RCA Does it again!
Written: Dec 17 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lightweight, RCA, Commercial Advance, too many to mention
Cons: None, easy to use
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| Magick1's Full Review: RCA VR692HF VHS VCR |
We have had a VCR for a very long time. But, recently, we began experiencing problems with our older VCR. We have had it over 10 years, and it was just beginning to have little problems. It was time for a new one!
We have quite a large home entertainment system. It is a RCA Dimensia system. Since the Dimensia “system” is not being made any longer, we needed to figure out what brand to purchase. We checked out other options, but we chose to stick with RCA. We have had a terrific experience with the other stereo components!
It is just amazing the choices that you will find out on the market today. How can anyone make an informed decision? Well, reading up on the items, the product’s features, and talking to friends. (This is also in addition to your own previous history with products.)
Let me tell you why we chose this RCA model VR692HF. We purchased this model primarily because it has commercial advance and VCR Plus+ capabilities.
The installation was very simple. There were 3 items in the box, remote control, VCR, and the RF antenna cable. Hooking it up was fairly simple, if you don’t include the effort put into moving the entire entertainment center from the wall to provide enough space to make the necessary connections! LOL, you should have seen that! (That system is heavy!)
You can just connect the VCR “in from antenna” and “out to TV” jacks, and viola. You have it! Now comes the fun part. Programming the VCR. This is a pretty intricate VCR, and needs quite a few things to be able to record the programs you want.
Of course, first thing’s first, you must choose a language. You can choose between English, Spanish and French. Then you have to tell it whether or not you are using a cable box or a digital satellite system. Then, you must prepare it for the VCR channel list, but you can use the auto channel search for this feature. You can manually set up the time zone and daylight savings information, or let the VCR do it by itself.
You will also have to help it set up the VCR Plus+ channels and some other features that aren’t essential to make it work! There are a lot of features to play with though. The remote control is very detailed as well, and you have a lot of options, if you are brave enough to experiment with them. You have dubbing capabilities if you have similar VCR’s and you want to make a copy of your child’s Christmas play for the grandparents, and you also have tracking control for the videotape.
I’m sure if you have an older VCR like we used to use, you would have to get up, go to the VCR, adjust the tracking and sit back down (forever hoping it would work the first time, so you wouldn’t have to get back up and reposition the tracking!). This is a nice little VCR, only weighing in at 7.2 pounds. It is a 4-head VCR with VHS Hi-Fi record/playback.
Additional nice features are automatic rewind if the tape reaches the end of the tape during playback, tape eject, and 4 different types of recording options. Like I said, there are a lot of choices with this machine!
4 Different Record Options
Regular record you press the record button and it begins recording
Express recording you start recording a program that you are watching, and you set a designated end time
Timer recording you program in the time(s) you want to record
VCR Plus+ you use the program or Plus+ code number found in some TV program guides (this feature automatically programs in the start and stop times of that specific program. It’s a real time saver!)
You can also record audio, if needed, but I do not know many people who have ever used this feature before. I know that I haven’t!
The Best Features
Commercial Advance This technology does not erase the commercials, but it does skip over them. The recording takes place with commercials included, but when you play back the tape, it tries to skip over the commercials. In some instances, rarely, I have found that the commercial breaks were a bit longer/shorter than the VCR thought they should be. But, this is a rare occasion, and is bearable!
One draw back though, you cannot tape a couple of tapes and then put them back in to be played and have the commercial advance work. It only holds the current recorded information to use for playback.
Movie Advance This feature allows you to tell the system when you have a commercial tape and whether you want to skip to the beginning of the movie or to the next movie preview. Sometimes, I do not want to see other advertisements; I just want the movie to begin. This feature is very handy!
Index Search This allows you to record an index mark on a tape every time you start a recording. It then provides you a way to locate the program that you want to play by the number of the index marks or the scanning. It will search backwards and forwards.
Pro-tect Plus <tm> Locking If you have others in the house that might like to mess with your remotes, whether by accident or on purpose, this will help keep them out! It disables usage of the VCR, protects your timer recordings, and locks the VCR so that the buttons on the VCR or remote won’t work!
Automatic Tracking As mentioned above, the remote control has this feature to handle tracking issues, but it’s normally not needed. The VCR automatically does this when a tape is inserted.
Final Thoughts
The VCR has a lot of other terrific, easy to use features. There are 3 front panel jacks available too, incase you want to hook up another VCR or camcorder. I have tried to touch on some of the ones that helped me make a purchasing decision. It was really not hard to do! RCA is a reputable company, we have had terrific experience with our other products.
If you are looking for a good VCR with some easy to use options, this is a terrific purchase. Here’s the link if you are looking for some great products: http://www.rca.com/
~Thank you for spending time with me today!~
Recommended:
Yes
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