Panasonic DMR-ES20K DVD Recorder
Part credit for part working
This is the first consumer audio/video product I've ever bought that will routinely freeze up so badly that not even the POWER ON switch will work. Yes, the device can screw itself up so that you have to unplug it to bring it back to life.    I bought this device for two purposes: to record off Tivo and to make copies of DV tapes, generally using DVD-R disks. Tivo recording works OK - as long as you don't inadvertently try to record a show that's somehow copy protected. The unit puts up a banner warning about recording protected content. Then it freezes. Time to unplug.    The DV tape connection is VERY unreliable. If I try to record more than 20 minutes at a time, the unit freezes again. And time to unplug again. It takes some fooling around to copy a tape, but the results can be good.     The unit doesn't require you to finish a DVD-R disk in a single session - you can take it out and add more material later. In order to make the DVD-R readable you have to \\"finalize\\" it, and this is also an unreliable operation. About half the time I've \\"finalized\\" a DVD, the operation has failed.    Un-finalized disks aren't a total loss - you can usually still play them in the unit itself. You just can't play the DVDs elsewhere or retrieve the video files on a computer. Like others, I have uneven luck playing finalized DVDs in other players.    The unit supports \\"DVD RAM\\" media - some special version of rewritable DVD. Some functions, if they work at all, work best when using DVD RAM. This includes the DV tape connection. The downside is that none of my other DVD readers (computer based or AV product based) can read the things.    Another reviewer noted that you have to connect this beast to an RF input. That's true, but only when first installing it (and only unplug the unit briefly when it freezes). It insists on scanning the channels on an RF connection (any will do) before it can convince itself that the customer has really finished setting it up. This is a 1990s VCR mentality that's obsolete in the time of Tivo.