Panasonic DMR-HS2 Progressive-Scan DVD Recorder/PVR with 40 GB Hard Drive (Silver)
HS2 beats VHS anyday
I just bought the Panasonic DMR-HS2 and my VCR will soon see the dumpster.  If you arent up to speed on DVD-RAM technology and recordable DVD, then you should get to an electronics store and test drive the HS2.  First of all, since these units are digital and have hard drives (same as your PC), you can record video or TV shows to the hard drive (40GB) and then burn a DVD-R copy for your friend who has a DVD player.  So thats something that single-cassette VHS machines couldnt do at all.  Also, I can plug my digital still or video camera SD card into the HS2 and edit my pictures into a video that I just shot.  RAM DISKS can also be re-recorded I think like a 100,000 times or something.  But the advantage of the RAM disc is that it allows you to store video, audio and photos.  Then with the hard drive you can back all that stuff up onto the drive and edit your own videos, since this thing also has great editing features.<br />And like TIVO (which I love, but see that with machines like TIVO wont be around much longer) you can record TV shows to the hard drive using VCR Plus codes or by setting the schedule yourself, even a month in advance.  So I would check one of these out, there great fun and youll be happy you broke-up with your VCR.