Seller is insistent everything was in perfect working order before it was shipped.

Sellers usually do that. Here are a couple of my own "perfect condition" interludes:

In 1991 I bought a pricey SONY SLV-585HF, a classic from SONYs hay day (SONY started downhill ever since). I had two of those. I used them every day with regular maintenance for 9 years and built a massive collection of recorded tapes. Later when I started capturing I wanted one for the tapes I'd recorded on it. After much patient searching I found a '595' at eBay "fully tested". It arrived with no capstan roller and missing takeup posts. All it would do is wind and rewind tapes. eBay arranged a refund, but lordsmurf recommended a shop in Florida that rebuilt it for nearly its original retail cost of over $300. It still works today.

A Panasonic "perfect" PV-S4670 arrived in an undamaged, intact box but had a broken loading door and a tape still lodged inside with tape wound around the takeup rollers. eBay arranged a refund, and the seller promptly disappeared so I couldn't return it. But the rare remote that came with it still worked, so I used it when I found another S4670 in beautifully restored condition from a better seller. I captured more than 150 hours with the newer unit, which still works.

A $500 AG-1980 showed up with a bright display, smooth operation, and a lovely picture -- except for buzzing edges which I found out were caused by two worn heads. I had it replaced at a decent cost by TGrantPhoto. It still works, but it's been through two expensive rounds of update and is a maintenance nightmare. Fortunately by now I've captured all but one or two of my old tapes. Meanwhile the rebuilt S4670 tracked several tapes that the AG-1980 balked with.

A $175 JVC 7600 showed up in good working order. I made two captures before it started eating tapes. No parts available. I took it to a local recycling dump.

And so it goes, for many members here and elsewhere.

Well, they've offered to test it again if I ship it back. The shipping cost is higher than the sale price, so I'll lose money either way.

I once ordered the WrestleMania Anthology box set from someone on eBay. I already had the four individual volumes, but I wanted the outer box that contained them. The outer box is a limited edition collector's item, the volumes themselves were widely available.

When I received it, the package contained only the four volumes I already had, no outer box. Seller claimed customs had removed the outer box. There was no note from customs to say the package had been opened at all, and the package wasn't even big enough to have ever contained the outer box.

Filed a dispute with PayPal, which offered me a refund if I shipped the item back. Again, that would just be a money-loser.

Seller threatened blackmail charges as a result of me threatening to file a dispute with PayPal when trying to resolve it just between the two of us.

I find eBay blackmail amusing. They have far more to lose than you. In fact, I'd just forward their BS over to eBay, and the seller will probably find themselves suspended or punished in some way. eBay may be a mess, and they often seem to make up the rules as they go along, but sellers are one area where they've always been strict. So if you feel a dispute is appropriate, then do it. eBay seller be damned.

I don't plugin in my ES10 enough to remember what's what. But I do know that it's never setup correctly by default, and I need to remote. You may need to test every s-video and composite input/output on the unit. You can put in a DVD, and press play on the unit itself. See if you get any output anywhere.

I did dispute that one, eBay offered to refund the item price if I shipped it back at my expense. But I paid less for it than the shipping cost.

That's what I tried. Tried SCART out, composite out, component out, and S-Video out. Nothing.

The other remote you linked me to arrived, and also powered my Blu-Ray player but not the ES10.

After further negotiations, though, looks like I'm going to be able to return it at their expense for a full refund.

Resurrecting this old thread to share some info which may be useful for others.

I ran into a similar issue with a Panasonic DMR-ES10 that I bought off eBay. It would power up using the front-panel power button and display passthrough video just fine, but it would not respond to the remote whatsoever. I tried with another remote, and cycled through the different remote codes as discussed further up in this thread, but to no avail.

I decided to roll the dice on replacing the IR receiver inside the ES10. I was initially worried the failure might be further upstream in the timer IC, but looking around the internet, I was surprised to find some other discussions suggesting that the IR receiver modules do sometimes degrade and fail over time.

I am pleased to report that after replacing the IR receiver, my ES10 is now working perfectly!

The part to replace is on the right side of the front panel, near the record button, IR7501. Panasonic labels this part a "B3RAD0000092", but a Vishay TSOP34438 ($1 from DigiKey) worked just fine as a pin-compatible replacement. This does require basic (de)soldering skills to accomplish.

Hope this helps others who may run into this issue!

Can you share the link where to find this? I have the exact same issue with my ES10 right now and I strongly suspect this might be the solution.

Thank you! You're the man!

On a related note, did you also have a dim front display on your unit too? Do you think I need to buy a replacement part from that website too? Or it's just likely a recap?

Yes, mine has a dim front display too. Once you have the remote working, there is a menu setting to adjust the display brightness. However, even the brightest display setting is quite dim on my unit. I think this is probably just due to the display technology used (vacuum fluorescent display) and is to be expected with aging. I do not think there are any off-the-shelf parts that can fix this. It does not bother me personally.

^ I see, that makes sense. I think mine is just dimmer than what I've been seeing on some YT videos so maybe it could still be adjusted on the remote. But thanks again for the lead on the IR part!

Recap will not help with dim display. But in real life you do not need display anyway. Power supply recap is highly recommended.