Panasonic DMR-E20S DVD Recorder and Player, Silver
Not ready for the general public yet
I've had a similiar experience when I bought one of the first CD recorders years ago (HP).  The technology isn't ready yet.  First of all my $[money]Maxwell DVD RAM can't be formatted - it is 'locked' and the product won't let me unlock it until I format it ; but I can't format until it is unlocked.  The physical lock on the DVDRAM wasn't set.  Panasonic didn't provide a DVD-RAM disk or a DRD-R disk with the product.  I also bought a $12 DVD-R disk.  That worked, but it won't play on my Toshiba DVD player; it does play on my Samsung player; it poorly plays on a AudioVox personal DVD player (the player make a lot of noise like it doing lots of retries to get the data).  I also bought a bunch of cheaper (no name) DVD-R disks ...When using those disks, the unit turns itself off (no error messages) after exactly 30 seconds when recording.<br />I don't think I have a bad recorder; that's just the state of the technology.