Philips VR674CAT 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR

Rating:
Summary: Good buy for its features
Review: I have had this VCR for about a month. Philips has packed lots of features in this one. The features I like most in this VCR include one button commercial skip (makes it convenient to skip 30 secs and play), fast rewind (saves time), frame by frame advance, variable speed slow mo, double speed play back, and above all various type of search mechanisms to locate your favorite recordings. You can use index search to quickly locate the start of a previously recorded program (saves time going forward and backward searching for the start of a program thereby reducing wear and tear of your cassettes). It can quickly go to the end of the last recording for you to continue recording from where you left off. It can play your S-VHS cassettes too, without the need to buy any other expensive hardware. The still picture is very stable and without any jitter. The only thing I did not like about it is that it does not show the time elapsed counter (during playback or recording a cassette) in its display. You can view the counter on your TV screen if you want, but not on the VCR display. This could be annoying to some. Above all a good buy for its price.

Rating:
Summary: There are much better buys out there!
Review: Not Good. The VCR has good picture quality and some good features, but has serious drawbacks. Like the previous reviewer pointed out, the display on the VCR itself is useless, it doesn't even display the channel that the machine is on (you are forced to use the TV screen) which makes watching one program/recording another frustrating. The motor/tape transport is extremely noisy, even during normal playback. The included remote, while good, is frustrating to use, as the "volume" feature works only when 'TV' is selected. This forces you to constantly select between TV and VCR when watching a tape. Also, the machine is SO light that it slides all over the cabinet, we were forced to put rubber feet on the coasters. Consider other options before buying this one.

Rating:
Summary: There are much better buys out there!
Review: Not Good. The VCR has good picture quality and some good features, but has serious drawbacks. Like the previous reviewer pointed out, the display on the VCR itself is useless, it doesn't even display the channel that the machine is on (you are forced to use the TV screen) which makes watching one program/recording another frustrating. The motor/tape transport is extremely noisy, even during normal playback. The included remote, while good, is frustrating to use, as the "volume" feature works only when 'TV' is selected. This forces you to constantly select between TV and VCR when watching a tape. Also, the machine is SO light that it slides all over the cabinet, we were forced to put rubber feet on the coasters. Consider other options before buying this one.