Panasonic DMR-ES20K DVD Recorder
Could be better.
The DMR-ES20S has more bugs and hangs more often than an initial release of Microsoft Windows. The first thing you should do once you have the unit set up is to download the latest firmware from [...] the latest firmware available is U3-150 dated 12/02/2005. The update takes a few minutes and takes care of many of the freeze ups that require unplugging the unit from the ac outlet. <br /> <br />The firmware update still leaves unresolved a serious bug affecting scheduled recording. The unit seems to think there's not enough space when in fact there is. For example, a schedule set to record three one hour shows and two half hour shows at LP (4 hours) mode will always fail to record the last half hour show. One way I found around this bug to set the record mode (rec mode button) to EP (6 or 8 hours) while leaving scheduled recording at LP mode. With this workaround, the unit does record all the shows filling up the disc at four hours. However, you will get a warning message indicating that the disc is full and not all titles have been recorded the next time you power up the unit. The last show will not show up as a separate title when the disc is finalized, it is part of the one right before it.  <br /> <br />I contacted Panasonic via their website contact form about this problem and still have not heard from them for almost three weeks now.  <br /> <br />The remote has a clean layout. The manual is easy to follow. The display on the unit is somewhat lacking in conveying information. Fan noise is not that significant. Overall, the unit is pretty easy to operate. <br /> <br />It gets three stars. One star subtracted for the initial buggy firmware and another subtracted for the unresponsive tech support.