Panasonic DMRE85HS Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive Recording
Easy to use DVD recorder
This Panasonic DVD recorder is very easy to use.  The only prerequisite is you know how to use a VCR.  Just pop in a DVD-R blank, pick the source, and hit record.  It's also a piece of cake to dub between the DVD and the hard drive.  I bought this after seeing a very positive review on cnn and I'm glad I bought a high quality namebrand.