Panasonic Intros New DIGA DVR

Press Release: Pansonic's new DMR-E95H features a 160GB hard drive, an integrated TV guide, DV input and SD and PCMCIA slots. The DMR-E95H also features a new Direct Navigator, an on screen guide that presents content stored on a disc in easy-to-review thumbnails. Pressing the Direct Navigator button will bring up the thumbnails of all the programs on a disc for easy play selection.

The DMR-E95H also carries over some of the best PVR features of the DIGA line. Time Slip, Chasing Playback and Simultaneous Record & Play are features available when using either the DMR-E95H’s 160GB hard disk drive or a DVD-RAM disc.

The 160GB hard drive is the largest yet in a Panasonic DVD recorder, providing up to 36 hours of recording time in “XP,” the highest quality-recording mode, or up to 284 hours in “EP,” or extra-long recording mode. This flexibility makes saving favorite TV programs easy for users. Also, a 4.7GB DVD-RAM or DVD-R disc can hold up to 1 hour in XP mode or 8 hours in EP, and a 9.4GB double-sided DVD-RAM disc can hold up to 2 hours in XP and up to 16 hours in EP mode. All DIGA DVD recorders support recordable DVD-RAM and DVD-R1, and will also play back DVD-Video, music CDs, video CDs and CD-R/CD-RW 2, and MP3 formatted discs. The DMR-E95H also will play back DVD-Audio discs in 2-channels.

“Panasonic was the first company to manufacture and bring to market a set-top DVD recorder and we are constantly striving to improve the quality and ease of use of our product,” said Alberto Reggiani, Panasonic’s national marketing manager for DVD. “By incorporating such progressive features as the TV Guide On Screen Electronic Program Guide, SD and PCMCIA memory card slots, a DV input and a large capacity 160 GB hard disc drive we are particularly confident that the DMR-E95H will meet the needs of today’s consumer and help maintain our innovative position in the market.”

The DMR-E95H can do more than play back video. Taking an SD memory card from a digital still camera and inserting into the SD card slot on the front of the unit makes showing JPEG files easy. The PCMCIA card slot allows the consumer to use a variety of memory card formats. Accessibility is one of the unit’s best features.

One touch of a button is all it takes to record data from the DMR-E95H’s hard disk drive to a DVD-RAM or DVD-R disc at high speeds3. Recording goes at a quick 12x normal speed to a DVD-RAM disc or 24x normal speed to DVD-R4 (both in EP mode). For example, a one-hour program can be recorded to DVD-RAM in just 5 minutes or to DVD-R in just 2.5 minutes.

Detailed Feature List
* Extended Recording Time: 284 hours (160GB Hard Disk),hours (4.7GB Disc)
* High Speed Recording from Hard Disk
* Electronic Program Guide Function
* Direct Navigator
* DV Auto Recording
* Automatic Playlist Creation
* Still Picture (JPEG/TIFF) Storage/Playback
* Playlist Recording from Hard Disk
* SD/PC Card Slot
* Playlist Playback
* DVD with Thumbnail Creation
* DVD-Audio Playback (2ch)
* Time Slip Functions
* Quick View (x1.3)
* Progressive Scan
* One-touch Rec. & Play
* Playlist Recording with Thumbnails
* Relief Recording
* Bilingual Recording
* Recording Mode Conversion
* High-Quality Linear PCM Audio
* CPRM Recording Capability