Panasonic DMR-EZ48VK 1080p Upconverting VHS DVD Recorder with Built In Tuner Review

I bought this unit because I frequently view both VHS tapes and rental DVDs. I do not use many of the other available features such as SD card or USB. The unit works reasonably well, but there are several design features that I find annoying, and I would have paid more (or less) to avoid them, had I known about them in advance:
1. The unit takes about 37 seconds to turn on, and about 15 seconds to turn off. Since I'm hooked up by satellite box to the TV via the unit, this means it takes the better part of a minute for me to get a picture when I "turn on" the TV. I don't like to leave the unit on all the time to avoid this problem, because it also produces a soft audible humming I find annoying when I do so.
2. The unit turns itself off at unpredictable intervals of several hours, which must be some kind of bug. It happens perhaps once every other day. It's annoying in the middle of a show, especially because it takes more than a minute to cycle all the way back on.
3. There is no dedicated button to switch from DVD to VCR. Instead, the remote controller has a "drive select" button, and to switch between modes, you must cycle slowly through all 4 options, waiting a couple of seconds for each switch - it doesn't remember how many pushes you've made, either, so you must actually watch the screen and wait for each mode change in sequence. I never use USB or SD modes, and switch frequently between VHS and DVD, so this is quite annoying.
4. The unit's default is DVD mode, so if you are watching a VHS after a break, you have to wait not only the 37 seconds for the unit to start, but then also slowly press the mode 3 times to return to VHS. I'd much prefer the unit remembered the last mode used, or came with dedicated mode buttons.
5. There is only 2x zoom available, and no ability to move about on the zoomed screen, quite inferior to the options I had with my prior Toshiba unit. Plus, the Toshiba unit had a simple button to toggle between standard view, 2x and 4x modes, and you could then also scroll around the magnified screen using the arrows. Using the inferior 2x-only zoom without scroll option on the Panasonic unit is paradoxically cumbersome and inconvenient: Press the "sub-menu" button; press the "down" arrow twice to select "zoom in"; and press the "OK" button. You have to go through all 3 steps to "un-zoom", again.
In summary, while the performance of the unit is adequate, the controls are rather poorly and clumsily designed, for the the way I use it, and I would not recommend it to a friend.

Buy it here now!