Panasonic DMR-ES20K DVD Recorder
Replaces my VCR and 5 year old dvd player
Works great!  DVD RAM prices are down and with 100,000 writes even when finalized this is the way to make video recordings or to back up your old tapes.  I was able to get it to work right away and it is much easier to use than my old broken VCR.  It is so small compared to my other non- progressive scan DVD player, but the picture seems to be a bit crisper in resolution.  I am very happy with the performance so far.  The recordings have higher resolution than VCR tapes and 4 hours on a DVD ram disk is decent. The manual is complete and easy to read.  Panasonic has been the best and most reliable brand for me.  The other Panasonic unit it replaced is good as new but cannot record.