Panasonic DMR-EH55
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Description
The Panasonic DMR-EH55 is a consumer DVD/HDD combo recorder released in 2006 as the successor to the Panasonic DMR-EH50. It was Panasonic's last HDD-equipped DVD recorder for the North American market, discontinued by early 2007.[1]
In the video archival community, the DMR-EH55 is valued for its passthrough TBC performance. Community testing on the German Gleitz forum and VideoHelp determined that the EH55 uses a different video processing chip from the Panasonic DMR-ES10, but provides the same or nearly the same passthrough jitter correction results. This places it in the second tier of the Panasonic DMR series alongside the Panasonic DMR-ES15 and DMR-EH56 — very close to the ES10's performance, and clearly ahead of older models like the DMR-E55 and DMR-E53.[2] In A/B testing, users on VideoHelp found it difficult to visually differentiate between the EH55 and ES10 passthrough output.[3]
A key advantage of the EH55 over the ES10 is its HDMI output, which allows fully digital passthrough capture without the additional D/A conversion step inherent in S-Video or component output. With an appropriate HDMI capture device, this preserves the exact digital signal produced by the EH55's internal processing.[4]
Panasonic marketed this model as having a TBC, confirmed in product documentation.[5]
For a detailed explanation of the passthrough TBC concept, model comparison, and recommended settings, see Panasonic DMR series DVD recorders.
Known Issues
As with all Panasonic DVD/HDD recorders, the EH55 displays an intrusive "The HDD is going into power saving mode" on-screen message after 10–30 minutes of idle operation. This will be burned into any passthrough capture if not managed. Workarounds include inserting a blank disc, recording garbage to the HDD during capture, or waiting approximately 30 minutes after power-on before beginning capture.
The Panasonic passthrough TBC crops approximately 5 pixels from the left edge of the image. This is unavoidable when using the unit.[5]
Many Panasonic DVD recorders of this era are prone to power supply capacitor failure. See Panasonic DMR-ES10#Known Issues for details. HDD-equipped models may also require hard drive replacement over time.
References
- ↑ AVS Forum — "Panasonic DMR-EH55 Discontinued?"
- ↑ VideoHelp Forum — "Panasonic DVD recorder passthrough settings" — Page 6 — Community comparison of Panasonic DVD recorder chipsets and passthrough TBC performance tiers.
- ↑ VideoHelp Forum — "Panasonic DVD recorder passthrough settings" — Page 7 — A/B comparison of ES10, EH55, and E55 passthrough captures.
- ↑ VideoHelp Forum — "Panasonic DVD recorder passthrough settings" — Page 5 — Discussion of HDMI vs S-Video passthrough paths and the tradeoff between ES10's stronger TBC and later models' HDMI capability.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 VideoHelp Forum — "Is the TBC function in my Panasonic Diga DMR-EH55 working?"
