Panasonic DMR-EZ47VK

Pros: Great recording quality

Cons: dig pic to widescreen is lacking; lost capabilities i had with previous Samsung DVD recorder/VHS unit; the manual is terrible.

Summary: Just bought this to replace my dying Samsung DVDRecorder/VHS unit.

Immediately noticed the controls are much more difficult and much less intuitive. Cannot continue to use DVD-Rw in VR mode and cannot now edit on the DVD-RW !!! This is a major change from the Samsung, which let me choose to format the DVD-RW either as (v) or (vr) and then let me edit parts of segments out, let me delete any recorded portion and then free up the space for re-use. On this recorder, only (v) is offered, and unless what you delete is the last recorded piece, you do NOT get to use the freed up space.

I haven't decided yet if this is a deal breaker. I have another 27 days to decide if this goes back.

I like the obvious quality build.

I have it hooked up with HDMI to my TV for DVD and composite for the VHS. There seems to be quite a quality drop off thru the HDMI versus the composite and versus my TV tuner, watching without this machine's effects.

I have reviewed the settings multiple times, find the manual of no help, and will call the tech folks after the weekend about this.

I guess I just wish that the real capabilities of this model were more readily knowable by me before I purchased.