Sony RDR-GX300 DVD Recorder
Excellent plain vanilla DVD-Recorder
I've owned the GX-300 for over 3 months now, and not experienced any problems or missed recordings.  Image quality on this (and Sony's other DVD recorder units) is second to none.  Excellent color and black reproduction, even on low settings.  I've used the second to worst quality setting (4 hours/disc) for most shows, and it looks good. <br /> <br />Recording and playing at the same time really does work, but it requires DVD-RW 2x discs formatted in VR mode (which makes them fairly incompatible with other DVD players or DVD-ROM drives).  Those discs can be hard to find, though I found Memorex 2x discs which I've been using with no issues.  (Ironically, the only Sony brand DVD-RW discs I've found turned out to be only 1x.)  If you want to frequently watch recorded shows on other units, then using DVD+RW or DVD-RW discs in Video mode is the way to go.  (Note that you can reformat DVD-RW discs to switch between Video or VR modes any time you want, you'd just lose the shows already on a disc) <br /> <br />The interface on the unit is good (although the remote layout could be improved).  It's similar to but better than Sony's old high end VCRs.  The list of times scheduled to be recorded visually warns you about overlapping times, and also shows you which shows you have enough space left to record.  That makes it possible to quickly check the unit before you go to sleep or before you leave for work to make sure you've got enough recording space for the day's shows.  I think it accepts up to 30 show times-a huge improvement over the 8 times many VCRs are limited to. <br /> <br />The only real \\"issue\\" to consider with this unit is whether a hard drive based unit would serve you better.  Although it's not QUITE as annoying as with a VCR, with this unit you're still having to constantly worry about whether you've got enough recording time left, and when shows are on.  It has to be programmed like a VCR with manual time settings.  After using a standard Tivo box for a few weeks I'm having trouble using anything but Tivo, as the Tivo service's \\"Season Pass\\" feature is almost worth the price by itself.  (Can be set to only record new episodes, grabs episodes regardless of when they're on, etc.) <br /> <br />That said, if you just want a basic DVD-recorder, you can't go wrong with this model!