Panasonic DMRE85HS Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive Recording
An Excellent DVD Recorder.
First things first...I had a similar problem with this unit.<BR>I came home from work picked up the remote and attempted to turn on the unit and nothing happened. I then tried to turn it on via the power button and still nothing. I unplugged it, waited 5 minutes, and tried again and still nothing. The time was being displayed properly but it would not power up. I called Panasonic, described the above, and they directed me to return the unit. I brought home another unit and a day later had the same problem - but this time I read the manual a little closer and on page 50 across from &quot;The unit is on but cannot be operated&quot; it instructs you to reset the unit by holding down the power switch for 10 seconds. When I let go it began running a self test and was then fully functional again. I had the same problem again but this time was home to see the cause. It turns out that whenever there is a sudden loss of power (from the electric company) the unit will not power up without running the self test. I was upset that Panasonic did not tell me about the &quot;10 second power button reset&quot;.<BR>And now....<BR>This machine is a dream come true for me. I have been able to transfer all my non-dvd media (laser disc, vhs, and camcorder footage) to dvd-r. Never a problem with any recordings. It was so easy to transfer these recordings to the hard drive, edit them, and then burn to dvd-r with virtually no loss in picture quality. Take the time to read the manual and then just experiment, you will find it's not difficult to use. You can record to the hard drive and watch a dvd at the same time. The TV Guide Listings make timer recordings a breeze.