A good recorder once you upgrade the firmware

I bought this recorder about a year ago, mainly to be able to backup the content of my Explorer 8300HD Digital Video Recorder.

I immediately noticed that the auto clock setting which use a signal broadcasted by PBS didn't work. It was a minor annoyance. Other more annoying problems were:

- Finalized discs would lock-up on some computers.
- Some programmed shows would not record even if the disc did have enough space available.
- The unit would freeze if you tried to eject a just finalized disc before exiting the menu.

I recently went to the Panasonic website and I downloaded a firmware upgrade (version U3-158 dated 2006/07/03).

The firmware upgrade fixed the first three problems (I didn't check for the last).

I downloaded the firmware on the Canadian website (I'm from Canada).
http://www.panasonic.ca/PDP/Software/dmres20.zip
I noticed that the US website only list the version U3-150 dated 2005/12/02 which may not fix the problems I had. I don't know if you can upload a Canadian firmware on a US model. Do it at your own risks.

Overall, the picture and sound quality is very good when you record at 2 hours per disc. Even at the LP setting (4 hours per disc) the picture quality is still good.

Once the firmware is upgraded, it's a good machine.