Panasonic DMR-HWT130EB Freeview+ HD Hard Disk Recorder with Twin HD Terrestrial Tuner, Black

The item arrived promptly, well packaged and in excellent condition. Connecting it is straightforward. HDMI to the TV for display, mains cable for power and ethernet cable for Internet access. (It also has WiFi access to the internet). If you want to have better sound quality than your TV's speakers provide then I suggest that you connect a Hi Fi system on the audio out termianls on the TV. The significant differnce betwen a Blu Ray and a DVD player is that the Blu Ray device can access the internet and so you can receive videos etc from Netfilx, Youtube etc. Please note that some of these require a subscription! I found connecting the unit and getting it working was very straightforward. Just plug in, turn on and follow the instructions from the setup page. Its performance is excellent a DVD is automatically upscaled to HD and so the picture on an HD TV is excellent. I have only found one DVD that will not play. This was made by some unknown (to me!) European company. Actually, the DVD played but I had great difficulty selecting subtitles. I think this really reflected the quality of the DVD rather than the player. All in all, I think anyone will be very satisfied with this device.

Recently, my 3 year old Humax Recorder in the bedroom suffered minor 'flooding' when it was nowhere near any source of water. I was literally spooked until I was advised by a TV engineer that rainwater had tracked down the co-axial aerial cable core by capillarity from a storm damaged section overlaying the roof. The Humax (a very good machine) was 'finished' and a suitable replacement, at a reasonable price, from the same manufacturer was not available. So, I checked the machines on offer from Amazon and purchased the abovementioned Panasonic recorder at, what has to be, a bargain price for the specification on offer. It joins my Panasonic 'smart TV' in the living room, which is hooked up to a new Panasonic HD HDD/DVD recorder, a five year old Panasonic HDD/DVD recorder and a Panasonic Blu-ray player. From this you might assume that I am a satisfied Panasonic customer. I don't want to tempt fate but I've never experienced problems with any of the aforementioned products and the 'Smart recorder' offers virtually the same facilities as the more expensive recorder downstairs, but minus the DVD archive ability and minus 500GB HD disk capacity. The operating system is familiar and the overall quality/ease of use is what I have some to expect from Panasonic. Buy with confidence!

Bit of an impulse purchase and for some strange reason was hooked with the internet/smart tv connectivity and potential to stream from recorded files.In truth it does the basics fine, no problems with recording and it has HD receiver which helpfully lets you know if there is an HD option before confirming record. Reasonable storage.However, don't buy this for its internet/LAN connectivity. The Panasonic supported Diga APP is appalling, I haven't gotten close to streaming from the HD recorder with this (which it purports to be able to do). The smart tv component of the setup is similarly moribund. Netflix and BBC Iplayer are fine but there is little support for other mainstream video on demand services. And you can't run these functions at the same time as recording is happening!Since purchasing this I have bought an Android TV box which for around £60 has provided considerably more functionality with very powerful smart tv potential.To be fair, as a hard disk recorder it is ok but I could have got the basics for less than half the price.UPDATE ***** March 2016Well I have mellowed. I am using this HD recorder more than ever. I have a Sony TV now with very good smart TV functionality so just using the Panasonic to record. It is great at this. HD recordings are fantastic with crystal clear images and great sound. It will do series record with one simple instruction so it is great for binge watching. It will pause live TV so you can go and get a beer and come back to it without missing a thing. You can playback while you record - start recording something with ads, pick it up 20 mins in and then watch it and fast forward through ads. It has a 1 min jump forward which makes easy work of ads. I've added a star as I can't fault this player for its main purpose. It is easy to use and makes great recordings.

Bought to replace a Sony HDD Recorder. Size and connections similar. Easy to set-up. Remote is different to Sony model, but I am getting used to it. Have a wired Ethernet connection so I can use remote recording (with very limited success though). Range of internet apps poor (BBC iPlayer doesn’t work, but this Recorder was designed in 2013, and perhaps made then as well) so internet features not worth bothering with).Requires a HDMI Cable and a digital optical cable if you have a surround sound system that has an optical input - if not, it doesn’t matter as everything goes through the HDMI Cable anyway. Also requires a wired Ethernet connection to your router if you want internet features as the DMR-HWT130 model doesn’t have wireless LAN built in, and a wireless adaptor is no longer availableInterestingly, my Sony television remote works with the Panasonic recorder (in a limited fashion, admittedly), and the Panasonic remote works with the Sony television (again, in a limited fashion).All good, so far (only had it a day)