Samsung SV-5000W Worldwide VHS Format VCR
Brilliant
I don't know about the long term durability of this product, but having owned mostly Sony audio and video units, this seems well built and does a fantastic job of playing our sometimes really old Pal videos.  It's also useful if you need to copy Pal to NTSC or vice versa.  The output quality is great and there are more features than we even need.  We've had it for a year now and no problems at all.  It gets used a LOT, and it seems to be holding up just fine.<br /><br />Update: It's 2014 and this thing still works even after being semi-abused by a young boy for the past 8 years or so (that's when it went in his room). I could never sit and watch anything on video anymore, but if you still dying to watch those old Pal programmes from the 80's, this is the product for you!