I seem to have the exact same problem. My unit is Sansui VRDVD4005. It cost alot of money & I take real good care of it, I'm bummed!

Hello I also have a Sansui vcr/dvd combo. I have been trying to make this unit work for about 2 weeks and not until today I came with a solution. I tried many DVD-R and DVD-RW brands but all seems to fail, the original Drive a Pionner DVR-1060R do not accept disks more than 4x. I remember when I first bought this unit aprox on 2004 it came with a TDK DVD-RW 4x so I search on my old backups spindles and found a DVD-R verbatim market as 4x. I give it a try and the unit accept it the dub from VCR to DVD work as expected. So this tells me that the Sansui vcr/dvd combo was still working the only problem is that todays DVD's are most of the time 6x to 16x. So I decide to open an old PC I have at home and took out the DVD-RW drive (manufactured on 2003)it is a NEC ND-1300A and replace the installed Pionner DVR-1060R. To open the unit is fairly simple , just take the screws and the unit face plate. Be sure to handle it carefully since its made from plastic. Remove the old drive and replace it for the new one. Be sure to put the MASTER JUMPER on the new IDE DRIVE. I'm attaching some pictures for your convenience. Note: I'm using a pack of MAXEL DVD-RW 4x I will try later to put a 6x . Here is a pic of the Unit opened http://img19.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1sansuiunitopen.jpg Pic of Drive on the unit (back connectors) http://img3.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2sansuiunitdriveback.jpg Pic of the Pioneer specs http://img515.imageshack.us/my.php?image=3pioneerdvr1060r.jpg Pic of NEC Drive specs http://img515.imageshack.us/my.php?image=4necnd1300a.jpg Pic of Sansui Unit working after drive replaced http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?image=5sansuiwithnecworking.jpg