Philips VRB664AT 4-Head HiFi VCR
User Interface is Useless
The remote control is poorly designed and the console controls and indicators make this VCR difficult and confusing to operate.<br />The remote control is backlit only behind 6 buttons, the 6 buttons that are specially shaped (making them easy to find in the dark) and most commonly used.  Less commonly used buttons are arranged poorly, such as the &quot;slow&quot; button a row above and to the right of the &quot;slow speed&quot; buttons, next to the VCR+ button, which pops up a blue screen to enter a VCR+ number and requires another key sequence to escape from.<br />The play/stop/rewind/fast-forward buttons are laid out in quadrants on the remote.  On the console, the play/PAUSE/rewind/fast-forward buttons are laid out in the same manner.  The stop/eject button is off to the side.  The console has a Menu button, but since the remote control quardant is needed to program, the console buttons make programming difficult (Stop, the bottom button on the remote, is the &quot;down-arrow&quot; and is off to the left side on the console, while the bottom bottom button on the console, &quot;pause&quot;, does nothing).<br />There is an eject button on the REMOTE!  It is in a prominent location at the top, and is taller than many of the other buttons.  I cannot tell you how many times we have accidentaly ejected a tape when trying to pause it.<br />The on-screen status display automatically turns off 10 seconds after you press any button, which is useless if you are rewinding or fast-forwarding a tape and want to stop it by watching the timer.  If you press the &quot;status&quot; button on the remote, the display again times out after 10 seconds, so rewinding a tape to a specific point requires much dexterity and quick reflexes.<br />If rewinding when &quot;memory mode&quot; is turned on, the VCR will slow down to a near stop when 3 minutes from 0:00, and will not allow you to stop or play or even eject until it completes rewinding.<br />The only way to check a &quot;program&quot; is to review each and every program in sequence, without even being able to scroll backward in the list, only forward.<br />The current VCR mode (&quot;PLAY&quot;, etc) replace the time display on the console for a few seconds whenever the mode changes.  This is mostly useless, since the mode is also displayed onscreen.  However, missing from the console display is the current channel, and if reception is not perfect, the on-screen status disappears, so you cannot see the current channel.<br />The remote control has many buttons that switch functions when in TV mode, but are completely useless with the TV.  These include play/stop/etc, TV/VCR, pause, and more.  The mode buttons for TV, VCR, and CABLE are directly below the MUTE button and the numeric pad, so are very easily pressed by accident.  In addition, since the sequence to program the universal remote is MUTE-TV-NUMBER-NUMBER, or MUTE-VCR-NUMBER-NUMBER, it is EXTREMELY common to accidentally reprogram the remote, rendering it useless until reprogrammed correctly.<br />The picture and sound quality seem to be satisfactory.<br />Also, as another reviewer pointed out, it is extremely NOISY.  This machine is in my bedroom and wakes my wife up when performing any action (rewinding, stopping, beginning to play, etc).