The Sony SLV-N99 : Still Need a VCR?
Written: Jan 16 '03 (Updated Jan 17 '03)
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Pros: Good looks, good playback, good remote
Cons: You get what you pay for...
The Bottom Line: A good VCR, but not worth its price.
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| AVaddict's Full Review: Sony SLV-N99 VHS VCR |
A Little Background
This VCR is being played through a Sony STR-DA4ES to a Sony KV-40XBR800 using relatively good cables and evaluated with relatively good, and some appropriately bad, VHS movies, TV recordings, and live footage. There's nothing really very special about the rest of the set up, I just mention it for reference sake.
Product and Features
This is a standard VHS VCR, it is not an S-VHS unit. It will play and record on standard VHS tapes, whether from another VCR, TV, DVD, or live source. This VCR has the basic 181 channel tuner we have come to expect and an eight event/one year record timer. It has exposed front panel inputs as well as those on the rear giving a grand total of 3 a/v in, 2 a/v out.
It has a "clear" pause and ff/rw mode set that are not bad at all, but leagues away from DVD quality. This player does have an index search feature that is very useful if the tape played is labeled with such marks, but it is a little inaccurate as is the commercial skip feature, though functional none the less.
The N99 also has a few digital features like its Reality Regenerator that is intended to clean up poorly mastered, poorly recorded, or heavily played media. Sometimes this feature helps, but as I have mentioned in other reviews, often times it seems to saturate the image, making matters worse, if there is a noticeable change at all.
This player is compatible with the Sony Control-S set-up (if you have a Sony TV or receiver). This unit has other features, but quite frankly nothing that sets it apart from the pack, including lower priced better performing units like a Panasonic or JVC 5901 or below, the latter being S-VHS and is fully backward compatible.
Performance
This VCR is not a bad little deck. It performs well with newer rental videos and even better with DVD copies I made on my Sony SLV-998HF for test purposes. Some lame live video from the old family archives proved that occasionally the Reality Regenerator feature helps, clearing up the backgrounds and enhancing the overall color.
This player records admirably well from TV as well as from DVD and my VHS deck. It is quite easy to use the VCR Plus Gold if you are in an area that doesn't yet support fully digital (transfer, not broadcast) cable, or may be in transition. It is intuitive for the most part and easy to program, so all bases are covered. Lastly, most functions are easy to control from the remote...speaking of...
Remote
The remote for Sony's VCRs hasn't changed a whole heck of a lot in the past few years. It is slim, light, pretty straight forward (do yourself a favor, read the manual), and doesn't kill the batteries at all. Everything is laid out pretty clearly IMO, but some of the buttons could have a more unique placement or shape. The majority of the keys are glow in the dark and although the glow doesn't last long, it's still helpful.
Final Thoughts
These days compared to DVD, VCRs are lame to say the least, but so many of us have extensive VHS collections that occasionally one has to get a new VHS player, and thank goodness they are so much cheaper now. The downside to that (if you can imagine a downside to "cheaper") is that true high end VHS and S-VHS player are few and very far between. Of course, if you are looking at this review, the aforementioned issue isn't one to begin with.
Ultimately this a good little VCR, but the truth is there are better units that are S-VHS and are substantially cheaper than this player, by almost $50. I think the warranty on this is 1yr parts / 90 parts which is certainly par for the course for VCRs in this range. Assuming you don't drop it repeatedly, you ought to fine. Should you buy this VCR? If picture quality is not a premium and you utilize the Control S, you'll be happy, otherwise get a JVC, you'll be happier.
Edited 1/17/03 to add hyperlink
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 139.99
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AVaddict
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