I have had a lot of trouble with the JVC, as have others that I know. Is the Panasonic basically the same item, just with the Panasonic name?

Eric,
I have 4 working 2500's in a student edit suites that have been in operation for around 3 years. They are great decks. Every once in a while we need to run a tape cleaner through them or hand clean the heads, but that is to be expected when you have multiple users and can't control the type of media they use. The only con for the decks are that they don't play back DVCpro and possible DVcam. I've never tried DVcam. Other than that, great reliable deck for the price. IMHO

I'm looking at these two decks, and am wondering if anyone has any input to add...

I shoot with a Canon GL2 using Panasonic tapes (though some clients do tend to give me footage on Sony tapes) and edit in FCP 4.5 HD.

They appear to be the same machine, just a different brand. However, Panasonic seems to not have FW support when interfacing with FCP 4.5 HD (see https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/sales_o/ieee1394/index.html).

EDIT: According to http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/resources/devicelist.php, the Panasonic AG-DV2500 is qualified for FCP HD 4.5 (FireWire NTSC Basic profile).