Panasonic DMR-E30K Progressive Scan DVD Recorder
A great machine
While I suspect there are those who could hook this up and start recording moments after removing the unit from the box, it took me a better part of two evenings.<br />Having survived the steep learning curve, I can say that I'm extremely happy with this unit. Now that I know what's going on, recording is easy and painless. Creating titles for individual tracks and for the DVD itself is also easy (though it can be tedious -- you have to navigate around an on-screen menu of capital letters, small letters, numbers, and punctuation signs).<br />Right after I recorded my first set of shows to dvd (I used DVD-R), I took the disk to four other different dvd-players and all worked great. I have not tried the DVD-RAM format, for while it appears to have the ability to create image menues (like you'll find on many professional dvds), it is reportedly much less compatible.<br />I've only had the until 3 weeks, so there's more testing and trails to go; but, thus far I feel it was worth every c-note.