Sony RDR-VX500 DVD Player/Recorder with VCR
DVD? YES; VCR? NO!!!
Unfortunately, my experience with this unit hasn't been totally satisfactory. In the four months that I've had it, its been in the shop twice. Since each repair visit takes on average about a month, I've only had two months of use. <br /> <br />I'll start with the positive. The dvd portion is great. I've had no problem either playing or recording dvds on this unit. The instructions are easy to follow, and the end result speaks for itself.  The one slight drawback is that it takes about two minutes to load and format a recordable dvd . So you can't put in your disc and expect to start recording immediately. If you do that, you're going to miss the first two or so minutes of your program. I would advise people to load/format recordable dvds ahead of time, so that you have them on hand for those unexpected recordings. <br /> <br />The major disappointment has been the vcr portion. From day one, tapes that were recorded on other units would not play on it. By the same token, tapes recording on this unit would not play on other vcrs. After noticing this, I took the unit in to be fixed (by Best Buy). A month later, I got it back and found the same problem. So I took it right back (to Best Buy). A month later, I got it back and found the same problem. <br /> <br />In the end, the vcr portion has been \\"repaired\\" twice, yet still has the same problem. Not wanting to lose the use of the dvd portion for another month, I just  hooked up my vcr to it, and use that when I want to view my old vhs tapes. It works out fine. But if I had known this was going to happen, I would have just bought a SONY dvd recorder, and saved myself the hassle and the money.