Panasonic PV-V4022 4-Head Mono VCR
Excellent choice all around
Turns out (I guess) it's mono (not stereo) but I hadn't noticed.<br />The price is right and it's easy to record.  One touch of record starts the recording process.  Need it to record for a prescribed amount of time?  Just hit the record button again and you'll see on the t.v. screen momentarily that it will record for 1 hour.  Need 2 hours?  Simply hit the record button once more.<br />We haven't tried programming days in advance, but we were able to program it hours in advance (same day) and that was easy enough.<br />It comes with a remote control which works well with both the unit itself and a Panasonic t.v. if you have one.  My only suggestion is a MUTE button, which I don't see.<br />We bought it so when VHS is phased out we'll still have a reliable unit to play our old tapes on in case our other VCR stopped working.  Turns out we like this unit so much, we retired our other unit and are keeping it for backup instead!