Can anyone give a review of the Panasonic EX78. I'm thinking of upgrading from the EX75 which has suddenly has a problem with the clock. It loses 3 minutes over night and then seems to right itself during the day.
If anyone has the 78 and can let me know just how good it is I'd be most grateful.

Thanks

I recently upgraded from a DMR-EH50 to the EX78.
So far no problems. The thing I like is the USB stick input which lets me watch downloaded DIVX AVI's without commiting them to DVD disc. Great if you do a lot of P2P.

Thanks for replying. Could you tell me if it really does have series link. The 75 doesn't but I notice the 78 does (or so it seems). Not sure if that an accurate description though!

Yes it does have series link. Do you need the music storage that the 78 offers? I have used it and find it to be a real pain to use and not very practicle. There is no display if the TV is off. There is no direct play button for music, and most annoyingly no random play button. You also have to decide each time you play music if you want to listen to music that you copied form CD onto the HDD or mp3 copied to the HDD. Surley this should not be a question that needs asking, just giv me a lis of everything.
Also if the DVD is connected via HDMI to the TV (only know this happens on Panasonics with Viera Link) and you turn off the TV, the DVD turns off too, even though you might be listening to music via the DVD on an additional amp.
If you do not need the music side, go for the DMR-EX768 instead, it's the nearest model to the one you have and about £80 or so less!

Thanks for the advice Skinj. I'm not really interested in the music side of things so I'll take a lot at the other model. I would really like series link though. Again this morning my EX75 was 3 minutes slow. This is the only problem I've got with it so I'm gonna have to think about if I can justify buying a new machine but it is a bit of problem when I have to manually reset the clock every few days.

Check your clock settings in Functions / To others / Setup / others / Clock.

See whether the setting is on automatic... and change it to that setting if it is not. It should correct itself several times a day.

It is probably a good idea to do a power reset before you do the above. [ Disconnect for 5 minutes]

More notes and information about clock functions on page 53 of the manual.


If you opt to go for a new machine - beware of the 768. Check its spec carefully because many features have been stripped out.

Thanks for the reply gavtech. Yes, it is set to automatic and it does right itself during the day but then sometimes it's slow again come the morning. I'm physically updating the time but have left it on automatic. Do you think I should take it off automatic if it continues to loose time?

I haven't done a power reset before altering the time though so maybe I should try that first.

3 minutes is a lot to loose over night and I just can't work out why it's suddenly developed this fault.

The only feature I am aware that has gone is maybe the rf modulator, what other features are you refering to Gavtech?

Apologies for the delay in response.

RF modulators have been missing from all the Panasonic range for two generations now... but the main features dropped from the 768 are:

No DV input

No USB terminal

No DivX support

No JPEG Support

No SD card [ compared to EX88 ]

Smaller hard drive than other models.

Regarding my original problem I've taken the clock off "auto" update and so far it seems to have solved the problem. I haven't lost any time over night so I'll hold off buying a new recorder for the time being. Thanks again everyone for your replies.

OK. Cheers.
What I meant was features stripped out since the 75 as that is what they are thinking of replacing.

Hi skinj

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'thinking of replacing' .. as the EX75 model was deleted 13 months ago and replaced by the EX77... which was deleted 2 months ago and subsequently replaced by the EX78, the current model.

But if comparing the EX768 to the EX75 then this is what is missing in the 768:

No DV input

No JPEG Support

No SD card

[ ...and no modulator]

Thanks for reporting back.

Good luck with it.

They were thinking of replacing their ex75 with an ex768.

Ah! - Do you mean Nellie1000?

I misunderstood. I thought you were referring to Panasonic [ thinking of replacing etc. ]

I am thinking of buying this model and would like to ask a question to anyone already using it.

After reading the manual am I right in understanding that you are unable to record at the same time as playing anything in the Divx format?

If this is correct, what happens if a recording is due to start whilst a Divx file is playing?

Does the recording fail to start or does the viewer receive a warning prompt prompt?

Thanks to anyone who can help clarify.