First off, this isn't that bad of a machine. However, it had some annoying features that caused me to return it. I would really rate this between 2 and 3 stars, but since you only get whole stars, I went 2 on it. But, that 2 is just because of what I found wrong with this machine as far as what I wanted from it.
First off, the picture is not that bad. Also, playback is not noisy and the picture and sound is pretty good. Having audio inputs on the front is great. Also, the programmeable timer options are great.
But, I had some problems with this machine. Two of them are not fixeable due to the design. The other might be due to a bad machine, but I'm not sure. However, the first two points I cover are the reasons why I returned this unit and gave it a 2 star rating.
Reason 1 why this machine went back - in order for the timer recording to work, you have to press a TIMER button on the remote. Hello! This is NOT the 1980's. Yes, that is what the OLD VCRs did, but in this day and age, you normally just program the time you want to record and then turn the VCR off. It wouldn't be so bad with the timer button IF it were on the machine as well, but you have to do it from the remote. If you lose the remote, you're out of luck. This alone was the major deciding factor in why I returned this unit. Plus, since my wife is the primary user of this machine, she found that to be annoying. She doesn't want to have to hunt for the "other" remote just to turn off the machine and put it back into timer mode. You see, I have it set up to record her Y&R on a daily basis. If we stayed with this machine and she just hit the power button on the remote (as she has done for 10+ years on our previous VCR), the timer would never kick off and record the show for the next day. Oh boy. If THAT happened, I would NEVER hear the end of it! ;)
Reason 2 - The remote ONLY works with JVC TVs. You CANNOT program it to work with other TVs. On top of that, I could NOT for the life of me get this VCR to work with my universal remote that I already own. I use that remote for my TV, the cable box as well as the old VCR. Now, I normally probably wouldn't care too much about this, but since my wife is the main user of this VCR, she DOES care about it. She doesn't like having to hunt for multiple remotes.
Reason 3 - This didn't necessarily cause me to return it, but it is an annoyance and possibly, it was due to a faulty machine. But, reasons 1 and 2 had already made me decide to return it, but I wanted to let people know about this possible problem. The auto-tracking is VERY slow and some tapes that I have that I KNOW work fine in HiFi mode apparently could not be adjusted to stop noisy playback. The tracking seemed off and the HiFi sound was awful for some tapes. Playing them in another machine resulted in clear playback. Also, it seemed at the beginning of a recording, the picture was bad for about 10 seconds as if the tracking were off and then it finally fixed itself. This is kind of annoying if you can't see the beginning of your recording. Normally, when I program the timer, I give myself 5 minutes before and after the program's time. However, there are times when something comes on that I want to see and I have to hit the record button right there. With this machine, I would possibly have to sit through 10+ seconds of snowy picture before it clears up. This seemed to happen time and time again as I tested the recording function. Again, this might be due to a faulty machine. I even ran a head cleaner through the machine and that didn't help.
However, if annoyances 1 and 2 mean nothing to you, then this machine is not that bad of a buy. Some stated it ate tapes as soon as they got it home. Others have stated noisy playback from the machine itself. I experienced no such problems, but of course, I only had the machine for 1 night and exchanged it for a Panasonic, which DOESN'T require you to hit a timer button AND it's remote could control my TV AND my universal remote can be programmed to control the Panasonic VCR.
I guess the best bet is to try it out for yourself. I myself didn't like some of the "features" it had and returned it promptly.
First off, this isn't that bad of a machine. However, it had some annoying features that caused me to return it. I would really rate this between 2 and 3 stars, but since you only get whole stars, I went 2 on it. But, that 2 is just because of what I found wrong with this machine as far as what I wanted from it. First off, the picture is not that bad. Also, playback is not noisy and the picture and sound is pretty good. Having audio inputs on the front is great. Also, the programmeable timer options are great. But, I had some problems with this machine. Two of them are not fixeable due to the design. The other might be due to a bad machine, but I'm not sure. However, the first two points I cover are the reasons why I returned this unit and gave it a 2 star rating. Reason 1 why this machine went back - in order for the timer recording to work, you have to press a TIMER button on the remote. Hello! This is NOT the 1980's. Yes, that is what the OLD VCRs did, but in this day and age, you normally just program the time you want to record and then turn the VCR off. It wouldn't be so bad with the timer button IF it were on the machine as well, but you have to do it from the remote. If you lose the remote, you're out of luck. This alone was the major deciding factor in why I returned this unit. Plus, since my wife is the primary user of this machine, she found that to be annoying. She doesn't want to have to hunt for the "other" remote just to turn off the machine and put it back into timer mode. You see, I have it set up to record her Y&R on a daily basis. If we stayed with this machine and she just hit the power button on the remote (as she has done for 10+ years on our previous VCR), the timer would never kick off and record the show for the next day. Oh boy. If THAT happened, I would NEVER hear the end of it! ;)
Reason 2 - The remote ONLY works with JVC TVs. You CANNOT program it to work with other TVs. On top of that, I could NOT for the life of me get this VCR to work with my universal remote that I already own. I use that remote for my TV, the cable box as well as the old VCR. Now, I normally probably wouldn't care too much about this, but since my wife is the main user of this VCR, she DOES care about it. She doesn't like having to hunt for multiple remotes. Reason 3 - This didn't necessarily cause me to return it, but it is an annoyance and possibly, it was due to a faulty machine. But, reasons 1 and 2 had already made me decide to return it, but I wanted to let people know about this possible problem. The auto-tracking is VERY slow and some tapes that I have that I KNOW work fine in HiFi mode apparently could not be adjusted to stop noisy playback. The tracking seemed off and the HiFi sound was awful for some tapes. Playing them in another machine resulted in clear playback. Also, it seemed at the beginning of a recording, the picture was bad for about 10 seconds as if the tracking were off and then it finally fixed itself. This is kind of annoying if you can't see the beginning of your recording. Normally, when I program the timer, I give myself 5 minutes before and after the program's time. However, there are times when something comes on that I want to see and I have to hit the record button right there. With this machine, I would possibly have to sit through 10+ seconds of snowy picture before it clears up. This seemed to happen time and time again as I tested the recording function. Again, this might be due to a faulty machine. I even ran a head cleaner through the machine and that didn't help. However, if annoyances 1 and 2 mean nothing to you, then this machine is not that bad of a buy. Some stated it ate tapes as soon as they got it home. Others have stated noisy playback from the machine itself. I experienced no such problems, but of course, I only had the machine for 1 night and exchanged it for a Panasonic, which DOESN'T require you to hit a timer button AND it's remote could control my TV AND my universal remote can be programmed to control the Panasonic VCR. I guess the best bet is to try it out for yourself. I myself didn't like some of the "features" it had and returned it promptly.