to select was ep 4. On the LG I would hit Disc Menu and up would come the menu of all the eps and I hit ep 4 and go straight there.

Yeah, I had (still have actually, but is analogue not digital) an AWA DVD recorder which you could just press menu and it came up. The Pana doesn't work quite the same - have to stop playback, then go to the menu

In the Pana with the exact same disc - I hit Navigation Menu and off it goes to the logo screen with "top menu" and others listed - and no matter which choice I choose - it goes back to the begining of the dvd and the warnings etc.

I also tried the option button and got the identical menu!

So you are suggesting I hit "stop" to get to the menu ? Cos so far stopping appears to just stop.

I will do some more playing on the weekend !!!

Well, I played some more, and I definitely can't re-create the problem you have. You can't go to the menu whilst something is playing, but you can if you've stopped playback (so it's just one more button press than being able to go there directly while playing - stop, then DN menu). As I said, it was a bit more complicated in the way I was using it because I was comparing what was on a DVD with what was on the HDD, so it may have sounded a bit more complicated than it really is when just watching a DVD. :-)

As I said, I couldn't get the same problem as you - I can always get to the menu without having to go through the warnings again. The only time I see the warnings is when I first load a disc, or the unit has been off/on with the disc still in there. In every other case, I can go straight to the menu. I recommend you speak to Panasonic about it.

Note: although you can't skip the warnings, you CAN fast forward through them. :-) Not to 5 dots, but 2 dots anyway (i.e. press FF twice) - better than nothing in the meantime. Good luck in getting it sorted.

[donaldp]

The 500 is also a blu ray player and blu ray recorder so you can record you HD fta onto blank blu ray diiscs in HD quality.

And bigger hard drive. XW300 - DVD recorder with 300Gb HDD; BW500 - Blu-ray recorder with 500Gb HDD.

[donaldp]

Hi

I purchased mine in July and for the next 3 Months i had Rec. going off left-right and centre,all times of the day and Night, trying to find bugs and never noticed any problem with the auto time,first glich was around ESDST start or after the first FW update,SC10HD Movie Rec. was late to start. Since 1.7 FW the Time(Nrth NSW) is slow by 2-3 Minutes(again Today) but unlike Yesterday the Time is not going backward by 1 Min. when going from SBS to Prime7. I will pad start of all Rec. by 5 Mins. until its sorted.

Yeah, I saw the time all over the place during the DST change too (I missed a few shows altogether, since the time was out by an hour, so hopefully the change back will be less chaotic). As I said, recently had the problem of being 7 mins slow, but now seems to be fixed. As someone else said, if you know which broadcaster is slow, write to them - the problem I have is not knowing which broadcaster it's getting the time from when it's off (so thankfully they fixed their time).

[mal68]

Hey guys

Am looking to pick a 500 up today and was quoted a price of $1600 at Myer.

Anyone have any thoughts on if they think this is a good price or whther it may get better post christmas?????

Edited December 13, 2008 by mal68

[BigBadBaz]

Hey guys

Am looking to pick a 500 up today and was quoted a price of $1600 at Myer.

Anyone have any thoughts on if they think this is a good price or whther it may get better post christmas?????

Someone, earlier in this thread, stated that Retravision in W.A. had advertised them at $1499, I paid $1768 back in early September. FWIW, I reckon you could do a little better than $1600, but it's still not a bad price.

[aussiefan]

Yeah, I saw the time all over the place during the DST change too (I missed a few shows altogether, since the time was out by an hour, so hopefully the change back will be less chaotic). As I said, recently had the problem of being 7 mins slow, but now seems to be fixed. As someone else said, if you know which broadcaster is slow, write to them - the problem I have is not knowing which broadcaster it's getting the time from when it's off (so thankfully they fixed their time).

Didn't you change the time yourself? I had to, since we're stuck with DLS in W.A.

[donaldp]

Someone, earlier in this thread, stated that Retravision in W.A. had advertised them at $1499, I paid $1768 back in early September. FWIW, I reckon you could do a little better than $1600, but it's still not a bad price.

Speaking of Retravision, the Auburn store is having a "store cost + $1" sale on everything in the store until tomorrow.

[donaldp]

Didn't you change the time yourself? I had to, since we're stuck with DLS in W.A.

No, I had it on auto. At that stage I didn't know the time could change depending on the broadcaster - I thought there was just one place where it updated it's time from. The broadcasters didn't all change at the same time (like they're meant to), and they didn't all change their EPG time at the same time either - it was an absolute mess. It was several days before everything settled down (everyone had updated their broadcast time and their EPG time).

I think next time around I might put in on manual for a week just to be sure - too many people didn't do the right thing last time. :-(

[Damien Buckley]

Someone, earlier in this thread, stated that Retravision in W.A. had advertised them at $1499, I paid $1768 back in early September. FWIW, I reckon you could do a little better than $1600, but it's still not a bad price.

Does anyone know if the xw-300 has the same / similar on screen displays / menu's as the bw500? I've had a bw500 since launch and its fantastic but after upgrading my old CRT to a kuro monitor without an in-built tuner I decided I needed another stb so I can record 2x channels on the bw500 and watch something else on the tv.

After shopping around for an HD tuner, I ended up with a Topfield 7100HDPVRt (dont ask - gonna buy a tuner - might as well have a second recorder, right?).

Now I've had a couple of weeks with it, compared to the Panasonic bw500, it is an absolute pig to use. The osd's look and feel clunky and slow and editing recorded shows is tricky to say the least - don't get me started on the scrolling display stupid blue ring around the power button - bright enough to light up half the room, ridiculous and as far as I can see, there's no way to shut it off. Don't these guys understand that these machines should preferably be inconspicuous so you can concentrate o whats on screen?

I'm considering returning it and swapping for an xw-300 - it would be REALLY nice if Panasonic would offer something like the DMR-BW500 without the BluRay drive… I'd buy a second one but thats a big jump in price to have sitting there mostly redundant.

Anyone considering a DMR-BW500 primarily for us as a PVR against Topfield machines, go for your life, it is a far superior machine IMO.

[wheelz]

Damien i would say there pretty much the same screen displays.you could always download the manual which would pretty much show the screen displays to check.

ps.just had a look at manuals and they look identical except for the blu ray section.

Edited December 13, 2008 by wheelz

[donaldp]

Does anyone know if the xw-300 has the same / similar on screen displays / menu's as the bw500?

From my understanding they're the same except for any differences due to BW being Blu-ray. I have the BW, and times in the past I've responded to a XW thread without realising I was in an XW thread since it sounded just like the BW. :-) (and now we have this combined thread)

P.S. getting the XW would actually give you another TWO tuners, so you'd have no reason for missing any shows then with 4 altogether!! ;-)

Edited December 13, 2008 by donaldp

[wheelz]

P.S. getting the XW would actually give you another TWO tuners, so you'd have no reason for missing any shows then with 4 altogether!! ;-)

With the extra channels about to happen its probably a good thing to have 4 tuners.

[mal68]

Someone, earlier in this thread, stated that Retravision in W.A. had advertised them at $1499, I paid $1768 back in early September. FWIW, I reckon you could do a little better than $1600, but it's still not a bad price.

Hey thanks for this, appreciate the input.

I just went down to Myer now where I bargained a little more and ended up with the choice between getting it for $1529 or $1550 with 2 years extra warranty.

Paid the $1550 which I think is fairly decent, very exciting.

Interesting note was that both Harvey Normans and the Good Guys only had display stock left and would not go below $1740, nothing else included.

[donaldp]

Interesting note was that both Harvey Normans and the Good Guys only had display stock left and would not go below $1740, nothing else included.

Yeah, I paid $1,750 at Harvey Norman in June, and this was with a Salesman who owed me (their advertised price at that point was $1,999). I overpaid on warranty and cable though, and when I went back and complained, well, he's STILL doing me favours now (I'm getting my blank discs for marginally more than cost - dual-layers for $45 each).

[Jacks2]

Hi

I have a Panasonic bw500 I've had it since August, and today when I turned it "On" it turn "Off" then "On" , this kept happen every 3 min or so, until I initialize the machine , has this happen to anybody.

Cheers

[Leeroy07]

Yeah, I paid $1,750 at Harvey Norman in June, and this was with a Salesman who owed me (their advertised price at that point was $1,999). I overpaid on warranty and cable though, and when I went back and complained, well, he's STILL doing me favours now (I'm getting my blank discs for marginally more than cost - dual-layers for $45 each).

As for the DL for $45, I presumed they are 25 pack.

I use Ritek 8x DVD+R DL for $29 pack of 25. Not one coaster so far - touch wood.

[donaldp]

As for the DL for $45, I presumed they are 25 pack.

I use Ritek 8x DVD+R DL for $29 pack of 25. Not one coaster so far - touch wood.

No, I'm not talking about DVD's, I'm talking about Blu-rays (RRP for one dual-layer is $60) - the topic was BW, not XW (I paid $1,750 for mine, etc.).

Where do you get the DVD's from at that price? JB sells the Verbatim DL's at $30 for a pack of 10, not 25. :-\

[Basil1503559642]

Hi

I have a Panasonic bw500 I've had it since August, and today when I turned it "On" it turn "Off" then "On" , this kept happen every 3 min or so, until I initialize the machine , has this happen to anybody.

Cheers

Hi

Nope,i haven't heard of that before,are you sure the remote button isn't sticking(or faulty).

[TMUG]

To those experiencing time problems,

As of 6:50pm 10/12/08, all stations - ABC, SBS, 7, 9, 10 - in Melbourne are broadcasting the correct UTC (GMT) time.

My experience is that it takes the stations 24-48 hours from the time they're notified to fix the problem. In this case, I sent an email to SBS on Monday night, they responded but didn't fix it on Tuesday afternoon and it's fixed tonight (Wednesday).

Gavin Trigg

More potential time problems (only minor at the moment though).

In Melbourne, as at 11pm Sunday 14/12/08, both SBS and the ABC have lost their UTC synchronisation. SBS has drifted to 8 seconds behind whilst the ABC has drifted to 10 seconds behind. 7, 9 & 10 are spot on.

I've sent emails to the Digital Engineers at Master Controls for both networks.

Based on previous experience, I would expect them to back on time within 48 hours.

Although SBS have reset their clock, it appears they haven't fixed their ongoing synchronisation problem.

Gavin Trigg

[DBD.2020]

Although SBS have reset their clock, it appears they haven't fixed their ongoing synchronisation problem.

Gavin Trigg

Yes. This is such a pain because start and stop times of recorded programs are incorrect by up to several minutes. This pedal driven Commador 64 clone I'm using now can keep synchronised with any number of atomic clocks around the world. why cant the broadcasters and my very expensive Panasonic machine do the same?

Does anyone know which broadcaster transmits the electronic program guide because when the time sent with the EPG is out, all recorded programs will probably be out.

[Guest Burmy]

Further to the EPG/time problem....

My BW500 randomly jumps between normal time and daylight saving time. This is one hour out, not 7 minutes as other posters have noted.

I assume is is due to one of the stations broadcasting the wrong time? I have two BW500s, and both are acting in the same manner (and a mate at work with a BW500 is also having the same issue), leading me to believe it is not a faulty unit, but a firmware or broadcaster issue. It seems to have only occurred after 1.7 was installed. (or maybe I only noticed it then..)

If you sit and watch the EPG long enough, you can watch the time alternate between both time periods, all the programs follow, and the red indicator moves to the program 1 hour previous. Then, after a while, it all corrects itself.

I have had to set the time to manual, as it screws up the EPG (ie. the 7.30 show appears on the EPG in the 6.30 timeslot. Hence, my recordings randomly start one hour early.)

I am located in Adelaide. Anyone else having similar issues? Is there any way in which I can tell which broadcaster (if any) is at fault?

Burmy