JVC HR-XVC33U Progressive-Scan DVD/VCR Combo , Silver
Best value for the price!
The JVC HR-XVC33U is amazing!  I've played several DVDs, store-bought videos, audio CDs, and a CD-R that contained audio and JPEGs.  Everything played beautifully.  At first I had some problems playing DVDs but after cleaning the DVDs it worked fine (whew!).  After reading about so many lemons out there involving combo DVD/VCRs, I consider myself lucky! [knock on wood]<br />Some other nice features are DVD Zoom (very cool!), diff. FFWD/RWD speeds, bookmarking, index skipping, front A/V inputs, excellent remote that controls TV/VCR/DVD, and VCR timer recording (up to 1 month).<br />I did some serious research and price comparisons on several combo DVD/VCR players before deciding on the JVC HR-XVC33U.  In the end I picked the JVC model because it seemed to be plagued by *less* problems than the other models, had a huge feature set, and was cheap compared to other models in its class.<br />The Sony SLV-D300P has almost identical features plus Flash Rewind and looks nicer but costs about $25 more.  The Sony SLV-D500P has identical features and VCR+ and an illuminated remote but costs about $35 more.  Other competitors in its class were: Toshiba SD-V391 (different model had very low rating on Consumer Reports - bad sign), Panasonic PV-D4743K/S (can't record DVDs, about $10 more than JVC, but plays DVD Audio which is rare), and Samsung DVD-V3650 (the consistently bad ratings on every Samsung model told me to run away fast).<br />One thing you need to be careful of is that combo DVD/VCRs sometimes skimp on features you would expect in a standalone DVD or VCR player such as VCR+, front A/V inputs, VCR timer recording, and DVR-to-VCR recording.  Also, I suspect that the many reviewers who reported DVD playback problems (I'm talking about for ALL combo DVD/VCR players not just JVC) didn't try cleaning the DVD first.<br />I would definitely recommend getting the JVC!!