I Thought I was taking a chance by buying this item "used." But it turned out to be a PERFECT purchase. All original packaging was there, all cables and documentation was there, as well as the remote control, which is critical.I bought this unit to replace a similar Panasonic item which was stolen, and I was happy to find that this new item plays all my previously recorded DVDs perfectly. (No tracking problems or incompatibilities.) Also, the item didn't seem to be "used" at all, although it does have the latest firmware installed which saved me a lot of time and effort. (Firmware installed by the seller! - Seller info below.)Unfortunately I live in an area with NO digital broadcast available at all. (Backside of Mt, Wilson in California.) I therefore cannot review the tuner side of this unit. My older Panasonic recorder didn't even have a tuner for that reason so I'm still a happy camper. As for everything else, it works as well as my old unit which means pure perfection in every way that I can measure. In addition, through the HDMI connection with my new Pioneer AV amplifier, the available surround audio is detected and selected, making the whole setup a dream to experience. (Watching my old DVD's is like seeing (hearing) them for the first time again!)One nice feature of Pioneer's DMR DVD recorders is the FR or Flexible Recording feature. It allows you to determine the recording speed according to the length of the program material. In this mode, even with a three-hour program, the final quality is nearly the same as SP speed. A lot of my old DVD's were recorded in this mode, and even though they play back fine on all normal players, I was a bit concerned about compatibility in this regard. (I needn't have worried, all my old disks play back fine.) I also have the ability to play CD's on this unit, even with mp3 tracks, and my old unit wouldn't do this.I highly recommend this unit to anybody, and especially thank the seller for a perfect purchase of a "used" item.(The Amazon seller was thatsmeinthecorner, who contacted me after the sale to make sure that I was satisfied. After this purchase, I will trust them completely.)

Like many other reviewers I found this worked perfectly at the beginning but after a year or so things started to go wrong. Distorted pictures and sound then nothing. Panasonic technical support couldn't help and only suggestion was to return it (at my expense) and pay $160 to get it fixed.I have many other very good Panasonioc products but their DVD (as well as DVD/VCR) recorders are ruining their reputation.

I purchased early in the HDTV game. So my Tau is "Ready" in 2004. Still a great TV but no tuner. I tried a Samsung that looked great but ABC HD station did not come in over the QAM tuner. We sent it back. Read the reviews of the EZ27K. Downloaded the manual and the firmware patches. Once I was happy I had all the stuff I needed (based on the reviews of errors) I purchased the unit. Very happy. The quality of the HD is great and NTSC stations are no worse than the TV's tuner. The auto setup worked fine. (I only have basic cable, up to channel 26 in my town.) I picked up all the free HD channels, and it intergrates the NTSC channels as well. (So i only need one remote to run the stuff.) I put "CARS" DVD in the system, set it for wide screen and 5.1 EX sound. The picture looks 10x better than the 480p Panasonic DVD player I have. (TV is 1080i) The upconversion is very inpressive. The optical out put activates 6.1 or 7.1 sound correctly.The down sides are few. The manual does not mention an ATSC or QAM so I thought I got the wrong unit. The settings for the TV screen are a little confusing. I just kepts making changes until it looked the best.It did not detect time using the auto function. That will be a problem when we lose power. My cable company does not seem to send Guide info so that is kind of sad to see that field empty. All in all i would recommend the unit.

My first dvd recorder is a stopgap measure until new over the air HiDef recorders hit the market. It probably will be at least a year or two before HD recorders come out and then they may be very expensive. Now I can wait for prices to drop and still enjoy primetime shows in high quality picture and sound. The recordings aren't high def (they are downconverted to 480) but look clear and you do get dolby digital 2.0. It easily beats my VCR. I prepared for some bugs in this early first generation model by reading reviews here and at AVS forum. If you buy or have bought this model, you should try this: disable the autoclock and set it manually and set DST(daylight savings time) to off. It has solved many problems that other people have had. I have lost two timer recordings so far: the shows never taped for some odd reason. The unit is slow and you must be patient. I recommend that you purchase the Panasonic DVD rams here on Amazon.I have a widescreen tv. These are the only discs that will preserve the widescreen image of primetime shows(WYSIWYG). If you use other discs, widescreen recordings are played back squashed into a 4:3 box on a widescreen tv. You then must use one of your tv picture modes to expand the image. Dvd rams also allow "chase playback" which allows you to watch a recording while the unit is still recording, acting much like a hard drive recorder does. No disc formatting or finalization is required so easy to use. Please note that these discs most likely can't be used on other dvd players. If you want to share with others, use the others..-r,+rw etc but know that you lose the features stated above. I'm generally happy with the unit and accept the slowness and possibleglitches. It is the best that I could do for now until the products become more refined and affordable hidef recorders hit the market. Picture looks near hidef to me on my 34"widescreen set (of course depending on recording speed)and the sound is clear too.