Hitachi DV PF73U - DVD/VCR combo
Almost Perfect - Buy It
I just got a good deal on one of these locally; I do not think there is another one that would have made me happier.  It has lots of great features, almost everything I wanted.<br />Here is what it lacks:  the included remote lacks some TV control features (TV/Video button does not work as desired, this is acknowledged in the manual, Channel up/down, Volume, Power only).  The rewind is not high speed, and it cannot be set to automatically turn the power off when tape is rewound (a nice feature of my old Magnavox).  The clock does not auto-set, but that was a dumb feature anyway I shut it off on my old Sony.  It does not have a fiber optic output, but who needs that anyway?  No VCR+ Codes input either.  The remote is a little long, but that's O.K.<br />This unit replaced a high end Sony that died too young (~3 Years).  I am one of those that actually knows how to program my VCR's, the programming on this one is easy &amp; basic, but could be better (they could have allowed numeric input rather than just up and down scrolling).  They also could have allowed programming from the front of the unit like my old Sony (boy was that every a great/easy way to program it).  I think there is a Sony model that offers that feature in a Combo unit, but it is not worth the price.<br />It does not say it has 19um heads, but the salesman said they all do now even the cheap ones.  I believe him because of other signs (no LP mode for recording only SP and EP also called SLP).<br />I say by it.  The only reason I did not give it the fifth star was the lack of a video input selection button on the TV portion of the remote.<br />Also be warned there are only 13 brands listed for the universal TV remote: Hitachi, Sony, RCA, Sanyo, Zenith, Panasonic, Sharp, Toshiba, JVC, Mitsubishi (which they spelled Mitubishi), Magnavox, Funai, Goldstar<br />Features I liked:<BR>VCR: Index mark and search, Auto Head Cleaner, 4 head HiFi Stereo, AutoSet 181 Channel Tuner, tape counter is displayed in hours:minutes:seconds,  two search speeds when Cueing and Reviewing, and OTR (they call it IRT).<BR>DVD: Progressive Scan selectable, parental lock, good component outputs on back, and many others.