Got it as a discontinued product at Tweeter for only $288. Someone who didn't know how to use it had returned it. I could tell this by the fact the HDD was full of approx 1 hour shows with no content on any of them (evidently they didn't know which input to select when recording - it's called Ch.3 syndrome).
It also sounds remarkably refined as a CD player.
It offers four hours on a DVD-R without picture degradation and can record using DVD-RAM as well as some useful editing features for when you dump camcorder footage on the HDD for DVD-R conversion. I'll never need to buy another MiniDV tape again.
Fine Progressive Scan PB, DVD-Audio Hi-Rez playback and easy navigation with quality ergonomics complete the package. Once again, Panasonic come up with the goods on DVD. This is my third Panasonic DVD device and so far they've all been a lot better than the Sonys (too many 'stop' signs), Philips (unreliable and slow to respond) and Pioneers (harsh CD sound and crap menus) I've used previously. DVD players by HK and Onkyo have so far proven to be quite poor re-badged Indonesian offerings with lousey error correction and functionality.
Many Toshiba and Denon DVD players have also proven to be very impressive.