I brought this from Amazon a month ago and it works just as easy as a VHS recorder. All you need is a blank disk and tell it when to record and it will record with it's built in timer. I have been using several brands of DVD-R disk and only have problems with the cheap ones(i.e. no name brands). The problems only happen rarely. For example, the recording will stop and go to recovery mode. But don't worry if goes to recovery mode, previous recordings are not destroy. However, you can't record anymore to that disk. The recorder also uses DVD-RAM disk and this is my most favorite type of disk. It treats a DVD-RAM disk like a hard drive. There is no recovery mode or hiccups that I have seen happen to a DVD-RAM disk yet. ...