I don't have much information to supply with this question (because I don't know what I'm doing), but I hope someone will have the patience to give it a shot.

I bought a Panasonic DMR-EZ37V DVD recorder, primarily to copy VHS tapes to DVD. The unit isn't hooked up to my TV yet. My plan was to make the DVDs as a Christmas surprise for my kids. (I'm copying old home movies.)

The instructions in the manual are straightforward: I'm supposed to insert a VHS tape into the unit, and then a blank DVD. Then I press the DVD copying button on the unit and hold it for three seconds. After that I press REC on the remote and the copying process should begin. When it does, the word COPY appears on the unit.

The first time I tried this, it went perfectly, and I ended up with a DVD. The same thing happened on the 8th try. Tries 2 through 7, and 9 through whatever, failed. COPY never appears on the unit. Instead, any number of other things will appear. Sometimes pressing REC seems to have no effect whatsoever; other times it will cause numbers to appear and change every time I press it.

I've tried starting from scratch, ejecting tape and DVD and turning off the power. Sometimes the DVD tray won't open, so I can't eject it.

I hope I don't have a defective unit, because I bought it several months ago and didn't use it until now.

Does any of this sound familiar to anyone. Is there something I can do that I haven't tried? Thanks very much!

Susan