I have had this 05 unit for 5 months, it has worked very well. However, it has some bugs with the display and power on button. As of now, it will not power up and the clock flashes for a few milliseconds. I have unplugged it to clear any data, have used the reset with paperclip above the DV IN, have verified it is plugged in properly in the back and to my electrical source. The remote will not start it. I have had this problem before and resolved it by holding the ON button down for 5 seconds (it took several tries) but that does not work now. (i unplugged the unit due to a very severe storm) I have a ton of disks that are not finalized and all that time would be wasted if i can't get this unit up, as they will not play in another unit. I am finished with ilo products after i resolved this, i saw a new panasonic dvd recorder at circuit city/walmart for 160$. P.S. I bought a second ilo unit in feb 2006 but returned it after a month cause of excessive skipping. Stay away from cheap products!
I can't help you with the power problem but I may be able to help you recover those unfinalized discs ... You can use either NeroVisionExpress or IsoBuster to copy unfinalized DVD-VR discs ... http://www.isobuster.com/
here's an update in case someone has a similar problem. Holding the record button down for 5 or more seconds is what got it to start up. I tried this many, many times but it finally worked. I was able to finalize most of my discs, but it was a nightmare, ...the tray would not open, it would not read discs, it would say no disc etc... anyway, i got it up and was able to finalize most of my discs. just bought a new panasonic for 170$ at walmart and it is awesome.
My friend owned this unit for about a year and did nothing but complain about it. It died this last weekend (wouldn't even power on). Having had problems with power supplies in units similar to this before, I opened it up to find one of the capacitors had a distended cap. I replaced it with a new one of the same value and now the unit works a treat. It also runs other region dvd's just by hitting 1 on the remote after it tells you the disk is the wrong region. It seems a lot of cheaper units on the market in the last couple of years have had very "iffy" power supplies. Just remember to have the thing unplugged when you open it up. Hope this helps.
