It has been a horrible year of replacing electronics one at a time. Now my vcr/dvd player is dead and I want another combo unit. It does not need to be a dvd recorder. I talked to a local repair man and he said to try to find one made in Japan or South Korea. It seems that the ones I found locally are all made in China. Can you guys make any suggestions before I go crazy trying to find a reliable unit? Thanks you!

You're going to have very hard time. Almost all mid to lower end electronics are made in China (even a lot of high end). This one is kind of a dying breed on top of that. You're best bet is to look for a highly rated one (from a reputable company) with a decent warranty.

Thank you for your reply! I've seen Sony, Samsung, and Toshiba locally. The warranty is about the same on each. Which of these companies or brands would be most reputable? Thanks again!

It seems like standard DVD players, combos in particular, are a dying breed. I use to be a big fan of Sonys but starting this year they look much cheaper than previous years and they've also dropped some of the features I appreciated in the past.
Samsung use to make a decent combo but I haven't checked them recently. Unless you get a definitive answer to your question I'd probably use the weight test. That is generally the better made a piece of electronics is, the more it will weigh. Things that are feather light are generally all plastic, although finding something made out of anything other than plastic is getting harder and harder to find:( I refuse to buy anything without a metal top which is also getting harder and harder to find. Good luck:)

I'd suggest you to have a close look at the LITE ON brand. They do have a decent VHS/DVD recorder combo, which even records CD-Audio though.
I still have one (model 9001 I think) and it's up and running, but it's made in China, as basically the rest of all electronics nowadays. Wish you luck :)