Panasonic DMR-XW380

By   |   August 3, 2010

The Panasonic DMR-XW380 is a DVD recorder that features twin-HD tuners, a 250GB hard drive and video-on-demand.


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Price

  • AU$699.00

Quick Specs

Memory

  • Hard drive capacity : 250 GB

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About The Author

CNET Editor

Ty is a journalist with 15 years experience in writing for IT and entertainment publications. He is in charge of the home theatre category for CNET Australia and is also a PC enthusiast. He likes indie music and plays several instruments. Twitter: @tpendlebury

CNET editors have not yet reviewed this product. If you own it, let us know what you think in the comments below!


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mattyboi
3
Rating
 

"CAVEAT EMPTOR would not buy this unit again"

mattyboi posted a review   
Australia

The Good:Supports DLNA, Stores more movies and films than i thaught i would, menus are quite easy to navigate

The Bad:heres the BAD NEWS you cannot record two pragrams in a row......... the unit takes 5 mins to prepare to record a show, which means it will stop recording the fist show early and start preparing to record the second one and there you are left wondering what happened in the end

I would not buy this unit again
whist it has alot of good features but not being able to record two shows in a row without missing the end really destroys it for me.

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bacchus
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bacchus posted a review   

The Good:Keeps accurate time

The Bad:Everything else

In a word, DON'T BUY IT. I bought mine in June 2010, by August, it was losing the TV picture, took it to be repaired and they tweaked the software and said the HDMI cable was the problem and gave me a new one. That fix lasted until December 2010 when it couldn't recieve any SBS channels - they repaired that with a new tuner board. In February 2011, if you used the one-touch-record function, you lost the signal on all other channels, but strangely the Record 1 would not accept any programmed recording. In March 2011, I'm still waiting for parts to repair it. The warranty expires in June 2011, i.e., 3 months and so far its worked about 6 months of the last 9 and is in for its third repair

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annoyed
 

annoyed posted a comment   

I purchased a DMR-XW380 recently and was most annoyed that the remote control did not have a mute button. What's that all about. Who wants to sit through heaps of noisy ads. Currently I have to use two remotes. I use the TV remote's mute but hey, in this day and age why should I have to have two of the damn things when I should only have to have one. Is there a way to modify a button on the remote to provide a mute?

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Tricia
 

Tricia posted a comment   

To help others, I can confirm that I bought a Panasonic DVD Recorder DMR-XW380GLK from The Good Guys last weekend. On the front of the box it says that it only plays Region 4 discs. However, there is a white sticker on the front that says "This carton has been opened and checked by Panasonic Australia Quality Assurance". When we have tried it, it has played Region 1, 2 and 4 discs. Panasonic Australia have obviously modified it.

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Icaria
8
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Icaria posted a review   

The Good:Dual HD tuners, can record 2 channels and watch a 3rd via AV input...

The Bad:...if recording in DR mode. Analogue audio out is noisey. UI is sluggish. No NTFS/EXT support.

Bought for my parents, is largely adequate.

Biggest problem is I hooked their foxtel STB into the DVR's AV inputs in an effort to simplify their HT setup (everything runs through this DVR, before being output to stereo and TV) but if you're recording on either of the internal tuners in any mode other than DR (which reduces the HDD to about 30hrs total recording time over LP's 200+hrs), you can't access either of the AV inputs, meaning they can't view Foxtel. I'm having to regularly go through and convert all their recorded programmes to LP, as that task is a little too complicated for them.

As for minor complaints:

The analogue stereo out has a lot of noise on it, which starts the moment you turn the machine on - there's some poorly insulated electronics in there, somewhere. Luckily my parents' ears aren't sensitive enough to notice it.

The UI is really sluggish. There's often a 1-2 second delay after pressing a button, before anything happens.

It supports USB drives but only if they're formatted with a FAT file system. The first thing you do after buying a thumbdrive, or portable HDD, is reformat it, as FAT is slow but neither NTFS, nor any versions of the EXT filesystem are supported. I can understand them perhaps not paying for an NTFS license but EXT is not only free but it's built into the linux kernel, which this machine uses. It looks like they've specifically flagged out build instructions for EXT.

Also don't use the EP recording mode. Even on an old SD CRT, it looks and sounds horrible. LP will still get you well over 200 hours of recording time and it looks and sounds fine.

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User Reviews / Comments  Panasonic DMR-XW380

  • mattyboi

    mattyboi

    Rating3

    "I would not buy this unit again
    whist it has alot of good features but not being able to record two shows in a row without missing the end really destroys it for me."

  • bacchus

    bacchus

    Rating2

    "In a word, DON'T BUY IT. I bought mine in June 2010, by August, it was losing the TV picture, took it to be repaired and they tweaked the software and said the HDMI cable was the problem and gave m..."

  • annoyed

    annoyed

    "I purchased a DMR-XW380 recently and was most annoyed that the remote control did not have a mute button. What's that all about. Who wants to sit through heaps of noisy ads. Currently I have to use..."

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