Boring but still needed: which VHS VCR?

Sugarbrie, Hodie, Jameswei, Drive: Thanks for your comments. I realize that in the last few years VCR's have cheapened considerably, in price as well as quality. My dilemma is what's best I can do now.

Buying an older mint unit is an obvious thought, but I don't know how to go about that in a reliable way, if you can trust what people say on eBay about their used machines. Once I bought a few children's clothes on eBay and realized that anything that wasn't shredded got described as "mint". So I am nervous about used on eBay.

I'll see if I can find an old *unused* unit, however. Please suggest a few more well-made models from the past.

If I can't find them, I am still open to ideas on what will make most sense among today's models.

While brooding over what to buy to replace our dead VHS VCR, I became aware of one more consideration.

Presently we have one of the older analog TV's. Within 1-2 years we will probably buy an LCD HDTV. Given the uqality of broadcasts and our cable company, we are likely to continue watching off-air with antenna.

Question: what to I have to look for in the new VCR so it would work with my present TV as well as the future one?

Ckorody: We already have a dvd player. We use vcr for two reasons. To watch legacy tapes we own (maybe these should be converted to dvd as you say), and to tape certain tv programs. If the latter can be done conveniently and inexpensively with a digital gadget, we might as well ditch the vcr.

What is the least expensive digital solution to for recording about 6 hours worth of programs? I am talking off the air tv, not tivo etc.