Philips DVDR72 Progressive-Scan DVD Player / Recorder
Awesome if you need a paperweight, so bad that Sony could have made it
Phillips is really giving Sony a run for their money as the least competent manufacturer of comsumer home electronics.  I was given a Phillips DVDR-985 to try out.  It was used so when it stopped working after one month I didn't question it.  I went out and bought a new unit.  The new unit (I think it was the DVDR-80) didn't do half the things the instruction book said it would.  I called the service department and they told me my model was the upgrade of the DVDR-985.  They couldn't explain how the DVD-R80 was an upgrade since it does far less than the 985.  After failing to explain how to work any of the functions the instructions said the machine was capable of, they told me I would need to get the DVDR-72 to get the features I had bought the machine for in the first place.  Naturally, the DVDR-72 was $200 more at the time.  The DVD-R72 I purchased worked for less than a year before it began failing to recognize not only the discs I had burned, but any disc at all.  I returned this as it was still under warranty and was given another DVD Recorder.  My second Phillips DVDR-72 worked for EIGHT MONTHS before the same thing started happening.  I have had good luck with my Phillips CD-R burner but I have a Phillips S-VHS VCR too and the image has never been as good as my twelve year old Panasonic standard VHS.  I don't think Phillips is capable of making any product with a video image.  I wish each member of their design team and the author of their 80 page instuction manual a swift kick to the groin.  Seriously.