Broken DVD burner in my Panasonic DMR-XW300

I have a Panasonic HDD/DVD recorder (DMR-XW300) connected to my TV.  It lets me record TV programs, and later burn them to DVD.  I've had it for about 3 years, and I've been very happy with it.  Its user interface is nicer than many similar recorders that were made after it.  Recently something has gone wrong with the DVD burner.  Whenever I close the DVD drawer the drive makes a grinding noise, and it the TV screen shows a message saying it cannot read the disc.  This even happens when there is no disc in the drawer.

I've been trying to decide what to do.  I see my options as:

1. Replace it.
2. Repair it myself.
3. Get someone else to repair it.

I don't want to replace it, because it's working fine apart from the DVD drive, and I think that replacing the whole unit would be expensive, and there's a chance a new one would not be as user-friendly as my old one.

I've got some time on my hands (it's Christmas holidays at the moment) so I decided to try to repair it myself.  I did some research and found a guy on youtube who replaces the drive in a DVD player with one hand, while filming himself with the other hand and listening to blues.  If he can do it with one hand in a few minutes then surely I can do it too.

I took a screwdriver to the case and opened it up.  Unlike the guy on youtube, my recorder doesn't seem to have a generic IDE/PATA drive.  Instead it connects with some cabling and connections I've never seen before.  On top of the drive is printed VXY2012.  I found on Google that VXY2012 parts are supplied by PAVCSG, which is some division of Panasonic in Singapore.  So now I'm waiting to hear back from a Panasonic spare parts supplier to see whether I can get a replacement drive from them.

I'll post updates of how I go getting the replacement drive and installing it.