My purpose in buying this device was to transfer my edited digital home videos from camcorder to DVD disks via the firewire connection. It would invariably require several tries to get the recorder to recognize my camera. Much patience required. When I succeeded in making a transfer to a DVD disk, the sound was not synchronized with the video picture. The sound lagged a bit. Not so bad when you have music and scenery, but when someone is talking, as in an interview, it's disconcerting to the viewer. The device has been increasingly temperamental, and has finally refused to function. I am comforted in the thought that there are other poor souls sharing my frustration. Yeh, I get the "LOADING" signal too.