Burning Smell From a new Bought Panasonic DVD-Recorder(DRMES15S)

I just bought this DVD-Recorder today (in Canada).
It has a minor design issue: it doesn't allow you to adjust the audio
volume from the dvd-redoder when you are playing DVD. Then the user
has too rely on the TV's audio volume controle. That's not a big issue
so I decided to live with it.
But when used it to burn dvd-ram( the one comes with the box) and play
back on it. It kept on giving out plastic burning smell which drove me
nuts. Can anybody kindly tell me is that a normal thing happens to all
dvd recorder? Or should I just get it exchanged because of the safety
concern?

Thanks,
Feng

Thanks for your reply Joe.
I was pretty sure the stinky smell was from the machine itself not
from the medias(I am myself is a techical guy so I can distinguish the
odour from the new plastic media and the burning electrical smell). So
I returned this item and will get another one tomorrow from another
store
I heard Panasonic has some media compatibility issue, does anybody
know if this DRMES15S has compatibility issue with some dvd-r or dvd-
rw brans? I bought a whole bunch of Tyo Yuden DVD-Rs and hope they
will work with this machine.

Thanks guys for your replies.
I am going to update you with some further experience I have got with
this Panasonic DVD recorder model:
I went to another shop and picked up another same modle recorder. The
first impresion was that the odour was a little bit weaker. But the
disk tray was a little bit more noisy. Then I tried it out with the
Optodisc dvd-rw, Verbatim dvd-rw and the panasonic dvd-ram. The all
worked like a charm. I tried all mode: 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours and 8
hours. Only with the 8 hours mode I found out it looked like VCD
quality. The other modes worked nicely and I didn't notice too much
picture quality down grade. The DVD-RAM is fantastic, I can watch when
it's still recording! I love this feature soooo much!.
But.... Both I and my wife still could not stand for the burning
smell it's emiting. Other than this anoying smelly issue, this DVD is
PERFECT. But considering we have a new born baby at home, we are more
concerned about his heath, we had to decide: This one had to go back
to the store as well
Now I am lost, don't know if I can find another DVD Recorder which can
perform as well as this one did.

Feng

fengyie@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> Thanks guys for your replies.
> I am going to update you with some further experience I have got with
> this Panasonic DVD recorder model:
> I went to another shop and picked up another same modle recorder. The
> first impresion was that the odour was a little bit weaker. But the
> disk tray was a little bit more noisy. Then I tried it out with the
> Optodisc dvd-rw, Verbatim dvd-rw and the panasonic dvd-ram. The all
> worked like a charm. I tried all mode: 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours and 8
> hours. Only with the 8 hours mode I found out it looked like VCD
> quality. The other modes worked nicely and I didn't notice too much
> picture quality down grade. The DVD-RAM is fantastic, I can watch when
> it's still recording! I love this feature soooo much!.
> But.... Both I and my wife still could not stand for the burning
> smell it's emiting. Other than this anoying smelly issue, this DVD is
> PERFECT. But considering we have a new born baby at home, we are more
> concerned about his heath, we had to decide: This one had to go back
> to the store as well
> Now I am lost, don't know if I can find another DVD Recorder which can
> perform as well as this one did.
>
> Feng

It might be worth looking at the next model up, the 25, which has an
inbuilt digital tuner but is slightly more expensive. I'm not saying
it will be different but out of curiosity to see if you think it still
smells the same.


--
Paul (Please dont take a picture)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

Thanks for your suggestion Paul.
I may wanna wait for the price for the 25 model to drop down then make
the purchase The price here in Canada for the 25 model is 269
before tax which is not very reasonable.
And one thing I obseved about these 15 and 25 models, they were made
in a joint venture company by Panasonic in China( not the Panasonic
Inc. & Made in China type). Some other higher models were made in
Malaysia by the Panasonic AVC network Inc.( that may be considerd as
Panasonic Inc. I guess). I am not sure if this aspect contributes to
the quality/material control issue. It seems to me that the electrical
burning smell is combined by bad heat control design and bad material
purchase(or manufacture if they make the parts by themself not
purchase from the OEM channel).

fengyie@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> Thanks for your suggestion Paul.
> I may wanna wait for the price for the 25 model to drop down then make
> the purchase The price here in Canada for the 25 model is 269
> before tax which is not very reasonable.
> And one thing I obseved about these 15 and 25 models, they were made
> in a joint venture company by Panasonic in China( not the Panasonic
> Inc. & Made in China type). Some other higher models were made in
> Malaysia by the Panasonic AVC network Inc.( that may be considerd as
> Panasonic Inc. I guess). I am not sure if this aspect contributes to
> the quality/material control issue. It seems to me that the electrical
> burning smell is combined by bad heat control design and bad material
> purchase(or manufacture if they make the parts by themself not
> purchase from the OEM channel).

It could be a sensitivity thing though, you yourself may be sensitive
to the smell of the plastics etc. Pity you don't know anyone else with
a panasonic so you can see if they all smell the same when you try.

--
Paul (Please dont take a picture)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

Paul you were right. I have a feeling it's us(me and my wife) who are
more sentive then others to the smells. I did quite a lot research on
the forums, nobody else had the same complain about the smell.
When I returned the Panasonic I by the way picked up a LG LRA-750(it
was on sale for $129.99). I just tried it for 5 minitues and found out
it had no way to catch up with Panasonic(in every aspect):
1. When it's turned on it cut off the RF feed out to the TV. There is
no way to watch TV when this unit is on it doesn't matter if you are
using it to record TV programmes or not. This is ridiculous. I by
chance saw the same issue on my Samsung VCR unit.
2. It takes forever to read my Optodisc dvd-rw.
3. The dvd-rw comes with the unit looks cheap.
4. Buttons are on TOP of the unit makes it look cheap
5. The LCD display shows VERY limited infomation abouot what it is
doing
...................
And by the way it generates burning smell as well
I have got a LG cd-writer in my PC whitch leaves me a very good
impression on LG. But this unit will keep me far away from LG's
products.

fengyie@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> Paul you were right. I have a feeling it's us(me and my wife) who are
> more sentive then others to the smells. I did quite a lot research on
> the forums, nobody else had the same complain about the smell.
> When I returned the Panasonic I by the way picked up a LG LRA-750(it
> was on sale for $129.99). I just tried it for 5 minitues and found out
> it had no way to catch up with Panasonic(in every aspect):
> 1. When it's turned on it cut off the RF feed out to the TV. There is
> no way to watch TV when this unit is on it doesn't matter if you are
> using it to record TV programmes or not. This is ridiculous. I by
> chance saw the same issue on my Samsung VCR unit.
> 2. It takes forever to read my Optodisc dvd-rw.
> 3. The dvd-rw comes with the unit looks cheap.
> 4. Buttons are on TOP of the unit makes it look cheap
> 5. The LCD display shows VERY limited infomation abouot what it is
> doing
> ..................
> And by the way it generates burning smell as well
> I have got a LG cd-writer in my PC whitch leaves me a very good
> impression on LG. But this unit will keep me far away from LG's
> products.

I am glad you're at least aware of it now. My own problem with these
machines is sound, i can hear the mechanical stuff so easily it bugs
the heck out of me.

Is the LG one of the ones which use Ram discs? I noticed a new model
which even had a hard drive for a reasonable price but I'm always
sceptical about stuff that seems so good to be true.


--
Paul (Please dont take a picture)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

Keep faaaaaar away from LG's recorder.
I found another two critical issues from this unit:
1. The TV tuner on it is very poorly designed. The TV signal
demodulated by this unit is VERY grainy. I had a feeling I was
watching a VHS video!
2. Even when the unit if OFF( at it's stand by mode) it's RF unit is
still feeding noise to the RF cable! I won't be able to receive a
crystal sharp TV signal until I UNPLUG this unit's power supply! Can
not belive this.
What a piece of Junk.

And by the way this unit does support dvd-ram. But... The disk comes
with it is a very cheap DVD-RW(the kind you can only find in a dollar
shop). So I didn't get a chance to test it's dvd-ram handling
capability( and not likely planning to test it anyways).

Cheers
Feng

fengyie@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> Keep faaaaaar away from LG's recorder.
> I found another two critical issues from this unit:
> 1. The TV tuner on it is very poorly designed. The TV signal
> demodulated by this unit is VERY grainy. I had a feeling I was
> watching a VHS video!
> 2. Even when the unit if OFF( at it's stand by mode) it's RF unit is
> still feeding noise to the RF cable! I won't be able to receive a
> crystal sharp TV signal until I UNPLUG this unit's power supply! Can
> not belive this.
> What a piece of Junk.
>
> And by the way this unit does support dvd-ram. But... The disk comes
> with it is a very cheap DVD-RW(the kind you can only find in a dollar
> shop). So I didn't get a chance to test it's dvd-ram handling
> capability( and not likely planning to test it anyways).
>
> Cheers
> Feng

Thanks for the info... are you returning the LG then?

--
Paul (Please dont take a picture)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/