When lightning strikes....can VCR replacement be far behind?
Written: Feb 07 '01 (Updated Feb 08 '01)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
|
|
| Picture Quality: |
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Easy to set up, performs magnificently.
Cons: Minor inconveniences; nothing to really complain about.
The Bottom Line: I am very pleased with this machine and was overjoyed with the price. I would recommend it to anyone.
|
|
|
| patsyv's Full Review: RCA VR622HF VHS VCR |
Living in Florida, one must endure lightning strikes and power surges. One day, both of our TVs and both of our VCRs started acting very oddly. Although all of our appliances
are supposedly protected by power surge suppressors, something electrical must have happened. At first, the only damage was that the TVs could not receive cable signals directly; the cable signal had to go through the VCR tuners in order for the TVs to work. Soon, both VCRs failed to operate properly. Bummer!
My sweetie bought a Sony VCR, but I waited until I found an RCA Stereo VCR at K-Mart selling for only $88. Wow! My last RCA VCR cost about $450. That was about six years ago.
My new VCR is a VR623HF. It is smaller and lighter than my old one. It lacks a few features that the old one had, but I am very pleased with both the price and the performance of my new VCR.
First, the bad things. The display does not show both the time and the channel. When the channel is changed, the channel number flashes briefly on the display panel and then the time returns. When changing channels, there is a blue screen on the TV for one or two seconds before the new channel shows up. This is very distracting. However, the channel number, the time, and sometimes the channel name all are displayed on the TV screen for about two seconds.
On the remote control, the record button is too easy to push accidentally. I now have about one minute of an old Seinfeld rerun in the middle of a letterbox copy of "Lawrence of Arabia." I just wanted to stop the movie briefly, so I could get a cup of coffee, and the record button accidentally got pushed after I had pressed Stop. Fortunately I noticed the large REC on the display panel, or else I would have had five minutes of an old Seinfeld rerun in the middle of my movie.
Now, the good things. This VCR is very friendly. When you turn it on, it says "HI." At first I wondered why the display said "8YE" every time I turned it off. One day I realized it said "BYE." As I said, it is very friendly.
It is amazing how easy it is to insert a cassette. I had to firmly push cassettes into my old machine. This one just gently takes it out of your fingertips and quietly lowers it into the machine. The first time I tried to remove a cassette, I couldn’t figure out how to do it. There is no "Eject" button on the machine or on the remote. The instructions said to press and hold the stop-eject button or the stop button on the remote. Dumb me! I was pressing the power button. (It stops it, doesn’t it?) I finally figured it out. The tape ejects quickly and quietly. A tape can be ejected even if the power is off.
This VCR does not have a commercial skip (it does have a fast forward---same thing, but you time it yourself). It does have automatic tracking and if you hit the power button when it is rewinding, the machine will shut itself off when the tape is fully rewound. When recording, it puts an index mark at the beginning of each recording. This will later assist you in locating the program you want to play.
The machine has auto clock set, so that the correct time is picked up from stations that broadcast this information. I tried this, but Channel 5 set the clock about 2 1/2 hours slow, and then Channel 11 not only gave me the wrong time, it put the date back three days. Well, this is Florida. What can you expect. I now set the clock manually. At least I know what day it is.
In addition to the usual input and output jacks at the rear of the machine, there are audio and video input jacks on the front of the machine. These can receive signals from a camcorder or another VCR. Use Input on the remote to select "L2" to record from these jacks.
The 55 page instruction manual is very easy to understand. I had the VCR up and running in about 20 minutes.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 88.00
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
patsyv
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Pat
Location: Florida
Reviews written: 55
Trusted by: 194 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.