Panasonic DMR-E30K Progressive Scan DVD Recorder
Learn from my pain
If you're wondering what it feels like to repackage your brand new DVD Recorder without ever seeing one pixel of video and your first ever blank DVD-R disk trapped inside then, boy, is the DMR-E30K for you. This machine promply ate the first writable disk I put into it and refused to eject it. Only after several hours of trial and error did I discover the MAGICAL SEQUENCE of unplugging, powering up/down, and ejection button pushes to free my disk. If Panasonic is interested I will sell them the SEQUENCE so they can include it in their user manual. Small price to pay to save untold customers a similar ordeal, I would think.<br />When I did finally get DMR-E30K to burn a disk the video became garbled half way through when played back on my other DVD player. Eventually it locked up my standard DVD player altogether (a Pioneer DV-333--well known for their ability to playback almost anything). I sacrificed three disks to this fun little experiment just to make sure the Panasonic DMR-E30K was truly disfunctional.  These disks ranged from inexpensive compUSA brands to high end Memorex's. I can report that the DMR-E30K does not discriminate when it comes to disappointing across multiple brands. But don't worry, if you don't know the MAGICAL SEQUENCE you'll never get to the point of having to worry about this...<br />Beware!