Sony SLV-N900 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR, Black
Unacceptably poor Control S support
When I bought it about 7 years ago, I wanted a home theater setup that my wife, kids, babysitters, parents, et cetera could all use.  I wanted it to be as simple to use as a standard VCR+TV rig... preferably simpler.  I bought an all-Sony stack, and it worked pretty well:  putting a prerecorded tape into the VCR would power up the VCR and start it playing, and the VCR would use Control S to command the receiver to power on and select the VCR input. I had an RCA TV, so you did have to turn the TV on independently, but that's all:  insert the tape, turn the TV on. CD and cassette tape were similar; insert a CD and the receiver would select the CD input.<br />My old Sony SLV-790HF started to flake out, so I went to get a new VCR.  Sony, of course, so it would work with the system.  Well, my first unhappy surprise was finding that relatively few Sony components support Control S these days.  It doesn't seem like they have a replacement... they just don't support anything like that any more.  Only the top of the line SLV-N900 has Control S.  OK, it's only a few extra bucks, so I bought one.<br />I plugged it in, popped a tape in, the tape began to play... but the receiver didn't switch to the VCR input.  Seems the SLV-N900 doesn't support the automatic switching that was the reason for buying this unit, and the reason for staying with Sony at all.  Telephone and online support confirm this. Unacceptable.  Back to the store it went.<br />I don't know what I'm going to do.  I can limp along with my old SLV-790HF, or maybe I can find a used older model.  Maybe I'll just switch the whole stack over to JVC and Compu Link.<br />I'm just astounded that Sony doesn't understand that this kind of feature is the kind of thing that locks people into your brand and keeps them coming back.