Sony SLV-N900 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR, Black
Excellent VCR, very good picture quality
This is about as good of a VHS VCR you will find.  If you want better quality and more features, look SVHS.  But if you want a solid, old school VHS player/recorder, this is an excellent choice.  The jog-dial recording system is a BREEZE: your 80 year old grandmother could program this VCR.  Its also got excellent picture quality on both commercial recordings and my old personal recordings, and content recorded on the SLV-N900 is also very good for VHS.  I love the commercial advance feature, which I relied upon until I got Tivo, and also the high-speed rewind and fast forward features.  But hey, its a VCR.  Not exactly cutting edge tech, now is it.  If you must get one, I recommend this one.  Sony seems to be one of the only companies that still delivers a quality VHS VCR, despite their early fumbles with rival Betamax!