I have had this for sometime now and overall is 4 out of 5 as its never let me down.
However the technology moves so fast that it now seems outdated.
To set the backgound i love panasonic even though i have tried sony amongst others i just like panasonic.
The unit was a definate step up from what i had previously and i even bought my dad the same unit for christmas.
I have confidence in the build quality which has never let me down and it is quite easy to use for the simple functions ie, hdd recording and dvd playing.
The downside are only niggles but they do mount up
The guide screen with like it seems all other panasonic products means you cannot watch an inscreen caption of the channel that is currently on so you sit there looking at a screen with no sound. I think this was to subconciously get you to perform the programming as quickly as possible. It is annoying thougth.
The 160gb hard drive is quite limited. you soon fill up the capacity and have to delete or watch items quicker than you would want and this is on standard def not hi def which reduces the capacity significantly.
Newer machines have a lot larger capacity and i believe they have changed the guide screen so you can watch in picture.
Apart from that i would buy for the hardware quality and ease of use. But i would but a newer higher capacity model