Zenith XBV442 Progressive Scan DVD / VCR Combo

Rating:
Summary: Not bad.Not bad at all Zenith....
Review: During late November 2004,I looked at all the major brands for a combo.I looked at Panasonic,Sony,Toshiba,JVC,Samsung and Magnavox to name a few.The horror stories I read on Amazon.com were not kind.At that point,I decided to take a chance on this model by Zenith.I knew Zenith made great TV's so I gave them a try.Glad I did.As long as it did what the company said it could do I was happy.It has ALL of the latest features and a really good picture.
On the vcr side,after dealing with "high speed rewind/fast forward" for three years,it was refreshing to see things slowed back down to normal.

Altogether I would highly recommend this one.It's well built,setting it up is exactly like hooking up a VCR.
Not bad.Not bad at all Zenith...

Rating:
Summary: Great for the price
Review: I bought this DVD/VCR after painful 3 weeks of exhaustive research on Amazon, Circuitcity.com and Epinions.com. It seemed like there is no perfect candidate as far as combos are concerned, but this model was the highest rated among the alternatives.
Don't fool yourself, though. Keep in mind that you are buying a piece of high-tech video equipment for under $100. The first one I bought had defective sound performance, whereas one channel made a cracking noise. I wasn't shocked or awfully upset for reasons above. I took it back to the store and got it exchanged. So far, I am happy with its performance and quality of both DVD and VCR components. Sony's and Hitachi's are twice as expensive, but based on the reviews I read they are not worth even half of their prices.
Pros:
- Reasoanable features, some hot-buttons available on the remote
- Nothing super-fancy that always confuses housewifes and teenagers (I am pretty tech-savvy, but I get frustrated with too many options and buttons)
- Quality of playback and recording
- Price
Cons:
- Fast-forward and rewind are slower on VCR than I would desire.
- The most upsetting drawback: the "universal" remote only works with certain models of TV's (LG, Goldstar, Zenith and two or three others). You would think, for the 21st century technology, it will at least be compatible with Panasonic or Sony. Now I have to have a second remote (my TV remote) to adjust volume and other TV options, something I hate and don't use anywhere else in the house.
Still, I would give it an "A", or 5 stars, for the value.