Have been waiting for two years for price to come down on DV camcorders, and still wanted to do analog to digital encoding for old Hi8 and VHS tapes. This unit is the best I have found so far, and I have been using it on the road for the last 4 weeks without problems. Reliable hardware, intuitive on-screen menus, makes shooting, playback and dubbing a snap. And did I mention the weight, barely more than a digital camera? I also purchased Pinnacle Instant CD/DVD for capture and DVD burning: what used to take me 2 hours in encoding and editing takes me about 30 min, with a better end product.