PANASONIC DMR-E320 / WORTH IT?

[hangzen]

Hey All:

Thinking of purchasing the Recordable Panasonic DMR-E320 DVD player. Primarily I want to burn DVD home movies that I have edited onto Digital Video Tape (I know, I know I should probably get a PC DVD burner 1st however, I have allready mastered the capturing, editing, and transfer to VHS).

The big plus is the fact that I can take VHS tapes in our collection (i.e. wedding, baby ultrasound, etc.) and transfer it to digital DVD.

I'm not even considering the fact that this unit can totally replace my VHS recorder as the way we tape shows (this one my wife likes).

My questions are this:

1) How easy is this unit to use?
2) When I Record from my digital video camera to DVD can I insert chapters for quick reference?
3) Forgetting about progressive scan, how does this unit compare to the Phillips?
4) Are there other machines to consider (not going to spend over $1K though)
5) Is it just damn cool to own?

Thanks for any comments on 1 - 5...

HZ

[Redbeard]

I have a Panasonic DMR-E20
1. Unit is very easy to use. Just like a VCR.
2. The only way to insert chapters is to record each chapter separately, i.e. starting and stopping the recording for each chapter.
3. Sorry, don't know about the Philips
4. Haven't tried any other machines
5. Yes! It's fantastic! Quality can't be beat! I've recorded movies from DirecTV onto DVD-R and they are virtually indistinguishable from the store bought DVD movies. Highly recommend it!

[leebo]

The Panasonic inserts chapters every ten minutes, though there are no menu buttons to access them. You have to hit the "next" button (>>|) on your remote.

Hitting stop and record creates a new button for each new recording.

[Redbeard]

Yep, leebo, that is correct, although I think it's every 5 minutes. But, what I meant was that the only way to insert Titled chapters was to record each chapter separately.