I've had this DVD-R/VCR for 2 years. In that time, I have had about 5 or 6 lock-ups, once or twice where I had to unplug the unit. However, other than that the machine has performed well for me.

I've time-shifted both with DVD-R and VCR and had no problems. I also copied VCR tapes to DVD and been able to add chapter information afterward. The machine picks up unencrypted Comcast cable channels, too.

Unfortunately, another of this machine's flaws is that it picks up BLANK channels; by that I mean they are not staticky, but they have nothing on them. Since these make up most of the unencrypted channels this thing receives, it means I either have to manually delete the channels or I have to keep pressing channel up to pass them by. My Vizio & ViewSonic TVs did not have this problem. They only picked up channels that had information on them (shows, movies, whatever).

But all of the other functions I have used on it (sleep timer, input source, FFW/REW, pause, clock setting, etc) have worked as I expected. Also, it has been able to read damaged DVDs better than my home theater PC (probably because it's hardware error correction rather than software). This machine is way better than the Samsung I replaced with the Panasonic.

Very disappointing. We've usually liked Panasonic products, but this one was defective junk right out of the box.

Something is not right with the software. We couldn't get it to set up/program properly. It kept hanging up and just getting stuck on one screen or another. And we could never get it to open the DVD tray at all -- ever.

Spent maybe 4 hours trying to get this to work. The manual was just the worst we've ever seen; completely indecipherable and useless. That made it even harder to figure out that the unit wasn't working properly because you wondered if you'd missed some key step.

Low quality product. Stay away.

I have had this machine since Sept 07. It recorded a VHS to DVD easily enough, but in the last 6 months, I can not depend on it to even turn on! Some times, I have to unplug it for 10 seconds to re-set it, or some times I have to click play on the VCR or DVD to get it to even turn on. It will no longer turn on at the unit or with the remote. It just isn't dependable. Am looking for a different brand now.

I purchased this unit Dec. 2007 from Sears and I purchased the 3-year extended warranty. I have had nothing but problems. I started having problems with this unit keeping timer recordings. It would be setup and not record anything. Also, the unit froze completely when I was just pulling up the navigation menu. It is very erratic, you might go one week and it be fine and then the next it would lock up several times. Then I started having problems with the digital tuning(if you are using this on cable, be aware). In our area, we have the 46 music channels that come through clear on a Sharp HDTV. When I went in Setup to rememorize the channels, over half of the music channels were gone. Also, you can't simply add and delete a digital channel to this unit, you must go through Setup and run the entire scan all over again. Anyway, I was losing other channels as well that my HDTV was still getting. Then I started having problems with DVD-RAMs working with this unit. It would show a message that the disc was unreadable and would lock down. That's when I took it back to Sears and use the warranty that I purchased. After 3 weeks and them telling me nothing was wrong with it, I sent it to Panasonic directly. They replaced the DVD-Drive and digital board in it. I just got it back 2 weeks ago and I started having problems with it again. So, buyer beware on this particular model. Some of the earlier models that I have purchased in the past are okay. Just this particular model so far.

Does pretty much what I wanted. One problem........no controls on the machine. So, if you lose your controller, you're SOL.