Toshiba RD-XS32 Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with 80 GB Hard Drive
Probably the best on the market right now
Looked real hard at offerings from Panasonic and Pioneer.  Panasonic's are solid, Pioneer's state-of-art, but in terms of flexibility and value (no sacrifice in quality, though), the Toshiba RD-XS32 beats all the others hands-down.  Three flexible recording formats, and also Firewire for camcorder connection.  Recording is fairly straightforward, and you can edit programs on the hard disk and burn them to a disc.  The exterior quality is not as polished as Panasonic but this baby does her work well internally.  I have no problem with any blackness issue so I don't know what the distractors were talking about.  I'm happy with this and I think anyone considering a stand-alone DVD recorder should take a serious look at this.